Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
For the uninitiated, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a punk rock cover band, made up of luminaries from other well-known punk rock bands such as NOFX, Lagwagon, Swingin’ Utters, Bad Religion, Face to Face, Social Distortion, and Foo Fighters.
The typical lineup features Fat Mike (NOFX), Spike Slawson (Swingin’ Utters), Joey Cape (Lagwagon), Dave Raun (Lagwagon), and a host of guitar players who fill-in for Chris Shiflett, due to his Foo Fighters commitments.
“The Night the Gimmes Saved Christmas” mini West Coast tour hit Slim’s with Jay Bentley (Bad Religion), Spike Slawson, Joey Cape, Dave Raun, and special guest guitar player Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham (Social Distortion). [It is still unknown why Fat Mike did not take part in these shows]
Me First covers all of the songs that a punk rock band would not ever be expected to cover. This is part of the allure of their show. Expect the unexpected, expect to laugh, and expect to mosh to songs that are not intended for moshing in their original form. The setlist was slightly different each night, and included covers of Culture Club‘s Karma Chameleon, Paula Abdul‘s Straight Up, Gloria Gaynor‘s I Will Survive, Billy Joel‘s Uptown Girl, Stevie Wonder‘s Isn’t She Lovely, Dolly Parton‘s Jolene, Madonna‘s Crazy For You, The Beatles All My Loving, John Denver‘s Take Me Home, Country Roads, and Neil Diamond‘s Sweet Caroline.
There was talk onstage about making this an annual event. Slim’s used to have great annual punk rock Christmas shows by The Vandals and by seminal L.A. punk rock band X. Neither have happened here in a few years, so hopefully Me First and the Gimme Gimmes will pick up on this and start over the punk rock Christmas tradition! [and please bring Fat Mike back next time too…]
Click on any photo below for a slideshow of full-size images.
See more photos of all of your favorite Punk Rock musicians at Alan Ralph‘s photo portfolio.
