Somehow I keep finding myself back at the Electric Factory and every time it seems like 90% of the crowd is at their first show. It’s not like I’m going to different genre shows so much… I’ll admit I am pretty focused (I prefer “focused” over “closed-minded”, but whatever) in my musical taste, it either rocks or it doesn’t… I’m just noticing more and more kids whose parents either drop them off or sit up in the balcony wondering what happened to music. It’s good and bad. Good because music is one of the best parts of life and everyone should experience it however they please, and as loud as they want. Bad because some of the bands on stage these days don’t care at all about the influence they have on these kids. This show was filled with the good, the bad & the ugly.

I missed Victory Records’ Hawthorne Heights, so I’m not going to say one thing about them... nothing. Do I want to say something? Maybe. But I won’t, it’s not fair. So moving right along…

“Ohhh, Philly…” Unwritten Law’s front man, Scott Russo, sighed to the crowd on a nice Wednesday night, April 13^th, 2005. Over the past decade, these guys have jumped from the standard punk labels to the majors and made some lineup changes along the way. New drummer Tony Palermo (The Jealous Sound, Pulley) adds a new kind of freshness to the San Diego punk outfit.

I think most of the crowd knew who Unwritten Law was, but might have been seeing them for the first time, not that they never had a chance (I’ve seen them at this same venue at least twice before), but the major labels and mainstream radio play can bring a whole new crowd to the show. Seeing Red was by far the most well-received. They only played two songs from the “Black Album” which was kind of a disappointment. I listened to that album a lot in the late 90’s and I still dig it out from time to time. The newer Unwritten Law songs don’t grab me as much, but they seemed to grab this young crowd.

Sum 41 came out with what would go down as “the ugly” part of the night. A homemade video of  bassist, Cone, getting beaten up, cut up, mixed up in a blender, and served to the rest of the band for dinner. Funny? Nah… well, maybe a little. Sick? Very. It’s a good thing this band has other ways to entertain the crowd, most notably their light show that cuts with every beat of the kick drum.

Its easy to say of any band, “Eh, I don’t really like them, but they do a good show”… and I know I’ve always said that about Sum 41, but they really do put on a good show (for Canadians). Deryck Whibley… I don’t know if he’s trying to imitate Billy Joe from Green Day, but he acts and sounds just like him (not a bad thing). He definitely knows how to work the crowd...

Sum 41 may have gotten themselves into a harder, metal..er sound in recent times, as heard in their current single, We’re All to Blame, but they’re still a punk rock band with lots of hooks and a book full of one-liners. I think they realize most of their fans are high-schoolers and they know lots of parents were sitting in the upper level, so they made a point to be as bad an influence as they possibly could be.

Would I bring my daughter (if I had one) to this show? I might, but hopefully she wouldn’t be interested. If she was, hopefully she’d be like, “Daddy, that dude’s an idiot. He just said Its too late! We’re all going to hell!”… And I’d say, “Honey, you’re right. Let’s go home, you can pick a cd.”… “New Found Glory?” … “No, dear.” … “Good Charlotte?” … “Oh no.”… "Fine, Ramones?" ... "I love you."

The thing is, a lot of kids are into the newer radio friendly pop-punk, and that’s ok.

That’s the way it goes… You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Maybe the dog can learn to appreciate the new tricks, or tolerate the new tricks, but the dog will never actually do the tricks. I’ll give a thumbs up to both of these bands because mostly everyone had fun at this show. Nobody should expect a clean show from these bands so there’s really no surprises. I wish bands who play at this level could see the opportunity to bring a positive influence to young fans, but if its all about the “half hour of power”, “all killer & no filler”… well then they’re good at what they do.