D.R.I. 40th Anniversary Tour, Boggs Social & Supply, Atlanta, GA

D.R.I.: the band that put speed into punk, metal, thrash and all music that was to come. This band is as important to punk as the Sex Pistols and Ramones. When the album ‘Dealing With It’ dropped in 1985, it dropped everybody’s jaw. Drum beats that had never been heard before. BPMs were reached at paces no one saw coming. Kurt Brecht’s lyrics as relevant as any from Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys or Steve Ignorant and Crass. Moving from Texas to San Francisco, possibly living in tree houses; this band was legendary almost instantly. 

During their initial rise in the mid 80s, long-time and still killing it drummer, Rob”Rocket” Rampy was doing hard punk time on Florida’s east coast. Playing in the bands Justice Denied and The Chosen, Rob was leading the scene on Florida’s treasure coast from his garage in Jensen Beach. These bands were responsible for putting on renegade shows using generators at locations like abandoned drive-thru movie theaters in the swamps or under gazebos roadside by the beach. If the cops came to chase the large crowds of partying punks and skaters away, a plan-b was already devised. An alternative location was in place where the show would move to. It was organized anarchy. This is where we would meet Rob. Our first band coming up from Ft. Lauderdale to take part in the shows out on Becker Road in Port Saint Lucie. 

When D.R.I. would lose drummer, Felix Griffin, Rob was the perfect human to fill this incredibly important role in punk rock history. It was destiny. So after a quick audition Rob traded Florida’s east coast for California’s west and joined D.R.I. 40 years, 7 albums and various EPs later, D.R.I. are the undisputed kings of touring. They know exactly where the weather is perfect, at what time of year, and they tour accordingly. That brings them to Atlanta or South Florida every December. However, due to guitarist Spike’s eye injury last winter, that tour was postponed to this steamy June date. 

Boggs Social And Supply in a southwest Atlanta neighborhood is a perfect setting for the evening. A 21 and over Tuesday night crowd of about 250 sitting inside at the long bar or outside at the round tables are in a jovial mood. Boggs has a stage with a pit area in front of it, and then steps to a 2nd level. All you need to know about Boggs is that they took the time to wrap pool noodles around the bars on the stairwell so slam dancers will have a soft blow when smashing into them. 

Stripper Cult open the show. Led by front-woman, riot-grrl, Bambi, Stripper Cult are a crust lover’s dream. Nasty old school guitar riffs of all sorts and sub-genres, bass playing straight out of Municipal Waste, and fierce garage drumming charges it all up. Lead singer Bambi blew her voice partying all weekend. But fuck all, if she wasn’t going to slam Pabsts beers to bring that voice back. She barks indecipherable lyrics at the crowd in an intimidating manner. I don’t know what she’s saying, but I believe her. The energy is pummeling. The crowd is skanking, drinking, cheering, and kicking around beach balls. Bambi is rage-stumbling into the pit with the crowd, many of which are her friends. Which is good, because she needs someone to fetch her another Pabst. Now Ethan!

By the time the frenzied set of anarcho-doom punk is done we’re ready to heap praise upon each member of this cult. They tried to tell us new drummer Clayton who only jammed with them like four times. We told them they were bloody liars. We shamelessly begged Bambi to bless us with some vocals on some of our songs. Stripper Cult is street punk, lo fi, gutter screaming taken to the stage. If you needed a reason to bring the beer slam from the weekend back on a Tuesday night, Stripper Cult is it.

D.R.I., still on west-coast time, hit the stage at about 10:40 p.m., and tight as ever. The first song ends, the crowd wants to cheer, but wait, the house music is still on, it was never turned off. And it was Missy Elliot. Rebecca, what’d you do! And why were you playing Missy Elliot before a D.R.I. show? (We’re not even saying it was entirely bad, We’re just saying it was an odd choice.) Kurt, who’s seen and heard everything, “That wouldn’t happen to Iron Maiden. I could sing for Iron Maiden. I can take singing lessons.”

D.R.I. begin to blaze through all 7 albums worth of songs. Then Kurt announces they will be playing 90 minutes of thrash classics. It’s going to be a late show. Strap in laddie. We’ve seen D.R.I. many many times, but we must say, this night in Atlanta, they are incredibly tight. Bassist Greg Orr is really laying in and accentuating everything with nuance. Spike is jumping all over the place on the fret board, yet it’s really tight. Rob is really in the pocket tonight. Sometimes he plays with a chaotic swing. Tonight, everything is dead on. They’re holding out accentuated long notes and then jumping back in with no visual cues. It’s a master class of musical timing from years of live experience.

Then all of a sudden, reverb. Reverb on the vocals. Reverb on really fast vocals. That doesn’t work Rebecca! Kurt explains that to Rebecca and the show continues. This may have been a “glitch” though. So no blame. Boggs Social is a ‘no blame’ club and we love Rebecca. The mix was really good and D.R.I. sounded great over the P.A. system. Thanks Rebecca!

Kurt commented that D.R.I. “used to do a lot better in Atlanta”. Some of that may have to do with the fact they have Atlanta on the Tuesday night cycle of their tour each year. They do a great job of playing different clubs in different areas of Atlanta each tour cycle. We need a Saturday night show on a tour cycle though. And a club that is all ages. D.R.I. played all the timeless great songs from their catalogue. We were drunk. No clue in what order the songs were played. It was an incredibly tight blur.

D.R.I. will be touring Europe this summer. This tour cycle is not to be missed. Kurt commented that they will skim the war areas and get as close as possible to Ukraine. This band has no fear. When your life is bringing punk, strength and hope to the world, this is what you do. Kurt’s lyrics are as relevant today as ever. His message and influence are as vital as ever. What this band has done is historic. They are beloved and we are blessed they are all still going strong. Spike a true warrior through physical pains. We want a 40 years of Dealing With It tour!

Long fucking live D.R.I. This band should have their own wing in the Punk Rock Museum in Vegas. Maybe they do!

Photography by McBride and words by Anti-Terror League