My ex and I met in 8thgrade when my family moved from Chicago to the suburban hell scape that was Elmwood Park Illinois in the late 80s. I’m being dramatic about it being a hell scape but I did feel truly betrayed by my parents for moving us into the suburbs. How was I supposed to become cool now? How was I supposed to have real harrowing city adventures on the lame streets of Elmwood Fucking Park? Where were the gangs? The drugs? The thugs and punks? Not in my junior high. Not yet anyway. So that’s where we met and it’s not like it was love at first sight or anything close to that. He was a full foot shorter than me, skinny, with braces and very uncool. But he was sweet and funny and he mad
I love Alkaline Trio. Alkaline Trio (ALK3, for short) have been a constant in my life for quite some time now. It has been so long, in fact, that I cannot recall the first time I ever listened to them. Matt Skiba (vocalist, guitarist), Dan Andriano (vocalist, bassist) and Derek Grant (drummer) write about everything – history, literature, pop culture, politics, love – to name a few. They have an infinite amount of material, and they utilize it well. This tour in particular was to promote their new album, Is This Thing Cursed?, which was released on August 31, 2018. The show was at The Wiltern, in Los Angeles. The inside of the venue was reminiscent of my hometown venue, The Majestic Ventura
Here is a little show review (a couple weeks late due to Jessica's slow hectic as shit schedule these past weeks) from one of our token Canadian contributors Judy McLaren. She's smart, strong, and has a true punk rock heart. Enjoy! A Wilhem Scream is one of those band that I’ll always dig. I dug them when they were Smacking Izah and definitely have a soft spot in my musical heart for some good melodic hardcore. This show was held in a little old school venue, The Wise Hall, in Vancouver BC, Canada. It was our Canadian Thanksgiving and my husband and mines anniversary. An excellent evening for live punk rock! The venue was packed with only the truest fans, drinking cans of local beer with th
I’ve been going to Chicago’s Riot Fest every year since 2014 and always have a good time. Here are my highlights from this year’s three-day festival, which is focused largely, but not exclusively, on punk rock. The Dissidents and the Kid-Friendly I wasn’t sure if Russian band Pussy Riot would appear, as one of its band members had recently been poisoned, allegedly by people who don’t like the band’s anti-government commentary, but they made it and vowed to find the people who poisoned Piotr. Another band we might have expected to possibly not make it to Riot Fest was The Adolescents, whose founding member Steve Soto passed away in June. But they were there, honoring Soto with a big sign that
You learn something new every time you attend a show. At Lagwagon’s 20thAnniversary show of Let’s Talk about Feelings, I learned a few things. For example, Joey Cape loves to perform the song “Owen Meaney”, but can only really play it at a show like that night (an anniversary show). Cape explained that he cannot justify just throwing that particular song into a random set list, especially with so many other crowd favorites on that record (i.e. May 16, Messengers, etc.) Lagwagon played three shows commemorating the album – San Francisco (Great American Music Hall), Los Angeles (El Rey) and Santa Ana (The Observatory) – to which the band would playLet’s Talk about Feelings in its entirety. I’m
