Pennywise, Pepper, Authority Zero, The Supervillians
House of Blues in Boston, MA
May 17, 2009

The thing that sucks about Storrow Drive (and most of Boston) is that, if you happen to make a wrong turn somewhere, you're fucked for at least ten minutes. I made three wrong turns, taking us by the Boston Garden (leaving me yearning for Celtics' tickets), across the river from where we were supposed to be and eventually, down the street parallel to Lansdowne. I finally got a parking spot about a half hour after I was supposed to be there.

Supervillians were already playing by the time we walked in the door. I was waiting to interview Pepper, so their tour manager (who has the awesomest voice message) let Greg and I up on stage to check them out. I had never heard of them, but I was pretty blown away by their set. They reminded me of Streetlight Manifesto except much faster and more punk. Their drummer doubled as the lead singer, and he spot on sounded like Billy Joel during their cover of "Moving Out." They are definitely a band that will make summertime a lot of fun, with this tour being a good breakout for them.

I didn't know that Authority Zero was playing this show, and I forgot how good they are. While they had some ska songs, most of their set was so damn fast and energetic, leaving me quite impressed. The mixture of punk, surf, skate and ska sounded so good live, with everything sounding so dead on and tight. I was watching from the balcony, and it was fun seeing the constant circle pit, which was small but lively, and the people looked like they were square dancing for some reason.

There was a rapper that entertained the crowd for a bit after Authority Zero. Though I didn't catch his name, someone told me that he is one of the MCs on the Jagermeister Tour. I found him to be highly entertaining, and the crowd also seemed into him.

During "MC Jager's" last song, as the crowd were waving their hands in the air in true hip hop fashion (with this happening around Celtics' tip off and the amount of green shirts in the audience, I'm sure nerves were too on edge not to care), cheers started erupting like an exploding volcano as Pepper's banner (which went nearly ceiling to floor) was raised behind the drum kit.

It took about a minute and a half of Pepper's set before the scent of weed raised to the balcony, which is longer than I anticipated. Pepper was mellow and intense at the same time, letting their musicianship shine. They were relaxing to listen to and fun to watch. Their guitarist danced around the stage like a mechanical Gumby, and I couldn't see one person in the audience that was standing still, as they were all wrapped up moving to the flow of the music.

The funniest and most entertaining part of their set was the drum solo. Yesod Williams had a kid, that was no older than 14, get up on stage to keep the beat via cowbell. He did it and did an admirable job, but ? wanted to try it again, thinking something was missing. What was missing was a clear dildo to be used instead of the drumstick.
Pennywise was drunk, but that worked to their advantage in the form of an insane amount of energy. They slayed through their set at breakneck speed while the crowd sang along to every song, which seemed as familiar as the back of one's hand.

Their drummer was a lot of fun to watch. He didn't miss a beat, and he played so close to him drumset, leaned almost directly over his snare drum. Other highlights included covers of "Stand by Me" and "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie," "Bro Hymn" (though I miss watching the crowd rush the stage during this song) and Greg pissing off their stage hand by walking from one side of the stage to the other a couple times.

The majority of their set came from their newer albums. While I love their older stuff ("Same Old Story," "Pennywise," ), their new stuff is just as good. Its great to see a band that has been around for so long still able to bring fresh songs and a youthful energy.

Written by: RF
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