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It had been just over 19 years since I’d seen Scott Reynolds perform live until last night’s solo show at the Tritone. A lot has changed since that time. Back then, Bill Clinton hadn’t yet been elected President (that would happen in November 1992) and Reynolds was still the singer for ALL. Though I saw ALL 3 other times in the ’90s (not including an incredible gig at City Gardens on the Breaking Things tour in 1993 when Price was sick and Descendents singer Milo Aukerman took his place for one evening, leading to an impromptu Descendents reunion 3 years before their official 1996 reunion and Everything Sucks album and tour; this still ranks as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen) and they were always great, they were all with singer Chad Price. On that July 1992 bill at City Gardens, they opened for Bad Religion. It was a scorcher of a bill both in terms of the music and how hot it was inside of there. Reminiscing with Reynolds after last night’s set, I told him of this and he remembered how hot it was (as well as the smell of puke, which I don’t remember at all but I trust him on that one).
Since this is a review of a show that happened last night, though, let’s go back to the present. I haven’t kept up with Reynolds’ many bands and projects (including Goodbye Harry, The Pavers and his current projects Scott Reynolds and The Steaming Beast and 40Engine (with ALL/Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton), so last night’s show was almost a clean slate. Starting out with an acoustic, loungey and yet not hokey version of The Ramones‘ “Blitzkrieg Bop” (a ballsy way to start the set), he managed to play songs from his entire catalog including ALL gems “Prison” (from 1990’s Allroy Saves) and “Dot” (from 1992’s Percolator and also released as a single), the latter which he explained the meaning of so finally after almost 20 years I know what and who it’s about! At first, honestly I wasn’t sure what to make of him in a solo setting, but he won us over (with the help of a small, hugely supportive crowd) with his self-deprecating charm, storytelling and of course his songs. He even introduced a song as a favorite of Billy Milano of S.O.D. and M.O.D.
At the end of his set, opening band The Gerunds came on stage and they proceeded to crank out two highlights of Reynolds’ tenure with ALL. These were “No Traffic”, the closing track on the vinyl and cassette versions of 1989’s fantastic Allroy’s Revenge, and most unexpectedly, the fantastic B-side “Can’t Say” from the aforementioned “Dot” EP. Though the latter was written by Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson, it’s vocal performance is still one of Reynolds’ finest moments in ALL and I’ve always regarded it as a hidden gem in their catalog (and much better than most of Percolator, too!), so it was just as appropriate. Kudos on the amazing performance of these two songs and the unexpected choices. It was clearly the highlight of the show.
Before Reynolds’ set, The Gerunds played a shorter set than usual and notably, no Dag Nasty songs. It was my first time seeing them with new drummer Bill DelBono, though, and they haven’t missed a beat. The highlight was “The Long Goodbye”, perhaps my favorite Gerunds song. They were even nice enough to give away their excellent four song EP from last year with the purchase of a t-shirt as well.
It should also be mentioned that Ghosts in the Valley headlined, but we left before their set.
