On a warm Friday evening in early April my Uber dropped me in front of The Ogden Theater. On the marquee, below the purposefully distorted letters spelling out the headliners name, were the words “Sold Out.” There weren’t even scalpers outside selling overpriced tickets on the secondary market. “Sold Out” meant sold out. Denverites must really love their ska-punk like their beloved Colfax Avenue – a little dirty, a bit raw, and always entertaining.
The night’s headliner took the stage in front of a capacity room. The 1,600 people making up the crowd were diverse in age. Folks who were in their late teens or early 20’s back when ska-punk had mainstream success in the middle-to-late 1990s with bands like Sublime, Fishbone, and Rancid were in attendance, just a little older now. Also in the audience were teens not old enough to drink who were introduced to the style of music as the genre has had a revival in recent years fueled by bands like The Interrupters.
Band member’s Aimee Allen on lead vocals, and brothers Kevin Bivona on guitar, lead and backing vocals, Justin Bivona on bass, and drummer Jesse Bivona played a set of aggressive two tone tinged Jamaican ska – only faster and heavier without horns.
They played four songs off their 2018 release “Fight the Good Fight.” These included “Title Holder,” “Gave You Everything,” “Got Each Other” and one of my favorites “She’s Kerosene.” Also among the nineteen song set were the covers “Judge Not” by Bob Marley, and “Sound System” by The Clash. In the end The Interrupters were just like Colfax, pure, raw emotion, and exposed with no need to be slick or polished to get their point across.
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