This show saved my life. For reals. Last night, on a last minute whim I headed out to North Philly’s dive “The Fire” to catch my favorite Boston turned Richmond band Smoke or Fire. The place had about 40 or 50 people in there watching it, and it made for quite an intimate show.

Mayflower:

I got there a little late and missed some of their set, but the part I saw was pretty damn awesome. Coming from Syracuse, NY, Mayflower played gruffy energetic punk rock not too unlike other locals Sakes Alive!!! They offer their album for free apparently, so be sure to check back for a post on that when I get a chance to listen to it.

Regretter:

Camden NJ’s Regretter was the stereotypical NJ band. Plenty of hardcore breakdowns, but with screamo type melodies in between. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of the whole post-hardcore thing, so I was having a hard time getting into them, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage and had a pretty sweet song about the lead singer’s dog.

Smoke or Fire:

The reason I came out. Last time I caught them was when they came around to The Fire back in 2008, so I was pretty stoked to be seeing them again. This time around, the crowd was more lively (although no full on stage dives… it’s hard to motivate a bunch of jaded gruff punks), and Smoke or Fire didn’t miss a beat.

Opening straight into Cops and Drugs, the band did take a lot of breaks between songs, but with the heat and the fact that I didn’t eat anything all day, for once, these breaks were appreciated by me. They played a solid mix of stuff off of Above The City, This Sinking Ship, and threw in 4 new songs as well (new album out November 6th, be on the lookout for a post).

Setlist (Not In Order, pretty complete (Minus the New Songs, don’t know their names):

Cops And Drugs
I’ll Be Gone
Filter
Culture As Given
Integrity
What Seperates Us All
Fire Escapes
Melatonin
Irish Handcuffs
Cryin Shame
California’s Burning
Little Bohemia

Mp3:
Smoke Or Fire – California’s Burning

More:
Smoke or Fire – Above The City
Smoke or Fire – This Sinking Ship
Static Radio NJ – An Evening of Bad Decisions

Buy:
Fat Wreck

(bonus points if you can name my school)

Ahh homecoming 2010. I wasn’t sure this year if I was going to attend, as last year’s was kinda “meh”, but I am so fucking happy I did. As usual, avoided all sports games and simply partied with friends. Holy fuck I miss that place.

Things were pretty sweet, saw lots of people, and at points things got a little out of hand this time around… (note to readers: learn from my friends. Playing “I punch you, you punch me” is a bad idea when wasted and may result in a hospital visit).

MP3:
Groovie Ghoulies – Til Death Do Us Party
Atom and His Package – Before My Friends Do
Municipal Waste – The Art Of Partying
Bigwig – Friends
Bouncing Souls – Manthem
Lagwagon – To All My Friends

More Mixes:
A Ramones Core Mix For The Shorties
Songs to Piss Off The Personal Fitness Trainer Below Me Mix
Drunken Yuppies Breaking Into My House Mix

Buy:
Interpunk

After some debate, last night I headed out to Philly’s Electric Factory to catch Off With Their Heads, Bouncing Souls, and Bad Religion.

Off With Their Heads

I’ve seen Off With Their Heads a handful of times, but it’s always been in smaller venues or house shows (Play the OX again please!), so I was sort of doubting how well they would sound in such a big venue. While they are obviously more appropriate in a more intimate setting, but they sounded just as tight in the Electric Factory.

They didn’t really interact with the crowd much (less than usual), probably due to the fact of the barriers and it seemed like only 6 or 7 of us knew any songs by the band, and stood and watched their songs. Fuck that, I opened a pit halfway through and in the words of Billy Idol, was dancing with myself.

Setlist from what I remember:

I Am You
1612 Havenhurst
Terrorist Attack?
For The Four
Drive
Trying To Breathe
ZZYZX
All I Can Do
Clear The Air

Bouncing Souls:

Those fucking NJ moochers! I’ve seen these guys more times than I can keep track of (ok, I think it’s been 14 times now?) and I have to say, I was pretty stoked for them last night. The Souls have helped me get through some of my most difficult times, and last night was no exception. The crowd instantly exploded, and to my delight, the Souls played mostly older songs, forgoing the slower stuff on “Ghosts On The Boardwalk”.

