Punk Spring

Sunday the 6th was Punk Spring--an annual punk music festival. I went, and it was AWESOME!! There were a ton of bands, most of them ones I didn't really know, so I will just give a break down of the bands that I really enjoyed, in order of appearance:

1. Bowling For Soup
I am not really a fan of this band, but in their live show, they were hilarious! They would play 2/3 of a song, then stop, and say stuff like, "wow, we are doing an AWESOME job...yeah, we are so great!" and/or taking a drinking break. Then, after about a minute of random chatting, they would finish the song. The best part was that most of the primarily Japanese audience had no idea what was going on, because they don't understand English. So, to them it was probably like, "oh, the song is over?...oh, next song?...huh?WTF?" But for me...I was basically rolling on the floor the whole time.

2. Flogging Molly
YES!! Finally, I got to see Flogging Molly live! And they did not let me down! They played a ton of my fav songs, including "What's Left of the Flag," and everyone was super into it, so it was really really fun!

3. The Buzzcocks
Wow! They are so old now! But still rocking super hard! Impressive!

4. Maximum the Hormone
The only Japanese band on the roster, and one that I am a big fan of. They are hardcore punk, but still manage fun and interesting melodies. Plus, they have a really cool female drummer. The mosh pit for this band was SUPER fun too!

5. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
First of all, I love punk covers, so I am a big fan and have all of their albums. I was a little disapointed by their set because the majority of songs they played were from their newest album, "Love Their Country," which actually makes some country songs listenable, but is not their best album, in my opinion. I would have liked a little more variety for their live show. That being say, they were also hilarious in their on-stage antics...starting almost every song by saying, "So, this next one is a cover." They prefaced "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with, "If you dance to this song, yes, you are gay." (which of course no one understood, so all the Japanese guys were deffinately dancing...haha) And, before they played "Stairway to Heaven," they told people to get their lighters out, saying, "Come on, all you guys that came here to see Rancid, I know you smoke." Which leads me to the headliners....

6. Rancid!!!!!!
One of my favorite bands, ever! I still cannot believe I actually got to see them live! The mosh pit was so full, you couldn't even mosh...it was more like everybody was pushed first one direction, then the opposite, like on a packed train. But, I got up to the 3rd row, and they played all of my favorite songs! Also, surprisingly, most of the Japanese people around me actually knew the lyrics so everyone was singing along. Even in middle-age, Rancid is cool as hell-- in both looks and musicianship.

All in all, I had a great time, and was (and still am) completely covered in bruises by the end. (but don't worry...I deffinately gave as good as I got, hahahahah)