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The Descendants, Roseland Ballroom, 9/23/11

By on Sep 26, 2011 in Music

Thank you for playin’ the way you play The Descendants are on of my favorite bands and I credit them with getting me into punk rock. I spent the summer of 1996 training and swimming at Niles Ice Arena in Niles, IL. One of my first days there, one of the guys put on some music during warm up. It was The Descendants’ “Everything Sux” and I was like “Wha-what? Punk can me hard and fast and melodic and sweet? Who knew?” Then I found out that Milo had a Ph.D. in Bio-chemistry, which, as the child of two Ph.D.s and a big nerd myself, made me fall ever harder in love. That next summer those same guys took me to the second ever Warped Tour and my first punk rock show … and possibly show ever, but I can’t really remember. During the Descendants set, I crowd surfed for the first time … because, well, I was young and naive and weighed a lot...

What I learned from All Time Low

By on Aug 1, 2011 in Uncategorized

Saturday I dragged Mr. Bzzz to Jersey to see All Time Low with May Day Parade, The Starting Line, and We are the In Crowd. It was an interesting show. I had a great night. I learned many things. Those things are these: All Time Low’s stage show is exactly like seeing Blink 182 circa 1996 … with more dick, and less fart. Unlike Blink, however, they don’t carry that same dick and fart jokes mentality into their lyrics. Bands making dick jokes, talking about getting laid and impregnating girls, and hanging bras on their mic stand when the average age of the crowd is about 15 is creepy. Super fucking creepy. To be fair, I’m pretty sure it was just as creepy when I was 15. All I’m saying is: Check IDs, guys. Perhaps because they are still around, Green Day’s influence is highly highly under-rated and Blink 182’s is highly overrated. (Which is not to...

The Screeching Weasel SXSW Drama and how bands are fucking over their fans

By on Mar 24, 2011 in Music

Adam and I were planning on heading out to Philly (after our super secret taping of a game show!) on April 7th to go see Screeching Weasel. Adam’s brother also got them tickets to WeaselFest in Chicago over Labor Day. (Yes, I’m jealous.) Now the Philly show has been cancelled, because the entire band quit and other bands on the WeaselFest bill are dropping like flies. In case you haven’t heard the drama, here’s what happened: Screeching Weasel played SXSW. Ben Weasel spent most of the show bitching about SXSW, rock journalists, the media, and the crowd. Apparently, a women in the front row threw ice (or a beer) at him. She then did it again, so he punched her and another women. You can see the altercation here. I guess everyone was appalled by this, which lead to Ben Weasel issuing an apology and then the band quitting and bands dropping out of WeaselFest....

Billy Bragg at the Grand Ballroom, New York, NY

By on Oct 26, 2008 in Music

Tonight I had the privilege of seeing Billy Bragg live for the first time. The show was extra special because it was Adam’s Birthday present … and it was awesome. Part Nader Rally, part punk rock show, part acoustic performance at a coffee shop, on-stage, Billy Bragg, is not like any performer I’ve ever seen – partly because he spent about as much time talking as he did playing. He bitched out an audience member who was heckling him about war in Ireland. He talked about the excitement he felt in the US over this election and warned us that, like Britain when Blair became PM after Thatcher, our expectations were high and likely to not be met. However, if Obama is elected, we shouldn’t be cynical because this election, while it doesn’t represent a change in the world, it does represent possibility. He was so good that I even enjoyed one of my least...

Grammies & Druggies: A night with Paramore (Nov 28, 2007, Roseland Ballroom, NYC)

By on Jan 29, 2008 in Music

So Hayley Williams, the lead singer of Paramore, has an adorable grandmother. Adorable. I ran into her very proud grams in line for the ladies bathroom at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC on November 28, 2007. I wanted to tell Gramma Williams that Hayley had quite a voice but she was busy chatting it up with the girls behind me. So instead I’ll tell you. Hayley Williams has quite a voice. I first saw Paramore on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show on Fuse in their video for Pressure off their Fueled By Ramen debut, All We Know Is Falling. Hayley’s amazing voice and coveted red hair coupled with their unexpected rhythmic changes sold me immediately. (Adam would call those unexpected rhythmic changes ‘their drummer is too good for his own good’ changes but as someone who can’t stick to one rhythm when writing a song, I say: whatever.) In fact, I continued to flip to...