Forget about
The things I said
I make no
Excuse for them
I want to start again
I want to start again

I’m old. I hate the Capitol Hill Block Party because all the bands suck with their stupid 80’s fashions and face paint. I try to keep an open mind, but popular music these days just seems so 80’s and I pretty much hate the 80’s. I like punk, with it’s raw emotion and raucous sing alongs. More often than not, it says what I’m thinking. Instead of “let’s go hang out on the beach and smoke pot” it says “man, this is screwed up, let’s do something about it.”

At any rate, I missed The Hollowpoints. I saw Luther, but was kind of bored. Not because they were bad, but because they also seemed a little bored. The drummer didn’t do anything exciting and everything was a little too compressed. They seem like nice guys and I just read somewhere that their hometown of Philadelphia is the next new hot spot for good music, so I’m sure they’ll do alright for themselves.

A few kids up front were stoked on The Menzingers. These dudes are from Philly as well and were more exciting. They have a little of that Gaslight Anthem, Broadways, orgcore sound (gruff vocals and driving anthems) and I was surprised to see people get real stoked on it. People were requesting songs and everything. I mean, I love that stuff, but I didn’t think anyone else did.

This blog post is turning out pretty terrible. I was hoping to re-inspire myself to become a good reviewer and have some sort of post-teaching fallback to fall back on, but this isn’t like riding a bicycle, apparently. Particularly since I never could ride this metaphoric bicycle all that well. But I used to enjoy it, why did I stop?

In 1996, I saw The Bouncing Souls in Santa Cruz, California in a former restaurant or house or something called The Red Room. Because it was red. I was impressed by the singer’s characteristic laid back style and bought every record up to “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” and loved every one of them. Early records were somewhat silly, positive punk songs and they matured into big, hopeful, sing along anthems on Summer Vacation. As a 35 year old has been who never was, I was ready to leave this show feeling 19 again.

I spent the set in and around the pit. I figured most of the amateurs would be down the street at the CHBP and was mostly right about that. We couldn’t manage a good circle pit and no one could stage dive worth a damn, but everyone picked each other up and held shoes in the air like pros. I went in positive and stayed positive for the whole set. I pointed in the air and sang along and smiled a little bit. I think one guy even gave me a little bro side hug. I used to love this kind of thing, why did I stop?

Throughout the set, The Souls were doing what they do. The last time I saw them, it was pretty much the same. They have fun up there and make sure everyone else does too. I heard most of the songs I wanted to, got a taste of the new records, and got super sweaty. Even as an old guy, I wasn’t let down. And that shows some hope for the future, right?

We live our life in our own way,
Never really listened to what they say,
The kind of faith that doesn’t fade away
We are the true believers
We are the true believers