Tye Battistella Formerly of Reno Divorce, Now Shreddin' Six Strings With The Queers

Screaching Weasel, Dwarves and the Queers at the Gothic Theatre

Hats off to our hombre Tye Battistella formerly of Reno Divorce and now shreddin' the strings with The Queers. A few months back Tye took an early retirement from Reno Divorce to focus on a few other areas. Out of the blue, Joe Queer calls him up and asks him to come out of retirement and play a few shows with the band and see where it goes. Best of luck to Tye and hopefully he will be hitting a lot more shows with the Queers and further honing in on all of his punk rock harmonies.

The Dwarves Rock Dallas With Flat Tires In Tow

The Dwarves, The Queers and the Flat Tires are one lethal tour combination

Check out The Dallas Observer

"We're fewer than five songs into the Dwarves' set, Friday night at Three Links, and the music has stopped, the drums have been kicked over, and the band has left the stage.

No one seems immediately clear on what happened at that moment. No one, that is, except the guy standing right in front of me. 

"It was the purse chick! She did something to the bass guy!"

Ah! The "purse chick". Allow me to explain.

To back up even further (less than three songs into the set), the band has already kindly accomodated a good half-dozen stage divers. Dallas stage divers, that is..meaning not all of them were in it just for the leap. Granted, a few did it right: they quickly ran up, took a springboard hop and vanished into the bodies. Some, however, were stopping to stand on Dwarves' frontman Blag Dahlia's mark (not a good idea, especially on a more snug club-size stage), and looking for that 2.5 seconds of glory of being in front of one of the greatest punk acts in the world. 

Blag, naturally, was not having it. Was he cruel to the divers? Pissed off? Aggressive and violent? No. Ain't no entertainer got time for that (sorry). Blag did what the Dwarves do. He gave the people a little shit; picked on them a little, for laughs. And in the process, turned it into the kind of bonus entertainment this outfit is reputed for. The best one was the guy in the two-tone ballcap, who paused at the front to do his best zippy, wacky Blag impression. His fancy cap was snatched off his head by the man himself, and zinged into the crowd. The kid gave Blag a "what the fuck?" look, and dove off. Laughter ensued. 

In between songs, Blag noticed a purse on the side of the stage. "Who's using my stage for storage space?" he said. As the next song started, he rifled through it, tossing some of the contents playfully over his shoulder. He didn't toss valuables into the crowd, he didn't destroy anything, he was just having fun, and entertaining us. All in punk-fun, and again laughter again ensued.

Was this truly why the show stopped? Did the "purse girl" lash out at the band for what had been done to her belongings? As of press time, it's still unclear and doesn't really matter.
What did matter about Friday night was this:

-The Flat Tires warmed up the crowd for The Queers nicely, and have a hell of a lead guitarist: speedy, bendy, tastefully-placed lead breaks and punk-a-billy reminiscent of Reverend Horton Heat's Full Custom Gospel Sounds-era. (I missed the two bands prior.)

-The Queers got the crowd to unfold their arms, start swirling a leisurely, easy-to-navigate pit, and give a few seasoned stage divers a chance to blow the dust off their skills. Musically, things went fast-and-greasy well. They were granted multiple encores.

-The Dwarves hit the ground at the breakneck of midnight, fast and relentlessly. Obviously charged to have a sold out show, they were frantic, zany, fun and ridiculously charged with very infectious energy.

-Following the melee' moment of kicked over gear, Three Links owner Scott Beggs (assisted by Here Holy Spain's Wes Niles) hopped up and set everything back upright, and the show picked up within minutes as if nothing had happened. The Dwarves blazed several more for us, stopped cold, left the stage and it was over. As quickly as it started, the earth cooled, the madness fell to the wayside and we all walked away pitty, foul-smelling and satisfied.

Well played, gentlemen. A night not to be forgotten."

Blood, Guts and Live Music: The Flat Tires Invade Dallas

Flat Tires recently invaded Dallas and most of the south east on a tour with the Queers and the Dwarves

Check out Original post on Central Track


"There were two all-out girl fights, someone was walking around the club bleeding profusely, and one girl watched in horror as the contents of a purse were discarded across the stage. Oh, and the headliner cut their set short. Sounds like a fairly extraordinary night. Except, well, this was just another show from The Dwarves, really.

Since forming in Chicago in the mid-'80s, the Dwarves have been almost constantly terrorizing audiences with their insane live shows, their offensive lyrics and their nude on-stage antics. And though the band's Friday night crowd at Three Links was spared the nudity, there was still plenty of insanity and rowdiness to go around.

Crowd-surfing kicked off during The Queers' co-headlining set, but continued on through the Dwarves' set. One girl in pink pants wouldn't stop getting on stage and crowdsurfing -- until she got shoved off stage by more than one band member and told to stop, much to the bulk of the crowds' delight. The mosh pit, meanwhile, seemed to take up half of the venue, and was constant throughout the night.

