strung out live review

Moshing Down Memory Lane | Strung Out Live Review & Photos | The Social – Orlando, FL | May 14, 2015

by • May 21, 2015

It seems that this summer (it’s 90 degrees, that means its summer, right?) is a heatwave time machine. The heat comes not only from the glorious Florida sun, but from the musical acts coming through town. They say that time is cyclical. Right now that appears quite accurate. It seems that its a good year for all those bands I used to listen to in my reckless glory years to come back through and reawaken the youth within me. In the evolution of my musical interests, there are many bands I used to blast that I can no longer appreciate. Strung Out is sure as hell not one of them.

Strung Out Live Review

At the start of 9th grade, my step-brother, Jeremy, and I both left our childhood towns to move to Orlando as our families became one. We had similar interests (ie. punk rock) and had yet to make too many friends. So when it came time for homecoming, it just wasn’t our thing. Luckily we had better things to do. To be precise, we got to see Strung Out play with Pennywise. At that point I hadn’t listened to much Strung Out but their live show blew my mind. The energy. The technicality. The sweat. My heart pounding out of my chest. From that point on I fell in love.

Strung Out is one of those rare punk rock bands that continued to evolve and develop their sound throughout their career. For this reason I continued to listen to them for years; I still have the CD’s I bought back then… [Yes, kids, CD’s are far superior to downloading music because in 10 years, after copious amounts of porn that you got from somewhere like m porn xxx has crashed your computer and you have lost all your files, you can still have that music in uncompressed glory.]

Now to be quite honest, in the past 10 years or so I have fallen out of the punk rock scene. I grew my hair. I tuned in, turned on, and dropped out of the innocent exuberance of the scene in exchange for more mellow vibes. But when I saw that Strung Out was coming back through town the 16-year-old in me said “hey old man, turn that jam band down and turn the rock up!” I revisited their albums that I have had stashed away and my excitement shot through the roof. I told an old friend that at the age of 30 I was going to see a punk rock band. He laughed and said that I would be the old guy at the show that we used to make fun.

When time came for the show, I had to bring Jeremy with me so we could travel down memory lane. This time we brought ladies (because we are way cooler than we used to be). Short of blue hair and liberty spikes, it was time to be 16 all over.

Strung Out hasn’t lost any pep in their step. From first note to last the Social was exploding with energy. The guys on stage were moving around almost as much as the bros on the floor. I had to keep reminding myself that I had beers, veneers, and a camera. Due to that, it is incredibly inadvisable for me to go diving headfirst over the stairs into the chaos on the floor. When they played “Ultimate Devotion,” I almost gave in. I specifically remembered crowd-surfing at the Social and screaming every line of that song at eye-level. Unfortunately I didn’t know every song they played because, during my dark-ages tie-dye time-period, I hadn’t kept up with the albums they continued to pump out. But when those oldies from Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues, Twisted By Design, and An American Paradox came on, my soul busted out.

It was amazing to feel all that nostalgia. I am beaming with joy to see that Strung Out still rocks as hard as they do. They reawakened a vitality I no longer knew I possess. The show was nothing short of magical. I hope I get to see them for years to come.

I’m overjoyed the following lyrics proved not to be true …

“The music used to be everything and the music used to heal
But business soon becomes reality and nothing left inside is real”

– “Crossroads”

Strung Out Live Review & Concert Photos by Matthew Wright.

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