Stick Around - When We Ran cd/ The Irish Title Fight?

Stick Around is a band from Ireland. Basically it's a poppunk band done by hardcore kids, or that's what I think. You know the type: Polar Bear Club, Hot Water Music and Title Fight are best known examples.

Recordopener 'Belgium Sideburn' is a very great musical intro. But also points out the big weakness of the band. This song is good because there are no vocals on it. The other 7 songs on 'When We Ran' are full of some of the most off key vocals I've heard in a while.

I shouldn't sing about people singing off key, I'm no great vocalist myself, yet when you try and compete in the poppunk genre good vocals are more important factor than let's say if you're doing a band like Infest.

Maybe the band should find a new singer or decided on another musical style to play cause 'When We Ran' isn't the kind of record that will make a lot of listeners happy.

Check the songs out for yourself overhere.

Polar Bear Club - March 1 - Den Bosch - show

I was really looking forward to this show ever since I heard about it somewhere last summer. The W2 club in Den Bosch is my cbgb's, anthrax, gilman or whatever cool club where you saw some of your best and early shows.

When I started listening to hardcore and punk in the mid nineties and I didn't have a driver license the W2 was the club I could go to by bike. So during that time I almost drove to Den Bosch every weekend to see bands like Shelter, Battery, Good Riddance, Mainstrike, Snapcase, H20, Warzone, AFI, Hands Tied, Ten Yard Fight, 7 Seconds, Lagwagon and many more.

Lately the venue isn't putting up that many hardcore shows but they made an exception for this package.

The venue wasn't packed like it used to be, but there was a nice and chilled out atmosphere with people just checking the bands and bopping their heads.

Title Fight were up first. Somehow this band reminds me of early Saves The Day and Lifetime. They have their roots in hardcore and play a sort of poppunk without being the next Good Charlotte.
The bassplayer and frontman moves like he is Porcell which is always cool in my book. I think they managed to warm up the crowd pretty well.

Next up were ShookOnes. Where I think there records get kind of boring after a while and I always put on Lifetime instead, I do have to admit they convinced me life.

The band sure knows how to play a tight set, though their mixture of hardcore and punk wasn't met by much approval from the crowd.

After the show I told myself I should listen to their records more often. And I'm saying it again now, since it didn't happen so far.

Extra points go to the very short shorts of one of the guitar players.

'Chasing Hamburg' by Polar Bear Club is one of my favorite records of 2009. Having missed the band on their tour with The Gaslight Anthem I was rather curious as to how I would like them on stage. Well they rock.

At some moment during their set I got the idea they're the punkrock version of Snapcase. They have the same kind of presence on stage. Both vocalists share the same kind of jumps.

Basically Polar Bear Club is a band that can easily become the next Rise Against. Meaning they can play on big festival stages one day and seem to give as much the following day in a small club. The 'scene' needs bands like this to get new people involved and interested in small shows. I need bands like this because they make great records, do good shows and keep me around and interested in new record instead of only glorifying the past.