All Ages Highlights II: Mike Herrera of MxPx (May/2011)

We went to a wedding and a "Punk Rawk Show" broke out!
Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Herrera of MxPx.
(Personal Collection)

Felipe M

The following is part of a series of music shows and events that I attended in the last year and half or so.  

May 27-30, 2011: Mike Herrera of MxPx Private Show--Lake Geneva, WI.

Spending three out of four weekends in May in the state of Wisconsin leaves me with a sickening feeling.  Nevertheless, it's worth going up there when I can't see some of these bands live in Chicago. In this instance, on Memorial Day Weekend of 2011, my buddy Jesse was getting married and I was part of his wedding.  The following is a quick chronicle of the Private Punk Rawk Show that broke out at his wedding. 

Jesse (left) on guitar;
Mike (right) on bass.
(Personal Collection)

Mike Herrera, lead vocalist/bassist of the band MxPx flew down from Bremerton, WA to perform during the "Happy Hour" portion of my friend's Jesse's wedding--except that Jesse didn't know anything about Herrera's arrival.  It was his wedding surprise, all planned out by his wife-to-be.

He thought he was getting an acoustic guitar from Herrera's folk music project, Tumbledown. As much as Jesse was content with the guitar, the look on his face when Herrera came out to greet his is simply, for lack of a better term, priceless.

From what I remember, Mike had flown into Chicago and was being driven to the small town resort of Lake Geneva, WI. He looked fatigued and hungry. None of us knew what to expect of the encounter.  Somebody handed Jesse his electric guitar, Mike took out his bass and what followed was an impromptu set, guitar lesson, and jam session all rolled into one as Jesse and Mike played what had to be 3 hours of MxPx's music catalog.  They literally could have played all night if it wasn't for the fact that, you know--there was a wedding to prepare for and poor Mike was still exhausted and hadn't eaten a thing since arriving in Wisconsin, but he was such a good and humbled sport about the whole ordeal as he toughened it out for our entertainment--one of the most lax people I have ever met.  And really, as an entertainer, Mike knew that the show had to go on, even it was in a small room of just about 20 people watching.  As I would later learn, Mike takes his musical obligations very seriously.

Some of the highlights:

• Announcing that he and MxPx were working on a new album (eventually being Plans Within Plans). 
• Giving us an inside scoop of the current music scene.
• Updating us on the band and its other members, Tom Wisniewski and Yuri Ruley, and how they're now providing and caring for their respective families.
• How he continues to tour without the band with Tumbledown and the MxPx All-Stars. 
• Basically, he explained how blessed he was for having the opportunity to perform for a living and will continue to tour and use his musical and songwriting talents.
• Performing two song requests from me: "Begin to Start" and "Teenage Politics"
• Mike tried setting me up to start doing the vocals for "Politics," but I forgot the words and choked.  The song was abruptly ended, understandably so.  

(Here's a video of my boy Jesse playing guitar and Mike playing bass.  The name of the song is "Heard that Sound" by MxPx.)

Yours Truly on the left.
Mike was definitely dressed for the occasion as well
(Personal Collection)

As mentioned before, Mike was there to do a one hour solo acoustic set before the wedding.  The one song that stuck out that he did play was "Final Slowdance," which I always thought was appropriate for events such as these.  A lot of people at the wedding who never heard of Mike or MxPx came out very impressed and quickly became fans.

Eventually, I did have, what proved to be a very long conversation with Mike.  After praising his work as a musician and thanking him for creating music that people like me can relate to--despite the fact that I am not a Christian and MxPx has always had the label of a Christian Band--we began having a conversation about stuff.  Lots and lots of stuff.  With respect to Mike, I was not conducting an interview and if I was somebody of importance, we would have been speaking "off the record," but I will try to tip-toe the major issues that were discussed over whiskey and tequila drinks.

• Found out we have something in common: we both enjoy listening to Bad Religion. 
• His close relationship with the bands Thursday and Strike Anywhere. 
• What it means to be part of a band that has been labeled as a "Christian band." 
• I shared with him, that despite not being a Christian myself, that I enjoy listening to bands like Emery and August Burns Red. Again, he reminded me that he likes Bad Religion.
• How he and Chuck Ragan's acoustic music differ despite both coming from punk rock backgrounds. 
• We discussed the pros and cons of technology on the music industry. He explained that there was more exposure, but getting paid as a musician was a lot harder to achieve despite Internet services claiming that they pay a percentage to musicians for letting them use their music for their streaming and downloading services (which is really not news as many bands can attest to this fact). 
• In the August 2012 issue of Alternative Press, he had a more optimistic and detailed view about technology being used as a beneficial tool to succeed as a musician. 
• The real highlight--Mike telling me that I have a place to crash the next time I visit Seattle, Washington. Don't know if he was serious or if I should take his invite with a grain of salt, but I considered it a small victory as annoying as I must have been with all my questions.  Plus it gives me another reason to go back to Seattle.  
• Of course, was able to get his autograph. 

