Lagwagon / The Briefs / The Runaway Kids / Pears @ Fremont Country Club

Written by Karl Bakla.

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Rough past two weeks for Rock ‘n’ Roll, we lost Dickie Hammond (Leatherface), Brandon Carlisle (Teenage Bottlerocket), Filthy Animal Phil (Motörhead), & we almost lost Dr. Know (Bad Brains) …so turn their tunes up, the music they gave us lives on!

Flyer from Facebook

With that stated I went to see Lagwagon last night, let me correct that I went to see Pears play last night & Lagwagon just happened to be on the line up. This might sound strange but for the past 23 or so years I have gone to several Lagwagon concerts, but never seen them play, maybe they are amazing, I dunno!

Got to the show just as the doors opened & I couldn’t help notice how empty the show was. 20 years ago there would have been a line wrapped around the Huntridge if Lagwagon was playing… shortly after I entered the venue the Pears started their set. There is a lot of hype behind this band & usually that just leads me to disappointment, but not tonight! The Pears did not disappoint, even though the room was cold & empty the Pears brought some much needed energy, it also helped that most of the people up front seemed to know all the words to the songs. If you haven’t check out their album Go To Prison, check it out! The songs sound even better live… Pop Punk, Hardcore, both labels apply! By the way, does the singer of the Pears do yoga? He has some amazing moves and kicks shit up several notches!

Next up was the Runaway Kids and they fucking sucked, I wondered whose filthy butthole they licked to get onto the show. If you like Strung Out, you might like this band. The singer sings & they have hints of 90’s mall Punk. For further proof that this bands sucks, just take a look at their Facebook page (click here), one of their members wears a Limp Bizkit shirt, sure that guy will probably beat me up, but so what. I’d rather get my ass handed to me than listen to Nu-Metal or whatever the fuck you call it.

I would like to take a moment and say fuck this venue! I can’t believe people that are 18 years old that pay full price for a ticket have to stand in a small pen on the side of the venue, while people that are 21+ get to stand right in front of the stage but are expected to pay 24 bucks for a double whiskey… I really felt that we are there to buy drinks and the music really didn’t matter. Now don’t get me mistaken, I know they are running a business and have to make some money, but this place was douchie as hell, the only thing douchier were the guys from Punks In Vegas. I’d like to thank Punks In Vegas for their continued commitment to making Punk Rock safe! I noticed that Punks In Vegas has some shit on New Noise Magazine, fuck that magazine it is lame as fuck. If someone handed me New Noise when I was twelve I probably would have passed over Punk for something else.

Next up were The Briefs. Sure the bulk of the crowd didn’t seem to care, but there were quite a few people up front that were excited that they were playing, especially the guy that looked like Rob Schneider. Sure I am not familiar with the bulk of the Briefs discography but I love their Hit After Hit LP & I was stoked they played Silver Bullet & closed their set with Poor & Weird!

Next up were Lagwagon, but it wouldn’t be a Lagwagon show if I stayed to watch them play, so I left and headed out to Roberto's. It’s funny I don’t hate Lagwagon & I actually like a few of their songs, I just never really cared for the white trash tweeker skateboarder types that seemed attracted to them, sure most of those types don’t go to shows any more, but traditions are traditions!

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