The Bouncing Souls at Irving Plaza

Greg Attonito

Raised in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, guitarist Pete Steinkopf and bassist Bryan Kienlen played in a cover band in the mid to late 1980s, and Greg Attonito occasionally sang a few songs with the band. Eventually the time came for the musicians to get serious about their music, so the high school students started writing original songs in Attonito's dad's attic. In 1989, a supportive music-loving teacher contributed $120 to cover expenses, and the Bouncing Souls debuted live in Bernardsville, New Jersey. The band adapted its name from a shoe company's slogan promoting "bouncing soles." The band members later moved to a nearby college town, New Brunswick, which had a reputation for supporting underground music. George Rebelo replaced the band's previous drummer in 2013. The quartet released its 10th studio album, Simplicity, on July 29, 2016.

The Bouncing Souls headlined three consecutive nights at Irving Plaza, playing a different set list each night. On the final night tonight, the band performed 27 original songs and one cover (Avoid One Thing's "Lean on Sheena"); three of the self-written songs were from the new album, but all the rest of the songs were at least 10 years old. By and large, the set was comprised of songs drawn of the same spirit: fast, light-hearted compositions, constructed equally for moshing and chanting along. The musicians briefly slowed the tempo for breathers like "Night Train" and "Old School," but otherwise the band led a steady militaristic charge with basic rock and roll drills. Attonito's vocals rallied, Steinkopf's stinging guitar lines sizzled and the rhythm section's powerdrive support made for a lean and clean punk rock framework. These simplistic structures made many of the songs sound perhaps too similar, but nevertheless gave the fans in the audience something to bounce their souls.

Visit the Bouncing Souls at www.bouncingsouls.com.

Setlist

1. Apartment 5F
2. Highway Kings
3. Some Kind of Wonderful
4. The Freaks, Nerds, & Romantics
5. Lean on Sheena (Avoid One Thing cover)
6. Tightrope
7. Kate Is Great
8. Say Anything
9. Here We Go!
10. Cracked
11. Gone
12. Night Train
13. Old School
14. Driving All Night
15. That Song
16. Sing Along Forever
17. Writing on the Wall
18. Broken Record
19. You're So Rad
20. Monday Morning Ant Brigade
21. The Gold Song
22. Kids and Heroes
23. Lamar Vannoy
24. True Believers
25. Hopeless Romantic
26. Encore: Born to Lose
27. Kid
28. Night on Earth