With additional reporting from Kelsey Bryant
Night four for Bender’s happy hour and the crowd was still going strong. Drinks were still cheap, the Fernet Lucky Wheel still wouldn’t give us a free sweatshirt and the bands were still outrageous.
We bounced into the bar as Spencer Dude and the Doodles took the stage. The name indicates how seriously these guys take themselves, but their noisy teenage pop set the tone for the evening. Busting out snot-nosed ditties about flirting and French kisses, the trio gulped down cans of Tecate and got rowdy. Oh, Bender’s. Here we are again and loving it more and more with each visit.
The Doodles played a three piece with an electric
bass made from a board. Oh wait, he just switched to a conventional
bass. Damn. Oh well, they were loud, the frontman had a terribly
amazing budding ‘stache and the aforementioned bassist is Peter
Jackson’s doppelgänger.
Then came Hunx and His Punx. Dripping in kitsch, Hunx worked the stage in impossibly tight pants while his Punx backed him in full Golden Girls costume. Tossing confetti on the crowd and attempting a quick makeout sesh with a woman who bashfully stuttered into the microphone, “I don’t spekk Engleesh good,” after being dragged onto the stage – this was flamboyant fabulousity at its best. Wigs, glasses and aprons, oh my!
