This 4 piece ska/punk band from Philadelphia were the perfect start to the day. Fronted by female singer Brittany Luna who has such a great voice, the band are highly energetic and really got the crowd moving. This was no mean feat as half of them were probably still asleep!

Their songs are catchy and infectious, you can hear the definite ska influence but also the punk /power pop shines through as well. It is great discovering bands like this for the first time, hearing the great songs that they have, and being impressed by their vibrancy and freshness.

Niis (pronounced nice) from Los Angeles took to the main stage, and it was as if a hurricane had blown in. Flame haired singer Mimi SanDoe was taking no prisoners as she marauded around the stage clad in a black leather bikini, fishnet stockings and calf-length boots. A fearsome sight to behold.

The songs were fast and aggressive, it was full on in your face music and attitude as she berated the people sitting at the back and the VIP areas “get out of the shade and into the pit” she implored them. If you were not fully awake before seeing this band, you certainly were afterwards, terrific stuff!

One of the beauties of Punk Rock Bowling is that often you see bands that you have never seen or heard of before (even if they have existed for years) and you feel real joy at discovering them for the first time. One such band is Cosmic Psychos from Australia, a band that has existed for over 40 years. Looks can deceive, the band wandered onstage looking like your old uncles you don’t invite to your wedding because of their embarrassing drinking habits.

I truly wasn’t expecting much from them until they started to play and this relentless Ramones-like barrage of sound hit me. I was immediately hooked. They had a nice line in stage banter and songs like Fuckwit City were funny and entertaining, where has this band been all my life?

The wonderfully named Destroy Boys from Sacramento are up next. They lacked the punch of previous mainstagers Niis, but were entertaining enough. The band was fronted by Alexia Roditis who seemed a little hesitant and nervous at first, but as the set went on the better she and the band got. In fact, she also climbed the scaffolding on the stage, which added to the spectacle.

They really took off when guitarist Violet Mayugba grabbed a microphone and joined in, co fronting the band. She was quite a sight as she stomped around the stage, her hair flowing everywhere. Their brand of loud, melodic, punk rock with a touch of hardcore is appealing to the crowd, although their plea for an “all girl and non-binary mosh pit” falls on mostly deaf ears. The band also have the best song title of the day in I Threw Glass At My Friend’s Eyes Now I’m On Probation, which is in fact a song about being groomed.

Today’s bands are proving, so far, to be most entertaining, and so it is with Snooper from Nashville. What an intriguing band they are.  It was apparent from the strange array of props that were arriving on stage (dumb-bells, a giant retro cell phone, an old arcade console, traffic lights) that something very special was going to occur here.

The band hit the stage, all wearing shell suits apart from female singer Blair Tramell, and tear into their first number. They are melodic and very fast, the songs are quirky, and the band are fun. The band is extremely energetic and are all over the stage, but it is singer Blair who grabs your attention because she will just not stay still. Their energy rubs off to the crowd, who are absolutely loving this.

They don’t say much, there are recorded soundbites and samples between songs, as the whole show runs seamlessly from one song to the next. Blair is definitely the star of the show as she makes use of the props, such as the papier-mâché dumbbells during the track Fitness. The songs are all 100mph stuff with careering guitars, thumping bass, pounding drums and whistles as they reach the end of the set with the climatic Running. It is now that things take an even more surreal turn as Blair leaves the stage only to reappear about a minute later dressed as a giant insect! This was freaky!

Of course, the crowd go even more batshit crazy than they already were, a totally bizarre end to a wonderful gig.

Subhumans are a punk band formed in Wiltshire, England in 1980 and still has virtually all its original members, bass player Phil Bryant being the new boy, he joined in 1983. The band has long been associated with the anarcho punk movement of the early 1980’s. They sounded so quintessentially English and so of that time.

Singer Dick Lucas made an impassioned plea to stop testing products on animals, which shows that the band are still true to their roots. Their songs soon had the crowd worked up and a steady stream of crowd surfers were going over the barriers at the front of the stage. Definitely one of the hits with the crowd so far.

This was one of the bands I really wanted to see, and I was not disappointed. I was surprised that the Street Party Stage was not absolutely packed for this, people didn’t know what they were missing. Everything on stage was pink, the amps and cabinets had been sprayed pink, guitars were pink and even the microphone stands.

The band appeared and launched into Roadkill, a guitar stand was sent flying high into the sky and the atmosphere became electric, which was maintained for the entire set. Singer Arrow de Wilde grabs your attention, not least for the way she looks, she is thin, painfully thin. Her performance is absolutely mesmerising as she navigates the stage.

She demands your attention and certainly gets it. Henri Cash, guitarist, runs her close in the attention stakes as he tears around the stage firing off sublime riffs, this is real intense glam punk rock ‘n’ roll. They even throw in a cover of the Ramones Pet Semetary.

As the set comes to an end, Henri Cash can be found deep in the audience, in the circle pit, still riffing as if his life depended on it!

An impressive showing from San Diego’s Rocket From The Crypt. Their music may have been slower paced than previous bands, but they featured a horn section, what’s not to love about that?

It was still hot, and guitarist / vocalist John Reis joked that they were true punks because they were wearing woolen clothing in the extreme heat.

I must confess that the only song of theirs that I was familiar with was On A Rope, but the rest of their repertoire was varied and very good. It did become apparent from their comments that they didn’t like Florida, though! Their set was fun, rockin’ and truly impressive.

Headliners tonight on the Street Party Stage were The Chats from Australia. The stage was absolutely rammed, probably the most people I saw at that stage over the weekend. I must say from the start that I probably differ from most people there in that I really didn’t like The Chats.

The Cosmic Psychos earlier seemed like the real deal, this lot seemed to be punk by numbers. Lowest common denominator stuff. The audience really enjoyed them, but sorry boys, you really were not for me.

Tonight’s headliners are Devo from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Another band I had never seen before. They had never been on my radar much, although I had loved their classic cover of Satisfaction and Whip It. Also, who could not like a band who wore flower pots on their heads? I was looking forward to seeing them, probably out of curiosity if nothing else.

A lengthy video presentation preceded the band, and video contributed a lot to the performance. Starting the set with Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man) the band immediately grabbed the attention of the audience who were transfixed. The band was totally polished and highly professional, it was as if they were robots. But at the same time there was a vein of humour underpinning the whole performance which made it a great deal of fun to watch.

The red “flowerpot” hats appeared at the start of Whip it, a song that really got the crowd moving. People had been snapping them up all day at the merch table at $50 a pop! They also have a costume change into their familiar yellow jumpsuits for the second half of the show. The band were totally immense and fully justified their headliner status, and I was glad that I had seen them.