The city of Chicago got to start the new year right with a pair of shows that saw Naked Raygun and Hot Water Music team up at the House of Blues. It’s no secret that I’m a huge Naked Raygun fan (and who is Chicago isn’t?!), but I also enjoy Hot Water Music to a much smaller degree and never saw them play before.
The Copyrights
The Copyrights
The show started pretty early so luckily I was off work that day so I could arrive on time. The Copyrights were the first band to play this evening. They hail from Carbondale, IL which is a college town in this state that I’ve never been to. They played some melodic punk that was farily catchy but not overly original. As far as opening bands go however they weren’t bad at all.
Shot Baker
Shot Baker
Shot Baker
Shot Baker were next. I’ve seen them a few times in the past and this time wasn’t much different, which is to say they played their “Chicago sound” version of mid-tempo punk pretty well. This is another one of those bands that has sort of been forced upon me so many times opening various shows that they are growing on me. That or they are just becoming a better band. Either way, they presented a half hour of rather ear-pleasing tunes .
Hot Water Music
Hot Water Music
Hot Water Music
Hot Water Music
At this point I thought the place would be a lot more crowded than it was. I suspect with the holidays and the somewhat high ticket price that it kept some people away, plus there being two nights to choose from probably saw people picking just one to attend. The club was about 2/3 full when Hot Water Music took the stage. While I own a few of their records, I will admit to not listening to the band enough to really know their material well at all. In fact I only recognized one song they played the entire night. The crowd however were very familiar with them and there was a core group of fans singing along to most of the songs. They played with a lot of passion and energy and they were pretty good, however during the course of a full hour many of their songs started sounding similar. I was glad to finally get a chance to see them and thought they were pretty good.
Naked Raygun
Naked Raygun
The curtains closed and a screen was lowered and as the stage was being set up for Naked Raygun, they reinstated a very old tradition of showing cartoons before their set! I swear the last time they did that was around 1986! While many in attendance may not have caught the relevance, I sure as hell enjoyed it. When they were through, the curtains opened and the band opened as usual with “Home of the Brave” The crowd cheered with delight and the band proceeded to bang out hit after hit, until after a few songs they stopped and Jeff made and annoucement.
Naked Raygun
Naked Raygun
“This is something we haven’t said in a long time, we’re going to play a new song”. Had I not been tipped off earlier in the evening that the band were working on new material and planned on debuting some of it my jaw would have hit the floor. It was one thing to never think I’d be seeing Naked Raygun again until they reunited a couple years ago, but them recording new material didn’t cross my mind either. The new song they played fit in perfectly with their other material and it sounded like the band no only didn’t break up, but reverted to the Naked Raygun of a couple albums before their end because I enjoyed the song a lot more than I thought I would.
Naked Raygun
Naked Raygun
After that it was back to the norm for awhile, with Jeff strapping on the guitar for the one-two punch of “Treason” and “Peacemaker”. Later in the set they played another new song that was as good as the first one they debuted. They of course stopped half way through their set to dispense some “Free Shit” which consisted of kazoos (sadly at this point I was too far away to get one). Highlights of the set included “I Lie” (any time they play something from Basement Screams I smile from ear to ear), “Rat Patrol”, “Vanilla Blue” (one of the best songs they’ve ever written), and “Surf Combat” which saw practically the entire crowd singing along. They busted out “Wonder Beer” in their encore and closed as usual with “New Dreams”.
Naked Raygun
When the show let out, I left the House of Blues a very satisfied man from witnessing a very enjoyable show that was solid from start to finish. I was looking forward to seeing the show again the next day (this time with two different opening bands).
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Ron Asheton, guitarist for The Stooges was found dead this morning. The cause of death is unknown but suspected to be a heart attack. For those of you who don’t know who The Stooges are, promptly punch yourself in the face, they were perhaps the most influential band that influenced not just punk rock, but rock music in general. This is a huge huge loss in the world of music and a sad day indeed.
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The Punk Vault store has just reopened. I had to replace the entire shopping cart system with a newer and better one. This one handles shipping much better than the old system. There’s also a bunch of new and some rare records for sale in there too, many of which there’s only one available!
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I’m pretty selective about new music I’ll purchase and I often times rely on music sent in for review on this site as my exposure to new stuff so I’m far from being hip to all the new releases for the year like some other sites and publications. With that being said here’s the standouts for me in 2008. I thought about limiting this list to only include stuff that was sent in for review, but I decided to just include whatever it was I liked regardless of if it was sent in or purchased by me. These are in no particular order.
That wraps up my look back at 2008. I’ll leave out the personal look back and save that for a different avenue (probbaly my myspace or facebook pages). Here’s hoping 2009 is a better year for everyone.
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2008 seemed to fly by a lot quicker than I would have liked, especially the summer (where my return to skateboarding after a 20 year hiatus sadly got cut in half due to a back injury). I think the first half of the year was slow for me in regards to shooting shows but things started picking up in the fall (or what is better known as winter part one here in Chicago as it seems we no longer have a fall).
