To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their album Let’s Talk About Feelings, Lagwagon played three shows in California where they played the album in its entirety. The band brought along No Fun At All, Western Addiction, and A Vulture Wake, making it a short “Fat Wreck Chords meets Bird Attack Records” tour. On September 22, 2018 I headed to the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, CA to catch the second of these three shows.

The sold out concert began at 8PM with A Vulture Wake. Seeing as how the band is a “super-group” of sorts that just this year released their first full-length, I was genuinely curious to finally see what their live show was like. Being that all of the members are seasoned punk veterans from other noteworthy bands, it was unsurprising that they put on a very good get. Even with a guitar around his neck (that would later come off towards the end of the set) Chad Price is still a fantastic frontman. His vocals were basically identical to what you hear on The Appropriate Level Of Outrage. And while he was singing the other band members were jumping and kicking around when they weren’t singing backing vocals. They really did a good job of getting the crowd warmed up. Some of the highlights of A Vulture Wake’s set was “Circle Of Friends,” which consists of a guitar-tapping introduction that is just plane unmistakable as well as tracks like “Fraud” and “Non-Believers.” Towards the end of the half-hour, the band even threw in a new song called “Rifferton” off their upcoming EP Fall Prey. If you liked what you heard on The Appropriate Level Of Outrage, then based on what “Rifferton” sounded like, chances are Fall Prey will be for you as well.

A Vulture Wake's Setlist:

Bucket

Old World Order

Dead Languages

Circle Of Friends

Secrets

Fraud

Non-Believers

Rifferton

Running Back Home

It is always such pleasure to see Western Addiction live. This time was no exception. The band took that stage at 8:45PM and that was when a whole new level of excitement hit me. Immediately, you could see that guitarist Tony Teixeira was not on stage. It turned he was on tour Swingin’ Utters, so the band had a fill-in, second guitarist specifically for these few shows. That didn’t stop Western Addiction for putting on such an awe-inspiring performance though. The band jumped right into their set with “The Church Of Black Flag.” And I have to say that since Jason Hall has has not been wearing a guitar, it is clear that he has become one of the best frontmen in the scene. Not only are his vocals so brutal and harsh, he also would take the entire microphone stand towards the crowd, set it down, and then take then balancing and walking on the rail of the barricade while screaming into the mic. He eventually would walk into the pit with the mic during songs like “Taedium” and “God Says No.” At one point, he managed to sit on a big guy’s shoulder, which is where I, along a few other audience member helped prop him up. Western Addiction also played newer tracks like the massive “Family Of Boys” and “Red Emeralds.” Overall, the band was incredibly tight throughout their set and put on one hell of a show.

Western Addiction's Setlist:

The Church Of Black Flag

When A Good Friend Attacks

Family Of Boys

Taedium

Clatter And Hiss

Animals And Children

Masscult, Vulgarians and Entitlement

Mailer, Meet Jim

I’m Not The Man I Thought I’d Be

Red Emeralds

Charged Words

God Says No

No Fun At All started their 45-minute set at 9:30PM. It had apparently been quite a while since band played in California and this being my first tie seeing them live, I was pretty curious as to what they could do live. But I was thoroughly impressed. They performed a very lively batch of melodic hardcore songs. Both guitarists and the bassist were all wireless so they were able to run across the stage and switch mics quickly and jump around. The crowd was loving every second of it. It was during No Fun At All set when the pushing and saving from the circle pit behind me became fairly constant. The audience seemed extremely excited when the band played songs such as “No Fun Intended,” “Perfection,” “Out Of Bounds,” and “Spirit,” which from their latest released GRIT.

No Fun At All's Setlist:

Believers

No Fun Intended

Should Have Known

Lose Another Friend

Strong And Smart

Wow And I Say Wow

Perfection

Growing Old Growing Cold

In A Moment

Evil Worms

Out Of Bounds

Spirit

Catch Me Running Round

Where’s The Truth

Out Of Bounds

Beat’s Down

Master Celebrator

A little after 10:30PM the curtains opened to just Joey Cape holding an acoustic guitar. He began Lagwagon’s performance with “Burden Of Proof/Reign.” Once the acoustic section of the song was done, the rest of the band walked on stage and blasted through the rest of the song. Lagwagon played two more songs, “Island Of Shame” and “Violins” before they started playing all Let’s Talk About Feelings. I’ve seen Lagwagon play clubs shows ad massive festivals and I have to say that they were in top form at this show in particular. The whole band were also jumping and kicking around through out the entire hour and half (or so) set. It was incredible that bassist Joe Raposo still had so much energy after doing the very same with A Vulture Wake only a couple of hours before. With a Let’s Talk About Feelings banner behind them, the guitarists would pose together during solos and Raposo would let the audience members in the front touch the headstock of his bass. Joey Cape’s vocals were especially stellar during songs like “Change Despair,” “Hurry Up And Wait,” “Coffee And Cigarettes,” and of course “May 16.” What also made the Let’s Talk About Feelings section of the set even more special was that the band even played all of the audio clip introductions over the PA. Plus, Joey gave an extra heartfelt intro just as the band played their cover of No Use For A Name’s song “Exit.” For the encore, Lagwagon played an extra four or five songs, but I was quite happy to hear “Cog In The Machine” and “Razor Burn.”

Lagwagon's Setlist:

Burden Of Proof /Reign

Island of Shame

Violins

(Let's Talk About Feelings)

After You My Friend

Gun In Your Hand

Leave The Light On

Change Despair

Train

Hurry Up and Wait

Everything Turns Grey (Agent Orange cover)

Love Story

Messengers

The Kids Are All Wrong

May 16

Owen Meaney

The Cog in the Machine

Coffee and Cigarettes

Exit (No Use For A Name cover)

Encore: *(these might be slightly out of order)

Alien 8

Making Friends

Falling Apart

Razor Burn

The summer of 2018 was pretty dry when it came to punk shows in Los Angeles. The last one that I went to was when The Dirty Nil played here back in June (also an incredible show by the way). Since then I hadn’t been to any concerts. So for months I was truly looking forward to this one and it was very much worth the wait. It was awesome to finally see A Vulture Wake and No Fun At All live. Western Addiction always put on an amazing performance. They are truly one of my favorite bands to see live right. And Lagwagon never disappoint. In fact, this show was probably the best I had ever seen them perform.

You can see pictures of the show on the Punknews Instagram.