Mark Unseen, left, of Boston, bellies up to a crowded bar at Sam's Town. Photo by Ralph Fountain. Mary Stroul reacts after leaving a spare at the Punk Rock Bowling Tournament Saturday at Sam’s Town. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

The brunette with the fake black eye gripped a beer in one hand and a bowling ball in the other, trying to maintain some equilibrium during a weekend that was all about losing it.

She whipped the ball down the lane, took a tug from her Budweiser, then let loose with a loud whoop, like a tipsy cheerleader whose team had just crossed the goal line.

The ladies occupying the lane next to her, dressed as Martians in shiny pleather dresses, didn't bat an eye. Neither did the dude bouncing around in a football helmet, chugging beer beneath the face mask.

But it was hard to raise eyebrows at the ninth annual Punk Rock Bowling Tournament, which took place at Sam's Town over the weekend, in the same way that it's difficult to see distinct colors after staring at the sun.

For three days, naughty nurses and dominatrixes bowled next to the dudes in Bad Religion and NOFX.

"Those chicks are bowling in incredibly tight corsets," a female spectator said with a gasp from atop one of the silver bleachers that lined the place, taking in some exotically dressed damsels.

Teams came from as far as Chicago, Boston and New Jersey to compete, hurling cheetah-print bowling balls as "The Big Lebowski" and Clash documentaries played on big screens above the lanes.

The festivities began in earnest Friday night at the Empire Ballroom, where even the drinks fit the theme: The bar offered such punk-friendly cocktails as the Tattooed Margarita, the Spiked Collar, the Pierced Nipple and the Ball Buster, a mix of tequila and Pabst.

"Ouch," the drink menu warned of the last concoction, and that proved to be the operative word for the wobbly weekend.

"You guys don't seem as drunk and wild as I imagined in my mind's eye," noted the dreadlocked singer of Strike Anywhere during his band's set of ringing, pulse-quickening activist anthems.

But given time, this crowd would live up to the hype.

And so would the bands. One of the dudes in Dillinger Four exposed himself to the packed Empire as the band tore into the kind of blue-collar punk rock that works on the assembly line and sweats whiskey.

The group stopped just long enough to dis Vegas' own Panic! At the Disco and taunt the crowd, and then it was back to plunging their fists into gruffly melodic, proletariat rock 'n' roll.

Later, New Jersey's ever-buoyant Bouncing Souls ended the night by playing their seminal "Maniacal Laughter" LP in its entirety, with frontman Greg Attonito wading into the audience as his band's fleet power pop flew by like it was shot from a cannon.

Outside, members of Dillinger Four drunkenly serenaded passers-by on the sidewalk.

In addition to the handful of events directly affiliated with the tournament, such as the Empire show, there was a slew of gigs loosely associated with the weekend that took place at various venues across town.

One of the biggest was NOFX's Saturday stop at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, where the band dismantled Herb Albert tunes and old favorites such as "Linoleum" and "Murder the Government."

"We've been drinking since 3," NOFX frontman Fat Mike announced at a shade past 9 p.m., and so had much of the crowd: During the band's set, some guys started whipping garbage cans down on the crowd in front of the stage.

The weekend staggered to an end Sunday night at Sam's Town Live, where a gay Black Flag tribute act (drop the second 'l' in 'Black Flag' and there ya go) added some glitter, sass and short hemlines to one of punk's definitive acts.

"Would it be all right if I brought a little Broadway to the punk rock bowling weekend?" singer Liberace Morris asked, donning shiny silver pants and a gold top hat. His band turned Flag staple "TV Party" into a series of shout outs to Kathy Griffin, the Lifetime Channel and the Tony Awards, while Flag's "My War" became "My Wardrobe," an ode to the fabulousness of Versace and Yves Saint Laurent.

After a brief bowling awards ceremony -- the Epitaph Records team came in first -- punk cover troupe Me First and The Gimme Gimmes brought the weekend to a fitful conclusion, with the band dodging a steady stream of drinks hurled at the stage, while the marble floor became perilously slick with spilled brew and empty beer buckets, some of which the crowd took to wearing as helmets.

Dressed in matching black cowboy hats and Western gear, the Gimme Gimmes detonated Dolly Parton's "Jolene" and John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," turning yearning country tunes into chirping pop-punk heart attacks.

Unlike most acts of their nature, the Gimme Gimmes were not reverential. "We hate them and they hate us," bassist Fat Mike said of the Eagles before tackling the band's "Desperado," seemingly playing the tune only so they could beat the stuffing out of it.

As the band raced through "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," a heavily tattooed couple swayed back and forth in each other's arms, while a dude in a white suit, cowboy hat and shades, with a bucket of Pabst cradled beneath each arm, shouted along.

It was a scene that encapsulated the weekend down to the last drunken detail.

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.