Since this was the opening date of the Sno-Core tour, I was anxious to check this show out. Valentine's Day be damned- I wanted my corporate-sponsored fun to come in a punk flavor, not a pink flower.

I left my girl Lizzy Love at home with promises of taking her out the next day for brunch. She's a champ for letting me go to this kind of crap week after week, but I really hated leaving her alone on the holiest of flower giving holidays.

That said- the show was actually pretty good. I arrived at like 8:30 and Orange 9mm was already halfway through their set. Orange 9mm are ok by me- they mix up the punk and the funk and its not bad to thrash around to. They closed with a good version of "Take You Away" from their CD "Tragic." Singer Chaka Mailk was hanging out after their set and I got him to do a Whatever Promo.

After Orange 9mm came Less Than Jake- if you haven't heard they have a CD out on a major now because they kick some great ska ass- but in their defense they were selling these major label CD's at the show for a mere SIX BUCKS! Really though LTJ is really good ska-pop-punk. The band itself is a six piece- sax, trombone, tenor sax, bass, drums and a singer-guitar player.

They do pack a mighty horn sound when they want to and its really hard not to smile and jump around when they play. Plenty of kids jumped up on stage to dance around and sing upbeat tunes like "Johnny Quest thinks We're Sellouts." I recomend these guys- if you can't deal with corporate rock then get one of the like 25 7-inch platters they've got out.

I guess should also mention that this tour is kinda a big corporate sponsored thing and that does bug people- but for why I can't figure- they had free copies of Rolling Stone which is much better than Lupo's grafitti. The big corporate monster also provided some Sony Play stations where ya could play free video games- not bad. The whole shee-bang was sponsored by Airwalk like snowboards or shoes or boots for snowboards, something like that. There was no snow at Lupo's, but most of the other dates for this tour are at ski resorts where young punks can board away the day on Airwalk and party at night with the bands. So no more bitching about corporate rock please- the bands they got for this were all pretty cool and they gave us free shit all for like $12 or $15 bucks.

So next up was Voodoo Glow Skuls from LA. They also have horns- but they mix Spanish and hardcore with ska for a tougher LA thing that is just awesome live. They had an almost hit with "Fat Randy," and they did a video for their skanky punk v ersion of "Charlie Brown." Their singer, Frank Casillas, is one big looking motherfucker with a shaved head and army pants on, but he's no racist. A lot ofVGS songs seem to be about silly shit, but they do do some stuff warning kids about guns n shit too.

VGS got a great reaction out of Providence. People were dancing it up pretty good, and there was a big pit up front. VGD did most of the songs from their "Baile De Los Locos," Epitaph release. I likedtheir salsa flavored mix, especially songs like "Shoot the Moon," and "the Spanish "El Coo Cooi."

After the Sublime "Video Tribute" Pharcyde was up. I really don't dig the three-guys-with-microphones-and a DJ thing but the chicks sure do. The band was nice enough to let a copule local mamas get up and shake their little behinds, so I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been- but still.

Last up was the excellent Face to Face. Their new CD, "face to face" is full of straight up punk pop without any bullshit. These guys aren't into the depressing punk thing- just good old jumping around having a good time music. They did new songs like "Handout," and also mixed in some older (1995) stuff like their popular "Disconnected." Singer Trever Keith kept things upbeat with his crazy facial expressions and jumping around. Their set wasn't too long, but it was really good.

I'm actually sorry I didn't see this show at some ski resort- Lupo's is cool and all but it would have been better to check out some snowboarding as well. Keep an eye out for the tour if you live on the West Coast- it's playing through March.