August 24, 2010, 6:04 pm : Let’s Go See a Punk Rock Show – Guttermouth and The New Threat gallery

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This will come off sounding funny, but it’s refreshing that we can still go to a venue to take in a real punk band in a day and age when hair gel, skinny jeans and Facebook have replaced actual substance in musical acts.

It’s also very telling that one of the top musical artists in social media can’t draw 250 fans to a decently sized venue, but Guttermouth can cram them in to the Black Cat in DC. There’s a lot more to success in music than compiling huge numbers of transparent “friends”.

So it is without further ado that I show the images from the Guttermouth and The New Threat show at the Black Cat in DC, from August 19th, 2010.

August 19, 2010, 4:20 pm : Face to Face and the bad ticket scalper

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Punk music and surfing, at least when I started, was just what you did. Listen and surf. Amp out and go off. Watch a video and get that song and section stuck in your head. The addiction was clear and obvious for any over-caffeinated and hyper-charged young New York surfer.

The benefits of the whole New York positioning, albeit out of luck of where my family is from, was access to phenomenal waves (anyone who chooses to refute this point I refer to my email up there in the upper right sidebar. I will answer each and every email, I promise*), and great live music a train ride away.

As you read recently in my meeting-Sublime post, I started going to shows in NYC pretty late, but made up quickly for lost time. It was once every few weeks that a great show would come around, and whoever could assemble from a ragtag crew of surfers and friends would make their way in.

But after three years of show-going, I had never seen Face to Face. The one time my best bro and surf mate Matt and I got tickets, he nearly karked it on a piece of dry sandwich turkey before not being able to make it on the train due to torrential downpours. The show went on that night and…we missed it.

Six months later they came back around. This was in their heyday, and they always drew a good crowd. Two shows were planned on the same night to make up for fans that had missed them the last time around. Cool.

Sans tickets, Matt and I decided to scalp. We noticed a short-dog looking dude familiar from all other covert NYC scalping missions. Thought we had bought from him before, let’s try him out. Paid double face, which wasn’t much considering prices these days, but then got in line and I noticed the tickets were fake. They looked completely legit, but there was no show at 8PM. there was a 6PM and a 9PM.

Now snubbed by the faulty tix and a scalper-turned ghost, we started circling the streets looking for a cop. Or the guy. But really, would we have done anything with any effect had we found him?

Well, we did. Ran smack into the Yankee-hat wearin’ dude right in front of a big bus. The door to the big bus opened. Four dudes climb out, and well wait, that’s Face to Face! “Hey, Face to Face, we we got bogus tickets from this dude right here, I said.”

“Who, this guy here,” asked bassist Scott Shiflett?

Within seconds, Mr. short-dog got a look on his face like he wished he wasn’t there. All four band members surrounded the guy and demanded he give us our money back. He did so without hesitation.

Matt’s jaw was equally as low to the ground as mine was. We were in minor shock that the band we came to see just shook down the bad scalper for us and got our dineros back. We exchanged some small talk with them as we walked to the venue, where front-man Trevor Keith marched up to the ticket window and asked for two tickets, which we happily paid $12. Incredible stuff. We thanked them with fervor and made our way into the show.

That night saw Alkaline Trio open up with strong energy and a good live sound. Then Face to Face ripped the place apart for an hour and 45 minutes. By the end Trevor looked like he came out of a sauna. And all for the first of two shows. Continued below pic…

So it was an interesting occurrence when Alkaline Trio and Face to Face played back to back on the main stage of this year’s Warped Tour. It brought back a rush of memories from that first show with Matt and how that all went down. Matt nearly choking six months earlier, short-dog the bad scalper, and Face to Face standing up and watching out for two random surfer dude fans. And it was like the years had never even gone by.

And despite the 100 degree heat, Trevor and Co. gave everything they had, pushing through 13 songs that brought me back 10 years. And I bet short-dog is still out there runnin’ his scalpin game.

August 9, 2010, 8:38 am : Sublime – my first show ever

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My addiction to Sublime’s album 40oz. to Freedom began in 1994. With access to all the new surf videos via my surf-writing job, I heard a bunch of their songs the minute they were licensed and tracked to the latest works hitting the surf shop shelves.

To that point in my life I had never attended a live show. Tickets were bought in 1995 to the first Warped Tour, but handed over to my sister in favor of a week-long Hatteras jaunt with my surf buddies. She went with some complete music noob, and she ditched him to hang out in the pit, waiting for Sublime.

Their manager plucked her out, asking what the heck she was doing in the middle of mosher hell (she didn’t look the part of a pit monger whatsoever). She ended up meeting Sublime, sitting on stage holding Lou Dog during their set.

I got great waves. I also got skunked, I thought. But then again, I wouldn’t have met them. Her charm matched with the resolution to hang in the pit all day if she had to is what got her there.

My day with destiny would take place later, on April 11, 1996. Sublime’s album was due out soon, and they were playing a real Sublime style gig at the Wetlands in Tribeca, New York. Up to that point, I had heard my sister’s story so many times, always invoking envy, and I could not wait for my chance to see them with her. We started the evening with seemingly dumb luck, ducking into a random restaurant in Little Italy and getting treated as if we had been regulars for years, and getting charged literally next to nothing for an eight course meal of unreal goodness.

Treading to the club, sis offered a casual thought, “Maybe you’ll get to meet them tonight…” Doubtful I thought to myself, my luck isn’t like hers. What I didn’t expect was to walk into the club and see most of the artists simply milling about with the fans. Eric, Bud and Bradley were not among them.

First we a had headache inducing (for my sister) meeting with Wesley Willis, who felt the need to headbutt her several times while getting her to say “Roar” in unison with him. Then we made the rounds, checking out the members of Lordz of Brooklyn and DFL. Just when it seemed I wasn’t to meet Sublime, my sister lead me across the club to the far wall.

He next words were “Eric, I met you at the Warped Tour, and was on stage during your set at Nassau Coliseum. This is my brother, he was surfing in the Outer Banks when you guys played in New York.” Eric seemed to recall her, and was cool as can be. Sis asked if Bud and Bradley were around, and Eric ducked into the door to backstage. A minute later he reemerged with both his band mates in tow. Amazingly they recalled the Warped Tour meeting, since my sister was sticking out like a sore thumb.

We talked surf, music and I wish I could recall what else for a few minutes, with Brad telling me he would have rather been in the Outer Banks surfing as I was, instead of doing the Warped Tour (where Sublime got into trouble and disciplined for their actions toward some of the other bands).

After the chat, all three ducked backstage to get ready for their set. Fans all around us looked at us they wanted to ask how do you know them? When one person did ask, all I could say was, “My sis.”

And that was my unforgettable, first-ever show.

August 2, 2010, 10:21 am : The Legalize It Experience in Pictures

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You can only write so many words about what it was like to be at a show without losing most of the experience. It can only translate insofar as people want to read about what they missed. Maybe a handful of serious fans will, but others will say, “Where are the photos?” Well here they are: Collie Buddz, Cypress Hill and Slightly Stoopid on photographic display.

July 21, 2010, 11:51 am : The Warped Tour 2010 Gallery

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See it, feel it, love it. Ten hours of hot mayhem and young musicphiles.