They toured the West Coast, their first U.S. tour with their first show. They arrived Wednesday. They stayed at my friend's home, 4 guys from Pittsfield, MA. 5 friends of theirs from Pittsfield came out by bus to tag along on the tour cuz they'd heard the tapes of these guys and the Pittsfield crew had all grown up together and were into punk rock. Thursday I was going to the Padres game at Petco with my folks already. Four of them (2 bands came, NHFTK had 4, the other had 3 guys but 1 guy was in both bands and they brought a friend along) joined us for the game. None of them had ever attended a baseball game. My mom, who knows little of sport, got all excited, "I explained baseball to someone!" The guys commented the the 'rituals' between innings got their attention more than the game itself.
The gig was scheduled to celebrate my 50th birthday. Since I'd been punking all these years, since age 24, it was honest. Tho I'm not nearly into HC like I was. They were the last band to play. We bunched up and with local punk friends, the Pittsfield boys and some of my friends it was a filled with joy gig. I had no idea what the band was gonna sound like. Soon as they started I went, 'holy smokes' and started to set up my little tape deck. Missed the first 3 songs doing that, punk rock songs typically being rather short. These guys don't have that hard HC edge but they had lotsa juice and energy. One guy was in the rafters, it's a small vegan student run club on UCSD campus, video taping it. By the time they ended the show we demanded an encore and they obliged playing that Neil Young song that mentions Johnny Rotten but they did it in totally their own style. I was in punk rock heaven. A night, a show, I'll never forget. Even tho I am old.