Images: Success, Mercy Music, Western Settings, Brock Frabbiele, No Red Alice April 3, 2014 at The Dive

Spring means it’s time for Success. For the third consecutive April, the Seattle-based pop punk band (think Iron Chic, not All Time Low) made a Vegas stop on their tour, and the night was another one in a growing tradition of Success shows with good friends and fun jams that doubled as a birthday party for TheCore. co-frontman Sal Giordano and Mercy Music leader Brendan Scholz.

Giordano, aka No Red Alice, was first to take the stage, playing a few solo songs along with his signature cover of “Wagon Wheel,” which had even the Norm Peterson-esq barflies in back raising their glasses. He then brought up Brock Frabbiele, his vocal partner in TheCore., to duet on the band’s infectious anthem “ThunderMakers,” the title track from their most recent EP. After joking that he wasn’t sure why they didn’t play full band since bassist Brian Addeo and drummer Chris Duggan were in the crowd, Giordano abdicated the stage to Frabbiele, who led the bar in a ramshackle version of “Happy Birthday to You” in Sal and Brendan’s honor before playing an all too short set of his originals.

Up next was the first touring act of the night, San Diego-based Western Settings, who are La Escalera labelmates with Success. They came out on stage with three of the four members representing some of my favorite bands on their shirts – The Mighty Fine, Cobra Skulls and The Lawrence Arms – so I knew right away that they were coming from a place that I could relate to. And I was right, as their brand of pop punk recalled memories of Latterman and The Copyrights. I had never listened to Western Settings before but I’ll be checking out their recently-released debut LP posthaste.

I was particularly excited to see Brendan Scholz’s Mercy Music, as this would be my first time catching the full band version. I’ve enjoyed Scholz’s foray into the world of acoustic but this is a dude who is born to be loud and the addition of drummer Michael McGuinness and bassist Jared Cooper allows him to do just that. I like that there are subtle differences in his approach to songwriting between projects, making the change in names more than just superficial. What I heard of the full band project, which included reverse Stripped Downs of “Fine” and “Undone,” has that perfect blend of rambunctious pop punk and Kinks-like pop rock with just a tinge of folk and emphasis on strong songwriting that reminded me a lot of Green Day’s Warning period. And since Green Day decided to move in a more bloated, bombastic direction, someone should be running with that vibe, and Mercy Music does it well.

This show ran amazingly on schedule, and just a few minutes shy of midnight, it was time for the headliners to go on. I often compare Success to Iron Chic and Dillinger Four, and like those bands, they sound best when you have a room full of people shouting the lyrics. Thankfully, their persistence in playing here has resulted in a nice little following squeezed up front to do just that. The band’s set felt very short and unfortunately my favorite track “Pros and Cons” from last year’s We’re the Elitist Generation wasn’t played but we did get new song “Sooner Or Later,” old favorites “Trains Planes And Bicycle-Mobiles” and “Revolution Schmevolution,” which led frontman Rev Peters to go guitarless, giving him the opportunity to scale the amps and tower over the raised fits when singing “Where’s the Revolution” at the top of his lungs. The heart in the performance creates an infectious energy that leaves you wanting more, so hopefully we’ll see them again before next April.

P.S. Can we talk about how great the sound guy is at The Dive? Bar shows aren’t known for their sound but John Kirby does great work and you can tell he really cares for the craft, stepping out into the audience at various points to make sure the mix is on point. Thanks John!

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