|
|
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
|
Listings are
in the opposite order of appearance: headliner is listed at the top,
next is the support band(s),
and the last band listed is the opener.
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
Friday September 25
2026
8:00PM doors -- music at 9:00PM ••• 21 AND OVER $39 $46.21 in advance [39 face value +7.21 service fee] Fat Wreck Chords 35th Anniversary, featuring... Face to Face facetofacemusic.com skate punk, pop-punk Get Dead getdeadmusic.com Skate punk The Last Gang thelastgang.com punk rock/rocksteady Face to Face -from Southern CA -Southern California punk outfit Face to Face emerged in the early '90s, following in the fierce but melodic direction of contemporaries such as the Offspring, Bad Religion, Pennywise, and NOFX. Their songs were streamlined blasts of rebellious self-determination, powered by the lean, buzzy report of electric guitars, the relentless snap of the rhythm section, and the intense, passionate vocals of Trever Keith. The band's take on the SoCal punk sound as captured on their debut album, 1992's Don't Turn Away, won them an audience when "Disconnected" became a favorite on Los Angeles' KROQ-FM, and they soon made the jump to a major label. Face to Face made a significant stylistic shift with 1999's Ignorance Is Bliss, which traded speedy punk for a fuller, heavier attack informed by hard rock. It turned out to be a temporary detour, and later efforts like 2002's How to Ruin Everything, 2016's Protection, and 2021's No Way Out But Through were the work of a band striving to find fresh perspectives on their trademark approach. Formed in 1991, Face to Face originally comprised singer/guitarist Trever Keith, drummer Rob Kurth, and bassist Matt Riddle. The following year, they released their debut album, Don't Turn Away, on the independent Doctor Strange label. The LP came out as the label was struggling with financial woes, and as Doctor Strange was having problems keeping up with demand, the album was snapped up by Fat Wreck Chords, which wasted no time reissuing Don't Turn Away. Adding second guitarist Chad Yaro, Face to Face toured relentlessly in the months to follow, recording a series of singles and compilation tracks collected in 1994 as Over It. "Disconnected," a track from Don't Turn Away, became a local hit thanks to steady airplay on Los Angeles station KROQ, and as their profile rose, the band's next album, 1995's Big Choice, included a re-recorded version of the tune; it was initially released by the JVC-affiliated Victory Records, but was soon picked up by A&M, and sold in excess of 100,000 copies. In the wake of Matt Riddle's exit from the group, bassist Scott Shiflett signed on for Face to Face's third full-length, a self-titled release issued on A&M in 1996. They jumped labels again, moving to the BMG-distributed Beyond label for 1999's Ignorance Is Bliss, which beefed up the guitars and embraced a hard rock influence. The LP also introduced drummer Pete Parada. The following year saw Face to Face returning to their core sound with Reactionary, released on the band's own label, Lady Luck Records, via Beyond. Through a promotion with MP3.com, Face to Face allowed fans to shape the set list for Reactionary by downloading snippets of the songs and voting which ones should make it onto the album. Nearly two million votes were received during a six-week period, and Reactionary was released on June 20, 2000. The cover album Standards & Practices -- which featured the group's own renditions of songs by the Smiths, the Pogues, Fugazi, the Jam, and others -- was issued on Vagrant in early 2001. That year also saw Keith and Shiflett join Viva Death, who released their eponymous debut in September 2002. Meanwhile, Face to Face had joined the Dropkick Murphys for a split EP, and How to Ruin Everything, the band's sixth studio album, had appeared in March 2002. In fall 2003, Face to Face disbanded after 12 years and six albums. Two years later, the retrospective Shoot the Moon: The Essential Collection was released on Keith's Antagonist Records. In 2008, Keith announced that the lineup that recorded Ignorance Is Bliss and Reactionary would be reuniting as Face to Face. However, because of scheduling conflicts, Uprising drummer Danny Thompson would replace Pete Parada, who was touring with the Offspring. The lineup remained the same through 2015, cutting the albums Laugh Now...Laugh Later (2011) and Three Chords and a Half Truth (2013). In 2015, Dennis