Taste of Chaos
featuring Thursday, Bring Me the Horizon, Four Years Strong, Pierce the Veil
Nokia Theater
March 4, 2009

Check out the full photolog from the show on Flickr

I’m not the biggest fan of package tours under banner names. Sure, I’ve been to everything from Ozzfest to Sno-core, but I always find myself lost in a sea of mediocre music played by fly-by-night bands. I didn’t know this was the Taste of Chaos tour before heading through the Nokia Theater’s plush vestibule. I just knew New Jersey’s perennial hardcore legends Thursday were making a comeback and I wasn’t about to miss it.

And there’s no denying that Thursday is still on top of their game, pumping out volumes of melodic hardcore that sounds as good today as it did in the ’90s. The band took stage with little lighting and a ton of energy, pumping out tunes from all eras of their career, including tracks from their new Epitaph release “Common Existence.”

“Do you want to hear something old?,” singer Geoff Rickley asked the sweat-soaked crowd three songs in. “We’ve got a long set tonight and we’re going to be here all night.” The band tore into “Understanding in a Car” as rabid fans tackled security to touch Rickly as he pressed against the barrier.

The band’s new material is a bit complicated and you kind of have to work to love it, but live, the songs take on a whole new dimension. The layers of guitars, keyboards, and convulsion-producing strobe lights blend into a mesmerizing wall of beautiful music. Calling the band a hardcore Radiohead would be a generic comparison but it’s one that’s hard to ignore. Read the rest of this entry »

Street Dogs and Swingin’ Utters
Asbury Lanes, New Jersey
March 14, 2008

Click here to see more photos from the show

When the Dropkick Murphy’s first record “Do or Die” dropped in the mid-‘90s, it was met with a collective “ooh and ah” from punk fans bored of the overproduced Hot Topic crap being bandied about on MTV.

The band eschewed the typical tough guy Oi mentality for working class punk rock that related as much to the Union man as it did to the disgruntled mall punk. The best part was that they played  mind numbingly catchy music.

Alas, singer  Mike McColgan left the band to become a firefighter and history wrote itself. The Dropkick Murphys went on to become a household name, fronted by gruff vocalist Al Barr. Meanwhile, McColgan began dabbling in punk again with The Street Dogs.

Unlike their Boston brethren, The Street Dogs eschew the traditional Irish style for a rawer sound teeming with proletariat-driven lyrics. A year or so ago, the band opened for psychobilly stalwarts Tiger Army and proceeded to show up their label mates by producing one of the most intense concerts I’ve seen in years. The Irving Plaza was practically breaking at the seams as the band blasted through their first few records.

Saturday night, The Street Dogs performed in an even more intimate environment, turning up at the tiny Asbury Lanes for a sold out show in front of some diehard fans. To make things even more exciting, the band brought with them the resurrected Swingin’ Utters who sound as if they haven’t aged a day, even though they have long since ditched the liberty spikes. Read the rest of this entry »

Click to read the full digital copy of Life In A Bungalo #2

Well, as four or five of you might know, Life In A Bungalo was not always called Life In A Bungalo. The fanzine was originally pretentiously titled Marked for Life. It served as some lame call to arms, and at a time when sanctimonious straighedge bands with names like Path of Resistance ruled the punk scene, I thought it would fit right in.

What I didn’t know was that there existed a comic book by the same name. A comic book with a lawyer. Once cease and desist letter later and I was ready to put the ‘zine to rest faster than you could say broke teenager. At the same time, my parents moved me into our basement, which we turned into a pretty cool punk rock rec room. My buddy Mike dubbed it the Bungalow and thought it would be fitting to rechristen the ‘zine Life In A Bungalow. Read the rest of this entry »