By Sami Martasian

Sometimes shows are fun. Sometimes shows are a good time. Sometimes shows rock so hard that you go home feeling totally euphoric with your ears ringing and your legs banged up and all your clothes smell like the PBR that you drank only a little of before it was spilled slam dancing with beautiful, ecstatic strangers. Saturday night, in a mysterious location in Providence RI, our pals at BUFU records made one of those legendary shows happen. It’s the first few days of the huge tour that Free Pizza, Designer, and Acidosis are embarking on. If they keep their energy up like it was Saturday night, everyone is in for a real treat when they come to their town.

Cutie Pie got the party started with a bang and a half. It’s rare that the audience gets so excited and moves around a lot for the first act, but seconds into their set, the entire room started moving their heads, then their hips, and shortly after, their feet. Its not a surprise though, Cutie Pie’s energy and furious enthusiasm is hard to ignore. It’s exciting to see anyone bring the heat like Cutie Pie, but also relieving to see the punk spirit manifest itself in a young woman. Sadly, even though it’s 2014, some people forget that girls can rock real fucking hard, but I promise that anyone who sees Cutie Pie will remember forever.

We’re already jazzed up at this point and antsy, ready for the rock to keep coming, and we were in luck, because Acidosis is exactly the group of dudes you want around if you’re looking to rock out.  It only took Ben Katzman a second to get himself and the rest of the band in position, before they immediately plunged into heavy as hell punk tunes that made dancing irresistible. The only person not moving around was the woman doing a performance piece in the center of the room (she was dressed in white and encouraged the audience to paint her). It’s almost unbelievable that such a big sound is possible coming from just three guys, but Acidosis knows how to raise hell. They’re wild and uncontrollable, but if you pay close attention you’ll notice that their songs are incredibly tight. Seeing “Attack Of the Drones” performed live is pretty much a religious experience. With a drummer so comfortable and well versed with his kit he felt comfortable standing up between moments of beating the life out of his sticks and a guitarist that makes even the most hair raising metal inspired riffs seem effortless, Acidosis most certainly knows what they’re doing. They’re a rare breed of band- they have so much energy and spunk that you could practically sense them from outside of the building, but they also have the musical substance to back up their extremely magnetic personality.

Acidosis is a hard act to follow, but Free Pizza was up to the challenge. Free Pizza’s tunes have an amazing underlying sweetness that only a group of truly talented musicians could transform into hip-moving rock and roll, which is what they do. Jesus, Santi and Nick take moments of frustration, of homesickness, and unrest and fuse them with smooth melodies to create a gripping experience that is remarkably genuine and simultaneously exciting.  Songs like “Net-Babes” are playful but draw on very real feelings and experiences that are both pure and universal. The entire room was a sea of moving bodies slamming into each other out of pure joy that is somehow inexpressible except for moshing. The songs stick with you too.  The reaching notes of “Ducks” are catchy enough to play over in your head for days after you’ve seen Free Pizza live. Seeing these dudes in person will make you fall in love with their music instantly, probably because when you see them perform it’s very clear how heartfelt and important the songs are to the band themselves. You can only rock this hard if you’re fully committed to rocking hard, and lucky for us Free Pizza is doing just that. The floor was wild and everyone was thrilled to be where they were- in a crowd of instant friends swaying and singing along with a dynamic band of talented musicians that form a kind of instant bond with their audience.

Unfortunately for reasons absolutely beyond my control, I had to leave the show early and didn’t catch Designer and Downtown Boys’ sets, but I have absolute confidence that they brought the house down. Check out these very talented dudes music on here and here.