The whole night felt like a nonstop barrage of the senses, basically. And anyone concerned about whether the Dwarves had lost a step in their older age was summarily proven wrong. The band was just as energetic and insane as always -- even if it took them two separate sets to get their message across this time.

As for that break, which came just five songs into the Dwarves' set: You can blame that girl who saw her purse contents discarded for that. Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia didn't seem to take too kind to her placing her purse onto the stage during his band's set. He grabbed the purse, dumped it out onto the stage and kept on with the set. When the girl jumped up onto the stage to retrieve her items, Dahlia pushed her off the stage and back into the crowd. Then he and the band left the stage, seemingly fed up at the whole thing.

Eventually, they'd return to the stage, finish up their short offering, and close the tumultuous night down.

The show started off roughly, though, with the lead singer of Bad Machine being so drunk that he could barely stand up. He mumbled his way through his band's setlist, and was reminded by his mother-in-law halfway through the display that he should speak clearly so everyone would know the name of his band. On second thought, he might've been best served not telling anyone that information.

The Flat Tires from Hickory, North Carolina, followed, and it looked like they'd gone into the hills to find their frontman. That man, Clint Harrison, carried a huge pipe wrench with him, looking like a crazed professional wrestler, throughout his band's set. It was entertaining and not contrived, though, and it worked perfectly with their muddy, down-home punk, which righted the night's course.

By the time the Queers took to the stage, the night had reached a full-on frenzy, even if things still felt like they were somewhat subdued, at least as compared as to all that went down during the Dwarves' set.

It's weird. It's like people feel like they have to live up to the reputation of being at a Dwarves show. As such, it was a pretty crazy night.

And for the first really over-the-top rowdy show its hosted since opening, Three Links held up really well. Only one piece of art was almost knocked off the wall, and lord knows what they'll have to do to clean that floor, but the whole thing sounded awesome and no one was hurt too badly.

Not physically, at least."

Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves bringing the action to the crowd

The Dwarves never fail to deliver live

The Flat Tires brought their game face to the tour

The Queers bring pop punk to a new level

Pop Punk is refined to another degree by the Queers

True metal heads yield the claw of appreciation, but middle fingers always seem to be the norm by the punks

Flat Tires Tour The Deep South With The Queers and The Dwarves

Clint of the Flat Tires hanging with Joe Queer and Blag from the Dwarves

Haven't seen the Flat Tires yet? Git yer asses to their next show, especially the one in Fayetteville NC on May 11th with Reno Divorce and Southbound Turnaround.

Sold out shows almost every night of the tour

The Dwarves were killing it every night

Clint of the Flat Tires and Marc Diamond of the Dwarves

Flat Tires, The Queers And Agent Orange Are Teaming Up...

Flat Tires, The Queers and Agent Orange are teamintg up for some tour dates this summer. Get out to the show and watch the Juke Joint Rock N' Rollers in the Flat Tires kick all sorts of new ass on the road.


Aug 9th- Baltimore, MD @ SONAR
Aug 10th- Pittsburgh, PA @ The Ironworks
Aug 11th- Cleveland, OH @ The Grog Shop
Aug 12th- Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
Aug 13th- TBA
Aug 14th- Burlington, VT @ Metronome
Aug 15th- Pittsfield, MA @ Chameleons
Aug 16th- Dover, NH @ Dover Brickhouse*
Aug 17th- Boston, MA @ Rock On Concert Cruise
Aug 18th- New York, NY @ Rock's Off Concert Cruise

The Queers, Agent Orange and the Flat Tires on Tour August 2012

Dirty South Fest IV Featuring The Cro Mags

Dirty South Fest IV featuring the Cro Mags, Chapel Hill, NC 6.30.12

dirty south booking presents....

DIRTY SOUTH FEST 2012 SATURDAY JUNE 30

CRO MAGS
PIETASTERS
THE QUEERS
FLATFOOT 56
DUCKY BOYS
HUB CITY STOMPERS
PATRIOT
ANTAGONIZERS ATL
UNIT SIX
BAD IDEA

ALL AGES!!! EARLY SHOW 3 PM DOOR/ 4PM SHOW

dirtysouthfest.com for tix/info

FRIDAY JUNE 29 DSF 2012 PRE PARTY SOUL NITE LOOK FOR SEPERATE EVENT W/ JENNY WOO DJS MIDNIGHT COWBOY KING HAROLD LAUREN VON TRAPP

Flat Tires and The Queers At The Milestone In Charlotte 8.25.11

After the smokin' stage set the fellas in the Flat Tires had with the Murder Junkies a while back, fans and locals were begging for more. We are here to tell you that it's officially on and this time the legendary punk outfit The Queers are joining them. Flying beer cans, pipe wrenches wailing about and the madness that only a Milestone show can bring will be at hand. Get off your ass and get down to the show.

Flat Tires - Freeborn by RustyKnuckles