The Wrecking Ball at The Masquarade in Atlanta was THE punk rock music event of the year, and if you were not fortunate enough to attend, Bhamrocks has all the details of everything you missed.
This two and half day event began on Friday night with Punk Rock Karaoke. Members of iconic punk bands including Bad Religion, The Dickies, and Adolescence came together to form something of a punk-rock super group missing nothing but the front man. This is where the crowd came in to help. When the doors opened at 7pm, fans lined up and signed up for pre-selected classic punk songs. At least thirty people signed up, and surprising even the Punk Rock Karaoke band, not one individual backed out (probably credited to the two hours drinking time they had before the stage lights came on). One by one, the band called out the names from the list, played songs in full, and graciously allowed these fans to hop on stage and sing entire songs! The entire night felt more like a party than a concert, creating comradery between the fest’s attendees which turned out to be a great way to kick off the Wrecking Ball weekend!
(Video footage of “Bro Hymn” by Pennywise, Covered @ Punk Rock Karaoke)
This two and half day event began on Friday night with Punk Rock Karaoke. Members of iconic punk bands including Bad Religion, The Dickies, and Adolescence came together to form something of a punk-rock super group missing nothing but the front man. This is where the crowd came in to help. When the doors opened at 7pm, fans lined up and signed up for pre-selected classic punk songs. At least thirty people signed up, and surprising even the Punk Rock Karaoke band, not one individual backed out (probably credited to the two hours drinking time they had before the stage lights came on). One by one, the band called out the names from the list, played songs in full, and graciously allowed these fans to hop on stage and sing entire songs! The entire night felt more like a party than a concert, creating comradery between the fest’s attendees which turned out to be a great way to kick off the Wrecking Ball weekend!
(Video footage of “Bro Hymn” by Pennywise, Covered @ Punk Rock Karaoke)
After returning to our hotel after midnight and enjoying some much needed R&R, we woke up bright and early ready to conquer day one of The Wrecking Ball. We arrived with a long list of bands we wanted to cover, but due to the overlap of many of the bands, we were only able to make it to six of the 28 bands on the schedule for Saturday. But, we were fortunate enough to catch all the greatest including The Descendents, The Get Up Kids, The Movielife and The Lawrence Arms. So we braved the intense heat, lack of shade and enormous crowds of people, and we rocked out with the best!
The Descendents
The Descendents
Of course, the highlight and most anticipated set of Saturday’s line up was The Descendents. From the moment they stepped on to the venue’s outdoor stage, the band kept the crowd laughing, raging and singing along to their many iconic punk songs. Hitting the stage at 10pm on the dot, the band was slotted to play for an hour. But when 11pm rolled around, much to the dismay of the venue, the band was not close to being finished. Regardless of the fact that the venue’s sound team cut the band off at 11, they continued to play three more songs, including Suburban Home, WITHOUT the assistance of the sound team. The Descendents didn’t seem phased at all, especially considering they had the entire crowd helping them sing the rest of their set list.
The Get Up Kids
The Get Up Kids
The first thing Matt Pryor (Lead Singer of The Get Up Kids) said when stepping on stage was how star struck he was when meeting Milo Aukerman of The Descendents backstage. Matt said he felt like a 14 year old girl when running into his idol backstage. But this was just a little truthful humor before then plunging into a very crowd pleasing set list. The crowd sang along to every word it seemed, but still unable to drown out the bands powerful sound.
The Lawrence Arms
The Lawrence Arms
Hitting the stage early in the day, The Lawrence Arms still drew a large crowd to the outdoor area. This being my first time seeing the band, I was unprepared for the amount of energy they would have and the animation of bassist/vocalist, Brendan Kelly. This was an amazingly fun set to watch, and the music is an excellent throwback to late 90’s/early 00’s pop-punk. Entertaining enough that we were at the SmartPunk Vinyl Booth shortly after, searching for a copy of their widely celebrated album The Greatest Story Ever Told, released in 2003.
The Movielife
The Movielife
Hailing from Long Island, The Movielife traveled down the coast to blow the minds of The Wrecking Ball’s attendees. Bringing me back to my teenaged years, the bands’ sound has not changed at all from when they came onto the pop-punk scene in 1997. If anything, they’ve improved with age. Their pop sound, mixed with their punk-laced lyrics had the crowd either swinging their hips, or crowd surfing. But not a person in the crowd was standing stationary during this bands 40 minute set, midway through the first day of the festival.
-Ashley
-Ashley