MxPx, Relient K, Less Than Jake, and Smoking Popes concert

I got to do something fun yesterday. I drove to the Los Angeles area to go to a MxPx, Relient K, Less Than Jake, and Smoking Popes concert at the Hollywood Palladium. I had heard about the concert months ago, and I was pretty interested. I really like Relient K and MxPx, I had heard of Less Than Jake, no clue about Smoking Popes, and so I wanted to see about going. Well, I wasn’t sure about going on my own. I tried to find someone in the Phoenix area that would be interested in going, but after a few months I found no one that was interested. So, I had kind of given up on the idea of going, but then I reached out to my former college roommate, Mike, and asked him. He lives in southern California so I thought we could meet up. He said yes.

So, yesterday morning I had a haircut and then got in my car and drove to his place of work where we met up. It was a good drive and took just under 6 hours to get there. We went to get some food and then headed to the concert. The show started at 7pm.

First was Smoking Popes. They are a puck band in the vein of MxPx from Chicago. I must say I was pretty impressed with their set. They played for about 20 minutes, and I enjoyed their sound. I may look them up some more and see what I think of them overall.

Then I expected Less Than Jake, because the poster for the concert had them at just above Smoking Popes on the list, but NOPE, Relient K came out next. For those that don’t know them they have a pop/lite punk sound to them. They played a good set of just over 20 minutes. They hit many of the big hits. It wasn’t a great showing of theirs (I think this is the 7 or 8 time I have seen them now) but it was a good set. They did a mellow cover of Move to Bremerton by MxPx o that was kind of fun. Here was the set list:

• Be my escape
• High of 75
• Forget and not slow down 
• I Don’t Need a Soul
• Cover of Move to Bremerton by MxPx
• Who I am hates who I’ve been
• Silly Song about how Matt T (lead singer) broke his toe at a Less Than Jake concert in a mosh pit
• Sadie Hawkins Dance

Then Less Than Jake came out. They are a ska-punk band. I couldn’t have named any songs by them before the show, and truthfully I didn’t recognize any of the songs they played during the show. They had a great third wave ska sound, but I didn’t care of any of the songs overall. Also, one of the lead members said the “f-word” in between every song just while making statements. I don’t mind swearing all that much, but it was totally unnecessary so that bothered me (and there were quite a few young kids in the crowd as well). Oh well. I was unimpressed overall. (oh and this was my view for this part of the concert)

Then it was time for MxPx. One reason I really wanted to go to this concert was because I have listened to them for most of my life, and I have been to a lot of concerts and music festivals, but I don’t think I had ever seen them live before. I got to see Mike Herrera (the lead singer) in Mesa once doing an acoustic set which was pretty cool, but never the whole band.

Well, they did not disappoint. They played a lot of their hits and many of the songs off their most recent albums. Mike engaged the crowd well, and once thing I really liked was that Mike announced the name of every song before it was played. That made writing out the set list a lot easier. All the guys performed well. The show started with Mike doing his big guitar throw where he and another guy each throw a guitar into the air across the stage and they each catch the other one. It was cool to see.

Here was the set list for the MxPx show:

• Not today
• Fear a little failure
• Party at my house
• Tomorrow is another day
• Ready to rage
• Play it loud
• Secret weapon
• I heard that sound
• Doing time 
• Cautious Optimistic 
• Middlename
• My mom still cleans my room
• Theme fiasco
• Stay up all night 
• Invitation to understanding 
• Can’t keep waiting
• Wrecking hotel rooms
• Darkest places 
• San Dimas high school football rules – by ataris (lead singer was there)
• GSF
• Call me
• Chicken magnet
• Responsibility 
• Let’s ride
• Friday night
• Better late than never
• Punk rawk show

There was a circle (mosh) pit going during Less Than Jake and MxPx most of the time. I stayed out this time (getting way too old for that). The concert ended about 11:15

My friend Mike said he enjoyed the show overall as well. I was glad we had the opportunity to do this. I hadn’t seen him since college.

Afterwards we headed back to his work to drop me off at my car. I slept in the back of my car for a few hours, and then drove back hoke today. I was gone for about 25 hours. It was a blast and I am very glad I did it.