Bouncing Souls/Anti-Flag/The Arsons

live in Philadelphia (2002)

Due to a ridiculously 'round the block line and some flyering that needed
doing i unfortunately missed the af records' band pipedown and got into the
troc a few songs into the arsons set. I had seen these guys open for the
souls about a year ago and i must say that i was impressed with how much
their live show improved since then. they played about twenty minutes of
songs from their first and only full length 'full life crisis' with a decent
degree of skill and energy, as the lead singer tried to get things going by
encouraging some pit action (with some success) and trying to get past the
crowd barrier. i'm not too familiar with their material so i'll just say they
weren't mind blowing, but nothing to scowl at either and had a decent group of fans screaming their lyrics.

After a lenghty set up time af's broken guns logo was lowered and they
immediately launched into a scorching rendition of 'tearing every one down'
which really got the crowd moving. Highlights of the set included the
classic 'fuck police brutality' & 'this machine kills fascists' there the
audience did a fine job of drowning out justin during the chorus. there was
also a nifty vocal exchange between justin and mark defiant from ska-punkers
the code (af records) on the new song 'smash it to pieces' off the bouncing souls split. #2 threw some quick political commentary regarding the
possibility of war with iraq between songs but overall the band's policy for
the night was 'less talk, more rock'. AF ended things off with their usual
closer of 'die for the government'which never fails to get the ol' circle pit
up and running and the punks screaming back.

The bouncing souls opened up with 'that song' and gave the crowd a
pummeling playing doublequick versions of 'cracked' 'no rules' 'hopeless
romantic' and their new one 'no security' without a pause in between. One
thing you could never accuse the souls of is ignoring their older records and
they proved it with 'argyle' 'i like your mom' (dedicated to their co-
headliners mamas) and by special audience request 'joe lies'. They also
played 2 new songs, 1 about as quick and hardcore as 'no security' and a more
mellow one which they said were going to be on their next record ( due summer
03). Greg even took a break from being so damn mellow on stage to throw
himself into the crowd during 'true believers' The closer was a more mellow
number which im not familiar dedicated to bryan and michaels' mothers who
are both unfortunately hospitalized right now. Anyone who wanted the show to
go out with a bang weren't disappointed though as both headliners regrouped on
stage to form a temporary supergroup dubbed 'the bouncing flags' by justin.
In the spirit of the split, both bands covered each other with justin and #2
taking vocals on 'the freaks nerds & romantics' and greg belting out 'thats
youth' to the most frenzied moshing of the night, leaving the crowd bruised
and satisfied as they ran to the SEPTA station.