‘Pennywise’ Concert Shakes Up Sleepy Catalina Island

Always the test of a new cd from a veteran group like Pennywise with a notoriously unforgiving punk fan base, will the audience ‘boo’ (or worse!) the new songs, impatient to hear the old favorites they came for? They needn’t have worried. The songs from their new cd, ‘Fuse’, just released two days before the show were an instant success, practically unprecedented for punk bands that are known for their classic hits, and no-nonsense fan base.

Loading onto a ferry with about 1500 ‘lucky KROQ winners’ and a score of press photographers, we find our seats. We’re off on the high seas to the sunny island of Catalina. Mighty mellow for a bunch of Pennywise fans! Two hours later we unload on sparkling blissful Catalina Island. It’s all we can do to fight the urge to ditch the concert (as much as we have been looking forward to it) and spend the day swimming and snorkeling in the crystal clear water we are so unaccustomed to in LA. Instead, we follow the directions and stroll to the country club where the concert is to be held.

Death by Stereo’ was into their set as we arrive. The lead singer, angry as expected onstage, was surprisingly quiet and introspective back stage. They added some screaming ala The Used and Thrice to the booming speed punk, the crowd started to gather, and over all got the party going.

The excitement builds as we all await the stars of the show, Pennywise. To put this show into context, on the West Coast, punk rock as we know it was birthed in the South bay. And specifically Epitaph’s Bad Religion, The Offspring, and today’s feature act, Pennywise were the holy triad of punk. In the South bay, punk rock is now a couple generations strong, and the punk/surf culture is more a life style than a mere type of music. Meaning everywhere you go, markets, the gym, restaurants, all you seem to hear is punk rock music. Epitaph was throwing down this little shindig to support ‘The Fuse”, Pennywise’s new cd.

Pennywise hit the stage will all guns loaded. The pit was fairly tame at first, in Pennywise terms. Pennywise is all about their live shows, and their live shows are all about one thing: the fans in the pit. When they yelled out “Let’s hear it for the new songs!” they tensely waited for the crowd reaction, after getting the expected rampant cheers when they yelled out “Let’s hear it for the old stuff!”

The crowd cheered giving the official riotous thumbs up. ‘Competition Song’, their plea for tolerance, got a passionate response from their usually feisty punk audience, and ‘Best I Can’ about tenacity, seemed to strike a chord – hitting home to their fans that have been with them and their unflinching lyrical commentary for so long. Pennywise always invites the audience to storm down to the stage, and at the end of the show they pulled about 20 people from the audience up onto the stage. At one point the electricity started to flicker out on stage. Pennywise struggled with the power flailing in and out. About to sing their signature song about dissing authority, the electricity completely went dead. By this time the crowd was pumped.

Spontaneously, a few, then more and more, until the whole crowd started singing the first verse of the song…and Jim Lindberg and Fletcher just shook their heads, grinned from ear to ear and joined in like their life depended on it. Spurred on by the crowd, the whole band and the fans together get through the whole song a Capella, all of us screaming at the top of our lungs!

Never was the love between a band and their fans more apparent, and we knew as we were thrashed and knocked around in that spontaneous forest of raised fists, that we were experiencing a true (if somewhat bruising) ‘rock and roll’ moment – the kind you remember for a lifetime.