WOW...
just got back from the Bad Religion show. it was AWESOME! i'm not including any playlists here, just a cursory overview of the progress of the concert.
Murphy's Law opened. dunno too much about them, but they were some good ol' NYC hardcore. definitely a "people's band". they were so late though, they only got about 15-20 minutes of play time. would see them again if convenient.
Sick of It All played next and ROCKED the house. some of the folks i was with weren't too impressed, but they're also not into hardcore. well, w/o being too judgmental (because they're nice folk and i like them a lot), lemme illustrate it like this: they're the sort to purposely rip their clothes, and to put safety pins in random places that don't need holding together, i.e., NOT at the rips. anyway, back to the concert. SOIA definitely energized the crowd. at one point, they divided the crowd into two halves: cubs fans on one side, sox on the other, and people who didn't care to choose a side. HUGE mosh broke out
oh, and another thing they did was have the whole crowd mosh and turn in one big circle in one direction, and "the biggest motherfucker in this house running the other way." FUN (i, of course, stood off to the side and fought for footing just to watch the band)
oh, also during SOIA, someone lost their cell fone and they cleared out a "safe zone" so they could look for it. they ended up giving up and not finding the fone til after the show (actually, my friend found it for them), but they still were a pain in the ass for the whole set, especially since space was at such a premium. boo.
Pennywise followed SOIA and at that point anyone who wasn't moshing felt like they were anyway. it was impossibleto stand but who would want to with Pennywise on stage? (oh, i forgot to mention that i was about 2 or 3 people behind the barrier) they definitely have an awesome stage presence, and i was surprised by how well the crowd knew the songs. they played mostly new, but a few good oldies. btw, their guitarist is a GIANT! as always, they took moments to share their politics and punk ethic with the crowd, which is always nice
especially because there were quite a few young folks at the show (some of them looked 12!) who are still learning and exploring our wonderful world of punk
finally, BAD RELIGION took the stage. they're still sporting the "the empire strikes first" banner. during their opening song (sinister rouge) the drummer definitely muffed it a few times, and there were some other musical errors in the show, but it was nonetheless a sublime finish to an already mind-blowing show. it seemed like the bouncers could hardly keep up with all the crowd surfers being dumped on them and no one was not involved in the moshing. just trying to stand involved moshing. there were times i was pinned so tightly between bodies that i was actually suspended in air, my feet unable to touch the ground. to date i have never moshed at a Bad Religion show and i gotta say, i have never felt like i missed out. i really prefer to pay attention to the songs and to the diatribes. they only played on encore set, but it was just as good as the usual two because they played "Generator". rock!
the major downpoint of the evening was that our ride's car got broken into and his girlfriend's purse was stolen. all sorts of stuff was stolen, including some irreplaceable stuff like notes for her thesis.
why do some people suck so badly? the other weird thing was that despite all the valuables in the car (cell fones, mp3 players, cash, cds, etc...) only her purse was stolen; her purse, which was buried in the back of the car (a jeep) under several layers of coats. so this person breaks in through the driver's door, crawls through a car full of valuables, to grab a purse in the back that wasn't visible from the street. weird.
anyway...that's all. lotsa classes tomorrow, then boxing, then a friend's birthday party, then...? SLEEP! i hope...i'm so tired, every 10th word i type is all jumbled up. that doesn't sound like much, but after all the words i've typed, believe me, it is. ok, time to sleep.
just got back from the Bad Religion show. it was AWESOME! i'm not including any playlists here, just a cursory overview of the progress of the concert.
Murphy's Law opened. dunno too much about them, but they were some good ol' NYC hardcore. definitely a "people's band". they were so late though, they only got about 15-20 minutes of play time. would see them again if convenient.
Sick of It All played next and ROCKED the house. some of the folks i was with weren't too impressed, but they're also not into hardcore. well, w/o being too judgmental (because they're nice folk and i like them a lot), lemme illustrate it like this: they're the sort to purposely rip their clothes, and to put safety pins in random places that don't need holding together, i.e., NOT at the rips. anyway, back to the concert. SOIA definitely energized the crowd. at one point, they divided the crowd into two halves: cubs fans on one side, sox on the other, and people who didn't care to choose a side. HUGE mosh broke out
oh, and another thing they did was have the whole crowd mosh and turn in one big circle in one direction, and "the biggest motherfucker in this house running the other way." FUN (i, of course, stood off to the side and fought for footing just to watch the band)
oh, also during SOIA, someone lost their cell fone and they cleared out a "safe zone" so they could look for it. they ended up giving up and not finding the fone til after the show (actually, my friend found it for them), but they still were a pain in the ass for the whole set, especially since space was at such a premium. boo.
Pennywise followed SOIA and at that point anyone who wasn't moshing felt like they were anyway. it was impossibleto stand but who would want to with Pennywise on stage? (oh, i forgot to mention that i was about 2 or 3 people behind the barrier) they definitely have an awesome stage presence, and i was surprised by how well the crowd knew the songs. they played mostly new, but a few good oldies. btw, their guitarist is a GIANT! as always, they took moments to share their politics and punk ethic with the crowd, which is always nice
especially because there were quite a few young folks at the show (some of them looked 12!) who are still learning and exploring our wonderful world of punk
finally, BAD RELIGION took the stage. they're still sporting the "the empire strikes first" banner. during their opening song (sinister rouge) the drummer definitely muffed it a few times, and there were some other musical errors in the show, but it was nonetheless a sublime finish to an already mind-blowing show. it seemed like the bouncers could hardly keep up with all the crowd surfers being dumped on them and no one was not involved in the moshing. just trying to stand involved moshing. there were times i was pinned so tightly between bodies that i was actually suspended in air, my feet unable to touch the ground. to date i have never moshed at a Bad Religion show and i gotta say, i have never felt like i missed out. i really prefer to pay attention to the songs and to the diatribes. they only played on encore set, but it was just as good as the usual two because they played "Generator". rock!
the major downpoint of the evening was that our ride's car got broken into and his girlfriend's purse was stolen. all sorts of stuff was stolen, including some irreplaceable stuff like notes for her thesis.
why do some people suck so badly? the other weird thing was that despite all the valuables in the car (cell fones, mp3 players, cash, cds, etc...) only her purse was stolen; her purse, which was buried in the back of the car (a jeep) under several layers of coats. so this person breaks in through the driver's door, crawls through a car full of valuables, to grab a purse in the back that wasn't visible from the street. weird.
anyway...that's all. lotsa classes tomorrow, then boxing, then a friend's birthday party, then...? SLEEP! i hope...i'm so tired, every 10th word i type is all jumbled up. that doesn't sound like much, but after all the words i've typed, believe me, it is. ok, time to sleep.