It was a memorable punk rock event Thursday night at the Grog Shop thanks to The Bouncing Souls, The Loved Ones, and Black President. The three bands actually had just performed to a packed the house the night before as the bands made a two night stop at the well known Cleveland venue. Having not been able to attend both shows I am glad I was at least able to be at one seeing how great of an evening I had.
New Jersey's The Bouncing Souls have taken this entire year to celebrate their 20th anniversary of being a punk rock band. To commemorate their success they have been releasing a song a month for download available on their own label's website Chunksaah Records. The band will also be releasing a limited edition 7" every third month of the year also available online, at select music shops, and of course at their live shows. If that was not good enough for a festivity, the band decided to hit the road on a string of tours to select cities. Accompanying The Bouncing Souls were friends The Loved Ones and punk rock super group Black President.
The venue filled up quickly and featured all sorts of fans, many who were at the previous night's show. Punk rockers of all ages hung out in the dark venue waiting for what was to come. I joked to my friends how old I felt seeing that I saw The Bouncing Souls open for NOFX in 1998. Still I refused to let age affect me and was excited to be a part of the evening as I had been looking forward to this show for weeks.
Black President started off the evening and pretty much set the mood for the rest of the evening with their energy. Formed in, 2005 well before Obama started his quest, a lot of ticket holders thought the band name was created after the fact of our current president. The band consisting of some pretty important punk rockers like Charlie Paulson of Goldfinger and Dave Raun of Lagwagon did not get the full credit they deserved by all who attended from the start but the crowd seemed to warm up to them. I myself was enthralled the moment the band broke into a Motorhead cover, "Iron Fist" and then announced it was their first time playing the song live. Blasting through selected songs from their self-titled debut release including "Last F#cking Hope" the band won me over and much of the crowd as well.
Article comments