Bouncing Souls Show
Chris started my day off right by making me his famous homemade hashbrowns (which I'd woken up craving) but the rest of the day just blew: missed two buses, had to run all over town in a hurry for everything as the Flexcar timer ticked away while people on the road tried to cut me off, run me down, and generally endanger everyone's safety (at one point I had to slam on the brakes to avoid a car with a crashed in windshield that came shooting across the middle of the road ; another time it was to avoid hitting a woman who decided to dart across four lanes of traffic). By the time we got to the show, I was prepared for anything.
When we arrived opening band Left Alone was mid-set. Despite some impressive mohawk action, I was pretty bored by this band. Songs about how no one likes them (literally just "No one likes us and we don't care" repeated over and over) or how emo kids look like girls (ooh, picking on the emo bands, there's a hard target!) were just juvenile without being ironic, funny, or even catchy. Glad I missed half their set.
Next up was Whole Wheat Bread. All black punk rock outfits are few and far between and these days hip hop seems to suck up all the black musical talent. From Jacksonville, Florida, these guys weren't straight up punk (though apparently they're often compared to early Blink 182 or something... god I can't believe we're to the point of referencing "early Blink 182") and actually had the crowd yelling out "Whole Wheat Bread ain't nothin' to fuck with!" Chris and Rick didn't dig them but I enjoyed their set just fine. Of course, the fact that they can play their instruments, had a ton of energy, and were buff and easy on the eyes surely affected my enjoyment. The band has stayed together despite one of the founding members (their former bassist, the drummer's brother) getting himself arrested and jailed for robbery in June, which makes the drummer's comments in their bio ("Being in a band with my brother is great. We have been playing together since middle school and musically we can read each other's minds. Plus someone has to be there to keep him out of prison!") poignant.
The third band of the night was a better known band, The Street Dogs. Chris and Rick know this band better than I do and have seen them before. I'd only heard a few songs so only knew three of the songs in the set (including the Dropkick Murphys song they did). Singer Mike McColgan used to sing for the Murphys, but then left punk rock to become a Boston firefighter and served in the first Gulf War only to return to punk rocking with the Street Dogs a few years ago. The fans in scally caps were out in force.
When The Bouncing Souls started up, I was convinced that singer was high or something. He just seemed so glassy-eyed and out of it. He loosened up (or sobered up) a bit later in the set, but for a few minutes there I was having flashbacks to that infamous Replacements show where Paul was so drunk he fell into the crowd on the first song, broke into Hello Dolly and then told us all to fuck off and left. Thankfully, it wasn't that kind of a show. Pramas remembers them from his days at ABC No Rio when they would play or come to shows and told me that even then Greg was a little spacey and stand-offish, whereas Bryan was more social and talked and hung out. There was about 30 minutes more Bouncing Souls than I needed, personally, but that's just because I'm a cranky old fan who likes their older, punkier sound. I'm lukewarm on the Kinks covers or the new ballads from The Gold Record. They played almost all the old stuff I wanted to hear, though, so I shouldn't complain.
In an hour or so it's off to Queen Anne for Kate-retrieval and breakfast. Mmm, breakfast.
When we arrived opening band Left Alone was mid-set. Despite some impressive mohawk action, I was pretty bored by this band. Songs about how no one likes them (literally just "No one likes us and we don't care" repeated over and over) or how emo kids look like girls (ooh, picking on the emo bands, there's a hard target!) were just juvenile without being ironic, funny, or even catchy. Glad I missed half their set.
Next up was Whole Wheat Bread. All black punk rock outfits are few and far between and these days hip hop seems to suck up all the black musical talent. From Jacksonville, Florida, these guys weren't straight up punk (though apparently they're often compared to early Blink 182 or something... god I can't believe we're to the point of referencing "early Blink 182") and actually had the crowd yelling out "Whole Wheat Bread ain't nothin' to fuck with!" Chris and Rick didn't dig them but I enjoyed their set just fine. Of course, the fact that they can play their instruments, had a ton of energy, and were buff and easy on the eyes surely affected my enjoyment. The band has stayed together despite one of the founding members (their former bassist, the drummer's brother) getting himself arrested and jailed for robbery in June, which makes the drummer's comments in their bio ("Being in a band with my brother is great. We have been playing together since middle school and musically we can read each other's minds. Plus someone has to be there to keep him out of prison!") poignant.
The third band of the night was a better known band, The Street Dogs. Chris and Rick know this band better than I do and have seen them before. I'd only heard a few songs so only knew three of the songs in the set (including the Dropkick Murphys song they did). Singer Mike McColgan used to sing for the Murphys, but then left punk rock to become a Boston firefighter and served in the first Gulf War only to return to punk rocking with the Street Dogs a few years ago. The fans in scally caps were out in force.
When The Bouncing Souls started up, I was convinced that singer was high or something. He just seemed so glassy-eyed and out of it. He loosened up (or sobered up) a bit later in the set, but for a few minutes there I was having flashbacks to that infamous Replacements show where Paul was so drunk he fell into the crowd on the first song, broke into Hello Dolly and then told us all to fuck off and left. Thankfully, it wasn't that kind of a show. Pramas remembers them from his days at ABC No Rio when they would play or come to shows and told me that even then Greg was a little spacey and stand-offish, whereas Bryan was more social and talked and hung out. There was about 30 minutes more Bouncing Souls than I needed, personally, but that's just because I'm a cranky old fan who likes their older, punkier sound. I'm lukewarm on the Kinks covers or the new ballads from The Gold Record. They played almost all the old stuff I wanted to hear, though, so I shouldn't complain.
In an hour or so it's off to Queen Anne for Kate-retrieval and breakfast. Mmm, breakfast.
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