Samiam

at The Middle East Cafe
by Autumn Ober

Pity for you if you missed this one (although judging by the crowd not many people did). Samiam is a classic live band, not as rough around the edges as most Cali punk, but fast and energetic. Recordings just don’t do the genre justice, frankly, and anyone who calls themselves a punk “fan” without seeing a band live is misinformed at best. I didn’t detect a loss of power or angst, but a cleaner style, a bigger crowd, and a hell of a lot more hype (which translates into baseball hat-wearing scenesters constantly telling you what’s up with “The Band”).