Zebrahead and Me First And The Gimme Gimmes Vienna Tickets, Ottakringer Brauerei, 27 Nov 2026

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Ottakringer Brauerei

Thaliastrasse 81, 1160, Vienna, Austria

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Doors open: 17:00

Price: €62.00

Concert in your area for Rock, Metal, Funk & Soul, and Indie & Alt.

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Zebrahead biography

Orange County and it’s neighboring towns introduced the world to a whole new breed of punk rock and Zebrahead was undeniably an integral part of this movement. They captured the irreverence and drive of punk’s past but relied more heavily on pop structure and integrated in a slew of genres.

Zebrahead formed in 1996 in La Habra, California and originally consisted of Greg Bergdorf (guitars), Ed Udhus (drums), Ben Osmundson (bass), and Justin Mauriello (rhythm guitar/vocals). The members were all self-professed fans of punk acts like Green Day, Fugazi, and Descendents, but instead of making an appeal to ska like many of their contemporaries they sought inspiration in rap music. There decision to go in this direction prompted them to hirer 2nd vocalist/rapper, Ali Tabatabaee.

On 21 April 1998 the group put out a 26 minute self-titled demo through the label, Doctor Dream. This release showed much potential and landed them a record contract with major label Columbia records. Some of the tracks on the demo earned considerable public recognition as they filtered through various movies like David Spade’s “Lost and Found” and video games such as “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3”.

Zebrahead’s mainstream studio debut “Waste of Mind” came out a little later that year and featured the two singles “Get Back” and “The Real Me”, the former of the two is credited as being the only Zebrahead single to chart on the US Billboard. “Playmate of the Year” followed in 2000 and the EP “Stupid Fat Americans” was released just a year later exclusively to the Japan market.

The band’s success continued to grow in Japan with their next studio album release “MFZB”. The album departed from the group’s saturated funk sound and embraced a more traditional punk style. It was certified gold in Japan and also peaked at no. 9 on the Japan Album Charts. Additionally the group supported the release with several appearances in Japan, one being at the Summer Sonic Festival.

Not long after the Zebrahead finished their tour through Japan lead singer Mauriello left to form a new rock group called Darling Thieves. Former Jank 1000 frontman Matty Lewis filled in for Mauriello and proved to be a good fit for the band.

The group’s 1st album with Matty Lewis “Broadcast to the World” came out on 22 February 2006 and received glowing reviews and drew comparisons to Rancid and the Clash. In 2008 Zebrahead released both the EP “Not the New Album” and their 7th studio album “Phoenix”.

Their proceeding release “Panty Raid” centered around the concept of covering girl groups. The band had briefly dabbled with this idea on the “Waste of MFZB” album on which they covered the Spice Girl’s “Wannabe”. “Panty Raid” featured covers ranging from Cyndi Lauper, Destiny’s Child, and No Doubt.

2011 saw the release of “Get Nice!” while 2013 saw the release of “Call Your Friends”, which was the band’s 1st album not to feature lead guitarist, Greg Bergdorf. 2015 welcomed Zebrahead’s “Greatest Hits? Volume 1” as well as “The Early Year - Revisited”, which is a collection of re-recorded material written between 1998 - 2003.

Me First And The Gimme Gimmes biography

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is an American band that exclusively plays punk rock covers from San Francisco, California.

Formed in 1995 by Spike Slawson, Joey Cape, Christ Shiflett, Michael “Fat Mike” Burkett and Dave Raun. They released their first single in the same year as their formation entitled “Denver” through Fat Mike’s own label, Fat Wreck Chords. The single which featured a cover of John Denver’s song; the following two years the group released two more singles with the names of the artist they covered for the singles. In July 1997 Me First and Gimme Gimmes released their first full-length album entitled “Have A Ball.” The album featured covers of artists such as Elton John, Neil Diamond, and John Denver. Their second album, “Are A Drag,” had the theme of being entirely made up of showtunes.

