They came from as close as Ithaca and as far as Osaka, Japan to perform. They drew fans that clearly capitalized on the show’s “all ages” policy to people who looked like they had been rocking for decades. However, the one element that brought Saturday night’s show together was a simple term that has been thrown around and redefined for generations: punk.

The four bands on the bill represented an array of styles: pop-punk, gypsy-punk, electro-punk and the self-defined genre of “super-eccentric-pop-punk-cult-band-shonen-knife!” These bands transformed Appel Commons into a hot and sweaty rock club complete with moshing and screaming guitars for Fanclub Collective’s first show of the semester.

Time to Rock Out: Frontwoman Naoko Yamano lets everyone know that Osaka’s in the house.Local Ithaca punks The Berettas were the first to take the stage, representing the classic guitar / bass / drum trio structure. As they crashed into their original songs, dominated by dynamic bass lines and a sarcastic vocal snarl that Bille Joe Armstrong would have been proud of, the crowd went crazy, exploding into a mosh pit and, for one tune, a good old fashioned Broadway kick line. The Berettas reflected the fun-loving adolescence that centers their particular style of music with songs titles like “Popular Kid” and “Joyride,” whose chorus of “I want to go for a joyride” had many fans’ fists in the air. Stage banter and dedications before songs drew cheers and supportive screams from a loyal fan base that bass player and lead vocalist Max Thomas called “the same four people who always know what we’re going to play.” With a sound that started off jumpy and danceable, and which evolved as their set went on into harder hitting drums and harsher vocals, The Berretas managed to drag the whole audience into their likeable tunes.

Complete with accordion and electric guitar parts that your great-great-grandmother would have danced to back in the old country, Ithaca College’s Glad Rags serenaded the crowd with their gypsy-punk stylings. A relatively new band on the scene, Glad Rags revealed their amateurism with comments such as “This is the first time we’ve played on a stage. Holy shit,” and “This sound system must have taken a while to set up.” The basements where this band usually plays may have been a more appropriate venue, as some of their “gypsy” charm got lost in the pristine, white, industrial walls of Appel. Regardless, the band quickly used this to their advantage, winning the audience over with catchy songs that relied on the aforementioned accordion and quirky staging, with band members switching instruments seemingly with every song. Although Glad Rags are rough around the edges, they played an interesting set of original tunes that were endearingly adorable.

The third band on the bill, Thunderhole, was also the hardest to pin down musically. Hailing from Massachusetts, the band’s electro-tinged mix of keyboards, drums and guitar was supported heavily by distortion and feedback, bringing to mind traces of Gameboy music, Devo and noise rock. Taking the stage dressed in a red and black color scheme, the members of Thunderhole performed danceable and complex songs that were driven by repetitive keyboard and guitar riffs that seemed to fly screeching through the air, while anchored by steady, cymbal-heavy drums. The rich and multilayered sound of their instruments featured each part building on and complementing the others, creating a complex patchwork of noises that was easy to like.

Smile!: New addition Ritsuko Taneda bangs it out on the bass. Shonen Knife was the highlight of a four-band punk bill at Appel.Before Shonen Knife’s set, offstage music foretold of their coming like royal trumpets in a palace. The band members walked onstage to an electronic collage of music in matching color-coordinated uniforms, triumphantly holding workout towels that served as banners proclaiming “Shonen Knife” and “Osaka,” the band’s hometown.

But this is a rock band, and don’t you forget it. With an extension of the pinky and index fingers, creating the international symbol for “let’s rock,” the band was off into their high energy set. In an interview before the show, bandleader Naoko Yamano said that some of her favorite bands are hard rock groups such as Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, and this influence rang clear with Shonen Knife’s loud guitar sound, synchronized head banging and, of course, the “let’s rock” fingers. For this show, Shonen Knife capitalized on the skills of their new bass player, Ritsuko Taneda, on her first trip to America, to bring the band back to a trio and to reinvigorate their powerful punk roots.

Their set showcased some older Japanese tracks and an energetic cover of The Monkees “Daydream Believer,” as well as some English songs from their new album, “Super Group.” When asked about the title of the album, Naoko simply replied, “I like extreme things, so I like the word super.” Highlights from the new album included the title track, inspired by the real life hard-rock super group Damn Yankees, and “BBQ Party,” a song about food that features a simple chorus of “Let’s have a BBQ party! Pig out, pig out, pig out!”

Naoko prefers to write in English, she said, as it is the “language of rock music” and the words are better suited for a rock music melody line, while Japanese is too staccato. There is no language barrier in rock, though, and even if the audience couldn’t understand the words for some of the songs, it didn’t matter. One young fan’s many frantic phone calls with his mother to give him just “two more minutes” only affirmed the belief that punk music is alive and well and living in Ithaca.