1 week Ago
By his own reckoning, Matt Caughthran is on his 20th craft beer of the day. And 's frontman is not apologising for this at all. It's the feast of Samhain, in Irish mythology a day when the souls of the dead are permitted entry into the living world, and if you're going to be encountering spirits later, whether malevolent or blithe, easing into the hours of darkness protected by beer armour is entirely logical, indeed sensible.
That's our excuse anyway. Besides, today was supposed to be a day off for The Bronx, a chance for the Los Angeles quintet to draw breath and chill during a run of arena shows supporting Sum 41 on their final UK tour. Instead, good eggs that they are, The Bronx slotted in this one-off headline show in the capital, with just three weeks notice, and sold it out in a heartbeat.
This is as much for them as for us: Matt Caughthran freely admits tonight that 99.9% of the audiences he's faced in the past fortnight have no fucking idea who The Bronx are, and he understands and respects that, but this, he explains, is a chance to see the band as nature intended, up close and personal, with only true believers in the house. And it is nothing less than fucking .
In a just world, obviously, it'd be The Bronx, not Sum 41, who'd be headlining arenas in 2024. But, to be fair, The Bronx had their shot at the mainstream too. They had credibility, a stack of awed reviews, heavyweight management (shared with Fall Out Boy and Paramore), and a major label deal for their second album.
But the record-buying public just didn't bite. Admittedly, a more calculating band might not have delivered an album with titles such as and for their major label debut, and might have thought twice about including lyrics such as " " ( ) if angling for radio support. But The Bronx are as honest as the day is long, and bear zero regrets for following their hearts not chasing the money.
If that means they have to settle for being the best punk rock band in the world rather than the biggest, so be it. Whatever, this was only ever going to be A Lovely Time. Matt Caughthran is a wonderful host, this crowd is bang up for it, and the set-list truly is all killer, no filler, drawing from all six of the quintet's self-titled albums, with old school ragers ( , ) blending seamlessly with more recent singles ( , ).
Is there a better feeling than being thrown around a black-walled room, grinning from ear to ear and dripping with sweat, while a few hundred equally exhilarated fellow humans scream " "? Maybe there is, but if there is, that pathway to nirvana is almost certainly illegal. The Bronx will be back next year. Living or dead, you should be there too.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller and Metallica ( , co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography ( in the UK, in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top.
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