"Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God." — Kurt Vonnegut
While visiting family this weekend, I met up with one of my old friends from my hometown. He mentioned that he was going to see Teenage Bottlerocket not too far from where I was staying.
I am so glad I went.
First, the venue. Preserving Underground in New Kensington, PA is FREAKING AMAZING. Located in a (no longer used) church, the venue always has all-ages shows, includes a freaking kick-ass record store, and even a small museum to hardcore punk rock. Their whole mission is preserving the fan experience, and it shows. The time between sets was only 10-15 minutes, something I’ve come to truly value as I’ve gotten older. It was truly an all-ages show, with school-age children right alongside old weirdos like me. The true punk mentality — we take care of our own — was in full display, and the number of anti-bigot badges, shirts, buttons, and stickers that people just wore … because… really says a lot of good things about the scene there.
I didn’t catch the names of the first two bands (sadly); they were both local and fun.
Teenage Bottlerocket headlined, kicked ass, and took names. You can see the energy in their performance of "Just Call Me Steve" (yes, it’s about Minecraft) in the video I shot below.
But I really want to talk about Tightwire. They’re currently touring in support of their (very) new album Head Full of Snakes. If you are a fan of pop-punk, you’re going to like this band. They’ve toured previously with Chixdiggit and the Dillinger Four, and appropriately so. Full of catchy and happy-sounding licks, the lyrics are dark and troubled in a way that really appeals to me. Their performance was amazingly tight, full of energy, and just fun. I was particularly impressed with Noelle Stolp on guitars and vocals.
Seriously. You know that video recorded on phones at shows is crap… and yet Tightwire manages to sound pretty good despite my phone. (Also check out the video they shot themselves below, with much cleaner audio.)
Tightwire is a band to both listen to and to catch live. They’ve still got some tour dates with Teenage Bottlerocket. If you can get to one of their shows, do so. And if you can’t, pick up Head Full of Snakes on Bandcamp.