Greg seemed more into the show than usual, jumping down to the barricades and giving the mic to the crowd. People started crowdsurfing (including the most punk rock mofo around, the dude in a wheelchair I see at every Souls show who doesn’t let that shit stop him). A pretty tight setlist, I just wish that they were the headliners… guess I’ll be waiting for the Home For The Holidays show.

Setlist (From what I remember)
Highway Kings
Private Radio
No Rules
Gasoline
We All Sing Along
Sing Along Forever
Say Anything
Kate Is Great
Hot Water Music Cover (Forget Which One)
East Coast! Fuck You!
Lean On Sheena
Some Kind Of Wonderful
Hopeless Romantic
That Song
Never Say Die / When You’re Young

Bad Religion

Man, I’ve never seen so many Bad Religion shirts in one place (or so many people wearing the shirt of the headliner for that matter). It was obvious that the majority of people were here for these 30 year legends, and while I was excited to see them, they were the band I was least excited about seeing tonight. Still, they fucking dominated.

Blasting straight into “Do What You Want” there was a decent sized pit the majority of the show. And let me say, Bad Religion did not miss a beat. I was surprised by how tight they played (and I guess after 30 years, it shouldn’t be surprising), and was pleased with their setlist as well as I’m really only familiar with their older stuff.

They played a long time too, which was pretty sweet.

Highlights:
Do What You Want
I Want To Conquer The World
Flat Earth Society
Suffer
Atomic Garden
Generator
Fuck Armageddon This Is Hell
Avalon
Wrong Way Kids
Los Angeles Is Burning
American Jesus

MP3:
Bad Religion – I Want To Conquer The World
Bouncing Souls – Sing Along Forever
Off With Their Heads – Drive

More:
Off With Their Heads – In Desolation
Off With Their Heads – Hospitals
The Bouncing Souls “Worst” Album
Bad Religion

Buy:
Interpunk

None More Black’s “Icons” is the definition of an anticipated album. After the Jersey/Philly band released “This is Satire” in 2006, the band called it quits early in 2007, and played a free reunion show at a photo gallery in 2008. So here we are now with “Icons”, 4 years after their last release. So what does it sound like?

Good. It sounds fucking good. None More Black was never one for punk conventions (“I don’t give a shit what punk has to say anymore”), and “Icons” mixes plenty of rockabilly in their songs, but strangely enough the album is probably the heaviest album that they have released to date. Songs like “Sinatra After Dark” and “I’m Warning You With Peace And Love” are perfect examples of this.

There are still some of the slower songs that None More Black are known for such as “Here Comes Devereux”, but if you’re a fan looking for songs such as “I See London” and “Majestic”, you’re going to be severely disappointed.

Now for the strange thing about “Icons”: none of the songs stand out to me as much as some of their earliest ones (Wallpaper Looks Like Paint, Drop The Pop), but as a whole, Icons is a better album. All the songs flow smoothly, and they all pretty much rock. Maybe the individual songs will reach my favorite status after a few listens, but this seems to be an album you listen to start to finish.

Highly recommended you pick this bad boy up once it’s released on October 26th.

MP3:
None More Black – Iron Mouth Act

More:
Full Kid Dynamite Set (2010)
None More Black Live

Buy:
Fat Wreck

Melodic punk rock is tough to do right. Add just a tad too much melody and you come off as completely poppy. Luckily, on their debut EP “This is Our Concern Dude”, Banquet’s mixes just enough melody and punk rock roots to keep me coming back and listening over and over.

Coming from Jersey City, New Jersey, Banquets has obvious influence from other local NJ bands, such as Static Radio NJ and a touch of Gaslight Anthem. Musically, the band mixes melody over gritty guitars to make for some catchy punk rock.

