Bouncing Souls, Hot Water Music, Randy & Let It Burn

The weird thing about the Fillmore is that there can be hundreds of people in there, but no one ever crowds each other. If you want to push your way to the front and be right in the band's faces, go ahead. Hundreds of people flocked to the show Thursday anxiously awaiting Let It Burn, Randy, Hot Water Music, and the headlining band, Bouncing Souls.
Let It Burn opened, hailing from New Jersey. Lead singer DJ Values reminded me of Brett Deter from the Juliana Theory, but punk rock. Values did this weird prancing dance, flipping his hair around, swinging the mic stand and throwing his tambourine. Their punk music was somewhat mediocre, so it seemed like they were trying to make up for it in stage performance. I was impressed with guitarist Sharon Stein because she kept a constant rhythm with her guitar throughout the whole set, playing hard and head banging. The strange thing was, I heard this tatted up little sex bomb talking to one of her friends after the set, and she sounded like a sorority girl. Let It Burn even had a song called "Let it Burn," which they dedicated to all of their friends, in which they repeated the lyrics "let it burn" over and over again.
Randy came next as more people filled the room. The two guys I was sitting next to flew all the way from Massachusetts to see them play, and claimed they were "the biggest band in Sweden right now." Randy, clad in studded jean jackets and cut-off muscle shirts, had the look of a metal band. Despite this, they produced a good mix of punk and rock 'n' roll. They played a song called "Cheater," of which lead singer Stefan Granberg said, "it's not because I cheat on my girlfriend, it's because I cheat the system." Very political and humorous, Stefan would say, "this one's for God," then thrust out his middle finger. Meanwhile, Fredrick Granberg was hitting the drums so hard that when he broke a drumstick, it flew six feet in the air.
The band I was dying to see, Hot Water Music, played next, and they sounded exactly how they do on their CDs, Chuck Ragan's voice never faltering. They sounded like they threw their whole hearts and souls into the songs, with smooth soulful lyrics and all instruments perfectly in sync. They played a lot of tracks from their album A Flight and a Crash, including "Jack of All Trades," "Paper Thin" and "A Flight and a Crash." I couldn't help but belt out the lyrics and dance. It was beautiful. They ended with one of my favorites, "Turnstile." Aggressive yet melodic, Hot Water Music is just getting better and better with every show.
Headlining the night were Bouncing Souls - around since 1987 and still rockin'. They came out and immediately broke out into heavy punk rock, driving the mosh pit crazy. I saw a girl get forcefully booted so far into the air, that I couldn't believe people caught her. They sang a lot of songs from their new album Anchors Aweigh, while lead singer Greg Attonito jumped into the crowd and sang amongst the audience. The only thing I didn't like about the Bouncing Souls performance was that they played their songs so fast that they were barely perceptible. When they played "Cracked" it sounded like a 30-second song. They ended with "Ole," and the crowd threw their fists in the air and sang in unison.
As an encore, Bouncing Souls and Hot Water Music came out together, Bouncing Souls playing with Chuck Ragan singing "Trusty Chords." It was a perfect mix of instrumentation and vocals. Then Hot Water Music played a Bouncing Souls song with Attonito singing. The night ended with many hugs amongst the band members - true bromance.
- Kayla Anderson

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