Pennywise

Pennywise w/ The Riverboat Gamblers, Authority Zero, and Fifty Stars Anger
September 5, 2010 at Metropolis
Montreal, Quebec

Pennywise live at Metropolis in Montreal on September 4, 2010

I’m not the hugest Pennywise fan, and admittedly I’m not incredibly familiar with much of their catalogue. I had a copy of 1995′s About Time until I had to sell it during the Great CD Purge of 1998 where I had to unload a bunch of my music to pay my rent. It wasn’t until 2008′s Reason to Believe came out that I paid attention to them again. But having seen them live a couple of times I did remember that they did put on a great show.

But the real reason I went was that I am a big fan of  Zoltán Téglás, their new singer. His vocal work with Ignite is nothing short of electric. While previous singer Jim Lindberg’s voice was okay, I found it a little dry and not always up to the task. I was hoping Téglás would add a whole new dimension to the traditional Pennywise sound.

I missed Fifty Stars Anger and only saw a little of Authority Zero, but the Riverboat Gamblers I was interested in seeing only because I have friends who rave about them but I have found their records unexciting. One thing you can say about them is that they took the stage like headliners, just totally owned the room for their entire 45-minute set. While impressed by their energy it took me a while to get into them. Their last few songs were the definite highlight of their set for me. I will need to give them a closer listen.

Pennywise started up with “Every Single Day” from the aforementioned About Time and while Téglás’ singing is perfectly suited to Pennywise’s quick thrashy HC, what I noticed is that his vocal range is much higher than Lindberg’s was and the band hasn’t re-keyed their music to accommodate their new singer. The result is that they have a singer with a powerful upper range that they weren’t exploiting to its potential. Hopefully, they will develop their new material with this in mind.

After hearing some energetic versions of “Peaceful Day”, “Society”, and “Living for Today”, and watching them enagage in meaningful interaction with the crowd during “Fuck Authority” I realized that the reason I’ve always been so ambivalent about their records and why I love their live show is that they have never come close to capturing the spirit and energy of their music on their records. To truly experience Pennywise you must see them live.

Having said that, I know it was made with the best of intentions, but we must also hold them accountable for the “Bro Hymn“, a tune that was once about friendship and has become the soundtrack for every loud drunken fratboy who ever started a fight on the subway at 2 a.m.

But I guess no one is perfect.