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Road for Punknecks leads to Youngstown
By John Benson
It’s one thing to sadly discover you’re on a road to nowhere, and yet something quite different to realize such a path is the intended destination.
The highway, albeit not of the lonesome variety, is exactly where twangy-punk act the Punknecks have been roaming nonstop for more than a decade. During that time, Jason and Polly Punkneck have enjoyed hundreds of gigs across the country, yet there’s something about Northeast Ohio that they say feels like home.
“We have a really, really special time in Youngstown,” said Polly, calling from the road (of course) on the way to a Michigan gig. “It’s unlike any other place, and it’s our very favorite spot in Ohio. The Royal Oaks crew and (owners) the Kennedy Brothers have become like part of our family, really.”
She added fond memories of playing at Pabsolutely and watching the aforementioned siblings having fun in a dunk tank.
“We’ve made up really funky, vulgar songs while on the Royal Oaks stage,” Polly said. “We just have so much fun. They let us come there and do whatever we want.”
The next opportunity to see the Punknecks in Youngstown is Saturday at the Royal Oaks. The duo will be performing material from its 2014 effort “Road to Nowhere.” Polly said the band’s fifth album tackles familiar subjects such as drinking, drugging, traveling and leaving, but does so in highly produced fashion, which is unlike any of its previous DIY-defined projects that delved into bluegrass and grunge.
“Pretty much these albums are all memoirs of our experience on the road, but with ‘Road to Nowhere,’ we kind of brought together a lot of band members we worked with before,” Polly said. “So we have a lot more elements in there. It’s more dynamic and has solo, lead parts. It was more produced.”
Songs of note from the album include the theatrical “The Pirate Song” and the slow, acoustic punk-sounding “Tired of This Town.” Something else in the works for the Punknecks is a concert documentary for “Road to Nowhere” which is due out later this year.
“We like to call it a rock-umentary,” Polly said. “It’s a documentary and kind of a peek inside our touring life over the years. It’s kind of debaucherous. You’ll see us playing live shows, driving, traveling and seeing different sites and running into people.”
Therein lies the heart of the Punknecks.
“We just don’t ever stop,” Polly said. “We just keep trying to put music out there. We keep traveling. We’re like door-to-door salesmen. We go across the whole country and we perform our music for people. We hope they’ll like it and when they do, they can take a bit of it home with them. And we always promise we’ll come back.”
Invariably, the band’s upcoming Royal Oaks show is making good on that promise, which may or may not involve performing improvised dirty songs on the spot.
“That might happen,” Polly said with a laugh.