Nerf Herder/Up Syndrome/Never Heard Of It

live in Anahiem, CA (2002)

WussEmoRock

Chain Reaction, a small club that has a max cap. of 252 people is located in Anaheim, California and has been around for 5 years. To celebrate, they are having 3 secret shows, last night was Thrice (hardcore), tonight was Indie Rock (well none of the bands really were) and tomorrow night is Ska. All 3 shows are suppose to be secret but the first 2 shows the bands names leaked out.

With that in mind, I knew what I was in store for. In order of apperance, Never Heard of It, Up Syndrome, Nerf Herder, and Sugarcult. I knew right away that I would be leaving before Sugarcult, because if any of you read my review of the Less Than Jake show a week ago, you will understand why.

I had never been to the Chain Reaction before, and it really is a hole in the wall, but what a cool hole in the wall it is. First up at 8 was Never Heard of It, a local band (although who tours the U.S. quite often) from West Covina, who put on a great set of pop punk songs. They played everything off of their most recent release, "Limited Eedition." If you want to check them out download the songs "No Regrets" or the cover song "Buttercup." Not many people got very involved in their set, but that was the case with most all the bands the whole night thru. A group of 5 dumbshit mother fuckers (excuse me for my language, they just really pissed me off) thought tonight was an indie rock show so they didn't like any of the bands, so when they weren't yelling "you suck" they were dancing/playing tag/dancing retarted/rolling on the ground/just being plain dumb (I hope someone from the show reads this so they can second what I am saying). Trust me, it was very annoying, to the bands and the fans.

Luckily, after Up Syndrome, they got a clue and left. Now Up Syndrome, boy were they fun to watch. I only knew the first 2 songs they played which dissapointed me, but never the less they put on an outstanding set playing "The Jackson 5 Were Wrong," and many other great ones. It seemed most everyone was at the show to see them, being that it was their area, O.C. They had a midget come out and introduce them which was really cool, and they have the worlds nicest guitarist named Big John who has a crazy looking mohawk, who really knows how to put on a great show for the crowd along with the newest addition to the band, the bassist, and Chris their singer who runs around in the pit singing with the crowd. During their last song, they ahd everyone come up on stage who wanted to, to help them sing it. Everyone check out this band!!!

Everyone look out!!! Nerf Herder is now up!!! Hell yes, one of my favorite bands playing a show with now less than 100 people still at it. Very cool if you ask me. They played "Jacket," "Welcome to My World," and "High Fi Anxiety" from their neswest album "American Cheese." They also played the crowd favorites "Van Halen," "Courntey Love," "Sorry," and the hilarious song "Love Sandwich." Big John from U.S. came back out on stage for "Pantera fans in Love" to play guitar for Perry, which was really cool. They are now going on the Punk O Rama Tour, and should be back stated Perry when I talked to him sometime around December. Oh, and if the girl who gave me the drum stick from Nerf Herder is reading this, thank you very much, you rock!!!

Sugarcult is horrible, so I left and went home. Well, let me rephrase that, they are really nice guys even though some people think that they are jerks, but their music for an hour would be just too much. Especially twice in 2 weeks.

Overall, this show was well worth it, and it was awesome no one was there even though it was sold out. It sucked that the Chain Reaction staff were being such pricks and not letting anyone even go outside for a second, I had to have Big John from U.S. go out to my car and get my wallet for me since he could go in and out, that was my only complaint of the whole night, no ins and outs.