Punk Rock Bowling: The Good, The Bad, And the...

This is the only appropriate crowd response to Leftover Crack's "Gang Control."

In lighter news than the Weiner ridiculousness, I went to Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas last weekend.

Overall, I had a great time, though there were some issues. I'll recap.

The Good:

• The line-up was excellent. It felt like there was a good mix between newer bands and "legends." I discovered acts I'd never heard before, like Larry and His Flask and Old Man Markley, but I also got so see old favorites like Dropkick Murphys, Leftover Crack, The Bouncing Souls and Agnostic Front. Over all I think I watched about 20 different groups play. Bonus: a lot of members of the bands were milling around in the crowd when they weren't playing and were gracious and friendly if you stopped them to say "hey, good set" or something.
  
• Location. The lot where the festival was held was right across the street from my hotel and within a couple of blocks of several others. It was two or three blocks down to the covered part of Fremont Street, and there were a bunch of restaurants and bars nearby. If you were staying right around there, you rarely had to walk more than a few blocks to do anything.
  
• People. I went by myself, knowing I would see at least two or three people I know (or online know without having met). Through them I met even more cool people. Friends of friends of friends starting piling up and it was a ton of fun. I swear I kind of felt like I was at summer camp.

Punk Island Didn't Need to be Saved After All

As it turns out, Punk Island isn't in danger of being canceled like I had heard. I got an email back (while ago, I just forgot to write this update) that it's on as planned. There are fewer stages this year due to construction on Governor's Island, and the booking is now being handled by ABC No Rio. There's a Punk Island Facebook page that if you want to stay up-to-date.

And I gave them permission to use my photos from last year so keep an eye on the promo materials, some of the punk shots might be courtesy of yours truly.

A Punk's Guide to SXSW

I originally wrote this for Dying Scene.

So you’ve decided to go to Austin (or already live there). And you want to enjoy yourself among the myriad indie rock, folk and acoustic acts that dominate the hipster pilgrimage that is SXSW.

Believe it or not, there are punk bands playing the festival, so you can find something more entertaining to do than, say, Photoshopping anarchy symbols on top of the festival’s logo. Anyway, here’s a guide to the punk bands and showcases gracing this year’s South by Southwest festival.

We’ve already reported that Fat Wreck Chords and Shirts for a Cure will host showcases on March 18 and Bridge Nine will host shows from March 16 through 19. We also thought we’d break it down day by day so you can get a handle on when the punks are playing.

Of course, half the fun of big music festivals is discovering bands you’ve never heard before. So we tried to include some of the lesser-known punk bands on the list, and the size of the fest means we can’t by any stretch pretend this is an exhaustive roster of who will be playing. The full festival schedule is here.

But we put together a short list of shows that we’d be sure to check out if we were going down there. Check it out here.