Culture Abuse, Fiddlehead, Gouge Away played Warehouse XI – 9/6

San Francisco’s Culture Abuse, locals Fiddlehead and Floridians Gouge Away and Politics of Jam played a free, Vans-sponsored show at Somerville’s Warehouse XI on Friday night. 

I said it when Converse brought us Slayer and The Replacements at The Sinclair a couple years ago, and I’ll say it again now: I can’t argue with shoe companies throwing money at free music. Friday night’s scene at Warehouse XI – a wedding venue that sort of resembles a garage a few steps past Backbar in Union Square – was admittedly a little weird. Punks filed into an oasis of free pizza and canned water (yes, the kind that promises to “murder your thirst”) as Miami’s Politics of Jam set up on a no-frills and somewhat surprisingly branding-free stage.

But really, as Culture Abuse’s David Kelling pointed out toward the end of the night, where’s the catch? There’s money in shoes, and while there’s something a tad eyebrow-raising about a corporation sponsoring a run of “DIY”-themed shows (Friday’s was one in a series taking place around the country this late summer), said money going toward to a free, all-ages, music space for the night is hardly the worst way it could get spent – especially with a bill this good.

Friday’s lineup reunited the Culture Abuse/Gouge Away team-up that leveled the Cambridge Elks Lodge last October, with Pat Flynn’s Fiddlehead sandwiched in between for a much wilder set than either of the other times I’ve caught them. A capacity crowd packed in for all four of the evening’s sets, and even a camera to the eye socket couldn’t fully spoil the mood. Photos of the whole evening below.