The Bouncing Souls rocked the children of San Diego's asses on Saturday night. The 9th time I'd seen them since 1996 and they were as great as always. I was still hoping to hear more old stuff but they'll be back again. They're touring machines. Anyway, a couple of comments about that show that don't have to do with the amazing headling band.
Strike Anywhere opened. I'd never heard their music but had seen several articles on them in publications like Spin and Alternative Press, and from they way they came off as politically conscious, rail thin vegans who raved on about the Smiths and Minor Threat, I figured they'd be more of the first and would be another cred-bearing screamo band. I was pleasantly surprised that they were more Avail than Pixies, in that they didn't seem at all pretentious and were having fun on stage like a punk band should. They played a great set and I highly recommend them. However, I do find it puzzling that a band like them who are musically akin to most of the bands on Fat Wreck Chords (both guitar players played through Mesa Boogies and had SG's and Less Pauls with humbuckers placed in them) get this whole type of emo cred and makes it ok for the huge ear lobe vegan, Pokies, "the warped tour is stupid and sexist" crowd and other bands like Lagwagon don't, and infact are despised. I'm thinking it's the fact that they're vegan and are on Jade Tree. It sounds stupid though, judging a band on their diet.
The other opening band was Tsunami Bomb. They were horrible. Well, not the band as a whole. The guitar player was pretty good, but their singer had the stage presence of Kelly Clarkson playing the Appalo Theater. While bands in the punk scene are 90% male fronted, when a female fronted band comes along they usually have to be good and have a singer who can own the stage she's on and take control of the audience. The two singers from Dance Hall Crashers do that. So does Gwen Stefani, Cinder Block and the singer from Pretty Girls Make Graves. The singer from Tsunami Bomb doesn’t do that at all. She does move around on stage alot but she doesn’t act like she owns the stage, more like she's auditioning on it and Sandman may come by and sweep her off it at any minute. However, she is a woman so the crowd was packed with 15 year old girls and femme guys who thought they were amazing. I remember right during their first song an empty plastic bottle hit her in the head. If this had happened to any of the aforementioned artists, they would have stopped and gone on a profanity rage to try and find the person who beaned them in the temple. However the singer for this band simply winced and tried to pretend it didn't happen. In addition to the 40% stage presence, their music sucked and sounded like 8th rate slick shoes sung by a girl. All in all they were horrible and preceded by undeserved hype given to them basically because they have a gimmick. So be looking for them to be putting out a major label record and to be hosting TRL this time next year.
The Bouncing Souls though, were amazing.
On another note, Kill Bill is amazing. Drop what you're doing and see it now. And when you're getting your ticket, you might as well buy another one for a later showing. It's that good.
Dope Jams
Jawbreaker- Dear You
Thursday-War All The Time
Kid Dynamite-Shorter, Faster, Louder
Radiohead- Amnesiac
Outkast-The Love Below/Speakerboxxx
The Living End-Who's Gonna Save Us? single
The Lawrence Arms- The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Network-song that plays when you go to Adeline website
The Johnny Cash-American IV
Husker Du-Warehouse Songs and Stories
Fun Fact: Microsoft Word 2000’s spell check doesn’t recognize the word vegan.
Strike Anywhere opened. I'd never heard their music but had seen several articles on them in publications like Spin and Alternative Press, and from they way they came off as politically conscious, rail thin vegans who raved on about the Smiths and Minor Threat, I figured they'd be more of the first and would be another cred-bearing screamo band. I was pleasantly surprised that they were more Avail than Pixies, in that they didn't seem at all pretentious and were having fun on stage like a punk band should. They played a great set and I highly recommend them. However, I do find it puzzling that a band like them who are musically akin to most of the bands on Fat Wreck Chords (both guitar players played through Mesa Boogies and had SG's and Less Pauls with humbuckers placed in them) get this whole type of emo cred and makes it ok for the huge ear lobe vegan, Pokies, "the warped tour is stupid and sexist" crowd and other bands like Lagwagon don't, and infact are despised. I'm thinking it's the fact that they're vegan and are on Jade Tree. It sounds stupid though, judging a band on their diet.
The other opening band was Tsunami Bomb. They were horrible. Well, not the band as a whole. The guitar player was pretty good, but their singer had the stage presence of Kelly Clarkson playing the Appalo Theater. While bands in the punk scene are 90% male fronted, when a female fronted band comes along they usually have to be good and have a singer who can own the stage she's on and take control of the audience. The two singers from Dance Hall Crashers do that. So does Gwen Stefani, Cinder Block and the singer from Pretty Girls Make Graves. The singer from Tsunami Bomb doesn’t do that at all. She does move around on stage alot but she doesn’t act like she owns the stage, more like she's auditioning on it and Sandman may come by and sweep her off it at any minute. However, she is a woman so the crowd was packed with 15 year old girls and femme guys who thought they were amazing. I remember right during their first song an empty plastic bottle hit her in the head. If this had happened to any of the aforementioned artists, they would have stopped and gone on a profanity rage to try and find the person who beaned them in the temple. However the singer for this band simply winced and tried to pretend it didn't happen. In addition to the 40% stage presence, their music sucked and sounded like 8th rate slick shoes sung by a girl. All in all they were horrible and preceded by undeserved hype given to them basically because they have a gimmick. So be looking for them to be putting out a major label record and to be hosting TRL this time next year.
The Bouncing Souls though, were amazing.
On another note, Kill Bill is amazing. Drop what you're doing and see it now. And when you're getting your ticket, you might as well buy another one for a later showing. It's that good.
Dope Jams
Jawbreaker- Dear You
Thursday-War All The Time
Kid Dynamite-Shorter, Faster, Louder
Radiohead- Amnesiac
Outkast-The Love Below/Speakerboxxx
The Living End-Who's Gonna Save Us? single
The Lawrence Arms- The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Network-song that plays when you go to Adeline website
The Johnny Cash-American IV
Husker Du-Warehouse Songs and Stories
Fun Fact: Microsoft Word 2000’s spell check doesn’t recognize the word vegan.
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