Long-running punk act Lagwagon’s crowd was adoring as ever at the Ogden on Wednesday. Photo of previous show from .
I turned 28 recently, and I spoke to my friend James about the strange changes I was feeling in my brain and heart. He enlightened me with a story of the “Saturn Returns” phenomenon that happens at this stage in life. I won’t bore you with a hippy-dippy explanation, but basically, it is a time of struggle, change and growth. After learning about Saturn Returns, I embraced it and promptly changed my age on Myspace from the faux 19 to the newly claimed 28.
Newly turned-on to this idea of transformation, I began to see the effects of the Return of Saturn in the faces of Mike Herrera, Tom Wisniewski and Yuri Ruley of at the on Wednesday. A few light lines around their eyes were visible now, and the baby fat had finally shed, revealing three very grown-up looking dudes. It was a sort of redeeming moment for me at 28, as I stood in the pit behind girls who couldn’t have been more than 17, the age I was when I first got into MxPx.
I saw MxPx with Rancid in Denver in July, and their set was familiar, starting the show with “Baba O’ Riley” bumping from the speakers before they quickly sprung into action with “Life in General.” MxPx took a balanced route through their dense catalog, playing songs from each mini-era in their decade and a half-strong career, meshing new songs like “Secret Weapon” and “Contention” seamlessly with “Tomorrow’s Another Day” and “I’m Okay.”
Moving in fluid synchronicity, Wisniewski and Herrera grabbed at the microphones with their lips, then stepped back together to lay into their guitar and bass in perfect time. Herrera shamelessly flirted with his audience, flicking picks into the crowd and sharing smiles and winks with the little bobbing heads lining the stage as he sang “The Final Slow Dance.”
Fan club member Leah was brought on stage to sing along with Mike, and he joked with the shy teenager about “getting some.” This harmless jabbing by Herrera was reciprocated with a beaming grin from the girl as she bounced about with the band. The evening’s fun-fueled version of “Chick Magnet” was the highlight of a smooth set, followed by cutesy version of The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” sung by Wisniewski.
MxPx finished their flawlessly-executed set with “Responsibility” and crowd favorite “Punk Rock Show,” Herrera doing his trademark bass toss and switch with a roadie at stage right and then holding the mic stand out above the audience for a final happy sing-along. After their set, all three members milled about the lobby, posing for photos and chatting sweetly with fans.
Without much fanfare, took the stage, opening with “Island of Shame,” the audience singing along faithfully to every word. They were promoting their latest release, “I Think My Older Brother Used to Listen to Lagwagon,” and this title permeated my thoughts as I sat back and watched band and crowd engage in a full-on party of their own.
The massive but intimate feel continued as the crowd shouted with singer Joey Cape through “Making Friends” and “Trashed,” band members Chris Flippin and Chris West raising their guitars in the air and mirroring each other for an awesome rendition of “Violins.”
The crowd became a multi-level pit, rushes of bodies fluctuating and snaking in patterns as the sweat-soaked mass pumped fists through “Black Eyes” and “Never Stops,” Cape pretending to tap-dance about. Lagwagon buzzed through “Falling Apart” and “Errands,” the crowd never wavering in their fervent devotion to the band and the great show unfolding for the at-capacity Ogden.
“Heartbreaking Music” and “Automatic” came through with force, the first two songs from Lagwagon’s “Resolve,” a solemn tribute to their drummer Derrick Plourde who passed away in 2005. Crowd sing-along “To All my Friends,” the Fat Wreck Chords compilation classic “Sleep,” and the appropriate “Razor Burn” led into a live mustache-shave-off by Joey himself, the facial hair being an apparent joking point of contention within the band.
Lagwagon left the stage, only to have Cape return moments later with a lit cigarette. He began singing the Big Red gum jingle, which led into the similar melody of “Alien 8” before the rest of the band came back for “Mr. Coffee” and “May 16th.”
Lagwagon’s sound, aesthetic, lyrics and lifestyle run in the same working class Cali vein as their label bros , and their crowd is passionately devoted to this philosophy and the music that comes from it. Even if Lagwagon weren’t exactly my bag, it didn’t matter. They played a strong and sincere 22-song set that I appreciated and their audience adored.
is a Denver-based writer and regular Reverb contributor. Check out her and .
