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Epitaph Records -- Millencolin

The drunken antics of the Lawrence Arms > you.

But before we get to the ramblin' boys of pleasure, we should discuss the trio of supporting bands that opened things up for them.

Dead Ellington basically played hard and fast punk. Even though I have no one in mind to name drop for comparisons, they weren't too original, or good for that matter, but blood wasn't leaking from my ears, so no complaints here.

It seemed as though Every Forty Seconds had a small but loyal following. They reminded me of new-school Hot Water Music but faster and with clearer guitar work. Their layered vocal dynamics did well for them as well.

Minneapolis's The Cardinal Sin sounded a lot like the Alkaline Trio. They definitely stole the opening riff of "Goodbye Forever" for the intro of one of their own songs. Vocally, there was this certain Tim Kasher-like quality present. It seemed like the band had potential, just needing a solid dose of originality to make them good.

But it was then that The Larry Arms took the stage. Brendan slurred his way through a speaking introduction about five minutes too long, and then the band appropriately jumped into "Alert the Audience!" From there, the crowd up front was compact and raising their fist to every literature reference, every bitter anthem, and every booze-inflicted word. TLA basically flip-flopped between new songs and older goodies, and it mixed well. At one point, someone demanded to know "What the hell is this? I came to see the Alkaline Trio!" All our friendly neighborhood alcoholic bassist could do was smirk and give a small, sarcastic retort to lighten up the already comedic mood. Brendan requested that we all sing along to "this next song" at another point, for we are all the ramblin' boys of pleasure. He stuck his face into the crowd to yell the words along with us (as he did most of the set), joining in the literal barroom companionship. "On With the Show" was a minute-long firecracker of energy that exploded from each person there, while "Brick Wall Views" caused a chant-along for its finish. The atmosphere turned sour when two girls attacked the bouncer and cops were called, with the venue, T.T the Bears, ending the show early. After TLA played one last song with the house lights on and were thus informed of the situation, Brendan thanked the crowd for coming and very calmly (seriously) cussed out the place for "not caring about the artist." It was good to see that they were as angry as us; but my blood didn't start to boil until I read the set list and discovered that they would've played arguably their two most emotional songs, "The Raw and Searing Flesh" and "The Revisionist," and "The Disaster March" as a perfect closer if not for the unfortunate circumstances.

Nonetheless, I had myself some fun and can hopefully catch them next time with a full set.

SET LIST
The Lawrence Arms [this is straight from the paper, and roughly the first two-thirds of it was played]
ALert
BAReLy
PorNo
Drunkmouth
Quincentuple
FAintLy
telephone
BrIck
Another
Revisionist
RAmblin
Plz
Detention
Flesh
DISAster






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    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 at 12:26 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    the cardinal sin is a great band...about 2 seconds sound like goodbye forever but the song sounds NOTHING like it....must be crazy..they are a very great band and are almost as good as the trio

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 6:28 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    This score if for the Larry Arms. Any band that can pull off a great live show with one or more drunk members should be in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

    Posted by esper on 2004-03-18 12:18:00
    My Score:

    the larry arms are amazing. i'm salty they didn't come to philly. i was trying to get them a show, but i had no luck. looks like a good setlist...

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 8:07 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    they made a 'little' deal about the show number and shit, anyway, cincinnati show wasn't so good but they did end with nebraska :)

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at 1:05 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    the larry arms are the kings of everything

    Posted by 8dollarclarinetsolo on 2004-03-17 23:38:52
    My Score:

    i was at 601 and 602 too but i only saw the last 2 songs off 602. i heard they sucked at the cincinnati show, but find it hard to believe. confirm or deny?
    also i think plz is actually pt2 for right as rain. and im suprised they would play another boring story but alright

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 at 8:20 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    I heard that the Larry Arms don't know how to read. Is that true?

    Posted by punkinohio on 2004-03-17 19:45:12
    My Score:

    I was at 601 which was sweet! and 602 where they were also amazing, but the crowd anywhere around cincinnati at smaller venues sucks. Especially that place in kentucky, fucking the most boring shows ever there.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 at 12:52 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    I saw these dudes last night, with Mike Park. It was one of the best shows I've seen in a very very very very long time.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 8:53 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    I think the dude from the Cardinal Sin kind f sounds like the Davey from the Promise Rings singing in key. Show 596 in Port Jervis. Bad city/good times.

    Posted by kirbypuckett on 2004-03-16 20:45:01
    My Score:

    Oh yeah, the fact that Cardinal Sin gives away Pillow Cases w/ a purchase is FUCKIN' AWESOME!

    - Kirby

    Posted by kirbypuckett on 2004-03-16 20:43:36
    My Score:

    I was at show number *600* too!

    w00t!

