Crashers bring punk to Cargo's

After nearly two hours of groping several hundred expectant fans, Clutch Cargo's security opened the doors of the Mill Street Entry on Sunday night. Abused patrons stood in line for a healthy dose of up-beat ska-punk dished out by the Dance Hall Crashers.

Limp was supposed to start the show, but around 9 p.m. No Use For a Name, the other band on the bill, hit the stage instead, telling us that Limp was running late, so they were going on first. No Use for a Name immediately started things off full-force with "Justified Black Eye," one of their more popular songs.

The band delivered their repertoire of driving punk rock anthems, with styles ranging from Green Day-esque pop-punk to the fast, heavy drums and power chords of hardcore. They urged the kids in the front to dance and mosh throughout the set. They covered "Redemption" by Bob Marley and "All I Ever Wanted" by Depeche Mode, two interesting songs to hear punk rock versions of.

To the cheers of a sufficiently warmed-up crowd, the Dance Hall Crashers took the stage. Not many people know of this band from Berkeley, Calif. They've been around as long as God, and they've put out over a dozen CD's in the past decade. The Crashers have inspired bands like No Doubt and Save Ferris, but don't hold that against them - teachers are always better than the students. The Crashers write songs about everything - subject matter includes cat fights, guys addicted to coffee, and lots of girlie love songs set to fast paced ska. What else would you expect from a band fronted by a pair of girlie-girl lead singers, Rogers and Karina Denike. Decked out in big shoes, cute dresses and faces painted on, the two of them mesmerized the crowd. Without being beautiful at all, they still managed to be sexy and everyone in the crowd knew it.

Denike is the drama queen of the dynamic duo. She couldn't seem to stop moving around the stage, dancing, singing in the faces of the audience and making googly eyes at Rogers. At one point she even tried to kiss her. Antics aside, she never missed a note, her voice sounding better than it does on CD.

Rogers seemed content to sit back and watch Denike go. She danced around a little, but you could tell that she felt awkward doing anything but singing. Throughout the set the two women performed impeccably. They would stare into each other's eyes as if it was in each others retinas that they found their harmony. Their two voices, when together sound as one, but every note is sung in a very tight harmony, requiring nothing short of telepathy to pull off.

Through most of the concert they ignored the rest of the band, and played off of each other, demanding the crowd to look at them.

The Crashers plowed through most of their "oldie but goodie" numbers, but played a lot of material off of their new record, "Purr." They pulled off the mix of old and new material, and the kids were just as excited about hearing the less familiar material as they were about the old.

The few instrumental pieces were perfectly executed, the singing flawless and the audience interaction was charming. The next time this little, unknown band from Berkeley comes to town, make sure they crash your party.

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