Sunday night was a punk rock show at my local ballroom. The last show of the Bouncing Souls US tour as they return "home" being they formed like 20 minutes away from the venue. They do a "stoked for the summer" show at the Stone Pony every year which is where I've seen them in the recent years, so it was nice to get to see them somewhere else, and in fact, a much better venue IMO.
To start the show was Catbite (there was another band, Blind Adam and the Federal League who were ending when I walked in at 6:30). Thought they were solid. Enjoyed their style of ska, but the songs themselves mostly didn't connect with me. I did enjoy them though and I liked their stage energy, skanking and just looking like they were having fun. They ended up hanging at their merch stand for most of the night after their set so I chatted with the singer briefly and the bassist. They asked me to come back to a show which I said I would if they come back to NJ. I didn't realize until after that they are from Philly so they'll definitely be back.
Next up was Strike Anywhere. I wasn't familiar with them and I didn't really care for their set too much. It just didn't sound good to me, like a bit too muddy and none of the songs had anything to them to stand out or be memorable.
7 Seconds were next. An old school punk/hardcore band. I actually knew some music of theirs from when I was a kid but hadn't listened to them in forever. I actually found them enjoyable. 4 pretty old dudes playing thier music completely live. It's simple music, but it sounded good. Sadly, it seemed like the crowd was dead for them compared to the previous band. Their set wasn't anything special, but I enjoyed it. They did a cover of 99 Red Ballooms with the girl from the opening band on vocals.
The Bouncing Souls were awesome. They are a punk band that has really grown on me in my older age. Likely because of their summer shows as most of the punk bands I used to listen to don't seem to play in NJ that often, but the Bouncing Souls do. It was also like the whole venue was just chilled out until they came on and everyone went wild. Big mosh pit and constant crowd surfers plus the loud crowd singing along. They did like 27 songs. Some of the highlights were that they took crowd requests at one point. It seemed kind of canned in that the singer must have said "no" 20 times to the songs requested
but eventually they took 3 songs from the crowd and did those which was pretty cool to see some randomness even if I felt like this isn't totally an open request. The singer of Catbite came out to sing a cover song, Lean on Sheena. During the encore of the Ghost on the Boardwalk, it seemed like all the opener band members came out to sing backing vocals. Not sure if they've been doing that all tour or it was a last show of the tour thing. They also made a few announcements that we aren't supposed to share, but who's going to know (or really care here)? In 2024 they are going to do 3 "home for the holidays" shows, likely at the Stone Pony in December. They are still doing the Stoked for the Summer show as well next summer. AND they are planning on doing "songs never played" shows, but that's not scheduled yet. It's interesting to see this band, who've been around for 30 years now, seem to be in the best place they've ever been at. Really fun set and I'm hoping they get some good support bands for the summer show.
^
Catbite retweeted this picture of the singer of Bouncing Souls and the singer of Catbite performing Lean on Sheena
The Bouncing Souls, 7Seconds, Strike Anywhere, & Catbite LIVE @ Starland Ballroom Sayreville NJ 2023one more show on the calendar year for me:
December 22nd - Lorna Shore, Currents, Rivers of Nihil, Varials @ Starland Ballroom, Sayreville NJ
Topic: Concerts for 2023 (Read 29449 times)
