First of all, I'm pretty damn haggard from moshing and boozin', and I gotta work tomorrow morning so this review was submitted in haste.
I skipped all pop-punk and emo bands like Yellowcard, New Found Glory, Coheed and Cambria, Story of The Year, blah blah blah, I "strongly dislike" that crap... I only had the energy to get up close for 6 bands, as well as a local band, "Unlabeled", friends of mine from Nanaimo who played the Ernie Ball stage. They have a developing punk-rock style influenced from the likes of Good Riddance and Bad Religion.
Alright enough jibba jabba, first band I moshed to was Rise Against... they kicked ass and played expected tunes from 'Revolutions Per Minute' such as: Heaven Knows, Black Masks and Gasoline, Halfway There etc... "Give it All" was a rowdy sing along for the anti-bush crowd, everyone went ballistic for their new song "State of the Union", which sounded faster and more hardcore than most of the other songs they played. I for one am really looking forward to that record.
Alot of the bands talked Anti-Bush and without a doubt most of the punks were in agreement. After all, we are in Canada, we lack brainwashing.
Right away The Bouncing Souls were up next, they teased the crowd with the intro to "Ole!' but played into "Sing Along Forever", also played "Kids and Heros", "Anchors Away", "Hopeless Romantic", "True Believers" and many others. Some of the guys in the band looked pretty drunk and to me it looked like they played all the songs spontaneously without a set list, word to your moms.
We took a break and relaxed in the true BC way.
Atmosphere and The Vandals were playing at the same time, and not being a huge Vandals fan I went for Atmosphere, and I have to say I was right impressed. I didn't really get into the hand waving thing and the funboy antics, but I was blown away the whole group, the beats were amazing and comparable to DJ Premier (in my opinion). Slug is a passionate and gifted MC, his freestyling, ad-libbing lyrics, and humour definately turned me into a fan. Dissed George W.
Anti-Flag. Many people thought they stole the show, not for me, that was NOFX, but they still floored it. Set list included "Die For Your Government", "Fuck Police Brutality", "911 For Peace", "Got The Numbers", "Turncoat", "Death of a Nation" and more... I was impressed by the following Anti-Flag now has, not a huge fan of their CDs, but as a live show it kicked ass. They ranted about "fuck bush", every second word was fuck. They're hella angry, but with good cause. It's gutsy to speak up like that, if only we weren't so lazy and self-centered, ah well.
Fat Mike after Thursday finished: "Well that was Thursday everyone, earlier we had Taking Back Sunday, today's Tuesday, and here's... Thank God It's Monday!" But Mike was just being a goof, and they didnt play it. He was pretty drunk and surly the whole set. He was drinking Beck's beer, and warped "tour water". They played some rarer tunes like a punked up version of "Scavenger Type", which totally blew me away; the highlight of all the songs I heard that day. Except for maybe "Don't Call Me White" the crowd surged with energy when that tune blared. Amazing but almost ska-free set list included: "Freedom Like A Shopping Cart", "Hobophobic", "6 Pack Girls", "Stickin' in My Eye", "Drugs Are Good", "Franco Un-American" , "Reeko" and the closer sing-along "Idiot Son of An Asshole". Nothing like a spirited anti-Bush sing-along.
Bad Religion was next and last. "The Smartest Punk Band" as declared by Fat Mike. I saw these guys only once before in 2002 and I wasn't a huge fan at the time, I didn't know what I was missing, being the youngin' I was. Highly energetic set included "Overture/Sinister Rouge", "God's Love", "LA is Burning", "Kyoto Now", "American Jesus", "Generator", "Infected", "Suffer", and a few more. Great way to end an awesome day, crowd surfed my way out duing the last song "Epiphany". Anti-Bush all day.
Too bad there was no ska, but nonetheless an awesome show.