I Know You Well
Co-headlining tours are becoming more frequent with time. It is two large or popular bands coming together, alternating headliner spot each night. These tours are, most of the time, of the same genre and fan bases. Though one outlier comes to mind when Anti-Flag and Reel Big Fish teamed up. However, even in that case it brought a killer show and introduced me to Pkew Pkew Pkew. So when it was announced Face to Face and Lagwagon were doing this thing, I was ecstatic.
Of course, even with two known quantities it is wonderful to see bands I’ve never seen before like Destroy Boys. This younger band invokes a lo-fi sound, high energy and smiles up there. Detailing the Lo-Fi sound I describe, it being a punk rock with a little garage rock and a little grunge.
Their lead vocalist Alexia does what I love in a good lead singer, channeling the energy into moving around and engaging with the audience. She at a point sang from the barricade right to the faces of those up front. Destroy Boys won me over in my first time catching their performance.
Then we rolled in the first of the two headliners, Face to Face. Trever Keith opening up joking how they have a whole lot of no new songs. With that, the set was around hour plus of favorites and gems including “A-OK” and “Disconnected.” They had the crowd singing back portions of “Blind.” Trever threw a nod toward their last show at BLK Live, sharing sentiments with a lot of the local punk scene, about feeling out of place at the venue.
As always, Scott Shiflett one of the most animated and entertaining people to watch on bass for any band. Dennis, opposite stage of him, was the calm and cool guitarist. It was the first set that got me moving enough to remind me my knee is steal healing from the Agent Orange mosh pit. Face to Face continues to never fail to deliver a stellar performance.
Following them was Lagwagon’s first visit to the desert since Pub Rock Live in 2015. Riding the release of one of my favorite albums of 2019, Railer, they came out opening up playing “The Suffering.” Another awesome moment for me is that thanks to the lyrics of “Bubble” I get to see a lead singer, Joey Cape, sing “Milk, Milk, Lemonade” in any capacity on large stage. Those were not the only songs off the new release, but they did an excellent job mixing in classics over the hour and fifteen minute set.
A through line of their set was the continued sarcastic praise of Face to Face’s Scott Shiflett. It went from remarks when Joe Raposo, their bassist, was opening up a song with a solo that Joey described as not going to be as good as Scott. It included near the end dedicating “Know It All” to him. A short treat was Joey Cape acoustically opening up the encore. Lagwagon and the combined trio of bands did a fine job delivering on a night of high expectations.