Hill joined the group on guitar, replacing Chad Yaro, and they returned to the Fat Wreck Chords roster. The band's tenth LP, Protection, was issued by Fat in early 2016, featuring the single "Bent But Not Broken." A 7" single, "Say What You Want" b/w "I, Me, Mine," was released the following summer. Closing out their third decade together, Face to Face issued the retrospective Hold Fast: Acoustic Sessions in 2018, featuring ten unplugged versions of previously released favorites such as "Disconnected" and "Blind." The following year, they delivered the ninth installment of Fat's Live in a Dive series of concert LPs, which was recorded in March 2019 at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus Bar. The band returned to the studio to record 2021's No Way Out But Through, also released by Fat Wreck Chords, which was produced by Seigfried Meier. ~ Jason Ankeny & Mark Deming, Rovi Get Dead -from San Francisco, CA -Ask the members of Get Dead how long it’s taken to release their new album, and they’ll probably say, “Forever.” Even though the San Francisco band started recording it more than two years ago, Dancing with the Curse (Fat Wreck Chords, Oct 9th) feels perfectly timed for now. Look no further than the song “Pepperspray,” written long before the protests of summer 2020. The band had begun collaborating with activist-artist collective Indecline on a video before the George Floyd protests erupted. If there was any time to share the message of “Pepperspray,” this was it. “We wanted to just be able to cut through the noise and have some kind of impact,” says vocalist Sam King, “and to try to let people know that what they're doing is okay, and people are behind them.” Get Dead rolls only five deep—King, guitarists Mike McGuire and Jeremy Korkki, bassist Tim Mehew, and drummer Scott Powell—but Dancing with the Curse sounds like an army. Produced by D-Composers (Fat Mike, Johnny Carey, Baz Bastien, Yotam Ben Horin) and Chris Dugan (Green Day), its 12 songs build on 2016’s Honesty Lives Elsewhere without rehashing it. While Dancing with the Curse features Get Dead’s signature NorCal punk sound, balancing bombast with up-picked bounce and dirt-smudged acoustic songs, listeners will notice some curious moments. Subtle electronic flourishes lurk in songs like “Disruption,” “Glitch,” “Confrontation,” and “Take It.” The album opens with an atmospheric intro built on King’s gravelly voice and hip-hop-inflected cadence—a happy accident. “I was supposed to be sending Fat Mike a new demo for one of the songs,” King says. “I ended up sending him some of my stuff that I just screw around with at home because I used to do hip-hop stuff. I sent that to him, and he really liked it. He’s like, ‘We're putting this as the intro.’” These sonic detours suit a band that isn’t known to stay in one place for too long. “Our first EP was hardcore, and then the next one was straight acoustic, almost country shit,” King says. “We get bored easily if we were just to stay the same thing.” And after writing Honesty Lives Elsewhere in the aftermath of a friend’s suicide, Get Dead was ready to move on. “I don't think anyone really realized that it was happening, as much as it was a way that we were processing what happened,” King says of writing Honesty. “It just so happened that we were supposed to be making an album at that point. That one was a bummer, man. This one, it's a lot more upbeat, more along lines of how we normally are.” Reaching that place was a process. Get Dead originally recorded with Chris Dugan, but then Fat Wreck Chords co-founder Fat Mike heard the songs. “He was like, ‘Naw, you guys can do better than this,’” King says, laughing. So the band decamped to Six Floggs Studio in LA to continue with D-Composers. “Chris did an amazing job. It sounded great, and we were super psyched on it,” King says. “Mike knows how to keep us on track with our stuff and just call us on our bullshit. I’m glad that he and those boys had us do what we did to it because it got way better. But it’s been a long journey for sure.” Yet a worthwhile one. Dancing with the Curse is Get Dead’s most self-assured album yet, one perfectly suited to the times: raw, energized, frustrated, but ultimately unbowed. Dancing with the Curse is available October 9th, 2020 on Fat Wreck Chords. The Last Gang -from San Francisco, CA -The year is 2021. America is still fighting its way through an ongoing pandemic, currently fueled by the ignorance of millions who have decided science isn’t good