The rain couldn’t put a damper on the excitement fans felt for Modern Baseball’s show on Saturday June 11 in Denver. People were lined up for hours in the pouring rain to get a good seat inside The Summit Music Hall, and that was only the beginning of the fun during a night of exhilarating punk rock music.
Starting off show was the Philadelphia-based band Thin Lips. This four piece punk rock band started the night off strong with a 30 minute set that was filled with fast and loud songs that the audience could pump their fist along to. Surprisingly, a mosh pit started early on in their set. The band’s strong female vocalist really got the women in the audience pumped and into the show early on. Because she performed songs about Tinder and not fitting in from the female point of view, it is easy to see why the women in the crowd responded so positively.
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Moving along was one of the more classic punk sets of the evening. Joyce
Manor took the stage by storm, and it was your classic punk show through and through. Everyone was shouting along, mosh pits were raging and the band was loving every minute of being on stage. Most the banter on stage songs consisted of praising Colorado for legalizing weed, which has become very commonplace for out of state bands to talk about during their shows here. The California-based band only had a 45 minute long set, but most of their songs were only two maybe three minutes long. This made their set fly by, and it was over before most people even knew it, leaving many in the crowd wanting more.
That’s when the headlining act took the stage. Philadelphia-based band Modern Baseball opened their hour long set with a few of their hit songs off of “Holy Ghost” before delving into their discography and playing a lot more of their older stuff. The theme for what seemed like their entire set, besides having fun, was to make sure that everyone was safe. At the start of their tour, the band started a hotline that fans could call at any moment if they felt unsafe during their show. While a lot of their work covers some pretty depressing topics, the band seemed as though they loved preforming and just being on the stage. There wasn’t much, if any, considerable banter between songs from the band. Guitarist Brenden Lukens would take a second or two to ask if the crowd was doing okay, but after a round of cheers, the band would jump into their next song. This cycle kept repeating till the end of their set.
The band had the most cliché ending to the night when the last track they performed was the ending track to “Holy Ghost.” As that song was ending and the band was leaving the stage, the usual “One. More. Song!” chants from the crowd began. The last member of the band hadn’t even left the stage before the entire band came back on and decided to give the crowd not one, but three more songs. This was the band’s way of saying sorry for canceling the last show they had scheduled to play in Denver.
The night ended with the track “Your Graduation.” The last line of the song was “Go ahead and walk away” but that’s exactly what many fans did not want to do. Most of them didn’t want to believe that the night was over, but it was, and the usual shuffle to the exits began.
Modern Baseball brought out many people to their show who normally feel like they don’t belong and gave those people a fun and safe environment to hangout and enjoy punk music. The Summit Music Hall was filled with fans from all walks of life that came to enjoy music and have a sense of belonging. And as if that wasn’t enough Modern Baseball for you, then you’re in luck. KCSU DJ Sam Bulkley interviewed the band before their show on Saturday. You can check out their conversation on KCSU.com. If you are interested in checking out the band’s music, click here to read my review of their latest album “Holy Ghost.”
Collegian Music Critic Alec Erickson can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @CTV_ACE.
