When the The Bouncing Souls + The Riverboat Gamblers show was announced I was already screaming on forums for The Real Danger as support act. I’ve seen them last year with The Loved Ones (friends of The Bouncing Souls!) and they really blew my mind. I couldn’t think of a better local support act than this band from Rotterdam. Even though the venue was far from packed, the band gave away an awesome performance and luckily, the sound was very good from the beginning as well. Mostly songs from their Self Titled debut album alongside some new tracks as well. This band definitely has some international potential!

 

I didn’t get the time to check out the next band before the show, but The Riverboat Gamblers actually turned out to be a great band as well. With the release of Underneath the Owl a few months ago, the Texas-based band (howdy!) had the opportunity to do another solo-European tour and ended up this night as support act for The Bouncing Souls. Really energetic, hyperactive, complicated, ADHD-punk rock that kind of reminded me more of post-hardcore bands like Thursday rather than punk rock bands. The lead singer proved to be the hero of the night, constantly running around on stage and jumping into the small pit as well at one of the last tracks. The sound was once again really good and I was very satisfied with this second support act of the night. I’ll have to check this out on CD soon!

 

In the break between The Riverboat Gamblers and The Bouncing Souls, the Melkweg decided to remove the fence between the two rooms and we had the chance to check out a bit of A.F.I as well, just when they started playing their hit ‘Miss Murder’! Thank you Melkweg!

 

There’s no better way to start a The Bouncing Souls set in my opinion; Kicking off with the ‘Born To Run’ intro and ‘True Believers’ immediately after that… Whoa! By the time The Bouncing Souls started playing the venue was pretty much packed and ready for some good old punk rock. A good mixture of old and new tracks like ‘Sing Along Forever’, ‘The Gold Song’, ‘East Coast, Fuck You!’ and ‘Lean On Sheana’ followed the next hour or so. The band even played ‘Hybrid Moments’ from the Misfits, another New Jersey band, just when I was out of the room to take a leak. Sing-alongs, proper beer throwing, stagedives and a nice punk-pit, everything a good punk rock evening needs. And singer Greg, known for being one of the most boring people on stage (probably due to the fact that he uses the same sort of singing technique as Sting) even made a few dance moves! The Bouncing Souls proved that they are still an oiled machine after 20 years and it seemed tonight they are ready for the next 20!