Blogger note: I apologize up front for writing about my kid, but this is also about a really cool band from Texas, so bear with me.
We pulled out of Pittsburgh with the radio tuned to the Penguins hoisting the Cup during the Victory Parade.
It was hard to leave the 'Burgh at such a moment, but we had a mission Monday in, of all places, Cleveland.
It was a punk-rock road trip fueled in part by my favorite little punk rocker -- Sawyer.
He's 5.
His previous music kick was BTO, but ever since he heard the Riverboat Gamblers, he's been hooked on punk. We can't go anywhere in the car now without listening to the Austin band, which rocks harder, faster (and smarter) than the Green Days and blink-182s of the world.
Because the Rise Against/Rancid/Riverboat Gamblers tour is skipping Pittsburgh this summer, we headed for Cleveland's Time Warner Cable Amphitheater mainly to see the Gamblers, but also pretty excited about Rancid ("And out Come the Wolves" is a still a classic). Rise Against is cool, but, um, why exactly were they headlining again?
Ten or 15 years ago, this would have been a rough scene for a 5-year-old or anyone for that matter, but most of the people who like this stuff are older these days and an outdoor punk show isn't the Doc Marten-In-Your-Face moshfest it once was. There were a few other kindergarten punks there, including one with a perfectly spiked mohawk. I kept putting earplugs in Sawyer's ears, he kept taking them out. I would lead him to the back of the tent -- where the crowd was more sparse and the sound less pummeling -- he would dash to the front, excitedly waving his poster around.
The Riverboat Gamblers had signed it earlier in the night. They were just hanging out by the soundboard (fairly anonymously) when we got there, so Sawyer and his 17-year-old sister Chelsea got to chat with them. They were incredibly friendly and kept slapping him five all night.
Guitarist Fadi El-Assad asked him his favorite song, to which he said "On Again off Again."Right before they played it -- and this is the coolest part -- Fadi yelled, "This one's for Sawyer!"Sawyer loved the whole thing, and I carried him out of the car that night sleeping in his Rancid T-shirt and hightop sneakers.
The next day his mom asked him how was the show. "LOUD! REALLY LOUD!" he said. "When I screamed as loud as I could I still couldn't hear myself."
We pulled out of Pittsburgh with the radio tuned to the Pens hoisting the Cup during the Victory Parade.
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Posted
Jun 16 2009, 01:42 PM
by
Scott Mervis