RX Bandits’ “The 10 Year Resignation Anniversary Tour” – REVIEW

We recently had the opportunity to hang out for the Chicago date of RX Bandits’ “The 10 Year Resignation Anniversary Tour” with support from, Northern Faces. You can check out our review and photos, after the break.

Who are Northern Faces? Alternative Press has been hyping them up recently and that’s great and all. In recent years though, Alt Press has lost its status as a reputable music source in my opinion. While they still cover reputable artists, the main spotlight tends to be on music that appeals to a demographic that spends obscene amounts of money on music, teenage girls. This observation coupled with the fact that they are touring with the RX Bandits after just having released their first EP ever, made everything seem a bit fishy. Unless you’re a band comprised from members of previously successful bands, (The Sound of Animals Fighting, Divine Fits, Bosnian Rainbows) most of the time, the verdict is that the band will be put together by a record label as a generic money making device, rather than an original and inspired band. This is the problem with the “pop punk”, “metal core” and “Indie pop” scenes are that, bands pop out of nowhere, create the most generic, clean and produced first album or EP, become uber famous, tour the world on their first album and sully the art of making music. Many of these bands never last past the first album or two, because you can only keep pedaling crap for so long. You get 15 minutes of fame, and then you’re working as a server at Applebee’s and getting laid by 18 year old scene girls, because you told her you went on tour once. I may sound salty about this, but it’s shitty when bands are in it for all the wrong reasons and get caught up in the Hollywood superficial side of the music industry. But then again, not everyone is talented enough to be a band like the RX Bandits. I guess if that’s your cup of tea, then cool, keep doing what makes you happy. Just know that you’ll just be lost in the shuffle one day, so plan ahead. This has been a PSA about generic music.

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Northern Faces was musically sound, I honestly have nothing bad to say about their talent overall as musicians. The sound, it’s been done before, a lot. The only correlation I can make with them opening for RX Bandits is the fact that they were just recently signed to Equal Vision records. It just seems like such an obscure fit, no offense to Northern Faces, but I think there would have been numerous other bands who could have been a better opener for the RX Bandits. Who knows the true reason, maybe this was a business decision, or they just wanted a band that was kind of underwhelming to warm up the crowd. I didn’t mind their set, for what it was, it was good, at least they’re musicianship was up to par and it wasn’t like hearing nails on a chalk board. The half full room didn’t seem to mind them, but at the same time, not everyone was really paying attention. But like most unknown openers, the same thing happens across the board. I can’t honestly gauge them as a band just from the one set. It’s just that they have so many things going against them; I can’t give a non biased opinion at this point and time. All I can say is that they didn’t really stand out to me that night.

It’s seriously been ten years since The Resignation has come out. This is starting to get a bit depressing because all of my favorite bands are having ten year anniversary shows, I mean I absolutely love it, don’t get me wrong, but this means I’m getting really old… Even though The Resignation isn’t one of my favorite albums from the RX Bandits, it sure as hell is a great record and has a handful of my favorite songs on it. These guys are just off the wall, insanely amazing musicians and artists. Not only have they reinvented the ska-rock scene but they have absolutely blown every band out of the water with their involvement in The Sound of Animals Fighting. It’s such a rare thing to see a group of musicians who are so perfect for each other; I still can’t wrap my head around how good they are. There was not a single person in the room without an enormous smile pasted on their face. Every single song was better than the next, the entire room was off their feet and the Metro echoed with the voices of every fan singing along. The crescendo of entire set was the guitar solo in Decrescendo. I had been waiting years to hear this live, cross that off my bucket list. This was epic. And just to add insult to injury to anyone not at this show is the fact that they added an additional 2 songs to encore. Yes, they played a 5 song encore. I thought that I was keen and took a picture of the set list, but when they came back out and started with “… And the battle begun” I was overjoyed. The fact that played Infection with a horn section just was the icing on the cake. Again, it was epic.

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Information about the review…
Tour: RX Bandits’ “The 10 Year Resignation Anniversary Tour”
Bands: RX Bandits and Northern Faces
Reviewer: Jim Vondruska
Photographer: Jim Vondruska
Date: July 24, 2013
Venue: The Metro in Chicago, IL

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