Blog — Page 5 of 283

The circus is in town. Less Than Jake are currently on their Summer Circus Tour promoting their latest EP, Uncharted. They've brought along ska and punk legends Fishbone and The Suicide Machines and ska newcomers, Catbite. Together, they've melded a perfect mish-mash of bands suitable for all ages. Riverside was in for a good night!

The young guns of the show, Catbite, opened the night. Opting for synths instead of horns to fill the space, the band gains its distinguishable ska merits from their catchy melodies and strong rhythm section. Vocalist, Brittany Luna, is no slouch on the microphone either. A true performer who knew how to get the crowd excited for the night just by simply jumping in and singing from the pit. The band has a new EP out entitled Doom Garden. Be sure to check it out!

The Suicide Machines followed. The Ska-Core group managed to draw enough of their own fans despite being billed second on the line-up. Many in the crowd sang along or found themselves circle-pitting as the band ran through an array of songs from their debut album, Destruction by Definition, while sprinkling in tracks from the rest of their catalog. 

Direct support and ska-punk/funk-metal legends, Fishbone, took to the stage with a strong presence. While third-wave Emoheads have been fawning over My Chemical Romance's Black Parade tour in full costume, punk rockers were skanking along with Angelo Moore donning his own marching band outfit. The last time I saw Fishbone was over a decade ago, and nothing has changed. Their entire set felt like one big party, and everyone was having a good time. Especially once someone broke out the beach balls. Fishbone is out promoting their own new album, Stockholm Syndrome, which came out earlier this summer.

The time had finally come for Less Than Jake. A pseudo ringmaster began to speak over the house speakers to welcome everyone to the circus. The band walked out and jumped right into "Gainesville Rock City." The band was all smiles. Fog blasters were blaring. The audience was cheering. There is a unique level of happiness that can only be found at a Less Than Jake show. Trombonist and hype-man, Buddy Schaub, seemed to never run out of breath between tooting his horn and running end-to-end across the stage to get the crowd going. The stage antics heightened as Less Than Jake versions of those "wacky-inflatable" guys plumed on stage, and toilet paper was shot into the audience.

It's very endearing when a band takes the time to acknowledge and share their appreciation for their fans. Not every band does it, and they certainly don't need to, but the sentiment is not lost on Less Than Jake. The band continues to sell out their VIP tickets that include meet and greets and photo-ops, but it also allows for a possibility of being chosen to stand on stage for the show and be a part of "the circus," which is such a great and unique perk to their VIP packages. Sometimes they even just call on fans to come on stage for no real reason at all. Tonight, they pulled a fan on stage simply for being 20 years old. That's it. That was the only prerequisite for making this fan's experience even better. Roger expressed it best after they played a cover of the Animaniacs theme when he said something along the lines of "the fact that we can play that. Be goofy. You guys are smiling, and that's how I'm gonna pay my rent bill next month is amazing."

Between all the zaniness, the band continued to run through classics and fan favorites like "All My Best Friends are Metalheads," "Automatic," and "The Science of Selling Yourself Short" while promoting Uncharted with tracks "Brand New Day," "Sunny Side" and "Walking Pipebomb." During the encore, the band did an impromptu performance of "Anchor" from Fat's 1999 compilation, Short Music for Short People, when someone threw out the request.

Less Than Jake continues to put on one of the best shows just by being genuine and putting an emphasis on having fun. The goofiness of their sets is what makes their punk rock shows distinct from the rest. I can't imagine anyone walked out at the end of the night unhappy or without a smile on their face. The entire Summer Circus Tour is stacked with a great bill and one of the best shows I've seen this year. Following the Summer Circus will be a Winter Circus in the UK. If the circus is coming to town, grab a ticket and bring the whole family. It's sure to be a blast!

