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The best new punk rock bands make some holiday noise
Punk rock's gonna be OK! On Tuesday night at Irving Plaza, music mag Alternative Press sponsored a show featuring five up-and-coming bands with a lot of aggression and heart. Forget dance grooves, screamo and top 40 aspirations; this punk rock assault was more honest and tied to the past. Four Year Strong and Title Fight (pictured) delivered boisterous sets of melodic hardcore, while The Swellers and Sharks leaned more on hooks and classic punk sounds (from The Clash to 90s Fat Wreck-style pop-punk). The wild card was Gallows, a U.K. band that once seemed on the verge of superstardom (singer Frank Carter once topped NME's "Cool List," ahead of the likes of Amy Winehouse, the Arctic Monkeys and Keith Richards). Within the last year, however, Carter left (thanks to a quick interview with our photog Jen Maler, we now know he lives in NYC and has a new band debuting in February) and the band soldiered on with new singer Wade MacNeil. The result? Still delivering some truly brutal noise. And Carter himself made a cameo during the set, in true holiday spirit.—Kirk Miller
