Pennywise & Sick Of It All @ Downtown Events Center

I'm back in Vegas.  6 years after moving away (after 10 years of living there) I'm back for the first time.  Drawn in by Punk Rock Bowling.  It's good to be back!

I landed mid afternoon and went to the Mirage and Caesars Palace to catch up with some friends before heading out to Erik's to settle in for the afternoon.  With so many good restaurants to chose from, we decided to meet Dave at India Palace for dinner.  This is the original favorite Las Vegas restaurant as Dave took Amy & I there on our first night in Vegas back in 2003.  Food was as good as I remembered.  It's definitely worth risking your life to go into this neighborhood to eat here.

With the festival came a bunch of side shows.  Pennywise and Sick Of It All being one of them.  Originally scheduled for the Bunkhouse, the response was so overwhelming they moved the show to PRB's 2nd stage and replaced the Bunkhouse show with Flipper & Killing Joke - where Dave went.  Good for us as we were able to now get tickets.

We arrived just before 11pm (2am my time) as Sick Of It All hit the stage.  Hard, fast and loud is how I remembered SOIA at The Cockpit, a small club in Leeds 18 years ago, and while the atmosphere is never the same from a bigger stage, the intensity was the same.  The crowd were in a frenzy from start to finish but for me it was all about Step Down, the last song.  It's a personal favorite and a great finisher.  It also set a high standard for Pennywise to follow.

Pennywise made it clear that being in Las Vegas....for Punk Rock Bowling...that they were ready to party.  Actually it seemed as though they had already started.  Ironically the last time I saw Pennywise was when they headlined Punk Rock Bowling in 2012.  Back when Jim was on hiatus, so it was good to have him back up front.  It wasn't long before they played Same Old Story.  This song is in my top 30 and is a killer live song, and a good way to get the crowd fired up for the rest of the set.  The band seemed loose (or lubed maybe) and we heard plenty of bits of their favorite songs - TNT, Same In The End, Wild In The Streets.  But still it was the great So-Cal surf/skate punk sound that makes them crowd favorites.  Society was great, as was Perfect People and Fuck Authority and even at 1.30am when it was all winding down (and I couldn't stop yawning - it sucks to be old), Bro Hymn had the crowd in a raucous sing along, invading the stage, as though they were just getting their night started.  Bro Hymn is easily the best final song to any set of any band, and it was an honor to see it for the 8th time.

Really looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

The Crap Facts:
This is my 450th concert.
Downtown Events Center is the 124th venue I've seen a concert.

This is my 147th concert in Las Vegas.

This is my 147th concert in Nevada.

This is my 253rd concert in the USA.
This is my 2nd Sick Of It All concert.
Sick Of It All are the 50th band I've seen in 2 different countries.
This is my 8th Pennywise concert