Anberlin and ’68 at House of Independents — 8/27/22

’68 opened for Anberlin last night at House of Independents.

Anberlin was another one of those bands I used to blast at my kids about 20 years ago. Their best known songs were The Feel Good Drag, Paperthin Hymn, Godspeed, and Enjoy The Silence, which you can hear in this playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ZjRDvxODf2KKUSPndtmAX?si=eA3CfGPiQS2tBER4on5vXA

I hadn’t heard their name in years, but when they announced a 3-night 20th anniversary gig in Asbury Park, I had to see if they were nearly as good as I remember from way back then.

When I mentioned it to my daughter Casey yesterday afternoon, she did the same double take as me: Anberlin?! Seriously?

So, I trucked down to the House of Independents, one of a handful of Geezers who were way outnumbered by a bunch of 20-somethings who also must have grown up in the backseats of their parents cars listening to this stuff. How else would they have heard it??

Anyway, last night’s show was a full-length replay of their 2008 album New Surrender. Fortunately, it’s one of several albums that feature The Feel Good Drag, clearly their best and most popular number. Aside from that, I’m not crazy about the album. Maybe I would have been better off on one of the other nights, when they featured earlier albums.

In addition to the song selection, there were a few other things that pissed me off about the performance:

1. Front man Stephen Christian whined a LOT about “how hard it was to write the songs for this album” and how much work it was to create. Jeez, man, grow a pair — that’s your job! And it seems to be a pretty good gig!
2. It was a sing-along night. All these kids in the crowd knew every word to every song, and Anberlin encouraged a whole lot of singing, hand- clapping, and annoying crap like that. Ugh. I hate sing-alongs. But I’m sure the crowd freakin loved it, and I’m just a grumpy old Geezer anyway and no fun.
3. In a misguided effort to befriend my fellow New Jersey natives, Christian called out Jon Bon Jovi for crissakes, anointed him as a ‘national treasure’, and sang (with the crowd, of course), Living On A Prayer — Bon Jovi’s most popular and most annoying song in his whole crappy repertoire. I almost left the place right then and there.

On a much lighter note, I really enjoyed the performance of ’68, who warmed up the crowd last night. This noisy duo featured Josh Scogin on guitar and Nikki Yamada on drums. Scogin also supplies vocals, although he can’t really sing.

Their set was cacophonous, loud, and hugely entertaining. They’re actually pretty good musicians, if you can get through the noise. Here’s what they sound like: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1QsXEhwf2OeDFYq3ICMQiL?si=pzPWJc06R62sDtA-VCZoOQ

They have a similar set-up to Black Pistol Fire, without the Texas twang. They’re from Atlanta GA, and showed up last night wearing black suits and ties — very classy, for a thrash band. And they must have grown up on Insane Clown Posse, given their give-a-shit attitude and humor, but they didn’t bother with the face makeup.

Some of their highlights:

1. After their first song, Scogin announces that “we’re gonna play another one”. Priceless.
2. Scogin introduces the band in alphabetical order, “the only fair way to do it. I didn’t make up the alphabet.” Of course Scogin comes before Yamada.
3. During their last song, Scogin puts away his guitar, and dismantles Yamaha’s drum kit, while he’s still playing. This goes on for a few minutes — first goes the Tom-Tom, then the bass drum, then the cymbals. But Yamada keeps whaling away on the lonely snare drum he’s left with. That routine was wonderful, and I wish I had the foresight to tape it.

’68 was totally the most entertaining and fun part of the evening for me.

But then HOI made the annoying mistake of featuring DJ Gunz in the interim, which took the whole shine off ‘68.

And you already heard from me about Anberlin.

Can’t win ’em all.