Lucky Boys Confusion

Yesterday, a truly landmark experience: my first pop punk show. Granted, I dislike most pop punk. It annoys me. Two things define pop punk for me, and that is: 1. a nasal-voiced lead singer, and 2. unbearably simple guitar chords. Yet Lucky Boys Confusion is truly an amazing band. Almost every one of their songs is catchy. "Bossman" is simply brilliant. "One to the Right" and "40/80" are also spectacular. So I decide to go to their show with a friend who has been to no less than 23 of their concerts (I feel it's always better to go with a die-hard fan for a better experience).





And you know what? It was great. It was the most fun I've had in a while. Even after being trampled by a stage-diver.

Goodbye, calm and repetitive indie shows. Hello, noise and chaos! This is not to say that I am no longer an indie rock devotee. Far from it (for goodness sake, I nearly went to Pitchfork!). But a concert simply isn't as fun unless there is violent and highly dangerous dancing involved. I guess you could call LBC my first "real" concert, including these essential ingredients: 1. crowd-surfers, 2. stage-divers, 3. devil-horn fingers (or however they're called-- metalhead-hands?), 4. people taking their shirts off, 5. sweat soaking through your shirt, 95 percent of which is not your own, 6. awkward bumping and grinding, and, last but not least, 7. mild-to-serious bodily injuries.


Even ten hours after the concert my ears were still ringing. Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a concert experience. So anyone who hasn't heard LBC, download or buy an album immediately. This was by far the best show of my life. Besides, LBC is a legitimately good band-- talented, interesting, catchy: slightly ska, with reggae and hip-hop influences. But the lyrics are the best part; many of the songs deal with working class and immigrant experiences (the lead singer is a first-generation Indian immigrant), which makes my little refugee heart happy as could be. AND they're from Chicago. Can it get any better?


This song in particular, though not at all popular or played often, and really just the intro to another song, makes me tear up a bit every time:


"South Union"


I left you in the morning
Still drunk of melodrama
You're so pretty
So natural
but I have to salvage honor
Down your spiral stair case,
the television I bought you
Took a deep breath
of your "endless love" perfume
The carnage,
that the storm left 6 inches on the ground
The south side of Chicagostands eerily so sound
I look up at your window
hand out as if to touch you
You used to be so perfect,
why did I ever meet you