CJ-Palooza

CJ's 21st birthday party (or what I've been sarcastically calling "CJ-Palooza") had basically turned into a pretty cool rock concert in his garage.  However, I heard it was a complete drama fest if you were anywhere else in the house.  Fortunately, I spent almost the whole time in the garage so I suppose I got lucky.  Though, even if I hadn't, I would probably have no interest in talking about the drama going on anyways.

So, three bands played at CJ-Palooza on Saturday night.  The opener was a band called Shaken Baby Syndrome.  If you were to ask their guitarist what kind of music they play, he would just say,"Punk."  However, the connotation in the simplicity of his statement is really saying,"(No bullshit, ass-kicking, IN-YOUR-FACE!!!) punk."  Minor Threat, Black Flag, The Misfits, Bad Religion, Screaching Weasel, etc; I wouldn't be surprised if all of these bands are a major influence on their sound.  This isn't a bad thing, no sir.  It's pretty great.  If you're into any of the bands that I just listed, you will probably have a good time at a Shaken Baby Syndrome concert.  Fortissimo, 180BPM, punk.  The simple recipe for an awesome Shaken Baby Syndrome concert.

Next up was Bet the Levels.  I've talked about Bet the Levels a million times so I'll keep it brief.  It was a lot like their other shows but the set was longer and it was in CJ's garage.  It was pretty great.  Like Shaken Baby Syndrome, Bet the Levels did not disappoint.  I think I might have enjoyed the Bet the Levels set slightly more mainly because their style offers more variety of sounds.  The one critique I have about Shaken Baby Syndrome is that their songs sound very similar from one to the next.  If you weren't into punk and were at a Shaken Baby Syndrome concert, you would probably not be able to tell the difference between the songs, in general.  However, Bet the Levels have a few songs that sound like the hardcore 80s punk but also songs that sound more like the pop 90s punk and even a few sound variances from those.  For instance, the beginning of the Bet the Levels song "What Really Matters" is very reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins.  So, just my opinion on that.  But, if I heard that either one of these bands were playing a venue, I would make the effort to attend.  I would definitely like to see either one of these bands again.

The last band was a band called Reaching For Ashley and well, I won't even try to review them.  Why?  Because I am a member of Reaching For Ashley.  It just doesn't make sense to review your own band.  From a member perspective though, I was glad at the turnout despite our late start of 11:50pm.  Actually, CJ's birthday was basically over when we started.  Oh well...  But the party was far from over.  That's good...

Not only was there a brief mosh pit for Shaken Baby Syndrome and a pretty consistent mosh pit for Bet the Levels, but the audience still was in the mood to mosh for us as well.  This was pretty cool.  It actual was getting pretty out of control for awhile where people stepped on both Ryan's pedal board and my pedal board on accident (causing an effect change for Ryan and a volume mute for me).  People were periodically walking up and singing along with the covers.  I forgot what song it was but there was a very drunk individual (who I won't mention his name) who tried to sing and sounded really bad.  When this happened, I looked over to see Brandt, one of CJ's sisters' friends, just looking at the ground and shaking his head with his hand over his eyes and a grin on his face.  I couldn't help but to laugh my ass off.  But overall, the people there seemed to enjoy our performance.

Speaking of this drunk individual, he tried getting on the drums for a reunion of an old band of mine.  Being up there with a song going so horribly wrong was a mixture of embarrassment, frustration, and hilarity (mostly hilarity).  Let me put it to you this way, when the drunk individual sat down on the stool to play drums, he fell off of the stool before we even attempted to play the song.  I couldn't help but to laugh and shake my head.

Overall, CJ-Palooza was a blast on the concert side of it.  Like I said before, the fun of the actual party itself was questionable due to the drama.

In moderate seriousness, CJ is already talking about the possibility of a summer concert in his backyard called Intzapalooza.  But, we will see what happens...