Starring: The Misfits (Jerry Only, Dez Cadena and Robo), Osaka Pop Star (with Marky Ramone), The Adicts, UK Subs, Juicehead, and Orange.
My friend Kate went to a concert over the summer (Taking Back Sunday I believe) and was able to get 5 (free) tickets to Fiend Fest at the House of Blues in Atlantic City and unfortunately was unable to go, so she asked me of all people if I would like them. Obviously the answer was yes, as I just returned (not even half an hour ago), from one of the most kick-*** concerts I've ever been to.
While the turn-out was pretty small for a concert starring the Misfits (though the crowd grew through the evening), it was a reasonably well-balanced mix between punk kids (as in the actual style) and us normal people who just like the music. Very few fights, and nothing really distracted from the concert as a whole (a few fights, but they were broken up quickly; HOB is really finicky about that stuff at concerts).
In any case, Orange and Juicehead I had never heard of before, and they played first (one after another) and were pretty much warm-up bands and only played six songs each. I didn't particulary like either of them due to the fact that I could barely hear any of the lyrics and that the guitarists pretty much just slammed power chords the whole time, so there was nothing really to catch my attention. Nonetheless, it was a good start to a soon to be awesome show.
The UK Subs played shortly after Juicehead had finished, but surprised everyone by playing the same amount of songs (which is really strange considering how old the UK Subs are and how many albums they've put out). In either case, we were baffled by them and just considered it another warm-up.
Next, the Adicts played, and I have got to say that they are one of the funnest bands to watch play and to be in the crowd of when they perform. I had never actually listened to the Adicts before, but my friend Keaton assured me they were awesome, and indeed they were. Keith (the lead singer) wore an outlandish white suit with what looked like zebra stripes on the pants (and by the end of the first few songs was down to just the pants), and shot off streamers into the crowd, threw glitter and sparkly crap, confetti, playing cards, and before their second to last song threw a bunch of randomly sized beach balls into the crowd. I read that their outfits (all white, black combat boots, and bowler hats) are based somewhat off A Clockwork Orange which I have no objection to.
What really got me from the Adicts, is that they started AND ended with Ode to Joy (lead played by the violinist/keyboardist Dan Gratziani, who rocks) which really got everyone pumped up, because it's just one of those songs. Alright, I admit all I kept thinking was "End of the Century" (the DDR song), so sue me.
Anyway, after the Adicts amazing performance Osaka Pop Star played. Now, this was another band I never heard of and from the way everything spoke of them that I read, it made them seem like some kind of Japanese band. However, this was misleading, as it happened that Osaka Pop Star is actually a supergroup! And you know, not one of those ****ty ones either, because if you put John Cafiero, Jerry Only, Dez Cadena, Ivan Julian, and Marky Ramone together...only good can come of it. In any case, they played most of the songs from their (only) album "Osaka Popstar and the American Legends of Punk", but the one that stuck out the most was the fact that they did a punk version of the Sailor Moon theme. To which I moshed. I'm not ashamed.
Alright, maybe a little.
And in any case, my longass rant finally comes to a close with the introduction of the Misfits. It was ironic, because Keaton and I were discussing our favorite Misfits' songs and both agreed Halloween was our favorite, and what did Jerry want to do first? Halloween of course. I mean, sure, it was probably because Halloween was in about half an hour, but it still was cool to us. Even before they started playing, everyone immediatly crowded to the front, and Jerry barely gave us a break between songs, about ten seconds where he ended the song, said the name of the next one, and counted to three. The mosh pit went insane when songs off American Psycho began to play, and Jerry even stopped after playing "American Psycho" to note at one of the guy's that got in a fight "Everytime we play that song somebody goes crazy." and than immediatly dove into another song.
Most of the performance was strictly playing, but Jerry did entertain the crowd a bit, but not nearly as much as the Adicts got us involved. Either way, he still put on one Hell of a show (and even stayed afterwards for about half an hour to sign autographs and shake hands, pretty cool guy).
In any case, for all of you tl;dr folks: kickass concert, go see them if you get the chance or else you'll have to wait till 2009.