15-04-2010 Give It A Name Festival

Venue: Theaterfabrik, Munich (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Festival season is coming closer, and to get ready for the best season of the year we had a one day festival in Munich with six amazing punk rock bands. Give It A Name Festival was it called. After being there I guess the best name to give it would be pure awesomeness or something like that but let me start in the beginning.

It was a sunny day in Munich as I headed to the festival. In the street of the venue – it was an indoor festival – you could see several punk fans going the same direction. The festival was held at Theaterfabrik, a medium sized venue with a low ceiling and a quite small stage. Doors opened at 4pm and the first band went on at 4:45pm. By that time the venue was not too crowded yet, but that would change throughout the evening.

The first band was The Swellers from Michigan. The Swellers is an American punk rock band from Flint, Michigan. Their music draws influence from melodic punk rock bands as well as alternative and indie rock from the 90’s. The Swellers have played a leg on the Vans Warped Tour in 2005 and have since toured with bands such as A Wilhelm Scream, Only Crime, Less Than Jake, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong, Streetlight Manifesto, The Artist Life, Polar Bear Club, Paramore, Much The Same and Broadway Calls. This year they will be part of the Warped Tour again, but tonight they rocked for us. They had about 30 minutes in which The Swellers had to squish in their performance and convince the audience that they rock. And they succeeded with convincing most of the audience. The guys of The Swellers mentioned that it was their first time in Europe and you could tell they were very excited about that. But nevertheless they put up a professional and passionate performance. Their songs just got you going along, not too fast punk rock but not slow at all either. The singer’s voice reached out to you wherever you stood in the room. I enjoyed their performance a lot and am looking forward to seeing them the next time. And several people in the audience felt the same way. But there were five more bands to go.

After a rushed changeover with 3Doors Down as background music the next band was ready to go on stage. The Friday Night Boys is a pop punk band from Fairfax, Virginia that formed in 2006. The band consists of Andrew Goldstein (Lead Vocals/Guitar/Keys), Robby Dallas Reider (Bass guitar), Mike Toohey (Guitar/Vocals), and Chris Barrett (Drums/Backup vocals). Their music was not as catchy as of the band before but still good. Several people liked it but many also went for a smoke or to refill their drinks while The Friday Night Boys were performing their not even 30 minutes set.

Almost half way through the festival the venue was a lot more crowded than before and all were ready to rock with Haste The Day. Haste the Day is a Christian metalcore band signed with Solid State Records from Indianapolis, Indiana, formed in 2001. Their band is named after a lyric in the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul”. Their music was pushing and extremely fast, the only way to move to this music seemed to be ending up in a big circle pit. People were moshing and jumping around everywhere. So did the singer. He jumped down into the photo pit to get closer to his fans. Haste The Day really seemed to make haste through their performance. It was done in not even half an hour.

Another rush through the changeover so that Bouncing Souls could come on stage. The Bouncing Souls are a punk rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 1987. By the time of their acknowledgment by the national punk rock scene, they had reignited a “pogo” element to New Jersey punk rock by playing fast light-hearted songs, a model followed by various other local bands. Only the name did not ring a bell, but as I saw the band I remembered to have them seen before back in 2003 and I also remembered that I liked them back then. The audience knew and liked Bouncing Souls for sure. The singer irritated me a little bit at first, because he wore a suit and did not move around too much at first. But his voice and the music convinced. After the third song he loosened up a lot and rocked along. Astonished by the Bouncing Souls here on stage I could hardly move but only stare. The songs were amazing and so was their performance. The singer as well as the rest of the band sucked you into their own little world. Many people in the audience could sing along to old and new songs. The Bouncing Souls, glad to have found them back after such a long time. They are amazing.

With Story Of The Year today’s Give It A Name Festival was getting closer to the end. The venue was crowded with punks, rockers and a couple people dressed as Goths. The audience by now was still quite young but some older people were rocking amongst them as well. Story of the Year is an American rock band formed in St. Louis, Missouri in 1995. The band was initially named Big Blue Monkey, they changed their name to Story of the Year in 2002 after the release of their EP titled Story of the Year on the indie label Criterion Records when they realized a blues group of the same name had already existed. It would not be until eight years after forming that Story of the Year saw its first piece of commercial success in its major label debut, Page Avenue, containing the popular singles “Until the Day I Die” and “Anthem of Our Dying Day”. A second album, In the Wake of Determination, followed in 2005, but did not achieve the success of its predecessor. The band released their third album, The Black Swan, on April 22, 2008, which was their first release on Epitaph Records, followed by 2010’s The Constant. Story Of The Year rocked the venue big time as well. The circle pit grew bigger and bigger and the guys on stage pushed it more and more. The guys had a lot of fun on stage, rocking out and sharing many of their songs with us. What a fun festival it was so far, but the highlight was yet to come.

Last band of this wonderful indoor festival day was AFI. Their changeover took a little bit longer because they had platforms set up on stage on which the guys could jump to be “illuminated”. The drums were having the “Crash Love” logo on it. AFI (A Fire Inside) is an American alternative rock band from Ukiah, California, formed in 1991. They have consisted of the same lineup since 1998, lead vocalist Davey Havok, drummer and backup vocalist Adam Carson, with bassist Hunter Burgan and guitarist Jade Puget, who both play keyboard and contribute backup vocals. AFI has released eight studio albums over 18 years as a band, the first being “Answer That and Stay Fashionable” in 1995. The band then went on to release “Very Proud of Ya” the next year, followed up by a third in three years, “Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes”. Over the years, AFI has changed its style from the earlier days of hardcore punk, to the horror punk-influenced sound of 1999’s “Black Sails in the Sunset” and 2000’s “The Art of Drowning”. The band had its first major success 12 years after it formed, in 2003, with “Sing the Sorrow” reaching #5 on the Billboard 200. The band returned in 2006 with “Decemberunderground”. AFI’s eighth studio album is titled “Crash Love” and was released on September 29, 2009. As The band entered the stage the screaming and cheering was loud. Powerful they began with “Medicate” right after the intro. Everybody went wild, jumped and danced around, sang along extremely loud. You couldn’t tell who was more in motion: AFI on stage or the audience. Nobody stood still not even for a second. AFI blasted out with one hit after another of all albums. They played very old and pure punk ones, as well as the more melodic ones from “Sing The Sorrow” and of course the extremely danceable new ones off “Crash Love”. Davey ran from one side to the other, performing like he was born to do nothing else. Jade and Hunter jumped around just as much, on and off the platforms and sometimes from side to side as well. It was a challenge for all to not run into each other on this small stage. The new style suited them extremely well. Davey did not wear any make up like he used to for the two previous albums, but he wore some fine jewelry that you simply couldn’t oversee. Hunter seemed to have a blast on stage, always laughing and smiling and so was Adam behind the drums. Jade seemed a little shy and didn’t look much at the audience but that did not impact his performance on stage by any means. AFI put up an extremely energetic performance, just as we are used to. This explosion of performance as closing of this festival made you believe you were still at the festival with your mind even days after. Lets see how hard the withdrawals set in as soon as our brains realize it is all over. AFI is a gorgeous live band, and was a wonderful and perfect highlight of the festival. But all bands that played today did not only give their best but were amazing live bands. Now, let the festival season begin!