Four Chord Music Fest: A Parent Perspective
Four Chord Music Festival 4. I wish that I could start my review of this festival on a good note. The festival that I've spent every year since its inception going to.
But alas here I am yelling:
"Fuck, we're late why didn't the sitter call back?"
"Shit no early VIP entry I guess."
"What in the actual shit? Why is the landlord here? Oh he's putting in the new drop ceiling tile since that one time Ava got a bathe and overflowed the tub, awesome!"
As the day seemed to be doomed from the start, mom took one for the team and stayed home with the little one. Her having work at 5am combined with it being a school night for a kindergartener was a "lack of sleep" cocktail that I wanted no part in the following morning by any means.
By saying that with a lack of sleep that neither MoM or pRinCeSs aren't "morning people" does no justice, they're not "people" at all. More of a velociraptor that you're trying to feed pancakes to while it watches Sponge-Bob.
I finally got to The Four Chord Festival around 4:30. A little late considering everything kicked off at noon, but I hear that being late is better than never. (Totally using that line for a lyric.)
I made my way to the front, and hung out downstage left near where I ran into my good pal Rishi Bahl, the guy responsible for the whole pop-punk shindig. He, like every year was running around in his cool, calm frantic mode making sure everything was going as planned. Rishi is always humble, no matter how fucking busy he is, he has always taken a few minutes of his time to say "Hey, thanks for coming. How's your daughter? How's your own band?", and this time was no different, followed by "I'm really sweaty, I need to change, we'll talk more later promise!"
Patent Pending were getting ready to take stage. I consider them "family" when I see them perform at Four Chord or any show in Pittsburgh for that matter.
Ava is 5, and loves them. "Dad play that Mario song again." Who seems to be following in the footsteps of her cousin Aurora whom a few years ago loved the same song and still does.
Every time I see Patent Pending they always bring this wicked amount of energy that can't be touched by any other band. Their intensity is so mesmerizing that you're forced into loving this band after catching a glimpse of a few live songs.
I feel that when I see Patent Pending play Four Chord, it's like someone flipped the switch like: "Ok, enough with the stretches, time for a real work out."
These guys need to be the band that needs to perform in between bands during intermission to keep everyone from needing their sippy cup 3/4 of the way through the show.
To give you an example of what I'm talking about here's lead singer Joe Ragosta climbing the scaffolding to the bar, only to moments later, stage dive off of it.
If stage dives aren't enough, their overall sense of comradery towards the crowd is always magical. Joe is a craftsman of "walking the line" during "between song patter" and keeping you entertained with talking about something serious as a current event tragedy and in the next breathe bringing the crowd together to laugh and remember that when everyone's together at a punk show, things can be okay for a while.
They've also incorporated boy band dancing into their set. Wanna see?
(Patent Pending Anti-Everything.)
It was set break. Around this time I got a text message from MoM saying that "the ceiling is still leaking". Fuck, first world problems. With an exasperated sigh I snapped back into the show where the crowd was jamming along to the PA house music that was blaring Jimmy Eat World.
The lights dimmed and Eternal Boy hit the stage. Now if you don't already know my opinion about Eternal Boy, read my review on their latest album "Awkward Phase." CHECK IT OUT HERE!
Eternal Boy, (Andy, Joe and Rishi) have always been in my opinion the best versions of what blink-182 would've been post TOYPAJ hadn't blink taken shit more "serious." And that's not saying Eternal Boy isn't a serious band!
Joe is constantly all over the stage keeping a tight 3rd on harmonies and his bass in synch with Andy's is fast as hell drum fills, stop breaks and hardcore punk beats, while Rishi ties and holds the 3 piece band together with lead and rhythm guitar while singing lead, I mean c'mon he bars chords with his thumbs. (He's a tall guy.)
The Pittsburgh based band went on to play a slew of songs both off of their new album Awkward Phase and self-titled album.
Check out Eternal Boy playing Awkward Phase in a "Live Music Video" from last year's Four Chord Festival.
A friend from back in high school spotted me out in the crowd who decided to come hang for the next couple of band's. You never know who you'll run into at any given moment.
Hit The Lights were next on. Now if you're not familiar with the music, you've had to have heard the name and come across one song in their over decade run as a band.
How about we try this one on for size.
The 5 piece band from Lima, Ohio kept the show rolling with a very old school meets new school pop-punk transitional sound. They have this writing ability with pop-punk that stabs you in the back especially if you're a conservative parent. (not myself so fuck you.)
They have that sound that has you bobbing your head no matter who you are then you suddenly find yourself singing along, until you realize the lyrics are "This is goodbye, I hope you fucking choke on it"
It's almost like chewing bubblegum with rocks in it. I don't know, my explanation isn't doing this band's awesomeness justice, because in any case they remind me of if Simple Plan and Four Years Strong had a love child. Yes, I fucking went there. It's the heavy breakdowns with the melodic awesomeness.
By this time I was slammed into a corner only able to snap a few pix of the band, here's one that isn't so #shit-fuck-dick-blurry.
Hit The Lights can be mostly remembered for this 2006 song, if you haven't heard it, there's something wrong with you, go to the doctor, get checked.