Mike proved to be a very cool, humbled, patient, guy who thankfully, takes his craft seriously.  He's gone through his ups and downs in 2012 (gear stolen in Vancouver), but continues to tour, all over the world--most recently, he went to Australia to play bass for Goldfinger. We at Pathological Hate continue to wish him lots of luck and I personally wish to thank him again for a very memorable wedding in late May. 

Great to meet you too, Mike!--Felipe M (Personal Collection)

Summer Live Part IV: Scream it Like You Mean It Tour

Felipe M



WE CAME AS ROMANS

This was the first band that we saw on this tour date at The Metro in Chicago and the first thing I thought about them after they performed their first song was, "is this a Christian band?" The band's set up with the constant change up of screaming to clean vocals, a boat load of band members, and a synth player reminds me a lot of Christian hardcore heavyweights The Devil Wears Prada and Underoath. Plus when a band tells the audience to raise their hands in the air towards the sky, instead of fists or devil horns, you know what kind of show you are in। However, Devon and I tried to give this band the benefit of the doubt. So we looked them up on Wikipedia while they played on stage. Turns out their music is not full of Christian lyrics, but most of the band members are devout Christians--kind of the same way the next band that followed them on stage, Emery, would be described as.

Let the record show that I don't have a problem with Christian bands. I rather enjoy other Christian bands such as MxPx, The Devil Wears Prada, and the like. But it's kind of awkward to see a band that has "Christian band" characteristics and still trying to create crossover appeal. This band definitely has appeal as many of the people that were there really liked this band. For me, however, I really didn't hear much originality or anything that stood out from this band's setlist as the music structure seemed too random. The songs are dominated by screaming vocals and the clean vocals were intended to create a good mix, but the clean vocals do very little to enhance this band's music in my humble opinion. The music itself was pretty unmemorable as I couldn't tell you any one particular song that stood out. However, without a doubt, their shows are full of energy, if anything mindlessly chaotic. And the songs are full of so much positivity, you'd think you were at a Hatebreed show. This band must be getting a lot of pub because they will be touring the upcoming Spring version of the Scream it Like You Mean it Tour.



EMERY
Let me preface this by saying that Emery was without a doubt the best band that performed on this tour date. Playing a good mix of their albums, their set was predominantly filled with songs from their more recent album, ...In Shallow Seas We Sail. The album is what a great mix of screaming and clean vocals should sound like and without a doubt was one of the best albums to come out in 2009 for the post-hardcore genre. Emery was near flawless live and without question the best band of the night. There was something wrong with the sound as the clean vocals, for all bands, sounded awful and high-pitched, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Emery was fantastic on this night. Just like the band that preceded them, Emery is one of those bands where all band members are devout Christians, but go out of their way to not include too many, if any, songs with strong Christian overtones as they attempt to appeal to a mass audience. Whether you agree with their beliefs or their marketing approach, you cannot deny that Emery, simply put, is a rock solid band.




SILVERSTEIN
Headlining on this date was the mighty Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein. Silverstein, to the best of my knowledge is not a Christian band but they love touring with those type of bands (i.e. The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red, etc.) as their appeal to an evergrowing younger crowd who are full of angst and heartbreak meshes well with the crowd who count these shows as part of their mandatory weekly mass.

All kidding aside, the super-vegans were on the heals of releasing an album that didn't do much to keep my interest going for this band. A Shipwreck in the Sand might have been this band's most intricate piece of work, but for an old-timer like me, nothing will ever top their first two full-length albums. Nevertheless, I tried to come in with an open mind for this band and their new work, however, just like the two preceding bands, whenever clean vocals were used in their music, the singer's voice would sound atrocious. And I like lead singer Shane Told's voice, but there was something off at The Metro that night as the high-pitched-sounding vocals were deafening and made me regret not getting earplugs. The band's setlist was pretty unspectacular for me as the first five songs were flooded with their newest material. It was a nice surprise to see them play "Red Light Pledge" live, a very underrated song. Nevertheless, the "old" songs they selected for this night is getting very predictable and uninspiring. How many times do we have to hear "Bleeds No More" to end every show with this band? And even the crowd started thinning as Silverstein's setlist continued to drag, more and more people were leaving the show.


So to summarize, after reflecting on this show, you realize that the band who was headlining seems to be on the way down, while the band that we witnessed first, We Came As Romans, have yet to peak and are just streaking towards the top. Or maybe I'm exaggerating, but on this night, Emery were the band live, but We Came As Romans stole the show. Meanwhile, Silverstein's set just dragged on forever.


On a positive note, the best part about going to The Metro is that there are these two Thai restaurants in the Lakeview area that might be the two best Thai restaurants in the entire Cook County area. Try out THAI CLASSIC (get the Pineapple Chicken) and PS BANGKOK (best Tom Yum soup ever. I recommend you order it with seafood).