While “This Is Our Concern Dude” is only 10 minutes long, it makes me pretty stoked for their full length.

MP3:
Banquets – Eleanor, I Need A Garden

Housewives, I need More Melody:
Smoke or Fire – Above The City
Smoke or Fire – This Sinking Ship
Static Radio NJ – An Evening of Bad Decisions

Buy:
Banquets

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Haiku… so:

Value Punk Rock Dude
About Being Broke And Shit
Up The Dollar Punx

MP3:
Low Budgets – Born Before The Internet

More:
Low Budgets – Aim Low, Get High
Leave Us A Loan
Atom and his Package vs Fugazi

Buy:
The Low Budgets

While for many Bad Religion was their gateway into punk rock, I personally never really got into the band. Sure, they were legendary, influential, blah blah blah… but I just never cared enough to really listen to them, up until about a year ago. And for some reason lately, I’ve really been on a Bad Religion kick.

All Ages was a compilation album that Bad Religion released back in 1995, and contains selected songs from their releases Suffer, No Control, Against The Grain, and Generator… with a few unreleased tracks sprinkled in the mix. It’s a solid starting point for anyone who is just getting into Bad Religion, and covers their older discography nicely.

Musically, Bad Religion will always be one of those bands to me who’s songs all sound the same (sort of like Pennywise), and unfortunately with the 22 songs on All Ages, a few of the more mediocre tracks sort of run together. However, there is enough prime cut songs here too: I Want To Conquer The World, Do What You Want, We’re Only Gonna Die, etc.

These guys were one of the most influential bands of that Southern California punk rock sound, so if you dig stuff like that, then you should check out this album.

MP3:
Bad Religion – I Want To Conquer The World

More:
NOFX – The Longest EP
Youth Brigade – Sink With Kalifonija
Youth Brigade – To Sell The Truth

Buy:
Epitaph

On Friday night, I battled flooding in my neighborhood and headed out to West Philly’s Gold Coast Lounge to catch a little bit of the crack rock steady, Star Fucking Hipsters and Morning Glory. The bar was the most divey of dives I have ever been to (and completely awesome for said reasons). No stage, just set up on the floor, and I was one of the only one’s without a Colt 45 in my hand. I arrived there late, but made it in time for Combat Crisis.

Combat Crisis

I believe these local Philly street punks were the ones who booked and ran the show, and they always put on a good set as well. They had fans in a frenzied pit, with the frontwoman’s barking vocals and anthematic songs. They even threw in a Suicide Machines cover… tight.

Morning Glory

One of the more legendary of the crack rock steady bands, Morning Glory was the reason the majority of people were there. They played their gritty punk rock and had people generally going apeshit. Personally, I was a bit underwhelmed by the set, but that might just be because they didn’t play “It’ll Get Better”. They did however grab Sturgeon for “Gang Control”, and he claimed he forgot the words, Ezra told him to “make them up”.

Star Fucking Hipsters

A lot of people left at this point (their lost), but there was still a pretty big crowd for Star Fucking Hipsters. Self proclaimed bubble gum crust, (and I couldn’t have said it better), the band played a tight set that had us shouting along, table diving, and had a line of people (aka Combat Crisis) trying to protect the band from getting knocked into. They grabbed Ezra to play a Choking Victim song (Infested), and even grabbed the guitarist from Witch Hunt to play a song.

Setlist (From what I remember, not complete)

SFH Theme
Immigrants And Hypocrites
This Wal-Mart Life
Design
Zombie Christ
Two Cups Of Tea
Look Who’s Talking Now
3000 Miles
Vol II
Infested
Until We’re Dead

MP3:
Morning Glory – Gang Control
Star Fucking Hipsters – 3000 Miles Away

More:
Star Fucking Hipsters – Never Rest In Peace
Star Fucking Hipsters – Until We’re Dead
Morning Glory
INDK

Buy:
Interpunk