Girl at the Rock Shows

I don’t know why I feel so ashamed to admit that I’m a pop-punk princess. Maybe it’s because I fell so deep into the metal scene when I first started this blog or that my friends can give me a hard time about my teenage angst-leaning playlists. Whatever the reason, I’ve been afraid to wear my pop-punk princess flag loudly… until Friday night. The whole show wasn’t straight pop-punk. It was a perfect blend of pop-punk, skate-punk, and a more flannel-punk feeling vibe, making it the perfect way to spend a Friday night.

Kicking things off at The Green Room in Uptown Minneapolis was New York City-based MakeWar. This is where the flannel-punk comes in. I know that “flannel-punk” isn’t a mainstream term or anything like that. Honestly, I yanked it from the band’s website, but I feel like it describes the sound of MakeWar perfectly. It’s definitely pop-punk, but it has a bit of a grit behind it. The emo-leaning vocals come with charging guitars and slamming drums (performed by local The Slow Death / Arms Aloft drummer Jack Gribble) behind them, giving them this sense of swagger that you wouldn’t get from a more classic pop-punk band. That swagger was in the spotlight during their short thirty-five minutes on stage. I felt the grit, I felt the emotion, I felt it all, and by the end of MakeWar’s quick opening set, I was left feeling like it wasn’t an opening set at all. Something about the power and the conviction with which this band performed made the set feel more like a headlining set, but with a lineup as stacked as this one, that was no surprise.

My obsession with Mest started years ago. It was when Good Charlotte were the kings and my whole life revolved around guys in tight jeans and donning heavy black eyeliner. Although I associate Mest with that whole scene, they were a bit of an outlier. Their music was a bit poppier at times. It was the kind of music that made you want to dance while singing along with an undeniable sense of joy. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this band a couple of times since the heyday of this scene, and although the times have changed, one thing hasn’t- the pure excitement I feel when watching Mest.

With a new album out, I was afraid that this iconic pop-punk band would spend most of their set playing new songs that I couldn’t scream along to. I was wrong. Their twelve-song set started with “Rooftops” and ended with “Cadillac,” with a whole slew of nostalgia fit in between. Sure, we got to hear a couple of new ones, including their new single, “Hate You Sober,” but it was clear that I was not alone in only wanting to hear the more nostalgia-fueled tracks. Being lost in an audience of people around me singing along to the songs of my angsty youth made me feel more than I could possibly even attempt to put into words. I know this does nothing to help describe the feeling that I got as I watched Mest perform, but the truth is, this is one of those shows that I was selfishly at for myself. I wasn’t there for the blog, I wasn’t there for the photos (although catching multiple shots of this iconic band’s group jumps was a thrill), I was there to feel a spark, to feel that fire, to feel the love for music that, nearly thirty years later, I still have not gotten over. I got all of that and more.

Although I was excited to see all three of the bands performing on Friday night, I was definitely at this show for Mest. I hate saying that because, again, I was there to support all the bands, but by the time Mest was done, I had to step outside. I had to catch my breath and just gush over how amazing the set was with a new friend that I had made at the show (shout out to Ari for being such a kind and beautiful human– what a fun connection to make.) Unfortunately, this meant I lost my prime spot when it came to headlining act Teenage Bottlerocket, but with the amount of power this skate punk band brings to a stage, there wasn’t a bad spot in the oddly-intimate-for-this-big-of-a-tour venue.

The energy that comes off the stage while watching Teenage Bottlerocket is staggering. It’s the kind of energy that will knock you on your butt if you’re not ready for it. Typically, the audience will follow suit, churning and turning into a sweaty mess of limbs and lost shoes. Although the audience seemed oddly subdued for the Friday night show, the band was not. They gave us their all from jump after to jump to gritty filled word after word. It was a non-stop onslaught of songs as the band powered through a set of about twenty songs with a three-song encore. We heard their signature hits along with a couple of covers and even a small snippet of a Dillinger Four track. It was a down-and-dirty kind of set with no frills, no smoke and mirrors, and it was absolutely perfect.

I feel like I’ve let you all down with this post. I feel like I’ve let the bands down with this post. I feel like I just didn’t write the way I usually do in this one, but that’s okay. Much like how Tony Lovato (the vocalist of Mest) had a fan’s daughter crowd surf through a whole song (long story) to remind us of our youth, I was caught up in a haze of nostalgia and I just let myself hang there. It was the first night in a long time where it was me at a show. Not Girl at the Rock Shows covering a show, and that was truly magical.

Line Up:

MakeWar

Mest

Teenage Bottlerocket

Venue: Green Room

Smell-O-Meter: Nothing Notable

Average Age of the Crowd: 38

Crowd Surfers- 1

Stage Divers- 0

Mosh-ability- 3 out of 10

Amount of Beer Spilled On Me While Walking Around- 0

Broken Bones- None Noticed

Spotted Flying Through The Air- 1 Child

Fights- None Witnessed

Pukers- 0

Passed Out People- 0

Idiots Taken Out By Security – 0

How Many Times I’ve Seen These Bands Before (or at least how many times I can remember)-

MakeWar – 2

Mest – 2

Teenage Bottlerocket – 1

Celebrity Sightings – None

Overall Score – 10 out of 10

Show on Deck — LUNGS / Cobra Czar / Cymothoa / Tiger Blue

Shameless Self Promotion:

Join My Patreon Here!

Buy Me a Coffee (Seriously!)

Check out my playlist HERE!