Swords of Destiny
Despite their rowdy stage personae, Austin’s Pink Swords aren’t the sort of band to go looking for trouble. They don’t have to. Trouble has a way of finding them, or at least it did at a Las Vegas performance in February. The 5-year-old punk quintet had ventured west to put the finishing touches on a deal with San Francisco-based Gearhead Records, the full-throttle indie label that also claims the Turbo AC’s, Hellacopters, Wildhearts, and Riverboat Gamblers. Gearhead invited the Swords and SF’s Black Furies to play in conjunction with its appearance at the Magic trade show in Sin City’s Double Down casino.
The band enjoyed the free rum and swag from co-sponsor Sailor Jerry’s, and even tried to laugh off an especially persistent heckler. At first, says guitarist Dirty Steve, “We just ignored it, joking with him: ‘You’re in the happiest place in the world – why are you so mad, man?'” Then the ruffian started messing with the band’s equipment, pulling on microphone cords and such, and things took a turn. “At a break in our song, [singer Pits M. Gaffer] dumped this trash can on him because he’d had enough,” relays Steve. “Everybody kicked the guy, and they threw him out. Then we went back and finished the song.”
When the melee was over, Sanchez says, the Swords had convinced the label’s Mike LaVella they were Gearhead material: “He went, ‘Dude, first Gearhead riot of the year! You guys are definitely on!'” Currently weighing studio options, the band expects to release its maiden Gearhead offering, the follow-up to 2003’s One Night High, around October.
This article appears in April 8 • 2005.