The Hives 
Enmore Theatre 
Sydney, Australia
July 23, 2025

Let’s be clear: The Hives didn’t play a show. They detonated one.
On a cool Sydney night at the Enmore Theatre, the Swedish kings of garage rock stormed the stage like tuxedoed insurgents, staging a velvet-clad coup d’état against anything remotely resembling restraint. It wasn’t a concert. It was controlled chaos in formalwear - a punk rock opera where the arias were screamed, the choreography was sweat-slicked, and the encore felt more like a political uprising than a curtain call.

Opening notes? Blink and you missed them.
Before anyone could even get their overpriced beer to chest level, the band had already kickstarted a mass revival. The Enmore transformed into a confetti cannon of limbs, shrieks, and spilled drinks, with the audience erupting into the kind of feral glee typically reserved for tax returns that exceed expectations.

And The Hives? They lived for it.

Dressed like matador dandies who accidentally wandered into a punk riot and decided to headline it, the band oozed precisely the kind of unshakable confidence that comes from knowing you’re the best thing in any room - and having the setlist to prove it.

Pelle Almqvist, the high priest of theatrical mayhem, remains the only frontman alive who can convincingly threaten both the front row and existential malaise in a single breath. He doesn’t perform - he commandeers. Whether scaling the speaker stacks like a rock ‘n’ roll Tarzan or snatching a fan’s phone mid-chorus for a surprise video monologue, Almqvist was chaos in a cummerbund. Charismatic? Obviously. Exhausting? Also yes. But utterly unmissable? Every second.

At one point, he insisted on restarting a song “just to get the entrance right.” That’s not diva behaviour. That’s performance art on a deadline. 

Nicholaus Arson, wielding his guitar like a chainsaw carved from disco lightning, proved once again that solos don’t need to be long to be lethal. The rest of the band kept the whole machine purring like a V8 engine on a diet of espresso and delinquency - tight, loud, and endlessly slick without ever slipping into self-parody.

And the new material from the upcoming album? Far from filler. Each track smacked of that rare energy  the sort that dares to believe rock can still feel urgent, fun, and a little bit dangerous. Like someone took early Beatles melodies, dressed them in leather, and pushed them down a flight of stairs (lovingly).

By the end, sweat was currency and grins were non-negotiable. Reality was politely shown the door. For a glorious hour and a bit, we were all just creatures of instinct, wrapped in distortion and bound by the gospel of guitar.

Gob @ Peterborough Music Festival
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
July 19, 2025

Gob nailed their set, energizing both die‑hard and casual fans alike. 

The band’s punchy hooks and raw performance had the crowd bouncing throughout the 90‑minute set, delivering both nostalgia and vitality.

A perfect addition to a summer night in Peterborough!

All photos by @front.row.fans

The Murder City Devils don't get out much anymore, so when the opportunity presented itself, I made my way down to Pomona to catch one of the 2 shows they had lined up in California. They brought along Animal Self, which features Kareem Karam and Coady Willis from Murder City Devils as well as Julia Kugel of Soft Palms. Julia sang and danced across the stage in a dress with twinkling lights attached to it while Kareem and Coady banged out a blend of art-pop and punk. The trio had just played their first show not even a week prior and are currently in the process of mixing songs to be released in the future. 

The Murder City Devils took to the stage and jumped into "I Don't Wanna Work for Scum Anymore" from the band's 2014 release The White Ghost Has Blood on Its Hands Again. The crowd appeared to still be waking up, but once they jumped into fan favorite "I Want A Lot Now," frontman Spencer Moody reacted to the crowd's excitement by chomping down on the microphone and holding it in his mouth, as well as jumping to the barricade to sing with the fans. 

The band played a pretty even split of tracks from their 4 full-length lengths, with highlights like "Rum to Whiskey," "Idle Hands," and "Murder City Riot" as well as throwing in "Midnight Service at The Mutter Museum" from their 2001 release, Thelema. For the most part, The Murder City Devils' setlist has been consistent over the years. In 2024, they released a 7-inch with the track "Hill & 6th," which they've been able to incorporate. The group even threw in a cover of PJ Harvey's "In Dark Places." Upon finishing the track, Moody took the time to express what he believed the song meant and proceeded to read the lyrics with a broken voice. During "Hey Playboy," the last song of the night, Moody jumped into the crowd to perform the sort of speak-sing number until getting lost amongst the audience before completely disappearing.

