The Swinos stomp into the Ironhead Saloon

There are a lot of things charmingly ugly and abrasive that emit from a Bremerton band called the Swinos. Its mascot for instance, is a swamp monster tromping through the murk with a vomiting damsel in distress flung over one shoulder and a jug of moonshine in its opposite hand.

The punkrockabilly four-piece stomps with an equal sonic weight at its live shows at bars, clubs and taverns around the end of the Sound (soon to include the Puyallup Fair).

And the guys have been known to do a few weddings and funerals, if the price is right.

Tonight, however, The Swinos will be slammin’ on the caged stage of the three-month old Ironhead Saloon at the corner of 6th Street and Callow Avenue in Bremerton, rocking out a fund raiser for Kitsap County’s burgeoning roller derby girls, the Slaughter County Roller Vixens.

Another Bremerton-area punk rock band with a far-reaching history, and coincidentally one of the members of the Swinos, The Right Things will also jam, starting around 9 p.m. today.

Both the Ironhead venue and roller derby in Kitsap County are newly emerging entities while each of the bands playing in their support are storied.

As for what’s new, the Roller Vixens are on the verge of their first-ever competition, an inter-league exhibition Sept. 8. The Ironhead on the other hand opened its doors around the beginning of the summer, welcoming a bevy of bikes and choppers to its curb while bringing 21+ local rock and roll to its chain-link shielded stage.

As for the bands that will occupy that stage tonight, The Right Things just recently united after a 12-year hiatus while the Swinos have spent the past five years in a wine-flavored romp of self-professed “rowdy, sweaty, hi-octane fun.”

Its latest album, a memoir, “Piss Drunk and Spinnin” (released Sept. 2006), has syphoned the gist of that romp onto compact disc. And it sounds like a high-speed burn in a fast car.

Motorhead-like six-string intensity evidences the more metal side of the Swinos’ influence while fast-paced simplicity, brazen lyrics and gruff vocals speak to the punk side. Bru Drinkerhoff, a raucous frontman who’s been known to sing like Hank Williams, sporting overalls and a crumpled cowboy hat, delivers a bit of rock-a-billy while two guitarists with honky-tonk, classic and punk rock roots, James Hunnicutt and Mike Shuppe, complete the Swinos’ punkrockabilly sound.

It’s raw, it’s fast it’s big. It’s music with sideburns.

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