Pennywise, Old Man Markley, Nations Afire - A 25 year celebration with Pennywise

This year, Pennywise exists 25 years and so far they have celebrated it with the comeback of leadvocalist Jim Lindberg. Of course the band wanted to tour and celebrate this with the fans as well. Today the band would play in Amsterdam, together with punkrock act Nations Afire and the punk-influenced band Old Man Markley.

When Nations Afire started their first song, it was like the lead vocalist couldn’t reach any notes and tried to find a nice balance between the vocals and his guitar. It seemed like they changed the vocalist when the second song started, because he turned out to be a steady vocalist with a powerful voice. Nevertheless, the band became slightly boring after a few songs, because all their songs sounded alike. Only two people moved around the venue during this band and it wasn’t that crowded yet, either. Next time the sound could also be a little better, because the instruments sounded much louder than the vocals. Not a very good start, but the opening band could have been much worse.

Now a completely different band entered the stage: punk-influenced bluegrass band Old Man Markley. Armed with instruments like a washboard, a banjo, an autoharp, a cello, a fiddle, a mandolin, an acoustic guitar and a drum kit, the band was ready to play. The band played really tight and surprised friend and foe with their highly enjoyable music. There were some people jumping happily around to the music and the band seemed to enjoy itself even more. Only a few people had heard of this band before, but most of them could sing along to their single “For Better For Worse”. Other songs, like “Party Shack” were also very fun and nice to hear. Although every single member of the band is a very good vocalist, most songs sound alike. Therefore, some people became a little bored. Nevertheless, the sound was much better during this performance and it was a decent show.

Then it was time for the headliner of this evening and everyone became really excited. The 30-something-year-old fans with matching old Pennywise shirts took over the front of the venue just before the band started. Because the band decided to play older songs, many of them were sang along. They started with “Wouldn’t It Be nice” from their very first record. Even though the venue wasn’t completely packed, the evening was full of crowdsurfing and the moshpit went on and on. The band played really tight and it was very nice to see this band live again. However, they also showed that they can be a very bad coverband when they played a bit of AC/DC’s “TNT”. Although this was one of the worst covers I’ve seen and heard, the moshpit just kept going and everyone was enjoying themselves. Tonight the fans also got a very nice surprise in the shape of a cover of “Territorial Pissings” by Nirvana. Furthermore, the band played many older songs as mentioned before. Just a few of those songs were: “My Own Country”, “Can't Believe It” and “Same Old Story”. The band left the stage after about 85 minutes, but everybody knew what was coming and started singing the ’Oooooohhhs’. However, the band came back to perform their version of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” first, which was followed, of course, by the one and only “Bro Hymn”. It was a very nice night with many good songs and enough movement to keep everyone happy for the next few days!

Details Written on Thursday May 16th, 2013
Writer @Tukker

Tags: #pennywise #old man markley #nations afire #punk #punkrock #punk-rock #bluegrass #melkweg #amsterdam

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