Valentine's Day weekend is shaping up to be a great weekend for live local music. Why not kick it off early with another installment of Punk 'N' Tots over at Broadway Joe's?

If you've never been, it's exactly what it sounds like: punk bands playing music, complimentary tater tots. This week, we have Boston punks Draize, local hardcore outfit Resist Control, and the relatively-new-but-totally-awesome Hot Tip. "All Bats Have Eyes and Can See," unfortunately, is not a band name, just a handy bit of trivia printed on the flyer that you can use to impress your friends.

Click the links to check out Draize and Resist Control. Hot Tip is either too new or too cool to have recordings on the internet, but I saw them at a previous Punk N' Tots show and they killed it. Female-fronted, very raw, very aggressive. Definitely worth catching live.

Kick off your Valentine's Day weekend early this Thursday. At the very least, you can stand next to other bodies, pretend you aren't alone, and dance off the desperation.

The show kicks off at 9 pm at Broadway Joe's at 3051 Main Street. Six bucks at the door. Facebook event here. Check out the track from Draize below and see if it appeals.

Sokea Piste are noisy. They are messy. They are from Finland. And tonight they are here. Along with some local support from discordant rockers, JOHNS, Gas Chamber... providing their heavy, bleak soundscapes, Bad People and Resist Control, who are also releasing an LP, this show is for the frozen, the dirty, and the spent. This kind of shindig could only happen at one place and that's the Polish Library. Get there promptly at 8 and stay promptly til close ($7). While you're at it drink some of the fine Polish beers, or don't if you're of the edge variety (All I wanted was a Pepsi???). Tonight's show is presented by Peterwalkee Records and Sugar City.

It's that time of year again. The Adam Mickiewicz Polish Library and Dramatic Circle, otherwise known as the Polish Library (612 Fillmore Ave.), will be hosting the fourth Annual Buffalo Decency Rally, showcasing the best in local punk rock, hardcore and indie, on two separate floors. The absolute cream of the crop in terms of creativity, power, heart, and attitude will be on display and I am way psyched. If the past few years are any indication, this will be one memorable and wild night. Plus it's cheap ($5) so you have no reason not to go.

Heres a list of the bands and the set times. Get there at 5:30 sharp to catch all the acts.

SPERM..............................6:00 (Up)

REAL PEOPLE.....................6:30 (Down)

CROSS STITCH...............7:00 (Up)

CAGES...............................7:30 (Down)

V.O.C.................................8:00 (Up)

ACHILLEA...........................8:30 (Down)

RESIST CONTROL................9:00 (Up)

MALLWALKERS....................9:30 (Down)

UTAH JAZZ..........................10:00 (Up)

JOHNS.................................10:30 (Down)

ABLE DANGER......................11:00 (Up)

MAYDAY!.............................11:30 (Down)

DREAM JOURNAL....................12:00 (Up)

SUN BLACK SMOKE...............12:30 (Down)

FLOOD DRINKER...................1:00 (Up)

ANCIENTS OF EARTH.............1:30 (Down)

Broadway Joes, a venue traditonally known for their jam-based rock, hip-hop, and metal acts, has, in recent months, been hosting a number of great punk rock shows. This is thanks to the people at Punk'n'Tots and Black Dots. Over the past few months, The Punk'n'Tots weekly series has slowly built a following with some of Buffalo's best punk bands on display along with some pretty fantastic national acts. It's nice to see the heights longtime (and only?) music club injected with some new vitality, and I, for one, am thankful.

Tonight, NYC's Pleasure Industry graces the stage, along with the Queen City's own, Resist Control (10pm, $5). Hardcore punk rock for those that like it fast, hard, loose, and slightly uncomfortable. And if you play in a punk band, they're looking for a third so hit up joshuajavonsmith@gmail.com if you want to get down. Support your local scene. Broadway Joes is the place tonight.

Last Sunday at the Flesh Temple, about 25 people, half of them members of bands on the bill, showed up for a hardcore show.

