Images: NOFX, The Adicts, The English Beat, The Briefs, Real McKenzies, Far From Finished, Holding On To Sound & The Dips
Another year, another Punk Rock Bowling, and this year kicked off with a night headlined by semi-Vegas residents NOFX! The Southern California skatepunk legends are no strangers to our city, ringing in the New Year with us at the House of Blues and already announcing a July poolside gig at the Hard Rock. So how would the quartet make this show stand out and reward fans who spent all day baking on the blacktop? By playing the bulk of their classic album Punk in Drublic! The band sounded tighter than ever, a huge 180 from their somewhat sloppy performance at PRB 2010, and it was a real treat to finally hear “The Brews,” my personal favorite from the NOFX catalogue, played live.
While NOFX met my lofty expectations, The Adicts actually exceeded them, mainly because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Somehow I’ve gone 29 years without giving the British punk rockers a fair shot and that turned out to be a big mistake as the septet put on one of the most fun shows of the entire festival. They came out in their signature Clockwork Orange-inspired outfits but something didn’t seem right to me based on my passing knowledge of the band. The missing element, of course, ended up being vocalist Keith ‘Monkey’ Warren, who paraded onto the stage to thunderous applause after a brief instrumental intro decked out like an amalgam of the best Batman villains – Joker-like white makeup and cheek to cheek grin, Riddler’s eye catching suit, and, three songs in, a Penguin-esq umbrella that let lose a hurricane of glitter and confetti (which I got more than my fair share of due to my location in the photo pit).
The rest of the day was filled with equally met and exceeded expectations. The English Beat sounded much better than they did at their last Vegas gig at the House of Blues, surprising since outdoor sound can be hard to get right. The two-tone band seemed to feed off the much more energetic crowd, which resulted in a far better performance. Local favorites Holding Onto Sound had a similar transition, appearing much more comfortable on the big stage than either of their previous NOFX opening slots. I’m lucky to live in a city where I can see the powerful foursome on a weekly basis and can only hope that the crowd that started trickling in by the time they played was equally impressed.
-Emily Matview
Photos by Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/
and Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens
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