As with each of their albums they released, their live shows would have a gimmick of wearing quirky matching costumes, sometimes even matching their album themes. In 2006 the group released their sixth album, “Love Their Country” which had a country western theme. A year later they released a sampler of Christmas songs, and “Go Down Under” a year after that. In 2011 they released an album in Japan that was an album entirely of Japanese music as a part of their tour in Japan.

Live reviews

Seeing Zebrahead live is a whirlwind of excitement, energy and enthusiasm. This band has a great punk rock style that is effortless but at the same time you can tell that they truly care about their craft. Their set is fast-paced and they're well versed in getting a crowd pumped up.
While attending the show, it is impossible to avoid getting caught up in the energy that the band puts out and it makes the show all that more enjoyable. Zebrahead at Rock n Heim was an all-out party with massive crowds at the outdoor venue and even some particularly loyal fans dressed up in a head-to-toe zebra costume. The band's laissez-faire attitude about having a cohesive appearance only adds to the punk rock mentality; some of the members word sleeveless shirts while others had collared shirts and skinny ties a la Green Day.
They opened the show with "Hell Yeah" a speedy song that was perfect for getting the crowd amped. Next was "Call Your Friends" another super fast party anthem that engaged the audience and got them chanting along before leading back into the chorus that had everyone jumping and dancing along. If you're looking for a fun, insanely energetic punk rock show, you can't go wrong with seeing Zebrahead, a band that turns ADD into an artform.

Anonymous

This next song, is a cover... or how Me First and the Gimme Gimmes make everything cooler. A cover band for a musician is either good practise when they've just started or means to survive when success with their original band was never achieved, and that bitterness is almost palpable in every wedding band around the world, it's almost too painful to watch (e.g Adam Sandler's the wedding singer). Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is all that, plus more. They took the concept of a kitsch, sad cover band and made it wonderfully cool to watch, grabbing enormous all-time hits and turning them into punk rock gems with such mastery it kinda makes you wonder why wasn't that song like that from the very beginning. Members of various successful punk rock acts such as Nofx, Lagwagon and Swingin' Utters, came together to form this non-stop-paty-hits, and made each record specific to an era or gender, like their famous "Are a Drag" which consisted of epic broadway tunes covers, "blowing in the wind" a 60's set, "Have a break" which is dedicated to Motown tunes, or their latest "are we not men we are Diva" of music divas' hits like Whitney Houston, Gloria Gaynor or... Boy George. with that arrogance that says " We took a really crappy song, and actually made it better" Now watching them live, it's something you wouldn't want to miss. They're all dress alike, as if it were a job they'd had to go in a uniform... a kitsch uniform. Sometimes with hideous Hawaiian-style shirts or white tuxedos, the band is a merry bunch enjoying their gig at that party: YOURS! Their lead singer comes across as that faded rockstar from 20 years ago that still thinks he's cool, and performs one of the best vocal shows in punk rock today, as the rest of the band brilliantly drink and play almost perfectly as you start recognising the tunes and eventually end up singing out loud and having an amazing time. As the show goes on, You will recognise a lot of songs that probably your dad listens to in the car and you've always told him how boring they were as they come to slap you in the face, with punk rock energy. The brilliance of this bands resides in their ability to make you sing and dance to, what under any other circumstance, you would find cheesy, ridiculous or plainly radio crappy tunes. So in a Me first show, you will see pierced and tattooed people with nofx shirts singing "I WIll survive" "nothing compares to you" "over the rainbow" even Beatle's "all My loving" has it's moment in the show.
Which brings this review to an epic revelation: Me first And the Gimme Gimmes turned the tables in such a brilliant way, that you will no longer feel ashamed of being a tough-ass rocker and secretly dancing to Broadway songs or Motown tunes. They have given us back all the great songs that we were missing out because they were not.....rock.
It's a non-stop-partying act which will send you home a happy person.

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