What could possibly be more punk? Four guys well past the age of your average Blink-182 fan, getting together after work to swill beer and blast out smart, brash, uncompromising tuneage, serving up a sonic bitch-slap to the Xeroxed new-school and the extreme-lifestyle trendsuckers. Ya got Steve's tight-yet-frenzied backbeat. Ya got Joe's TSOL-meets-The-Ramones riffing. Ya got Todd's loopy pentatonic bass runs. And ya got Dave, spewing some of the brightest dumb irony available whilst careening like a methed-up dervish disguised as a pedophiliac marriage counselor from Hungary. That the kids like 'em as much as the grizzled old bastids shows not only that theirs is a great band, but also that there may be hope for the Fenix TX/Manic Panic set as well. "I'm a beer drinker/ baby, yeah!" -- profound words for a generation at risk. Here's hoping the quartet gets enough paid-vacation time built up to take their act on the road someday.

BEST PERFORMER -- tie
Dave Reeder/Car Bomb Driver
and
Izzo/Crossbreed

This one's a split decision: Two guys coming at the idea of rocking the crowd from two completely different perspectives, and each going above and beyond the call of duty in the name of entertainment. A typical Car Bomb Dave performance resembles nothing so much as an instructional video on rock god-dom, hosted by a demented shop-clerk who probably shouldn't have been attempting the moves even a decade ago, when they were supposed to be cool. It's just like the Dokken home video says: "You'll learn windmills! Spins! Deep knee bends and heavy-metal faces!" His 360 airs are the stuff of immortality, and his commitment to the live spectacle is matched only by that of Crossbreed's programmer/keyboardist/DJ.