DRGN King, Norwegian Arms, Total Slacker and More @ Pi Lam.

Text by Nikki Volpicelli. Images by Rick Kauffman (and find more pics from the show here).

Total Slacker

Delicate Steve

Cold Fronts

Human BBQ fans

Dom Angellela of DRGN King

Keith Birthday of Norwegian Arms

Cold Fronts

Flesh was cookin’ Saturday outside, next to the windows on the stone patio that’s in front of PiLam, a fraternity-venue full of Penn punk kids with good musical taste.

Boxes of burgers moved in and out of the house by the same bodies that flip-flopped them on the grill outside. It was as if Arizona Iced Tea sponsored this event – green bottles were everywhere. The live line up was indicated by black and white printed schedules taped to walls with “up” and “down” denominators telling us where to go and at what time, with sets changing at :15 and :45 marks and on the hour.

This DIY venue runs a tight ship(sometimes), an impressive type of punctuality that’s due to the fact that this day’s event, the Human BBQ, is on its 35th consecutive year and the kinks have seemingly been worked out.

This year’s event featured Memorial Gore, Jon Pfeffer, This Temper, Cold Fronts, Celebrations, Plates of Cakes, Radical Dads, DRGN King, Laser Background, Ghost Light, For Sleeping or Jumping, Slow Animal, Oh Adeona, Banned Books, Total Slacker, Norwegian Arms and Delicate Steve.

Next door, guys in khaki pants and collared shirts spilled out onto their respective lawns, red cups in hands and on long tables, soaking up the sun and electronic dance music. Down the street, girls hobbled in uncomfortably high heels with dress lengths that couldn’t be comfortable either. But here there were coeds in black and white Human BBQ t-shirts, faces and hair and bodies covered in layers of dried paint. This is a different tradition than what’s expected from Ivy League University of Pennsylvania. It’s the island of misfit toys in a sea of sharp-dressed Soc’s, and this island is built on rage-rock.

Cold Fronts started the day off early, with drummer Al Smith requesting a nap somewhere mid-set. But hours later, after the synth-rock group played its evening show at North Star, he was back at the BBQ, going strong in support of the other acts with later sets.

Downstairs, DRGN King sonically assaulted the dimly-lit, crumbly-looking basement, tearing  through tracks from this year’s debut album, Paragraph Nights. Frontman Dominic Angelella kept one eye over his shoulder to abuse an amp back into shape with a kick of his foot every so often. The group introduced a cover song, briefly, as a frat-sister (yeah) demanded, “No covers in this house!”

DRGN King then tore into their single, “Wild Nights.” Angelella abruptly halted the song in the middle of the first refrain to change plans.

“No, no, no, stop, stop, stop,” he said. “Fuck that. This song’s called ‘Wolfman.'”

Boston’s For Sleeping or Jumping taunted the crowd that was half-lit with afternoon light seeping through the upstairs windows. Lead singer Gio Coviello flexed and jerked with the same epileptic moves as Pissed Jeans’ frontman, Matt Korvette. He switched back and forth from stage to crowd, his catchy crass rock reelings inciting moments of mass confusion. A friend I was with noticed (after the set) that she’s ripped the lid from her fountain soda cup into multiple pieces in some animalistic fit of rage.

Total Slacker

Nearing the end of the night, Norwegian Arms stoked the crowd with mandolin-heavy magic sounds off of January’s Wolf Like a Stray Dog. Eric Slick and Michael Trillions shared drum duty, barreling through songs before introducing the last act, NJ/NY natives Delicate Steve. The group led the audience into an experimental sound garden. Their bean-stalky frontman (named Steve) thrashed through fully instrumental experiments and varied tempos under a searing light show that turned the room unreal.