Descendents / Hot Water Music

Live in Denver (2012)

MN_DrNick

When I found out this fall that the Descendents were playing a show in Denver, Colo., I got excited. What got me more excited? Hot Water Music was on the same bill! Two of my all time favorite bands playing the same show! My plans in 2011 to try and see the Descendents fell through all the time, so I saved up some pennies and traveled from Fargo, N.D. (pretty much Siberia at the moment) to a somewhat warmer climate that is Denver for the weekend. Yeah that's right. It was a nice 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Well… for one day, but it was a lot warmer than in Fargo.

Anyways, the venue was the Filmore. Overpriced everything basically. But considering the place is so big, there was a reason why the show was there--it was packed. The first band of the night was Endless Monster. I really don't know much about them. According to a local, this was their fourth show. It kinda showed. They flubbed up a few times. The singer sounded way too raspy as though his vocal chords were blown out recently. Can't be too harsh on them.

Next up was Hot Water Music. This was my second time seeing them, sadly, and this was way better than the one time I did see them before. They opened up the set with one of their most popular songs, "Trusty Chords." Interestingly enough, it was in the key of C major instead of D major. I thought that maybe for the rest of the set they were going to change the keys of songs. Nope. Just that one. The set was very on the Epitaph years, with quite a bit of A Flight And A Crash and a few from Caution, including "The Sense" this time. The three non-Epitaph songs they played were "Rooftops," "Our Own Way" and "Turnstile" as the closer for their set. It was a great set. The band was spot on and full of energy. The crowd was really into the band and you could here a lot of people singing along.

With a crowd like that, the Descendents was double that. The band was introduced by local cult icon Magic Cyclops (look him up, especially his American Idol audition) wearing a Milo Aukerman cardboard mask. The band then came onto the stage after the introduction and kicked things off with "Descendents." The band was just full on rocking after that. It was basically a greatest hits set. They played half of Milo Goes To College. Some kids came out and did "All-O-Gistics," even slaughtering some of the long words a kid under 10 years of age can't pronounce, which was still fine. Milo was great going all over the place and into the crowd towards the end. Stephen Egerton and Karl Alveraz pretty much played off each other with their excellent guitar and bass riffing. Bill Stevenson was in great form. They even did two encores with "Sour Grapes" and "Thank You" for the first and "Kabuki Girl" closing out the night. The crowd was just nuts the entire time. It was great.

It was amazing seeing two of the biggest bands in the punk scene play at the same venue together. Well worth the trip down and the money spent. Glad I can cross the Descendents off my list of bands I must see before I die.