Guess I can tell whatever sort of lies I want since there were only 20 or so people at Howards capable of disproving my claims on Tuesday’s show… And that’s a shame since having touring bands in Bowling Green on any given night is worth a few folks showing up. With two bands canceling, only Toledo favorites, The PB Army and headliners Heroine Sheiks did their deeds. The Sheiks, recently signed to Rubric Records and touring to gain some recognition prior to CD release number two, are best known for frontman Shannon Selberg and his past with Minneapolis’ The Cows. They put on an eclectic set suffering from most bands’ curse – playing too damn loud for their space. The resulting mix was mushy making the art-tinged punk songs that much more distancing. With such a small crowd, I say hats off for the band for not tanking it. However, the rock star trip of the pretentious Selberg sure didn’t induce any draw towards the band. Song-wise, the set drifted from straight forward punk-tinged rock to novelty songs like “F***ity, F****ity, F**ity, F***” leaving impressions of too much meaningless keyboard, a couple of neat guitar tones, some bugle play, and an unexpected whistling fill. In all, it equated into a shaky, rather forgettable set.

Openers PB Army get points for their brand of groove rock crossed with punk overtones. Having just gotten up and running a few months back, their fledgling status showed on a few shaky transitions but overall, the band kept the rock a-flowing. “The Eye is On You” stood out as the high point with its driving beat and machine gun vocals but the Sabbath-esque break toward the end of the set was also pretty sweet. Apparently, the band is coming back to Bowling Green a few times in the next month or so and are well worth catching. On this night, they were the best band on the bill and deserve a hearty thumb’s up. Grade: Sheiks D, PB Army B+