Music

Sports

Beverages

Sounds

Linxs

More

The Roxy 9/2/97
 

Last night was the first night of the summer nationals and the CMJ music festival.  The show was at The Roxy.  Never been there before.  It has the feel of the new Ritz (54th st.) complete with the Metropolitan Concert staff bouncers and barricades.  Lots of space, but not like The Roseland which is just too big.

- the line up - Sept. 2 Bouncing Souls Voodoo Glow Skulls Pietasters The Slackers (Hellcat Records) SNFU Gas Huffer Dwarves

I got there towards the end of Gas Huffer.  They were playing "Crooked Bird."  They were less goofy than last time I saw them open for The New Bomb Turks, but still goofier than The Indigo Girls.  Luckily they didn't play too long after I got there.

SNFU didn't make it.  The Pietasters said SNFU couldn't get across the border.  How hard can it be to get across the border.  My aunt crossed the border and they didn't even ask her where she had been and where she was going to.  (She is a british citizen.)  I was really looking forward to seeing SNFU.

Slackers were all right.  They fall into that large category of ska bands that play ska but don't stand out.  I thought I had seen them before, but clearly I had not.  They played a tribute song to Tommy McCook, but there was more trombone in that song than sax.  I couldn't figure that out.  Maybe they confused Don Drummond and Tommy McCook.

The Pietasters.  Last time I saw them was almost 2 years ago.  Then they were playing pretty much standard third wave ska.  Since then they must have picked up a couple of hardcore/punx rock albums.  They were pretty good.  playing ska much harder than they did before.  (Which is why they probably moved from Moon to Hellcat, as Tim "Lint" Armstrong said something like, "Moon didn't want Operation Ivy because we were harder than what they were putting out at the time so we went to Lookout, although [Moon Records] sells our cd in their catalog").  Much harder than the cd I heard on the internet.  They gave shout outs to H2O and SNFU.  But you have to give a shout out for H2O.  Those guys are so good and allegedly really cool.  I saw Rusty last night and was wearing my H2O workshirt and we just looked at each other and kind of laughed.  Tonight though The Roxy will be kickin' when H2O plays their set.  I think its fair to say that The Pietasters have moved from third wave into the ska-core realm of things and were pretty enjoyable.  I will have to purchase their new cd, as well as Hepcat Scientific and Scofflaws Live Vol. 1, during my next trip to the Moon Ska storefront.  The Pietasters deserve the name they have made for themselves.  Plus they tour constantly, but if I was from Reston, VA I would want to be on the road a lot too.

Voodoo Glow Skulls.  I saw them about four years ago and didn't think to much of them then.  Last night I think the only thing that was the same was the name.  They added three horns and changed the rest of the band members.  They were pretty good, but there songs suffered from the current california syndrome where all the songs start to sound the same.  Enjoyable, but not ground breaking.

Never managed to stick around for The Bouncing Souls.  Last time I saw them at the end of July (The Warped Tour) I left during their set.  Last night I left before their set.  They are no comparison to The Descendents who were supposed to headline.  I talked to one guy who only came to see The Descendents and SNFU.  Bouncing Souls were supposed to open up on the third night for NoFX and Hepcat, but got moved to headlining this show.  VGS could have headlined it.

Tonight's live view will also be at The Roxy and the line-up is supposed to be as follows: