Images: The Bombpops, The Fuck Off And Dies, Crimson Riot August 3, 2017 at the Beauty Bar

Oceanside, California’s The Bombpops made their return to the Beauty Bar stage earlier this month, once again braving the heat that doesn’t go away when the sun goes down to put on a fun show. This was the kickoff for the band’s tour in support of their Fat Wreck debut, Fear of Missing Out, and as such, the set focused heavily on the new material. The move to Fat, along with a relentless tour schedule, has paid off for the band. They had their biggest Vegas crowd yet, with many fans singing along to songs like “Capable of Lies” and “Be Sweet.”

In direct support was The Fuck Off and Dies, a band described by the ‘pops as their “spirit animal band.” The band features Story of the Year frontman Dan Marsala, but musically has more in common with Direct Hit!, Teenage Bottlerocket and the Bouncing Souls (they even threw in a cover of “Hopeless Romantic” for good measure). The Fuck Off and Dies has more songs about partying than Andrew WK and even had a song about Back to the Future thrown in, which pretty much gets them the “best new band” award from me.

Opening up was locals Crimson Riot, who looked all too familiar when I arrived partway through their first song. That’s because Crimson Riot is the alter ego of The Roxy Gunn Project, putting out original tunes while TRGP focuses on cover gigs. The new songs were in their infancy but fairly catchy and more straightforward in nature than what I‘m used to hearing from the band.

-Emily Matview

Photos by Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/