Images: Beach Slang, Mercy Music, Leopold and his Fiction and more March 12, 2016 at The Bunkhouse (Neon Reverb)

There’s just something about a festival that brings out the best in some bands, something I witnessed firsthand Saturday night at The Bunkhouse. Maybe it’s a bit of friendly competition, or possibly it’s the fact that there are so many new eyes mixed in with the familiar faces. It certainly doesn’t hurt when that festival is Neon Reverb, a festival put on by folks entrenched in the local scene. It also doesn’t hurt when the night’s headliner is Beach Slang, the Philadelphia punk rock band who has quickly earned a reputation for putting on a most wild show.

Case in point for bringing their “A” game – Good Grief. The lo-fi pop punk outfit is usually far more at home at house shows than a bar, but the band didn’t let the extra few inches of stage elevation shake their confidence, blasting through 20 minutes of short, fast and loud pop punk tunes that certainly would have caught Joey Ramones’ fine-tuned ears. And just to up the ante, the guys traded instruments for the debut of a hardcore sideproject.

Or how about The Pluralses,  a band who dares to answer the question “What if I want the humor and speed of a NOFX show but with the bro quotient turned way down… and the Vandals are too busy?” Frontman Trent Clausen was sporting a pretty sweet Deadpool belt and honestly, I think the ol’ merc with a mouth would be a fan of the band’s brash sense of humor.

Fredward is a band that has been way too quiet as of late, though all will be forgiven once they release their long awaited full length. But I’m willing to wait forever if the band stays this solid live, with fiery vocals and musical prowess that is sure to draw comparisons to Small Brown Bike and early Hot Water Music (so I’ll say they sound like Fuel instead. The good Fuel).

After a brief detour to California for the bluesy, garage rock of Neon Reverb veterans Leopold and his Fiction it was time for Mercy Music, the band’s Beach Slang fandom causing the trio to push harder and play faster. One of the night’s best moments was the looks on their own faces as the bar swelled with friends and fans passionately singing their hearts out to favorites like “Your Life Sentence,” “Undone” and “Fine,” the latter of which saw fellow locals and fans of the band Sal Giordano, Brock Frabbiele and Jesse Pino storm the stage to sing along and add a bit of shenanigans (TM Green Day, 2002) to their raucous set.

After a brief introduction by 11^th Street Records owner Ron Corso (the man responsible for getting the band on the festival, thus making him THE man), it was finally Beach Slang time. Frontman James Alex, dressed in his trademark blazer and a pair of red slacks hemmed just a bit too short by Grandma Beach Slang, sauntered onto stage and quickly addressed the crowd with a promise to punch us all in the heart. And no, he wasn’t paying homage to that one scene in Dumb and Dumber.

On this night, a hodgepodge of punks, indie kids and general music lovers were gathered to find common ground with the band’s “misfit kid” motif and heart on their sleeve lyrics (punching a heart is easier when it’s on your sleeve!), many chomping at the bit to shout in unison “kids like us are weird, and more, we’re brave” from “Filthy Luck.” The band obliged their inebriated choir, thrashing around the stage as they played that song and more, treating us to vintage punk rock riffs that sound ripped straight from the playbook of Paul Westerberg and Bob Stinson.

The stage presence acted as perfect visual companion to the ramshackle tunage of “Throwaways,” “Young & Alive” and “Hard Luck Kid,” the band’s youthful energy creating a nice counterpoint to the weariness found in Alex’s raspy voice. A brief detour where Alex traded hugs for mints (and later, hugs for hugs) and indulged his inner Weird Al with a Ramones song reworked to fit their current situation – “The TSA took my Cowbell Away” – allowed us to catch our second wind just in time to sing along to a fulfilled request to cover Jawbreaker’s “Boxcar.”

Not surprisingly, Beach Slang chose to wrap up their set with their anthem for anyone who has turned to music when looking for a place to fit in – “Punk or Lust” – and earned the best compliment I think a band can get for a late night bar show – a bunch of drunken, exhausted 30 somethings starting up an honest to god circle pit on the bar’s beer-soaked floor. As Alex sang “they kicked our teeth, called us freaks, you’re not alone” just barely loud enough to play over the audience chorus I couldn’t think of a more perfect way for the set to end, with friends joined together by the same love of music that inspired Neon Reverb itself.

-Emily Matview

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