<\/p>\n
Andrew Jackson Jihad, a satirical Arizona folk punk band turned emo-skate punk, is on tour with New York’s Jeff Rosenstock, former lead of The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry!. Both have long-lasting ties to San Jos\u00e9 through Asian Man Records, a staple ska\/punk label run by Mike \u201cBruce Lee\u201d Park that started in his parents’ garage in Santa Cruz and has since upgraded to his parents’ garage in Los Gatos (a wealthy suburb to the southwest of San Jos\u00e9). Asian Man has released the greater deal of AJJ and BtMI!’s music, and both bands have made good friends in-town as well as with each other, resulting in frequent collaboration.<\/p>\n
This collaboration is plainly visible in Jeff Rosenstock’s backup band: Mike Huegenor is singer and guitarist for such San Jos\u00e9 bands as Shinobu, Hard Girls, and Classics of Love. Kevin Higuchi has taught drums at San Jose State University and San Jose Pro Drum and played in the bands Insolence and Whiskey Avengers. John <\/span>DeDomenici,<\/span> also formerly of Bomb the Music Industry! <\/span>and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches.<\/span>T<\/span>hese four musicians (including Jeff) <\/span>also<\/span> form Mike Park’s <\/span>backup<\/span> band under The Bruce Lee Band <\/span>(though they played together as Jeff Rosenstock Internet Posers before that)<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n I saw these bands twice over the last week, once in Seattle with friends and once in Portland on my own, and I got to talk briefly with Huegenor, DeDomenici, and Higuchi. However, as Huegenor said when I contacted him ahead of time about an interview, there was no good time or place before, during, or after the show to have a real discussion. I am hoping to see them return to the bay after the tour.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>particularly<\/span> interesting thing about seeing the bands twice was to <\/span>examine<\/span> the difference<\/span>s<\/span> between the crowds from the different cities. First off, the general air before the show in Portland was much brighter. People <\/span>showed up in<\/span> more colorful clothing and there were more kids (by which I mean teens) joking around and making noise, whereas in Seattle, everyone was in the typical all-black getups and <\/span>there more of an air of everyone trying to act cool<\/span>. This might be related to the nature and locations of the venues. N<\/span>eu<\/span>mos in Seattle was a dark club in what felt like the middle of downtown. Walking around, I saw dozens of different posters for upcoming shows there from well known artists (including Questlove<\/span>), indicating that it might be a major stage, both musically and socially<\/span>. <\/span>On the other hand, <\/span>Wonder<\/span>Ballroom <\/span>in Portland felt more <\/span>set in<\/span> suburb<\/span>ia<\/span> and had a much more open and colorful interior. <\/span>Additionally, t<\/span>he ceiling lights in Portland came on between acts, which took away some of the edge but made it feel like a safer place, <\/span>possibly attracting a young<\/span>er<\/span> and more relaxed crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite this, the Portland show <\/span>turned out<\/span> a lot rougher, both for the bands and the audience. Both c<\/span>ities’ c<\/span>rowds had enormous energy and seemed very invested in the bands (I saw a several people lost in their own worlds for Chumped (NY) and The Smith Street Band’s (AUS) sets) <\/span>and t<\/span>he singer from the Smith Street Band mentioned th<\/span>at<\/span> Seattle and Portland had been the best shows of the tour so far (not to brag <\/span>here<\/span>). Yet the experiences in the mosh\/dance pits were <\/span>very<\/span> different. The pit in Seattle flowed a lot more, <\/span>like<\/span> people understood the rhythms and knew how to move <\/span>in concert with<\/span> them<\/span>. <\/span>Such was the fluidity of the crowd that I would repeatedly find myself <\/span>on the other side of the room from my friends, but could <\/span>I<\/span> easily dance my way back. In Portland <\/span>however<\/span>, there were a lot more hard elbows, the crowd rarely <\/span>seemed to get<\/span> into a unified rhythm, and people were generally more violent. This notably progressed over the course of the night, likely as people drank more or as a different group of people joined for the later bands.<\/span><\/p>\n The bands themselves ended up in some conflict with the audience at several points <\/span>while in Portland.<\/span> During Jeff Rosenstock’s set, he made a joke that <\/span>they<\/i><\/span> were Andrew Jackson Jihad, and that the audience should give them all their money, for which he caught a few coins to the face, as well as a few bills. During<\/span> Hajj\u2019s actual set, singer\/guitarist <\/span>Sean Bonnette was also hit in the face with something <\/span>that looked like a bandana, to which he disappointedly frowned and said \u201cSame to you.<\/span>\u201d I saw nothing like this while in Seattle.<\/span><\/p>\n The other major issue was that people refused to stop crowd-surfing, even after the band had <\/span>taken time<\/span> to ask people not to and <\/span>after<\/span> security had come in and told everyone, \u201cWhen you start <\/span>trying<\/span>to get<\/span> on top of people, it’s time for you to leave.\u201d <\/span>Particularly, m<\/span>embers of AJJ showed concern for those in the front, who were repeatedly smashed up against the stage and <\/span>would get caught up in<\/span> crowd-surfers’ legs. For the most part however, people were considerate in stopping and helping people who had lost shoes or glasses or phones, or who needed help getting up, <\/span>though this did not prevent a bizarre series of <\/span>vortex-like situations, where half of the crowd ended up getting dragged down under each other.<\/span><\/p>\n In Portland <\/span>I <\/span>even<\/span> overheard that someone had found a knife on the floor, which may have been some kind of grizzly allusion to Jeff Rosenstock’s recent music video <\/span>Nausea<\/i><\/span>, where knives are passed out at the door to a show, and someone jumps on stage to stab Jeff and pull confetti and tacos out of his chest cavity (definitely worth a watch).<\/span><\/p>\n I had planned to attend a third show by these bands in San Francisco to try to compare the experience in the Bay Area as opposed to the Pacific Northwest, but as I have detailed in my last post, there were complications, and that did not end up happening. Hopefully, I will get the chance to interview some of the band members as\/if they return from the tour and get their fresh perspectives on performing in different cities across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n P.S. I had also planned to\u00a0take photos, but apparently my camera and several other items went missing somewhere in the midst of repeatedly packing and unpacking my life in the past few weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andrew Jackson Jihad, a satirical Arizona folk punk band turned emo-skate punk, is on tour with New York’s Jeff Rosenstock, former lead of The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry!. 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