Concert Review: War Party at The Republic Street Bar

The Republic Street Bar (201 East Hattie St., 817-615-9360) isn’t your typical music venue by any means. The place has no PA system, no soundman, and a somewhat sporadic schedule of live music. But in the spirit of other Near Southside bar-bars that hosts live music, The Chat Room and The Boiled Owl, for instance, Republic Street doesn’t let its lack of a traditional set-up keep it from putting on some of the best shows Fort Worth has seen in the past couple of years. Saturday night’s four-band bill, headlined by Fort Worth garage-rock heroes War Party, was evidence that a place doesn’t need all of the bells and whistles of a concert hall to host a successful show.

Since I, like most Texans, find temperatures in the high 50s to be far too cold for humans, I assumed the show would be inside. To my surprise, when I showed up at the venue around 10pm, the show was already going on outside –– and it started earlier than I thought, because the city’s noise ordinance doesn’t allow loud rock music after 11pm. As a result, I missed the entire set the bill’s opener, The Fibs, and most of Teenage Sexx. The couple of songs I did catch from the Waco-based duo were short blasts of Coachwhips-style garage anthems that really made me wish I could have caught the band’s whole set. The band was celebrating the release of its new tape Flavour Country released on Dreamy Life Records. Another band from Waco was also releasing a tape on Dreamy Life Records that night. Loafers’ release Real Nice was, I later discovered, aptly named –– it’s a real nice listen. The quartet’s fuzz-soaked mini-songs, some of which clocked in at less than 90 seconds, were reminiscent of early ’90s garage-rockers The Gories with a little X sprinkled in.

By the time War Party took the stage the 11pm, the noise curfew had come and gone, but the we-do-what-we-want doo-wop punks have never been known to follow the rules, and it seemed as if yours truly was the only one who had any fear of Johnny Law rolling up to crash the party. Squeezed together on Republic Street’s tiny patio stage, the five-piece, featuring Cameron Smith on vocals and guitar, Peter Marsh on drums, bassist Tyler Moore, Rickey Williford on guitar and trumpet, and Chris Waldon on trombone and keyboards, tore through 40 minutes of the punk-by-way-of-Motown jams they have become known for.

Sure, maybe the PA speakers were sitting on chairs and the soundboard was being run by whoever was closest to it and realized something needed to be adjusted at the time, but this was a punk-rock show through and through.