Strung Out, A Wilhelm Scream, I Am Ghost – Live (Aug. 17th, 2007)

As music from The Nightmare Before Christmas started to play through the speakers the crowd started moving to the stage in anticipation for the first band of the night. The soft music and the gloomy lights were a good introduction but as soon as I Am Ghost hit the stage there was a perceptible sigh in the crowd and many people turned away and headed to the beer gardens. The instant the band came on stage everyone knew what to expect: emo/screamo that Victory Records has been promoting heavily over the past few years despite they being on Epitaph Records. The fact that the singer looked exactly like Wil from Aiden didn’t really help much either. It’s not that they were bad, but I Am Ghost was just the wrong band to open up for Strung Out and A Wilhelm Scream. Their performance was pretty good, the drumming was great, the singer, while not having that strong a voice, was energetic albeit slightly stereotypical – really the only downside in their performance was that their guitarist seemed bored as hell and just the fact that it wasn’t the right band to open up an old school punk show.

After a short change over, A Wilhelm Scream hit the stage and finally it turned into a punk show. The band that Bill Stevenson calls “one in a million” came out and proved why they have that kind of respect. Ripping through songs like The Rip, Famous Friend & Fashion Drunk, Killing It, William Blake Overdrive, Me Vs. Morrissey In The Pretentiousness Contest, Less Bright Eyes, More Deicideand more the band played a set featuring a wide selection of songs. They even played the crowd a few new songs from their upcoming album, Career Suicide. The sound was perfect, the guitars ripped through the speakers as the drum kick got the pit moving and Nuno ran around the stage screaming into the mic with urgency. While they didn’t do anything above and beyond, the band was just consistently strong throughout their entire forty five minute set. The banter was slim but used in the right ways and it all added up for a very memorable show and the right opening act for Strung Out.

Being one of the most prominent names in skate punk for well over the past decade, Fat Wreck Chords‘ Strung Out drew a veteran punk crowd to the Dinwoodie Lounge and everyone knew every single song from the set. Opening with Blackhawks Over Los Angeles, the band played songs from their entire career and showed everyone that they still know how to rock even after all these years. Their polished skate punk fused with metal and insanely fast riffs was the perfect remedy for a summer night as the crowd pulsated with Jason Cruz and his band mates. Like A Wilhelm Scream before them, Strung Outdidn’t do any crazy gimmicks or anything outrageous. Instead, they just played their music fast, hard and strong. They didn’t hold anything back and neither did the crowd and the veteran punk band made it a real solid punk rock show that happens all too rarely.