Images: Pennywise, The Adolescents, Unwritten Law, Survive This! November 23, 2013 at House of Blues

Heemosa Beach’s Pennywise returned to the House of Blues November 23, for their second Las Vegas show in 2013. The venue was the most packed I have seen in a while, with both the floor and balcony full of excited people. They opened with “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” from their 1991 self-titled debut and kept the intensity going with staples “Fuck Authority,” “Society,” “Same Old Story” and of course, the set-ender, “Bro Hymn.” The baseball hat bedecked crowd ate it up, and most of the sticky floor of the House of Blues was filled by a large mosh pit for the entirety of the show.

Somehow there’s an Adolescents sized void in my musical education and I’ve never listened to these guys before – but I did immediately recognize several members of Punk Rock supergroup Manic Hispanic. Some of the 1980s punk bands can be a stylistic miss for me, but I was immediately impressed by these guys and will work to correct this gap in my record collection immediately.

Though admittedly not a huge fan of Unwritten Law, I’ve shot these guys twice in the last 2 years and have always left impressed. I noticed on this occasion that the band had gone through several personnel changes since last November’s show at the Palms. It appears that everyone might be new except singer Scott Russo. Unfortunately, the band just didn’t sound as tight or prepared as they have been at previous shows, and it appeared there might have been some problems with equipment on stage, so that could have possibly been the culprit.

The first band of the night were locals, and new Epitaph Records signees Survive This. At first I thought they were a metal band due to the fast drums, guitar riffs, and singer Shawn Zyvoloski’s vocals. But then I was surprised to hear very pop-punk sounding choruses from the backing members. They had an interesting sound, and I’m curious to see what the future holds for them.

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