Brujoz, Skating Polly, The Jins - 11/17/25 - Fresno, CA - Strummer's

Brujoz is your standard punk rock band, which is not at all a bad thing. Guitar, bass, drums. Their set started with rapid fire, fast paced songs with unintelligible lyrics. Very punk with the stage antics to match. Partway through the set they transitioned to more grungy songs with ultra heavy distortion, and then ended with more warp speed punk. They are kids, but they are politically aware kids. They talked about ICE and Palestine, which everyone knows about, but also brought up Congo and Sudan. Props to them. 

Skating Polly is another punk rock band but with female bass and guitar players, and they both have pretty good voices. They can sound a little heavier than stereotypical punk, but at other times they sound like a 90s alternative band like Sugar Ray or Third Eye Blind. But no matter what song they’re playing, their attitude and stage presence is 100% punk. The guitar and bass players switched instruments part way through the set and still sounded just as good.

The Jins are not as much of a punk band as I was expecting given Strummer’s proclivity to book extremely similar bands on the same night. The Jins sound much, much more grunge. And they do the grunge thing very well. They have a very grunge aesthetic. Honestly they even look like Nirvana… guitarist has shaggy blond hair, bassist is huge, drummer isn’t wearing a shirt. They referenced Metamorphosis by Kafka between songs, which was impressive to me. I wonder if they've read Camus?

I spent part of the show (okay, most of the show) texting the girl from the Eric Church concert, so I was kind of distracted. She still seems pretty awesome... crossing my fingers.