Camp Anarchy, 2 June 2019
Legend Valley; Thornville, OH
Spanish Love Songs, The Bombpops, Iron Chic, The Bronx, TSOL, Less Than Jake, Bad Religion, NOFX
I hate to say it, but the last day of Camp Anarchy was a little anti-climactic. It was pretty obvious as we dragged ourselves in that we were all a little wore out. I didn’t drink, smoke, take any drugs other than ibuprofen and spent my nights in a motel so I can only imagine how haggard the drunken masses were feeling by this point.
I didn’t realize until a few hours in but the organizers did a really good job of grouping the bands for each day. Friday was mostly hardcore and Saturday had a lot of ska. Sunday was the pop-punk day and while I usually enjoy that subgenre, after being worn out by the ska and hardcore it was hard to feel it.
I have to give Spanish Love Songs some credit. They had the worst set time of the weekend. Those poor bastards were playing mostly to the underage kids who weren’t able to get their hands on booze or pot and the one straight edge guy with a blog.
The Bombpops
I was really excited to see the Bombpops. I checked them out on Spotify and fell in love with their brand of pop-punk. They come off as almost bubblegum because of the cutesy, female vocals until you realize they’re singing about getting drunk and shitting their pants. I also really enjoyed Jen Razavi’s lead guitar style which is similar to the ultra-simple stuff Johnny Ramone played but taken up a notch by moving across the strings.
The Bronx is one of those bands who are bigger than I realized. They’ve been making records for years and playing fests. I actually had one of their tunes on a mix CD a few years ago. I was never able to figure out who played that song even after Google made it easy to find that stuff out and I’m sleeping a lot better now that the mystery is solved.
Unlike every other band that has gotten a pingback from this event, I haven’t gotten to know TSOL any better than when I first saw them open for Dead Kennedys last year. They’re definitely in a world of their own and are very unlikely to show up on shuffle play for any artist on any music app. Plus, as much as I enjoy their tunes the comedic banter between was completely golden.
I managed to remain calm and adult all the way until Bad Religion started playing at 8:40. That was when my HIIT workout began. For whatever reason, it took a while to set up the stage for them so I had plenty of time to stake my claim to a spot to watch from, but within about 2.5 seconds I was shoved elsewhere and only managed to take a brief rest after crowd surfing out of the mayhem (before running right back into it two songs later). There was finally some slam-dancing instead of just a bunch of idiots running around in circles like the Muslims do with that big rock in Mecca and while I don’t think it was more intense than the Offspring’s pit on Friday, I think that’s just because everyone was so fucking wore out.
I’m not sure the pit was even as intense for them as it was at the Summer Nationals tour when I remember seeing the entire crowd bouncing up and down for “21st Century Digital Boy,” but I could be wrong as I was able to view that pit from the outside.
I hadn’t realized that this was NOFX’s first US show since they were dropped by a sponsor after a joke about last year’s Las Vegas shooting. It was nice to hear that experience didn’t get them to tone anything down and they kept me in stitches throughout their set. I’m not the biggest fan of their music and I had intended to leave early, but they were just so damn enjoyable. I’m wondering if they have a live album that features all the between song banter. That’s what I need to make a fan out of me.
I almost don’t want to post a video as I’m worried it might lead to more hardship for the band.
I hope you’ll all forgive me for taking an extra day on the last post of this series. After getting home and feeding the cats all the adrenaline wore off and I managed to nap most of the day away. Shit like this is fun as hell, but it really makes me realize I need to hit the gym more before next year.
The Audible Stew 