Warped Tour and random album reviews.

So I was at the St. John's county Warped tour and while I was working for the majority of the show I was able to watch some bits and pieces of various sets. I'm going to put some live performance comments before I talk about any of the album's I have listened to recently.

The Street Dogs were very good like always, they opened with a song off of their new album which gave me some mixed feelings but they always perform well live. They did very well for a warped tour set, also they played a cover of rise above and you all know my love of both cover songs and things involving Henry Rollins.

Ore Ska Band is a band I imagine you have not heard but should really look into. It is six early 20 something Japanese girls playing Ska. Do you need more convincing than that? If so you fail at life. They very much had fun on stage and were one of the more enjoyable bands of the day.

MC Chris I only saw a little bit of. He seems like a good performer but it was a little odd to see him just up on stage with just a backing track. He was funny but he didn't really fit in, he seems like he would be much more at home on another tour.

The Dollyrots were interestings, a girl fronted punk band from LA. I'm not sure how good they were, their live set was really kinda bad but they were kinda funny and seemed out of their element enough to give them a shot of buying a cd and a t-shirt. Also their shirts were kinda amusing. I'll listen to their album and give opinions later.

I also saw a bit of angels and airwaves, reel big fish and a bunch of shitty metal bands. I missed the horrorpops but saw kim nekroman and said they were good last time they were in lawrence.


Alright well Album comments

The Steinways: Gorilla Marketing

I love the Steinways, their first album was tremendously fun. This one I have a couple mixed feelings about. It's not quite as fast or nearly as funny. They tried to grow as a band and they succeeded but some of their songs reference their last album too much and I think that really detracted from the albums. It doesn't suck though and I need to listen to it more. To be honest I just have trouble saying

Street Dogs: State Of Grace

Again, this album doesn't suck, the street dogs are better than most any other bands out there, but right now I would rank this as my least favourite of their albums. It's just too mid-tempo. It's missing some of the really speedy energetic songs that really broke up their other albums. It feels slightly monotone. With the slower speed comes some more inventive guitar work which shows they are talented musicians but isn't exactly punk rock. Still they kick ass as a band and this album still is better than most. The last track free really pushes home the feeling I've had for a while that the street dogs could put out a badass acoustic album or e.p. at some point. I'd be all for that.