Opening for Bad Religion, The Bronx almost stole the show! Well, not totally if I believe the wild crowd which went really nuts during the classic punk band’s performance, but the ambiance was already very hot during the Bronx’s set.
Now, I already had seen these guys, but in complete different outfits, yes the hardcore punk band the Bronx is also Mariachi El Bronx at times, and plays music totally inspired by traditional Mexican music with brass and guitarron, but Thursday night at the Palladium wasn’t one of these times, they were full time punk and had decided to blow up the place.
First of all, they aren’t from the Bronx at all, but from Los Angeles, and all their albums are self-titled The Bronx or El Bronx, depending on the alter-ego, and they announced the tone with a giant Gorilla and ‘The beat that kills’ in the background. Their music was indeed so muscular, so fueled with this aggressive hard rocking fury that the King Kong in the back totally made sense.
Singer Matt Caughthran was screaming the lyrics almost all the time, a little bit like AC/DC’s Brian Johnson used to do it, with long scary hurling screeches, and his restless and effortless rebound on his two feet was bringing a mad energy to the show, while he was addressing the crowd using a lot of ‘motherfuckers’ but sounded like the most polite guy nevertheless. For many songs, they sounded more hard rock than hardcore to me, and it wasn’t so much about chaos as many punk shows are, but rather about an intense energy, which was at the edge of self-explosion the whole time.
It was their last date after a long tour with Bad Religion but they didn’t save any leftover punch; on the contrary the high-energy performance was fueled by an overdose of adrenaline and a cocktail of sweaty testosterone, and I just had a hard time to imagine them dressed in Mariachi costumes again!