Pennywise @ Casbah, 3.26.08

I already kinda posted about the Pennywise show here. I kinda went on a whim. I'm not gonna argue about "popular music" here, I'll just say I kinda like when bands that usually play large venues decide to play small venues...like Filter, or many years ago when Blink 182 had just become huge and came back for a Casbah show, or when I saw Zack de la Rocha perform in Inside Out at the Che after Rage was everywhere.

I don't really even need to say that of course The Casbah was full of bros, but it didn't matter- to be honest I felt more in my element there than I did at Anthology hands down. I missed the opening band, but when people began chanting for the band, they came out pretty quickly. I made my way up around to the side of the stage and found Mr. Pyles so I joined him.



The show was really fun; I hadn't seen Pennywise in years, probably since high school, but I used to be into all that skate video stuff, the skate culture, and the music that went along with it, and Pennywise fits squarely in that world.



I have to say I was a bit disappointed by some of the chatter between songs. Jim asked the crowd if they're voting. "How many of you support McCain? Anyone for Hillary? How many are for Obama? Anyone for Ron Paul?" and he continued. There was some scattered cheering for all of them. Then he goes, "Ah, fuck em all. Democrats, Republicans...they're all the same." While some people get angry when musicians or actors make political statements, for me, I when people in an influential position openly speak their mind. However, when someone does open their mouth and they say something like that---well, maybe really they should just s.t.f.u. It's okay to play music for 15 year old testosterone filled boys, but let's face it, P-wise aren't exactly young bucks, and in my opinion they'd do better to evolve, even if just a little.



Politics aside, as I said, the show was kinda fun. There was good, raw energy in the room and I had my share of flashbacks. After spotting a couple guys without shirts on in the smoking patio, I joked with Tim Mays that he might have to post "shirts required" signs around the Casbah. The set was good, they played straight through a little over an hour and there was no encore. "That's so punkrock," I heard someone say. Maybe so.

After the show I swung by the Ken Club to see if I could catch the show, but the Ex-Friends were packing up their stuff and heading out. I guess I was a little hyper, so I stayed for a bit, then finally called it a night.