A-Oks Celebrate Five Years

by Joel Center

If you’ve attended a ska show in Denver in the last half-decade, chances are good that the A-Oks played it. In that time, this group of local kids with a passion for music and madness has been one of the only constant sources in our fair city of raw, radioactive ska punk. We’re talking about the kind of energy that brings a wave of panic to the heart of any conservative soul who wanders into a live show. This is the kind of band that will put on a party, no matter what.

At first glance, the night was fairly typical; energetic ska/punk being performed to a crowd of mildly angst-filled kids. As the night progressed past the openers, however, things would change – drastically. As soon as the A-Oks hit the stage, it was as if a bomb went off in the soul of every member of the crowd. Deafening screams accompanied enthusiastic applause, and there was a sense of pride that one could feel in the air around them. Denver’s ska scene had shown up in full force to support the band they’ve known and loved for five years running. There was no denying the feeling of community in the room, an emotion that was only reinforced when a video was projected onto the wall as a tribute to everything this unlikely group of friends and musicians had become. Complete with fan interviews and footage from shows in years past, the video managed to draw up some moisture from the tear duct of a six-foot tall, denim-and-studs clad fellow next to me. He wasn’t alone.

Once everyone had finished reminiscing, they were anxious to launch into the next half-decade with everything they had. To say that I wasn’t reminded of a small-scale riot would be a lie. There were more limbs than realistically possible hurtling around the middle of the floor, all of them feeding off each other in order to spin faster, harder. There are signs around the stage prohibiting clever and resilient fans from stage diving and/or crowd surfing. Immediately following the first note blasted straight to our eardrums by the A-Oks, there was a unanimous agreement amongst the crowd members that these signs were to be paid absolutely no attention, not tonight. From that point forward, there was guaranteed to be at least one person floating ecstatically on a sea of hands, arms, and heads all struggling to simultaneously support their own maniacal dancing and the weight of their fellow concert-goers.

One look at the stage, and you could tell that the band couldn’t have been happier with the situation. Resistance never even crossed their mind. In fact, once they realized how much party potential there was in the room, they began executing clever ways of manipulating it, receiving absolute approval and cooperation from their devoted audience. Soon a whole crowd of excited fans were dancing on stage right alongside the musicians. If one of these stage-bound fanatics knew the words and had a bit of audacity (liquid or otherwise), they would jump right in and sing alongside into one of the “actual” band members’ microphones. Community, at this point, was transformed into family. It was the A-Oks family-band night at the Marquis, and everyone – with the possible exception of some stressed-out security staff – absolutely thrived in it.

Regardless of the amount of people I saw get elbowed, punched, kicked, head-butted, or otherwise assaulted by a bodily appendage (there was even a Marquis-sized “wall of death,” at which point every possible variety of body-to-body collision was achieved), by the time the A-Oks had finished their set, there was not a single fan that wasn’t smiling. It was the kind of process that cleanses your soul and rejuvenates your stamina. This was certainly a night of great success not only for the band themselves, but for any person lucky enough to have heard the sounds and gone through the experience that is the A-Oks. Five years in, and this is surely just the beginning.

Tags: marquis, Aoks

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