Three weeks ago my buddy RCD and I went to the Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Festival at the Expo Centre here in Edmonton. This show was originally supposed to be an outdoor festival on the grounds of the Expo Centre, but because of our shitty weather here this summer it was moved indoors. This is the second time I have gone to what was supposed to be an outdoor show at this venue only to have it moved indoors (first one being Sonic Boom in 2011) and both times it never did rain. The Expo Centre is a terrible venue for a concert. The sound was awful unless you were within 30 yards of the front of the stage, any further away and the sound was terrible.
A cool part of this festival was the craft beer. Between noon and 4pm there were free samples of beer from about 30 different craft beer breweries. So we indulged as did many others. But at 4 o'clock, that was it, they closed down that part of the hall and now it was into the concert hall part where they sold Labatt products, that were stupid expensive and included lining up for 40 fucking minutes to get a damn beer.
We missed the first band of the day The Last Gang. I had seen them once before opening for Swingin' Utters last fall and didn't much care for them. They were on at 3pm, so we stayed in the beer hall and sampled more beers.
The first band we caught were Chixdiggit from Calgary. This band has been around for close to thirty years, yet I had never seen them live before. Not sure how many are original members in the band anymore, but lead singer KJ Jansen who I know is the original singer and guitarist sounded great. I enjoyed their set.
Chixdiggit.
Next up was Gainesville, Florida ska punk band Less Than Jake. This would be my third time seeing LTJ in concert. I've always been a fan of the band and was looking forward to seeing them again. I haven't bought an album of theirs since 1998's Hello Rockview, so I didn't know all their songs. But the ones I did recognize were "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts", "All My Best Friends Are Metal Heads", "Last One Out Of Liberty City" and "Look What Happened". They had the crowd dancing, and the band looked to be having a good time. I enjoyed their set as well.
Less Than Jake.
The third band we saw was Los Angeles band Bad Religion. This would be my second time seeing them in concert. I'm more a fan of these guys now then I was back in the day. Their set was rocking from start to finish with the band covering songs from their whole discography. There seemed to be at least one song from every album, or it seemed that was anyways. Opening the show with the song "Fuck Armageddon... This Is Hell" from their very first album. By the time Bad Religion hit the stage the crowd had swelled, and was probably the biggest crowd of the night for these guys. Other songs played that I knew were "The Dichotomy", "Suffer", "21st Century (Digital Boy)", "Sorrow" and "The Handshake" plus many others. I really liked their set and was my favourite of the night.
Bad Religion.
Headlining the festival was NOFX, whom the festival is named after "Punk In Drublic" which is the name of their 1994 album, making this tour the 25th anniversary of said album. This would be my second time seeing the band in concert. Fat Mike who is the bassist and lead singer of the band and also owns the record label Fat Wreck Chords, in which all the bands at this festival have released an album on the label.
Fat Mike as is known for came out on stage wearing a dress, which was no surprise as that seems to be his stage wear nowadays. I really am just not a fan of NOFX. There songs are kind of juvenile and I don't find the band to be all that talented. And from where we were standing, which was aways back the sound was awful. There was a big crowd in front of the stage eating it up, but RCD and I weren't one of them. We left about two thirds of the way through their set, and as we were leaving, it looked like we weren't the only ones. So I have to say, didn't much care for them.
NOFX.
All and all it was fun night out, but think it would have been a whole lot better had the show been staged outside like it was supposed to be. Good times!!!
T-shirt front.
Back.
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