Images: The Bouncing Souls, The Menzingers, Broadway Calls, Luther July 13, 2012 at the House of Blues

While usually no strangers to Vegas, it has been almost 3 years since New Jersey’s Bouncing Souls headlined a show in our city (though they did a good job holding us over with an excellent 2011 appearance at Punk Rock Bowling). So it was great to see them in all their headlining glory at their July 13 show at the House of Blues, also featuring Broadway Calls, The Menzingers, (whose On the Impossible Past is one of the year’s best records), and Luther.

Before the Souls took the stage, it was devoid of all light save for the faint, flickering glow of cathode ray televisions. The band came out to the familiar chants of “ole” from the crowd and wasted no time launching into “Static” from their latest release and Rise Records debut, Comet. This tour being in support of that record, the set was naturally heavy on the new stuff. “Coin Toss Girl,” “Infidel” and the title track got good responses and sounded great live but of course it was the tracks from the Epitaph years, particularly those from How I Spent My Summer Vacation that really got people singing along.

“True Believers” remains their biggest anthem and I loved hearing “Saying Anything” from their self-titled record make a comeback in their set. Their encore featured their cover of “Lean on Sheena,” still one of the best covers of all time, and usual set ender “Gone” before ending with their new, slightly stripped-down single “Ship in a Bottle.” I’ve been going to Bouncing Souls shows for over half my life now and the band hasn’t missed a step yet.

As big of a Bouncing Souls fan as I am (I did name this site after one of their songs, after all), it was Pennsylvania’s Menzingers that I was most excited for this night. This show was their first in Vegas since they played two shows in one day in 2009, and hopefully the warm reception they got is enough to convince them to come back through on their own tours, so I don’t have to keep going out of town to see them. Like the Souls, the band focused much of their set on their latest release, mixing in favorites from sophomore album Chamberlain Waits, EP Hold On, Dodge and deep cut “Irish Goodbyes” from the Run For Cover Records Mixed Signals comp.

Broadway Calls and Luther opened the show, but due to a miscommunication regarding the start time the HOB was painfully empty during their sets. If it bothered either band they didn’t let it show, both giving it their all as if the venue was packed. Luther surely won new fans (myself included) with a set featuring songs from their upcoming Chunksaah Records debut (produced by The Pete) and by the end of Broadway Calls’ set there were a number of fans up against the barrier singing along to songs like “Be All That You Can’t Be” and “Back to Oregon.”

-Emily Matview

Photos by Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/

and Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens