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Justin de la Cruz

VICKY VICIOUS AND THE STAINS celebrates "Shark Week" in September with new EP


Vicky Vicious and The Stains perform at their album release show on September 14, 2024.
Vicky Vicious and The Stains perform at their album release show for "Shark Week" on at Ground Zero Studios. Photographed by Justin de la Cruz.

VICKY VICIOUS AND THE STAINS celebrated the release of their latest EP, “Shark Week,” at Ground Zero Studios in Phoenix, AZ with local openers TACTLESS, SO HAPPY, SPICY MAYO, and AFTERBIRTH CARTOONS on Saturday, September 14. 


Three-piece punk outfit TACTLESS kicked off the night, celebrating their first year as a band and treating the crowd to fast punk riffs.


Southwest Hardcore Skapunk trio SO HAPPY came on next with sounds you would expect to hear off of “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.” I could imagine myself doing kickflips to “Over The Counter Culture” playing in the background.


SPICY MAYO started their set with an unusual opening monologue, with lead singer DALLAS ROSE touting the band as “the best late-night punk rock talk show.” Their set consisted of taking shots at LINKIN PARK’s new singer, trumpet sections, and a passionate disdain for PHOEBE BRIDGERS. This prompted a game involving the audience about which they thought was worse: a random subject or idea presented by the host, or PHOEBE BRIDGERS. 


You could probably guess what the correct answer to that is.


Around the room, participating members of the audience agreed that PHOEBE BRIDGERS was worse than whatever else ROSE brought up. It eventually became my turn to partake and I decided to throw a wrench in his cogs and tell him my name was PHOEBE BRIDGERS. ROSE attempted to earnestly ask my name one more time and I still wanted to act silly. He decided to then turn the tables on me by asking the next contestant “Who is worse: That fuckin’ guy (me), or PHOEBE BRIDGERS?” As the contestant answered in typical fashion, an uproarious applause was heard when correct answer was spoken: 


PHOEBE BRIDGERS.


I do not know how PHOEBE BRIDGERS could make one man so angry that he dedicates an entire section of the show to dunk on her, but if it fuels SPICY MAYO to write songs such as “I Don’t Care About Anything Anymore,” and “FuckFuckFuck,” then I have no objections. The microphone at the venue kept running into issues, so unfortunately SPICY MAYO had to end their set short one song.


AFTERBIRTH CARTOONS came on next with nerd-infused, straight-to-the-point punk with songs such as “Fucked Up Shit,” “Mother Fucker,” and “Power Puff Girls.” Much like early-2000s cartoon program blocks, the set had a brief commercial break for a cereal that I am very sure would have a boatload of sugar and various FDA warnings in it if it were real. Fittingly enough, it was immediately followed up by a song titled “Sugar High.”


VICKY VICIOUS AND THE STAINS closed out the night playing new material off of their EP “Shark Week.” Reminiscent of Australian punk band AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS, a blend of fast and vulgar energy encapsulated their set with songs such as “Panty Sniffer” and “Masturbate” which they determined was so nice they had to play it twice.

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