Stefan Babcock, the lead singer of PUP, took a break from playing guitar and started telling a story about five songs into the band’s Thursday night show at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. He was instantly booed. It was (hopefully) a joke, but if it proved one thing, it was that the packed house was there to mosh. And for over three hours, split between PUP’s headlining set and opening shows from Skegss and Pinkshift, the crowd was able to do just that. It was a packed house, with circle pits and just the right amount of pushing and shoving. Fans that had been kept inside for a couple years were clearly out and ready to get back into their old punk ways.
The story, which Babcock did eventually get to finish, was that when the band first started touring, other acts warned them that compared to San Francisco’s raucus shows, fans in Los Angeles were always too cool to party. This time he said, the band had clearly brought out all of the “losers in LA.”
There is something charming about seeing a room full of outcasts brought together by four more outcasts. Seeing teens with spikey hair and middle-aged men with beards chanting along to their favorite punk songs never gets old, especially when those songs are as catchy as “DVP” and “Kids.”
PUP Setlist
Four Chords
Totally Fine
Guilt Trip
My Life Is Over and I Couldn’t Be Happier
See You at Your Funeral
Sleep in the Heat
Robot Writes a Love Song
Reservoir
Edmonton
Matilda
If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will
DVP
Scorpion Hill
Free at Last
Waiting
Familiar Patterns
PUPTHEBAND Inc. Is Filing for Bankruptcy
Morbid Stuff
Kids