I came late and missed Societal Rot (sorry, guys). Local stalwarts Resist Control played solid; they played loud; they played good. Lotus Fucker, a DC-based outfit, crushed their way through a fast, heavy set. Most people, I assume, showed up for Terveet Kädet: a Finnish d-beat hardcore act founded in 1980, now touring the States with but one original member. Not being an aficionado, I can't tell you if they were good or great. The emotion was there - they seemed glad to be playing, even if it was for a handful of us mostly-sleepy weirdos in a for-rent brick box on the West Side. They even gave us an encore, which was odd, given there was no stage to exit from and dramatically return to, but it was awesome just the same.

What I saw of them, the bands were good. The sideshow for the night, though, were four kids from Rochester (I say "kids," but they might have been 35 and living in Henrietta). They were deep in the thrall of anarcho-punk, or chaos punk, or whatever gnarled branch of the punk rock family tree that bears fruit wearing mohawks and studs and reeking like a soggy scrotum.

There was the well-behaved guy with the ponytail and beard; the red-eyed dude with a nose ring, mohawk, and black vest decked out in spikes; then there was Bi-hawk and his girlfriend.

Bi-hawk had cut a strip of hair down the middle of his head and one off the side, as if to say, "look out, world, this nut's cracked!" The girlfriend, all of maybe 5 feet tall, wore studded bracelets that kept popping off and sliding across the floor in the middle of the flailing, four-man pit.

Bi-hawk set about pissing people off as soon as he got there, pinching butts, flipping the bird in people's faces, and wiping his sweaty self on folks clearly uninterested in a Sunday night throwdown in the mosh pit. The worst came when Bi-hawk pulled down his pants and started rolling around on the floor, followed by some light fellatio by the girl. It was transgessive. Really crazy stuff.

It would have been especially crazy if a guy friend were on the business end of the blowjob, but it would soon become clear why that wasn't the case.

After flipping off the crowd and screaming "fuck Buffalo" for the last few songs of the band he'd come to see (presumably he was upset that no one reacted to his shenanigans), Terveet Kädet wrapped up, and people started filing out. Then I overheard Bi-hawk, pants down, telling some "faggot" to "suck [his] dick."

Cooler heads prevailed, but not before some shoving and the threat, made with a straight face: "watch out, you might get stabbed!" 

Later on, I overheard someone telling one of the out of town bands "yeah, we're not really like that . . . those guys look like they came out of the 'punk rock' episode of some '80s TV show."

Yep.

I came away that night with a few thoughts:

1. It's a bad idea to insult the town hosting the show, then threaten a native with a stabbing.

2. If anarcho-punk is about freedom and doing whatever you want, you can't get mad when it turns out other people want to be left alone, and instead of blowjobs in the pit, they'd rather fold their arms, tap their feet, and enjoy the band. 

3. If "faggot" exists in your vocabulary as an insult, you're just as bad as any button-down square you're trying to offend with your cock-eyed hairdo and unwashed t-shirt.

4. This is why we can't have nice things.

2013 has been a tough year on our poor Buffalo venues, but tonight we can help christen a new (albeit temporary) DIY haven.  The Flesh Temple is the new Funeral Home, and tonight will feature an insane lineup fronted by an intense set from Weekend Nachos.  Supporting acts are just brutal all around, including sets from Homewrecker, Mallwalkers, Deadchurch, Resist Control, and a new Buffalo supergroup - Bad People, featuring members of Brown Sugar, Space Wolves, and White Guilt.

The Flesh Temple is located at 1245 Niagara St.  We're not sure how much the show is, but it can't be too much, so get there at 6 and enjoy a night of music at a new venue. 

Very few local bands get me raging as hard as Utah Jazz, a female fronted punk rock band featuring the singer of one of my other favorite locals, Mayday! (Are they still around???) Too catchy to ignore, too punk to dismiss, this is fun, edgy, and bonkers r'n'r all in one package. Listen below and get a feel. Tonight, the Jazz will be playing with Resist Control, another local, along with Cleveland's Lucha Eterna, and Rochester's Beastman. Celebrate your hump day at the Jungle Gym (357 Breckenridge). It's an early one (7pm) and only costs a mere $6, so you'll have money for all the Pabsts you'll inevitably consume during and after the show.