Rock and Roll means never having to grow up!
Buckcherry/Pigeon Park review
written by Scotty Evil
Leather apparel, tattoos, the smell of sweat and drugs.
And that was just the audience.
Thursday night’s show at the venerable Commodore Ballroom was a dichotomy of sorts. Local young guns Pigeon Park opened for rode-hard-and-put-away-wet Buckcherry. Both brought raw rock energy to the stage albeit from different perspectives.
The venue did not look full or sold-out when Pigeon Park hit the stage promptly at 9:30. Their nervous energy showed as they launched into “Come Down Slow”…these boys have studied from the Rock Bible of guitar slinging and Capt. Morgan poses on the monitor and the edge of the stage. Not a second of boring from these boys.
These musicians were rehearsed and TIGHT. The mix was great and the crowd slowly piled towards the barriers. Made it tough to get some good pictures from my poor little camera.
There was a fair bit of instrument tuning between songs. Get these guys a guitar tech!
Next they featured “Long Gone” and “Break Me” form their recent EP “Stripes”. Good thick guitar rock with an late 90’s sound. “Black Widow” had the catchiest riffs of the night.
But the big treat for me personally was the spot-on insertion of “Spirit of Radio” by Rush late in their brief set. It evoked a great reaction from the crowd and you could tell they were loose and having fun at this point.
My only beef? I wanted to see more of these guys. S
olid show, 5/5.
Pigeon Park setlist:
Come Down Slow
Long Gone
Break Me
Black Widow
Money Beats Soul
One At a Time
High To Get By/Spirit of Radio
Stripes
At 10:30, LA rock veterans Buckcherry took over, and you could tell by the swell of blonde-haired rocker chicks in black t-shirts, boots and leather jackets they were awaited with anticipation. The band eased into “Lit Up” and went non-stop from there.
“Do you wanna go faster?!?” Josh Todd asked of the crowd before launching in “Rescue Me’. While my spot was right in front of guitarist Keith Nelson, who worked the crowd really well, it was difficult not to notice the glaze on their frontman’s eyes. Despite what influence he may have been under, his raspy voice was pitch-perfect the entire night.
“Bring it on Back” was the first track they played off their latest release “Rock ’N’ Roll”, a polished bluesy number. They then revisited 2006 with 3 tracks in a row from “15”
Some things are to be expected with a Buckcherry show: lots of drug references, masturbating the wireless mic and generally being the poster boys for LA rock. The crowd ate it up, with 3 or 4 instances of crowd surfing for good measure. Todd however did shoot some angry glances at one male fan in the front row who held up his big-screen LG phone to video THE ENTIRE SHOW. Annoying douche award goes to him.
“Crazy Bitch” whipped up the expected frenzy at the end of the show. The band returned for a 2 song encore with “Say Fuck It” (their Icona Pop “I Love It” cover) and “Sex Appeal” featuring some southern slide guitar…Keith gave the slide to a girl in front of me who had just snuck in front of me in the last few songs.
Overall Buckcherry rocked the house like the tattooed veterans that they are. While not a big fan, I enjoyed myself and would see them again.
4.5/5
Buckcherry setlist:
Lit Up
Rescue Me
Bring it on Back
Next 2 You
Everything
Sorry
Get With It
Sunshine
Tight Pants
Gluttony
SFWM
Rain’s Falling
Crazy Bitch
Encore:
Say Fuck It
Sex Appeal
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written by Scotty Evil
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