Images: Unwritten Law, Fenix TX, Guilty By Association, Rayner, Leather Bound Crooks April 13, 2016 at Backstage Bar

After helping Steven and Aaron film a Stripped Down Session with the singer from Fenix TX, talking to the Rayner guys, and grabbing some dinner at Pizza Rock, I made my way to Backstage Bar and Billiards in time to catch the first band of the night, locals The Leather Bound Crooks. I’d actually heard them a bit before and had seem them recording, so I did notice they were rocking new members. They definitely had the most unique sound on the bill, and although they had the smallest crowd of the night, it was still a great turn out for an opening act and people were digging them a lot.

Next up were those defenders of pop punk we’ve all come to hate, Rayner. They asked me again to write them a good review, so of course, I have to get my little jabs in before I actually tell you how great they were. Tonight was a little different for the Rayner boys, as their guitar player Rory was trapped in Laughlin, so they had Drew from Guts fill in for him on very short notice. I have a lot of respect for Drew for learning all these songs within a few days and honestly sounding really great. The crowd was going pretty nuts for them. People were singing along and I even got bumped into quite a few times by a drunk lady who was desperately trying to figure the lyrics out on the fly.

From the moment Guilty by Association got on stage their 90s style punk sound ripped through Triple B. I don’t think there was a moment where the crowd wasn’t in some form of motion. I was of course waiting for their infamous cover of “It’s Still Rock n Roll to Me” by Billy Joel. It came later in their set and I had to explain to Dany from Rayner that growing up with Billy Joel fans for parents made this a nostalgic moment for me. By the time their set ended, the crowd was primed for Fenix TX.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Fenix TX because although I knew the name, they had come out during a time in my life when I thought I was too punk for a lot of music. I was pretty blown away. They had a massive stage presence, and some hilarious onstage banter while heckling each other, and the crowd. One of my favorite moments of the night was when David Bartlett of GBA was standing next to me at one point during their set, staring towards the stage waiting for the next song and the second the first chord rang out he said “Oh! Minimum Wage, no way!” and immediately booked it towards the stage.

They caught my ear at the end of their set when I heard a very familiar intro start playing. I was confused because I knew I didn’t know any songs of theirs, but then it finally clicked. It was a cover of “Territorial Pissing” by Nirvana. Before I could even lose my mind over this happening the singer and drummer of Unwritten Law came out and started singing with them. It was absolute pandemonium. That’s the way you close a set, my friends.

By the time Unwritten Law took the stage, there were so many people in front that I could barely get in to take photos. Luckily, a few people were nice enough to let me in to snap a few, and if any of those people are reading this, you are the real MVPs. From the beginning, Unwritten Law brought the energy. During one of their first few songs they just started jamming and broke into a little bit of “Waiting Room” by Fugazi and then right back to the song.

At one point, all of the members of the band except the singer, Scott Russo, left center stage and took a smoke break while Scott played a slew of acoustic songs. It was a very intimate sing-along type moment and the whole crowd got involved. As the set went on they continued with crowd interaction, and at one point Russo took a lady’s phone from her to take a selfie on it. They played songs from their brand new record, along with older material like “Teenage Suicide,” and before beginning the encore they thanked everyone and promised to drink and do drugs with everyone afterwards to celebrate the last day of tour.

They ended the encore appropriately with “Up All Night,” which was the song I had been waiting for, and the crowd went wild bouncing all over the place and singing along. As it all came to an end I had a hard time figuring out how I was going to come down off the high of this show.

-Anthony Constantine | https://www.facebook.com/anthonycphotography