Bad Copy

Wow! What a lineup! The moment I saw this monster bill, my jaw hit the floor and my wallet somehow flew out of my pocket. Next thing I knew I was approximately $150 poorer (two tickets plus fees… cha-ching!) but a thousand smiles richer.

I mean got-damn! Samiam opening the show really added a ton of charm, as this show was now book-ended by two iconic Bay Area bands, which for me, kinda enhanced the whole Jawbreaker experience. And Face to Face? Their first three records were huge for me as a teenager and I haven’t seen the band since. How many late night drunken gatherings have I attended where Big Choice was blasting on the stereo and everyone was sloppily singing their hearts out? At least a couple! And, c’mon, the Descendents?! Just before Jawbreaker?!?! Talk about a launching pad of musical greatness! Of all the Jawbreaker shows on this tour, I felt pretty lucky to live in Colorado, as this was definitely the highest energy bill. Without further ado, here’s my experience of the show…

Okay, I have a big ol’ confession. I missed Samiam. Botched it real good. I mean, I caught the very tail end of the last song but I missed ‘em. I know, I know. “What kinda half-assed show review is this?! Dude didn’t even see the whole show!” All I can say is “eh, I fucked up.” I have it on good authority from a friend who didn’t fuck up that they were as great as you’d hope they would be, and played all the good stuff spanning their entire catalog. And now, onto the bands I actually saw.

Face to Face

In short, Face to Face was perfect. The moment they opened with “You’ve Done Nothing,” I was immediately time-warped to Beth Aiossa’s parents’ basement in 1995. It’s wild how songs you haven’t heard in a long time can tap into rich, nostalgic wells in your brain, flooding your body with endorphins. Hell of a way to kick off the set, and the rest of the set was just awesome. They played the title track off their 2021 release No Way Out But Through which was received well, but damn, the rest of the set was nothin’ but classics. Pete Parada, the band’s drummer from 1998-2002, was recruited to play just these shows, which was a cool thing.

Face to Face

As a note, the sound in the Mission Ballroom was fantastic, especially considering the sheer size of the place. I mean, the place holds 4000 people, and I’ve been to enough large-capacity venues to know that they’re not worth getting your hopes up for decent sound. I was pleasantly surprised and thought Face to Face sounded just amazing. Had I retired to my hotel room after Face to Face’s set, I would have slept a happy man. But, oh yeah! There were two more giants on this bill!

Face to Face

Descendents

At this point I’d have a hard time counting how many times I’ve seen the Descendents. No matter how many times I see them, it’s always like going back to school. Punk Rock 101. Really though, just watching how they play and interact with one another, there’s a lot to be learned! Have you ever noticed that Bill Stevenson never does a four-count click into a song? Like, never! They all just look at each other in this intense little moment of anticipation as Bill raises both hands and then BAM! They all blast into a song with perfect onset timing! And did you know that Milo Goes to College only has one song that’s longer than two minutes? One song! And it’s only two minutes and ten seconds long! (I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which song). I mean, that album has some of the most well-written songs in the history of Punk Rock and it just blows me away that such short little bursts of songs can have such incredible impact.

Descendents

Descendents

The Descendents played a good variety from their entire 40+ year catalog including a couple songs off the recent 9th and Walnut release which, if you haven’t checked out and you’re a fan of the early stuff (and who isn’t?), you’ll absolutely love it.

Jawbreaker

Jawbreaker was an absolute treat. I was able to catch them in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom with Naked Raygun and The Smoking Popes a few years ago. At that show, Jawbreaker played their songs just about verbatim to the way they sound on record. This, however, was a very different experience. The addition of a second guitarist definitely thickened up the sound, but they also took liberties with lightly modified tempos, vocal melodies, and even drum beats and guitar parts. Nine times out of ten I would find this annoying, but in this case it felt like I was listening to some really cool alternative versions only available on a bootleg or something.

Jawbreaker

One stark difference between this show and the aforementioned Chicago show was the movement of bodies in the audience. That Jawbreaker show I caught a few years ago was great, but there was no dancing at all throughout the night. In Denver, however, there was a ton of dancing going on and even the occasional crowd surfing. This was undoubtedly helped by the fact that all the opening bands were high-energy Punk bands.

As promised, the entire Dear You album was performed, albeit out of sequence and with non-Dear You songs sprinkled throughout. The unpredictability of the set list was far more interesting than if they had played Dear You from beginning to end. Some of the highlights for me were “Want” off of Unfun, which was definitely one of the aforementioned “alternative versions,” and “Sea Foam Green” off Lookout Records’ PUNK USA compilation (and later off the Jawbreaker Etc. release). I just about lost my shit when they started playing “Sea Foam Green” and it’s been in my head ever since. At one point Blake Schwarzenbach commented that he lived in Boulder for a few years during grammar school and always gets some feels when in Colorado (I’m paraphrasing), a comment which was somewhat appropriately followed by “Chemistry.”

Jawbreaker

All in all this show was everything I hoped it would be. And though I’m very happy with the lineup, I wish I could be at all the shows across the rest of the country and see all the great lineups. If you’re still awaiting the Jawbreaker show in your neck of the woods, you’re in for a very special night. 

Check out the below gallery for even more photos of all the great bands that played!