Last Blood

It's bedtime for R.A.M.B.O.

by Patrick Rapa

punk/hardcore

Photo By: Melanie Dressel (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Sylvester Stallone may be pumping his HGH-enhanced Rambo for one more implausible shoot-out, but here in Philly, some battle-tested hardcore vets with the same name are laying down their weapons. If you don't know who R.A.M.B.O. is, that's kind of your fault. Led by the guttural rasp of frontman Tony Pointless, the deceptively catchy punk band has proudly played some 25 countries on four continents over the past eight years. They've got a rep for rowdy shows, cardboard costumes and oddball theatrical sensibilities. Now they're cashing in, and what do they have to show for it? Some intense, adrenaline-driven CDs � the masterpiece being 2005's Bring It! � and some good war stories. I caught up with Mr. Pointless via e-mail to shoot the shit.

City Paper: Why are you guys calling it quits?

Tony Pointless: It's time to focus on other things. We're all great friends and it's not an intraband-conflict thing. All of us want to make other interests more of a priority, and we didn't want to slow down. We love the crazy touring and the theatrics, but it takes so much time. It's more in the spirit of the band to just go out with a bang. Our last show was a year ago in Bangkok; we haven't had the time to even play on this continent.

CP: Gimme a career highlight.

TP: Playing an illegal outside show on a badminton court in Jakarta, Indonesia, to 500 punks and 500 more people from the neighborhood, from old men to infants. While we were signing autographs, a woman asked me to sign her baby.

CP: And a lowlight?

TP: We've done so much there is no point in wasting time on lowlights. That's for all the other bands that have gotten way more coverage than us who have nothing else to talk about.

CP: What is U-lock Justice?

TP: "U-lock Justice" stems from my years working as a bike messenger. Sometimes when a driver tries to run you off the road, or some asshole takes a passing swing at you or throws a lit butt at you just for being on the road, you need to defend yourself and that several pounds of U-shaped steel in your back pocket can come in handy.

CP: Isn't the Starlight a little swank for a bunch of dirty punks?

TP: We've sold out the First Unitarian Church the last few times we played there; we figured we needed something bigger for the last show. And with a show that packed, the theatrics and props we plan just get destroyed before anyone can see it. I also work for R5 so the Starlight is like home turf. And the Starlight is hardly swank: Have you used the bathroom?

(pat@citypaper.net)

R.A.M.B.O.'s last show, Sun., May 27, 2 p.m., $12, all ages, with World Inferno Friendship Society, Paint It Black, Drop Dead, Kill the Man Who Questions, Caustic Christ, Pisschrist and Witch Hunt, Starlight Ballroom, 460 N. Ninth St., 866-468-7619, www.r5productions.com, www.myspace.com/bikesk8mosh.