enough for them. Countless lives have been lost or disrupted by an inefficient government loaded with corrupt politicians, egged on by snake oil salesmen who are inexplicably given nightly platforms on cable TV or allowed to spread their disinformation through social media. Make no mistake: Rome is burning. We are fiddling. Pissed off yet? So is The Last Gang. This California punk quartet had big plans for 2020, with a seemingly endless string of tour dates keeping them on the road in support of their Fat Wreck Chords debut, Keep Them Counting. Crowds were getting bigger. Sing-alongs were getting louder. Spirits were getting higher. The only problem? The band was trying to write a new record simultaneously, and it wasn’t going well. “Our downfall is we want to tour a lot, but it’s sometimes hard for us to write because it takes so much out of me,” begins frontwoman Brenna Red. When the world came to a standstill in March 2020, it was actually a blessing in disguise for Red. She could finally focus on everything happening outside of their tour van — and she quickly realized it wasn’t pretty. “Because COVID happened, I was allowed to not rush, and we stepped back and re-wrote songs,” she explains. “Then I went to Fat Mike’s to write with him, and he challenged me to write more Clash-influenced reggae. I listened to London Calling to get inspired, but I think Joe Strummer once said if you want to be inspired, don’t listen to your idols — listen to your idols’ idols. So I also listened to a lot of Toots And The Maytals and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, and a ton of Trojan Records compilations.” One listen to Noise Noise Noise, and you’ll discover a band who has not only pushed their musical boundaries in new and unexpected ways, but a lyricist in Red who has unlocked a new side of herself, spitting barbs both personal and political at whoever might listen. We’re obviously punk at our core,” she says. “People expect to hear something, and that can become tedious and somewhat boring. But when you throw somebody a curveball, if they hate it, that’s fine. But more than likely, they’re gonna go, ‘What is this?’ and it’ll pull them more into the album.” Noise Noise Noise is nothing if not full of curveballs. The album opens with the “Guns Of Brixton”-esque title track, the first of the album’s many forays into guitar upstrokes and elastic basslines. The next curveball comes in the very next track, “WFTW,” the rare punk song that’s four minutes long and feeling a little bit like Searching For A Former Clarity-era Against Me!with Red cramming as many syllables into her verses as humanly possible. It’s also one of many new songs elevated by lead guitarist Ken Aquino, making his recorded debut with the now-quartet. “Ken is a great lead guitar player, but my huge thing I love about Ken is at his core, he’s a melody man — he can sing pretty,” she gushes. “He adds so much to our band.” Aquino also used to work in the same studio as producer Cameron Webb (Motörhead, Sum 41), who just so happened to be behind the boards for Noise Noise Noise (which was also co-produced by NOFX’s Fat Mike and Useless ID’s Yotam Ben Horin). Red was thrilled to reunite with Webb, who previously produced Keep Them Counting. “I know he’s not going to let me sound bad,” she says. “He’s going to push me.” Look no further than “Shameless,” a true gem of the album, a melodic punk banger with Red turning in a career-best vocal performance. The curveballs keep coming deep into the tracklisting, with the sludgy 6/8 tune “Intelligence Is A Plague.” In it, Red fires salvo after salvo at the ignorant masses as well as the publications that prey upon them (marking what is probably the first time alt-right “news” outlet Breitbart has been name-checked in a song). “It was inspired by this overwhelming feeling of ‘Why aren’t we listening to the people who can tell us how to fix these huge problems?’ COVID, climate change, you name it. To me, it’s like, ‘I don’t know what to do, so I’m going to listen to you.’ But those people don’t want to be humble. They’d rather be ignorant and feel like they’re right.” This gets to the crux of Noise Noise Noise: These songs speak to her, and she hopes they speak to you, too. “I write music just to be alive,” she concludes. “I hope there’s something that can be taken from it to make you feel that electricity inside of yourself, whether happiness, pain, bittersweet memories… Just pick apart the art and put it inside of your own life.” |
![]() |