    Why don't you Pittsburgh PN.o'rs say what's up to Kirby Puckett next time!

    I swear that night was "None More Black Shirt" night.

    One guy from Clearview had one, Neil from LA had one, I was wearing one and I think I noticed someone else.

    Hmm.

    Good show, not enough people.

    - Kirby

    Posted by Fuzzy on 2004-03-16 18:38:49
    My Score:

    I'm looking at my copy of the demo right now. It says Contact us at: thecardinalsin_01@yahoo.com coming soon thecardinalsin.com

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 6:33 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i was wondering if anyone knew where one could acquire this cardinal sin record. i saw them in chicago last summer and haven't been able to find if they have recorded anything. please help me out

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 6:03 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    good split

    Posted by AmericanIdle on 2004-03-16 16:43:44
    My Score:

    Another is probably Another Boring Story from the split with Shady View Terrace.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 4:28 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i was at the show *cough*#600*cough* in pittsburgh... there were maybe 20some people there max.
    the cardinal sin definitely sounds like alk3, but for $1 their demo is really good... hell, for a regular priced cd it's really good

    i grabbed the setlist, it was:
    dancin
    barely
    porno
    drunk mouth
    quincentuple
    ch. 13
    telephone
    brick
    ramblin
    revisionist
    detention
    flesh
    dis aster

    but they didn't do one, i forget which, and played turnstyles instead

    Posted by 8dollarclarinetsolo on 2004-03-16 16:19:24
    My Score:

    that is odd, they usually do play 1 off of each, but only one. and they say faintly falling ashes counts as the ghost stories song. as for that set list, does anyone know what 'another' refers to? or plz?

    Posted by CrankWillDestroy on 2004-03-16 16:00:25
    My Score:

    Yea, I was really dissapointed when they were in town and didnt play a single song off of AGTOC or Ghost Stories.

    Posted by dazed on 2004-03-16 14:58:43
    My Score:

    They didn't play anything older than the Present Day Memories split when I saw them in January.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 2:17 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    fuck you goddamn Americans and your Lawrence Arms tours. Makes me sick. A good friend of mine named Denis Lemeiux summed up my disdain for Americans simply with "The Hare Make Me Sick! PUUKE!" Good Setlist tho, maybe I'll see them touring Canada in 05'?

    Barkley

    Posted by sloppyblake on 2004-03-16 14:13:49
    My Score:

    the cardinal sin is the new cadillac blindside band. they are better than half of the bands out there. you'll agree once you hear the album, asshat.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 2:10 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Are you kidding me? Every Forty Seconds was a conglomeration of every single "nu-emo" band ever. Between the uninspired "metal" elements, the screaming in awkward places where it doesn't belong, the same vocal harmonies that are used in every song(which only work when they harmonize to the key of the song), and just about every other stereotype to a bad emo band, I couldn't do anything but laugh by the time they got off the stage. By no means comparable to Hot Water Music, who destroys them.

    As for the Cardinal Sin, i thought the same thing in regards to the Alk3 similarities. There was also a bit of Lifetime in there, too. I still thought they were really good, though, especially after the other openers.

    The Lawrence Arms were simply amazing. Seeing that playlist does make me pretty angry though, I love the Revisionist and Disaster March. I don't know who to blame for the early closing, though. I think the club handled it well enough, and the police were the ones being jerks. They didn't need to make everyone leave,as they already had the 2 girls and the bouncer outside, and I'm sure the club didn't want that to happen either. I'm still bitter.

    -duped

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 1:32 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    /me is really tired of these stupid fanboy show reviews.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 1:08 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i'm so pissed i was on spring break when they played pittsburgh. oh well. the coolest night of my life is still when they slept at my apt. after their plea for peace show in pittsburgh a year and a half ago. damn that was fun.too bad at that time only about 5 other people knew who they were in the crowd. but killing a 30 of pbr with bren and my roomate was absolutely the funnest night ever. except for when they all started telling me i was a homosexual...

    as for cutting them off its good to see bren got pissed. he's one pissed smart drunk dude.

    poopypants

    Posted by Fuzzy on 2004-03-16 12:18:16
    My Score:

    That's fucking bizarre, because one of the opening bands in Columbus covered Say Anything!

    Posted by inagreendase on 2004-03-16 12:11:02
    My Score:

    It was 598. I forget to mention a lot of things when I review, like how the first band covered "Hopeless Romantic."

    Posted by Fuzzy on 2004-03-16 12:08:23
    My Score:

    The show I reviewed in Columbus was the *cough* 601st show. The Cardinal Sin's demo is really good.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 11:54 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    What's a Lawrence Arms show review without the all important show number?

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