So earlier this year my good buddy and fellow rock enthusiast Chris informed me of the 3-Day "East Coast Tsunami" hardcore festival in Reading, PA taking place in late September. Some of the usual suspects were playing over the course of the weekend (Cro-Mags, Hatebreed etc) but the Friday night show had a bill featuring The Bouncing Souls (headlining) and Fucked Up...same night.
Now the Souls were and still are one of my favorite punk bands. I was introduced to them in high-school and went to many shows then and through college. I hadn't seen them since but had always wanted to. I would always miss them when they came through town or they were playing some event like the Vans Warped Tour in which I just couldn't deal (#oldman).
Fucked-Up is one of my favorite bands currently who Ive seen recently many times. The live FU show is amazing and I've posted about it before (Middle East - Boston 2010). That said I jumped at the chance to see the Bouncing Souls and FU together. Staying with the new and rekindling the old.
So I drove down to Philly, picked up Chris and headed out to Reading. The town is pretty blue-collar and the venue (Reverb) looks more like a windowless sports bar from the outside...perfect setting for the festival. The Agnostic Front tattoos were many and the Chain of Strength-esque hoodies were donned by pretty much everyone. The male/female split was the typical 90%/10% for these types of shows.
While we waited for the Bouncing Souls and FU to come on we checked out Street Dogs (former Dropkick Murphy's members) and Menzingers who were awesome. We heard a few more bands with great names like "Stoked on Being Pumped"...I probably got that wrong.
Fucked Up came on and they were amazing as usual. The crowd was kind of sparse that early in the evening but Damian still got down off stage and sung face to face with anyone in arms length. He is such a solid front man. They played a good set with songs across the catalog...but no Black Hats which I desperately wait to hear at every show (my shouting unheard).
After the show I got to talk to Damian, explaining how seeing FU and the Souls together on stage was such huge deal. He had said something similar on-stage as I guess the Souls had an impact on his band growing up as well. Very cool.
Here is a pic of me an Damian. Man, I look like such a dork.
While I was at the FU merch table two of the band members were working I asked "When are you coming back to NYC?" They replied "Tomorrow at Le Poison Rouge". Crap...I was in PA all weekend. I was bummed but even more so when I found out they played a new and unreleased track from the Zodiac series "Year of the Dragon". Here is the video. So freakin good. I think it comes out in the April and a full-length album later in 2014. Fingers crossed.
The Bouncing Souls closed the night and played literally every song I had wanted to hear from Green Ball to Argyle to present.
Show was solid. Greg and crew definitely look a little older but they sounded like I just showed up at the Trocadero 1993.
After the show I got to talk to Damian, explaining how seeing FU and the Souls together on stage was such huge deal. He had said something similar on-stage as I guess the Souls had an impact on his band growing up as well. Very cool.
Here is a pic of me an Damian. Man, I look like such a dork.
While I was at the FU merch table two of the band members were working I asked "When are you coming back to NYC?" They replied "Tomorrow at Le Poison Rouge". Crap...I was in PA all weekend. I was bummed but even more so when I found out they played a new and unreleased track from the Zodiac series "Year of the Dragon". Here is the video. So freakin good. I think it comes out in the April and a full-length album later in 2014. Fingers crossed.
The Bouncing Souls closed the night and played literally every song I had wanted to hear from Green Ball to Argyle to present.
Show was solid. Greg and crew definitely look a little older but they sounded like I just showed up at the Trocadero 1993.