Age slows down many, but not the Murder City Devils. They continue to perform with gusto and the mindset that Rock 'n' Roll is an unstoppable force. Moody's voice may be beginning to wither, but it only makes him scream louder. The second those notes on the organ begin to play on "Press Gang," nothing else matters. You black out for a second and then find yourself screaming, "pecked by the seagulls! Hanging from the gallows!" and you're having the best time. Murder City Devils have a couple more performances lined up this year, including a spot at Bumbershoot in Seattle and a Halloween weekend in San Francisco. Do yourself a favor and get a ticket if you're gonna be in the area. 

Can't say my review of it will be as well written or entertaining as this book of 50 poems by Daryl Gussin. Daryl is the managing editor of Razorcake. Daryl was in an awesome punk band called God Equals Genocide. Daryl is my friend but also possibly my spirit animal. Part of me wonders if the leather jacket that Daryl is looking for is the same jacket I’ve been looking for. It probably is and I hope he finds it.

I’ve never written about poetry before but I’ve written a lot of lyrics and wondered if anyone considers that poetry. Who am I to judge when I don’t know what poetry is? I did take one poetry class in uni where I submitted prose poetry that I’d written while black out drunk, something I was working on at the time. Lacking m/any historical or contemporary references with which to compare this, Gussin’s work reminds me of Raymond Carver who is known for his mastery of short stories. So what's the difference between prose poetry and a short story? Or what about lyrics vs. poem? Daryl has written lyrics for the aforementioned GEG along with Spokenest and Marriage Material- all fucking awesome bands worth checking out!- but I did not notice a single rhyming couplet in this book so I would not describe this poetry as lyrical. In lieu of knowing how to finish this review I’ve picked out a handful of my favourite lines from the book and pasted them below, inadvertently (or maybe advertently?) creating a “cut-up” poem of my own. Clever indeed.

“Boyfriend” Is A Top Notch Poem By Daryl Gussin The Following Is Not

The two friends were frozen in terror as they looked through the curtains out onto the opposite side of the street as a storm drain mouth with two parking meter eyes was deeply inhaling, only to spray sewer water and street-trash across the entire block, “I’m not your fuckin’ white noise machine!”

That is my fear, I refuse to be the distant childhood memory in the mind of an adult, I have to survive this life.

But not today, today I’m free to dream while I breathe the untaxed air, and live the dignity we all had been taught to expect, I must remember to relish this moment, ‘cause tomorrow the shit must be shoveled, and I am the shit shoveler.

We wake up and we take one for the team, and then we get one from the team, anyone getting more than they’re giving is just taking extra from someone else on the team, fuck that.

if you don’t get laid you should get at least 35% of what you paid back on a hotel room, we associate hotels with the absolute best sex and we are not wrong,

If you ever wanna be happy to be home, be happy to take a shower, be happy to lay on your bed in your underwear while your girlfriend puts her head on your shoulder, one way is obviously going to war or prison, but damn, you can also just spend two days on a fuckin’ bus.

The rain on the leaves, the barbecue in the backyard, the taste of a new lover’s neck, the feeling of recently purchased underwear, these experiences will never affect the exchange of stocks, will never satisfy the bloodthirsty viewers of the twenty-four hour news cycle, will do very little for those with their snake oil market analytics, but they will make your day better, your life better, your outlook on the future brighter, embrace the brighter future, embrace the goosebumps and the butterflies, the lightening bugs and uncontrollable smiles as your eyes meet, let the parallel universes live their parallel lives and accept this one for what it has to offer: a poem, a party, and then one final kiss good night.

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Buy it here.