The Runner Ups

With Worldly Influences, Punk Rock backgrounds, and Jazz obsessions, this 7 piece group is doing their very best to make music that brings something new to the Chicago area.

Starting in early 2010, Allen Mendez brought a group of men together as "The Runner Ups" to take on the idea of a ska punk band. The premise was to play fun, upbeat, loud music that people could get up and dance to. "The Runner Ups" sought out well-known ska scene bands like "Run and Punch" and "Shortstop From Tokyo" to begin the first few years of playing in the Chicagoland area.

On January 18th, 2014, the band took on new members and added new instrumentation to their arsenal. The music of "The Runner Ups" became more technical and began to embrace various influences like Dixieland, Latin merengue, big band swing and even Arabic. This fusion of genres into the ska punk sound allowed the band to stray away from the standard and embrace something new in every song.

Now, the powerhouse 7-piece group—including trumpet, trombone, and tenor and baritone sax—have begun touring and playing all over the Midwest. "The Runner Ups" are doing their best to play everywhere and with everyone, so people with different backgrounds can all enjoy a ska punk fusion group with high energy music to dance to.

We have had the honor of playing with Run and Punch, Shircus, The Suites, Butchered, Bumsy and the Moochers, Agents of Change, The Orions, Mr. Denim, Baby Kid, Ces't La Vie, Shortstop From Tokyo, Toopin, Unplugged and Reborn, Prehistoric Holocaust, Gina From Constatine, $plor, Bedtime Bandits, Now in Stereo, Mason Cos, Must Build Jacuzzi, The Oceanographers, Club Malice, The Howell, Chango Pardo, No Such Noise, and The Kreutzer Sonata.