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Live at The Wiltern
July 24, 29024 Review by Kevin Gomez
An all-star lineup gathered Friday night at the Wiltern promising a night of punk and ska music, with most acts bringing nostalgic memories of the mid-‘90s. What looked on paper to be an incredible night far exceeded expectation with even more surprise guests throughout the show.
San Diego’s Urethane kicked off the evening more than ready to take on an already-packed crowd. They wasted no time and began with a thunderous drum intro by Dylan Wade on “Avalanches.” Their set was a fun mixture of catchy punk and skate punk sing-alongs. Bassist Chad Ruiz announced, “Here’s a song for the skateboarders out there” and they went into “Gravity.”
Lead singer and guitarist Tim Fennelly said, “Let’s go back to ‘Wyoming,’” and went into the song by the same name. They played the popular single “Dog Years,” featuring a pretty sweet guitar solo by skate legend, Steve Caballero. They closed things with “Remember Me.”
U R E T H A N E
The time had come for some other San Diego legends, Poway to be exact. Unwritten Law came in and blew the place apart like the Wiltern owed them money. Immediately launching into the raucous “Teenage Suicide,” highlighted by the hard-hitting style of drummer Wade Youman, bringing all their songs to life. Before the crowd could catch its breath, they went right into “Rescue Me.”
Lead singer and guitarist Scott Russo said, “We had an album come out in ’22 called ‘The Hum.’ This song’s off that record,” and they played “Beggars.” Guitarist Chris Lewis joked, “We get .003 cents every million times you listen on Spotify.” “Seein’ Red” turned the entire Wiltern into one giant sing-along.
They weren’t here for a long time, unfortunately, but they made sure the crowd was here for a good time. “Celebration” saw Johnny Grill’s thick, spacey basslines. Russo switched to an acoustic guitar playing “Rest of My Life” before being joined by the rest of the band as they transitioned right into “She Says.” They played “Save Me” before finishing off their set with fan favorite, “Up All Night.”
One of the most talked about tours that still gets brought up is a famous 1998 run with Sugar Ray, Goldfinger, and Save Ferris. Cut to 26 years later and Save Ferris is back again playing with their buds in Goldfinger. The OC ska band opened with “Lights Out,” followed by the insanely popular “New Sound.”
Lead singer Monique Powell pulled out a tambourine for “What You See is What You Get,” but that was not her only accessory of the night. A lot of pop divas are no strangers to wardrobe changes, but how many of them go through it right on stage? Powell began the evening in a black dress, but shed into a purple evening gown for the second half of the show.
For a crowd that was raised on punk and ska music, they sure came out and delivered a huge skank pit when Save Ferris busted out the Operation Ivy cover, “Artificial Life.”
They played their first big hit single, “The World is New,” which became a staple of KROQ 106.7 in the late ‘90s. Powell announced, “Last time we played here, we didn’t get to play this song because I threw out my hip,” and closed their performance with “Come On Eileen.”
Recently Goldfinger has been playing as a five-piece with bassist Mike Herrera from MxPx. However, as MxPx was busy on tour, bass duties were filled by Philip Sneed, who usually acts as second guitarist.
The band kicked their set off with “Spokesman,” a song about not listening to media or role models, which seems all the more relevant in the age of social media.
Lead singer and guitarist John Feldmann said, “This year marks 30 years of Goldfinger and (lead guitarist) Mr. Charlie Paulson has been there for… most of it,” alluding to a short period when Paulson had quit the band, a few times.
Feldmann then announced that they had Reel Big Fish’s horn section playing with them tonight – Dan Regan and Matt Appleton. As if all that ska punk royalty wasn’t enough, Nate Albert, the original guitarist for the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, joined the band to play guitar on a song he co-wrote with Feldmann called “Get What I Need.”
Paulson announced this was indeed a hometown show for the band. He then introduced “my brother,” Justin Warfield of She Wants Revenge on co-vocals for Goldfinger’s cover of The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”
They played their first single, “Here in Your Bedroom” which Feldmann described as, “the song that started it all” with guest vocals by none other than Ms. Avril Lavigne. “She was in Germany last night,” Feldmann said, “and she flew over to come sing with us tonight.” In between songs they announced it was drummer Nick Gross’ birthday, to which Lavigne returned with a cake, which she then proceeded to smash into Gross’ face.
They began playing the intro to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” before instructing the crowd to split up, preparing for a wall of death. As Feldmann counted to three, the crowd launched the wall of death only to see the band switch it up and end up playing a cover of the “Friends” theme song instead.
Sneed grabbed the mic for lead vocals on a cover of Blur’s “Song 2” that had him singing from the railing of the second tier of the building. They finished their regular set with the smash hit, “Superman.”
The band would return for a rare performance of “Anxiety” from their debut album, followed up with the ska heavy “Get Up.” They played “Miles Away” which saw a triple guitar flip by Feldmann, Paulson, and Sneed. They finished the evening with a cover of Nena’s “99 Red Balloons.”
It was a beautiful night that took us back to high school and then left us right where we are in our current life – in the flash of an eye with three decades worth of dancing and singing in between.
SHOW PHOTO GALLERY
by Robert Hale Images
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