ALL

ALL: live in Columbuslive in Columbus (2010)
live show

Reviewer Rating: 4.5

Contributed by: OverDefinedOverDefined
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on August 13th 2010This summer has been the summer of ALL and Descendents for me. I had always been a casual fan, but these bands' brand of quirky sophistication really clicked with me the past few months and their collective discography has been on shuffle-repeat nonstop. Knowing these bands have not been very active.

This summer has been the summer of ALL and Descendents for me. I had always been a casual fan, but these bands' brand of quirky sophistication really clicked with me the past few months and their collective discography has been on shuffle-repeat nonstop. Knowing these bands have not been very active lately, I was pretty surprised to see that ALL would be playing a show at local bar not known for booking these types of bands. As it turns out, an old friend of the band had come down with a life-threatening condition and the band flew in to Columbus just to play this one show as a benefit. While the show was a focused benefit, the entire evening was much more of a celebration capped off by a rare opportunity to catch a great and important band.

The first opener was Dirty Side Down, who are a dedicated throwback to '80s arena rock complete with long hair and ripping guitar solos. The band riffed and sang their way through a fun set that was as accurate to a bygone scene as anything I have ever seen. They were definitely weekend warriors for sure, but I would never knock people for doing something they so clearly love.

The next two bands, Children of Reagan and Legbone, were staples of the punk scene in central Ohio in the '90s. Children of Reagan brought back memories of high school for me with their mix of fast punk rock and occasional ska upstrokes. The lyrics were spit super fast and the band even looked the part with their Dickies shorts and T-shirts of '90s bands.

If Children of Reagan evoked '90s nostalgia, then Legbone was like actually going back in time. Fast NOFX drums, snarky vocals and a singer who wore a hat while aping Jim Lindberg's stage moves, it was like seeing a Fat Wreck band that never was. Well, maybe Honest Don's. Regardless, the band's sound was pleasingly thick and they even threw in a couple of covers including Fugazi's "Waiting Room" and a Tom Petty song that I've heard a million times but don't know the title (no, it wasn't "Free Fallin").

Finally, around 12:30 a.m., ALL began setting up while the winners of raffled items were announced. Following the awarding of items including some cool skateboards and T-shirts, ALL started their set with no fanfare, jumping straight into "Refrain" from 1998's Mass Nerder. I had been hoping they would play one of my favorites, "Million Bucks" from Pummel, and I was rewarded with it as the second song.

Chad Price stood center stage sans the super long hair and beard he had been sporting last time I saw him in person with Drag the River and carried the attention of the crowd as a true professional. There was little in-between-song banter as the band expertly performed its songs on what was likely borrowed equipment. Drummer Bill Stevenson was in especially fine form, showcasing once again why he is one of the best and most important drummers in punk rock history.

Those hoping to hear Descendents songs were rewarded with staple tracks "Coolidge" and "I Don't Wanna Grow Up." It was great hearing those songs, but probably does little to keep people from believing that the Descendents are the far superior band of the two--a view I think that too readily dismisses the greatness that is ALL.

As much as I love ALL, each of the band's albums contains highly skippable songs and unfortunately, this evening's set list was much the same way, with a few songs I would have left off. It was awesome to hear "She's My Ex," but I definitely could have done without "Vida Blue." All complaints aside though, it's not every day you get to see ALL in a small bar, so a few less than favorite songs are not a big deal.

Ultimately, this show made for a supremely fun evening. The benefit portion of the event was a success and a positive vibe permeated the entire night. ALL proved that even beyond being a great and legendary band, they are awesome people for flying out to Ohio just for this benefit.

All pictures by Jimmy Turri

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

allbutone (August 16, 2010)

I was at this show and it was fucking rad. Snodgrass had posted something about this on the Drag the River facebook page. Also, how do you not like Vida Blue? Awesome song. I thought the set was great, loved the Descendents songs, and really the only other song I really wanted to hear was Hate to Love. All is my favorite band, and getting to see them with Chad was amazing.

splendidtune (August 16, 2010)

Yeah honestly you'd think it'd be in "The Other Paper" or "Columbus Alive" or that you'd see posters for it at Magnolia or something. I didn't hear anything about it.

R3vengeTherapy (August 15, 2010)

@overdefined

That's a high horse you're on there, mind if you step down?

I don't believe you should have to be in tune with the local scene to be able to find out about a show involving a nationally-known band. You're making the local punk scene sound like it's a special club.

overdefined (August 15, 2010)

It was at the Ravari room. People knew about it. It was packed. At least 5 different people texted me about it, I saw the Facebook event, and I saw all kinds of old friends there. This was not a secret. Get connected with your local scene!

splendidtune (August 15, 2010)

Where in Columbus was this? I honestly don't think anyone knew about it haha.

overdefined (August 15, 2010)

To everyone who says they live in Columbus and didn't know about this show - if you had any involvement in the local scene whatsoever, you would have known about this show.

santosr (August 15, 2010)

I miss this.... Why they didnt announce early!!!

MN_DrNick (August 15, 2010)

Woah woah woah! How did I miss this show being announced? Anyways, looks like it was pretty awesome. Plus it's cool to see Chad Price doing vocals again. What's Scott Reynolds up to then since he was the current singer.

R3vengeTherapy (August 15, 2010)

What in the fucking hell? I have been wanting to see this band for 10 fucking years and they come to the city where I live and no one ever speaks a word about it??? And on top of that, it's a damn BENEFIT SHOW? Jesus H, I hope it sold out, because it would be a terrible shame if it didn't just because no one knew about it.

I almost feel legitimately cheated.

jmargs13 (August 14, 2010)

When the fuck was this show and how come nobody told me =(

pufferfish (August 14, 2010)

Post the pictures.

chadreligion (August 13, 2010)

Pretty short setlist... I took a picture of one from about 10-11 years ago, and it was twice as long, really.
Cool they did Descendents songs too.... when I saw them, they had Karl Alvarez sing Coolidge and Myage them and Chad Price on bass, Bill Stevenson on guitar and Stephen Egterton on drums. I even have pictures.... so dope

levi-dolphin (August 13, 2010)

I never heard about this or i would have been there. Damn. The world's on heroin.

Cos (August 13, 2010)

Do I see "Get The Time" on the setlist? Sort of an odd Descendents song to do, but it sound like an ALL song I guess.

DrGunn (August 13, 2010)

fuck, they canceled their NY show with scott. i would kill to see them with scott. i didn't realize chad was fronting them again. anyways, even though you didn't get to see them with scott, i'm still jealous and that set list is overall pretty strong.

rob_rob (August 13, 2010)

What! how did i not hear about this? The internet really let me down here.

ReducerSF (August 13, 2010)

I wonder when these guys are going to put up a new record.

Cos (August 13, 2010)

I wonder when the last time the band played with Chad was.

bastard_squad (August 13, 2010)

Miranda and Dot are two of my favorite songs. Not a bad set list at all. It's pretty funny to read 2010 as the 'summer of ALL' though.

notfeelingcreative (August 13, 2010)

Yeah, I thought scott was singing for them again? I'm in the minority that prefers Chad, though. Even though "She's my ex" is my favorite song.

Problematiclogic (August 13, 2010)

Pretty cool that this was with Chad. I thought most of (if not all) of the recent shows had been with Scott?