The Nevada Sagebrush

The Friday performance of Reggie and the Full Effect at New Oasis proved itself to be an evening of full-fledged glasses-smashing, leg-breaking, beer-spitting rock ‘n roll spontaneity.

Before the show began, I couldn’t help but wonder where all the fans were. By the time the first opening act, Warship, took the stage, there were only about one and a half rows of people in front of the stage, plus a few stragglers in the back of the room.

Warship played a fairly uninteresting set of hardcore songs that all sounded very similar, interspersed with pleas from the audience to spread the word about their band. Although I attempted to count how many songs Warship played, I kept getting bored and instead watched as the guitarist dropped his glasses and proceeded to step on them.

Leathermouth was the next band to play, and the only one with a set, which consisted of two American flags painted with the band’s logo. The band members wore all-white outfits emblazoned with Sharpie-drawn versions of the same logo.

Leathermouth’s frontman is Frank Iero who, unfortunately, is better known as the rhythm guitarist for My Chemical Romance. As a result, there were a few groups of teenage girls in the audience who felt the need to scream at him as often as possible. Thankfully, there were far less than I had anticipated.

The onstage commentary between songs was limited. Frank briefly made a reference to the remarkably small audience by estimating that there were 30 of us there. Most of the show was spent playing songs from their yet-to-be-released album such as “Sunsets are for Muggers,”"Body Snatchers Forever,”and “Fifth Period Massacre.”Of course, there was plenty of thrashing around the floor.

There were a few intra-band collisions during the show, and some incidents involving spit that were a little too unsettling to share. At one point, Frank rolled on top of his sunglasses and then tore the broken frames apart with his teeth before tossing them into the audience. I was beginning to notice a theme.

After Leathermouth left the stage, I decided to take a break and look at the merchandise. As I was returning, I heard some curiously high-pitched rapping coming from the stage. “Oh. I thought that was a lady,”my friend whispered to me. But it was no lady: “nerdcore”rapper MC Chris had taken to the stage in our absence. Famous for his fusion of both “geek”and “gangster”images (one of his albums is called “Dungeon Master of Ceremonies”) and many appearances on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, Chris had managed to bring forth a few fans donning “MC CHRIS OWNZ”booty shorts and Aqua Teen Hunger Force tattoos.

At first, I thought I’d sit down through his set, but as I watched his interactions with the crowd from afar, I decided that I needed to rejoin the group. Chris performed many of his songs encouraging audience participation: dancing, clapping and waving our “rap hands”. Chris played an extensive set, including songs like “Nrrrd Grrrl”, “Reese”, and a Star Wars rap which he had to restart a couple of times after messing up the lyrics.

During his set, Chris even mocked the My Chemical Romance fans in the front row.

Chris left the stage after completely winning me over, and the next to play was finally Reggie and the Full Effect. This was supposedly the “final tour”for the band, which is mainly composed of James Dewees and members of the opening bands on various instruments, but it was revealed that the “final tour”represents more of a metamorphosis than an end to the band.

James came on stage, put on a fur hat, and removed his shirt and pants, revealing a tight Hannah Montana tank top and pink Capri pajama pants. He then took a few sips from his Bud Light before spitting the beer onto himself and beginning to play the song “Mood 4 Luv”.

James created a fun environment by sharing personal stories, joking and laughing with the small crowd throughout the show. When an audience member shouted, “Turn the keyboard up please!”James responded with, “This guy wants more keyboard… which you never hear at a rock show!”When introducing “Happy V-Day”, he said, “This song is about getting a venereal disease and finding out about it on Valentines Day, when you’re supposed to see that person. This goes out to… her. I hope she got penicillin.”

With two songs left in the set, one enthusiastic fan thought he’d climb onto the stage and stage-dive back into the crowd. However, there was not much of a crowd to catch him, and the look on his face quickly changed from ‘I am so cool!’ to ‘Nobody’s catching me!’ as he landed hard on the ground… and broke his left leg.

The show stopped, and James sang “He’s not okay because he jumped off the stage. Serves you right,”to the tune of My Chemical Romance’s “I’m Not Okay”. The crowd cheered and clapped and formed a circle around him as the security guards called the paramedics. While we were waiting to see what was going to happen next, James asked if anyone wanted water, and then handed out three cases of water bottles to all the audience members.

Although many fans tried to urge him to continue the show, James refused and said that he couldn’t play while a fan was lying on the floor in pain: “He was so excited that he jumped offstage and broke his leg. That’s dedication.”Eventually, the police arrived and James told us that the show had been shut down.

Although we had to leave early, the strange series of events made for an unforgettable and completely worthwhile night.

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