The Dreadnoughts

The Dreadnoughts began to play folk-punk in 2007 with a single goal: to make enough money at shows to cover the cost of shots of Fireball Whiskey at Vancouver’s notoriously seedy Ivanhoe Hotel. Fifteen years on and counting, they can boast of six studio albums, two EPs, and hundreds of unforgettable live shows spanning the globe. They’ve blended punk rock and a bunch of European folk traditions with a power and range that few other groups can match. And it’s been a blast.

“The Dreadnoughts’ set,” writes upvenue.com, “can be summarized in one word: outrageous.” If there’s one thing this band is proud of, it’s their live show, which follows the first (and only) rule of punk rock: keep it chaotic. There are no scripted intros. There is no choreography. No pre-prepared sound effects, light shows, or “how’s everybody doing tonight?” Only six loud-mouthed extroverts aiming a series of punked-up folk dances at the audience… sometimes after an entirely unnecessary amount of liquor.

The Dreadnoughts aren’t really a band, they’re an advocacy group, ruthlessly promoting the idea that folk and punk music form a perfect union. They’ve been destroying stages and swilling ciders the world over, spreading their gospel to anyone and everyone who will listen.

The new record—a concept album called Foreign Skies—has been called a “sprawling masterpiece” by… well, the band. But they are very sure that other people will tend to agree, once they hear it. It is a multi-genre, historically themed, folk-punk tour de force which leads the listener through the various stories, emotions and themes associated with the First World War. A sea shanty morphs into a Balkan dance. A Klezmer romp fades down into a Queen-esque symphonic ballad. A Viking War chant crescendos into a German polka, and then again into pure punk-rock song that hearkens back to Bad Religion and The Descendants. These are stories of love and loss, war and strife, redemption and sorrow. For the Dreadnoughts, who normally only write songs about how much they love gin and scrumpy cider… this is new territory. But someone had to do it. Right? Right.

A red tuba, a white squeeze box, a green Tyrolean hat, lots of lederhosen and a frantic stage show make Winzige Hosen every mother’s favorite punk polka band. Part Frankie Yankovic, part Gogol Bordello, Winzige Hosen is a seven-piece group based in Duluth’s Bavarian Hill country — the place where 2/4 dance steppers collide with stage divers and electric guitars blend with accordions through Marshall stacks. A world stuck in permanent Oktoberfest. The roster features Kala Moria on tuba, Abe Curran and Luke Nyen on guitars, Eric Bong on bass, Patrick Sunderland on trumpet, Tommy Kishida on drums and Brian Schanzenbach on voice and accordion.

“A MODERN RENDITION OF OLD WORLD TRADITION”
Born out of Buffalo, NY, Captain Tom & the Hooligans rose from the rustbelt with a determination to entertain audiences while sharing their passion for the cultures that birthed their unique sound!

Inspired by local cultures, The Hooligans range in instrumentation from accordions to electric guitars. They’ve created a unique blend of the old-world and the new, while preforming original material the group also puts spins on traditional and contemporary songs alike, with an ability to produce up-tempo songs and ballads, rendering their own twist on new and old favorites from across the spectrum of Polka to Celtic Punk, Americana, Eastern European Folk, Folk-Rock, Ska and everything in between!