I got to see some pretty cool shows this year, including getting to see some old punk bands reuniting who I never thought I’d ever get to see. Here’s a photographic look back at the shows I shot this year.
The Goddamn Gallows - These guys played with Destroy Everything at Beat Kitchen and put on one hell of a show. I look forward to seeing them again sometime.
Destroy Everything - Is it possible that I really only saw them play one time this year?? How did that happen?
The Black Dahlia Murder - They bring the metal to the House of Blues on a regular basis these days it seems and are pretty damn good at what they do.
Hate Eternal - another fine metal band who I caught a couple times recently and will continue to do so upon future tours. And this guy is one intimidating looking dude!
The Anti-Nowhere League - their first album is a punk rock masterpiece and this was a band I always wished I could see. While the line-up isn’t exactly the same from that album, they still proved that aging punk rockers can still kick some serious ass.
Soilent Green - what the hell is in the water in LA that makes the state produce awesome metal bands?!
Skeletonwitch - I never heard of them before seeing them open for Hate Eternal and I was very impressed. I still need to pick up the vinyl of their new album and am pissed they ran out by the time I tried to buy one at this show after it was over.
Ministry - Their last ever tour before Al decided to retire the band. Two things were a let down about this show: it was super tough to shoot cuz of the fence and they didn’t play almost any older material. Aside from that the show was still pretty damn good and I am going to miss them.
Meshuggah - Perhaps the most intense and brutal band I’ve seen this entire year. Another band I hadn’t heard of until witnessing them and I want to see them again, now! Another difficult shoot because of the fact they pretty much played under strobe lights the entire time.
Vans Warped Tour (Against Me pictured) - Not too much appealing this year to an old punker but still and entertaining show overall and perhaps the best value for a concert-goers ticket price. Where else can you see Against Me and Katy Perry on the same bill??
Silver Abuse at Lucky Gator Loft - A second Silver Abuse reunion in less than a year that was every bit as fun as the first one. I just wish they could have gotten Toothpaste to reprise their opening slot again too!
The Bollweevils at Reggie’s - One of the best later-peroid (early to mid 90’s) Chicago punk bands do the city a service by getting back together and sounding like they never went away. Bonus points for the fact that not only are they a great band, but great people too. This performance at Reggies (one of the newer and best clubs currently doing shows here) was top-notch.
Four Star Alarm at Reggies (opening for Bollweevils) - these guys get the prize for most improved in the last year and a half. I went from not thinking much of them the first time I saw them to now really enjoying seeing them open a show.
Riot Fest - This is usually one of, if not the funnest shows of the year and this year was even more fun than last. This time out there was a more diverse lineup including the amazing Valient Thorr (pictured) and a reunion show for the legendary All.
Gwar at House of Blues - Gwar reinstate a (near) Halloween tradition and also reinstate some things that made their early shows such a treat including the return of Sleazy P. Martini! As a photographer, this show was the most fun for me to shoot because I was the only one brave enough to do so this evening. It was worth getting drenched in blood and I hope to do it again next year.
Down at House of Blues - Further proof that New Orleans has become the king of metal. This performance really woke me up to how great this band is and was even better than their show here a year ago.
The Melvins at Reggies - The Melvins were so amazing this night that they almost stole the title of show of the year for me, but that title was quickly claimed ten days later by…
Ohgr at Double Door - My least favorite club was the host to the singer of my most favorite band’s solo project. Ohgr (the solo project of Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre) finally hit the road in support of a new album. This show was so good it actually topped the last Skinny Puppy show here in Chicago. It was so good that even the misgivings of the club they played at didn’t hamper the evening in the slightest. This was also the most difficult show to shoot this entire year due to the very low lighting.
Don’t Call Us No Wave Fest at Beat Kitchen - This two night affair was the most poorly attended show I went to this year but the few who bothered to show up were treated to some really unique bands, most of whom were from the first generation of Chicago punk rock. The bands who played: Ono (pictured), End Result, The Mentally Ill, Flophouse, Silver Abuse, and Lovely Little Girls. It was a fun way to end a year of shows despite the crappy weather.
2008 was a little thin in the shows department compared to the couple years prior, but there was still a lot of fun to be had throughout the year. Here’s hoping 2009 will see an increase for me in the amount of shows I’ll be shooting and reporting on here. For those of you who want to see more photos from these shows and read the reviews of them, you can do so right here.
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Awhile back I profiled some records released by The Mylene Sheath, which was a new label that put out a trio of great releases upon their launch. I was hoping that the label would continue and not just be a short-lived hobby and I was extremely happy to receive a package recently with a bunch of new releases, many from bands I’d never heard of before. It would appear the label is shifting into a higher gear as they have a bunch of stuff lined
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