Chachy Englund’s Four Records:

0-10: Good Morning Vietnam Soundtrack

Teenage: Green Goblin Project – Earth Must Be Destroyed

Twenties: Minutemen – What Makes Man Start Fires?

Recent Record: The Instigation – No Way Out E.P.

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www.DyingScene.com

Opening song: Rad Skulls – Loud as Shit

Closing song: Lucas Perea – Underneath Ashes

Their LP, Little Victories, will be released on September 4th, 2026, through Sweet Cheetah Records. If you like what you heard, you can pre-order the record on CD or a limited edition Coke bottle clear vinyl. 

Catch Strange Birds on the road:

September 17, 2026: Mag Bar (Louisville, KY) with Unwed Sailor

October 29, 2026: Green Lantern (Lexington, KY) with Molly McGuire

October 30, 2026: The Loose Cobra (Tolono, IL) with Molly McGuire

October 31, 2026: Record Bar (Kansas City, MO) with Molly McGuire

Known for what they describe as “heavy music from the Caribbean,” La Armada delivered an explosive set that seamlessly blends punk, hardcore, metal, and Afro-Caribbean influences rooted in their native Dominican Republic. Their distinctive sound continues to set them apart within the hardcore scene, combining relentless aggression with rich rhythmic traditions.

The show took place at Las Rosas and was free to attend, drawing a strong crowd of longtime fans and curious newcomers alike. Throughout the night, the band showcased the intensity of their live performance, treating the Miami audience to a powerful set featuring some of the standout songs from their catalog.

Check out the gallery show!

It Starts With Anger… is broken up into two parts. Spooner starts by jumping straight into his punk rock past by giving a quick summary of his slice-of-life punk rock comic, The High Desert. It’s been a minute since I’ve read it, so I don’t remember if it’s a summary or a story that may have been left out, but it links these pieces of work together well. Eventually Spooner makes it to a pre-Giuliani New York City. It’s here that he is accepted into the LaGuardia School of the Arts and starts to navigate the punk rock shows he had gotten a taste of during summer visits to his dad’s place. 

What I like most about this story is that Spooner’s experiences in punk rock are easily relatable. He presents the punk rock he experienced in his youth for all to see, legitimizing the attempts a punk rock kid made. While there are moments that feel like crash courses on punk rock that he weaves seamlessly to enhance the story. Along with moments of honesty about the shitty behavior and hypocritical stances that came with punk, even when the bad behavior is his own. It’s not necessarily a baptism by fire, but looking back, it’s not hard to figure out how to do the right thing even if you have a mohawk, especially when it comes to racism, sexism, and homophobia. 

Spooner reconciles some of the problematic issues of early punk bands, such as lyrics written by favorite bands he was a fan of when he first got into punk rock. His contextualizing of lyrics for songs like the Ramones “Loud Mouth”, The Descendents “Sour Grapes”, and Minor Threat’s “Guilty of Being White” doesn’t excuse the bands, but highlights that these exist. It’s one of the many cracks that Spooner points out in punk rock. The crux of It Starts With Anger: A Punk Beginning and Afropunk Ending is Spooner processing what it means to be a POC in the local punk rock scene. Sadly, many people believe that punk rock is solely white music, which is definitely far from true. Most of these beliefs are shaped by Spooner’s experience in the NY hardcore scene and love for bands who should have been able to play with more of the prominent bands of the era, but didn’t due to the color of their skin. 

Part two pivots to Spooner’s sort of post-punk era after being disillusioned with the genre. He travels the country in some sort of punk rock odyssey for a few years until he settles into the NYC club and art scene doing DJ sets at dance parties. Yet, he becomes disillusioned when he is portrayed based on his race and how people would exploit him as being a “safe black.” A black individual who is perceived as non-threatening by non-Black peers. A term he uses critically and not self-descriptively. This continued disappointment sends Spooner on a quest to start documenting other black punks around the country who may feel like him. The baby steps to making the Afro-Punk documentary and then using the lessons of punk rock to get it shown to people, but even that comes with a headache when he accepts an offer to grow Afropunk as a brand. 

James Spooner’s It Starts With Anger: A Punk Beginning and An Afropunk Ending is one of my favorite books in a year where I’ve read a ton of really good books about punk rock and dissecting the scene itself. Spooner’s not the first person to hybridize comics and prose, but his panels-and-paragraphs approach to an autobiography is well done, but does lean heavier in prose. I like hearing a good story about a person finding their thing, and it gets double points for crossing over with my interests (punk). While parts of his story didn’t turn out the way he wanted, it seems that Spooner has made the best of his situation and came out a better person for it. It’s relatable, gives perspective, and overall tells a compelling story that is still being written. 

Together, they tell the story of Curtis, who was once the frontman of thrash metal band Puke Hammer. After the band fizzled out, Curtis settled into being a dad and husband. Time hopping back and forth, we learn about Curtis’s metal past, the contrast of the present, and the potential future where both of those things merge. Curtis’s second chance plays out in a story that has as much heart as it does angst. Justin and Cam talk to us about the journey to getting Death Metal Duck published and the surprising reactions they’ve received from it.

How did this idea come about?

Justin Heggs: Do you know the book, The History of Marvel Comics by Sean Howe? I got to the chunk in the 1970s, and they were talking about everyone who was working there. They hit on Steve Gerber and stuff like that. I really got interested in his story. Because of Steve Gerber and Howard the Duck, I think the name Death Metal Duck came from that. That was the initial thing for it, but once I had the name, I think it just sort of came out. That first 20 pages, like the first chapter of it, was written pretty quickly. The ducks were just sort of a tribute to Steve Gerber. I think ducks in general have a pretty big place in comics, in the history as far as the different characters that have been in it. So yeah, it definitely fit.

Dying Scene: Did you have any bands, eras of music, or subgenres that kind of shaped the tone of the book for you?

Justin Heggs: When I was writing the first issue, that was right when The Grinding Wheel by Overkill came out. That whole album is basically the soundtrack of me writing the first chapter of the book; that was a huge thing. I don’t know if it made its way in there or anything recognizable, but if I listen to that now, that’s what’s in my memory for sure. Then, as far as music, Children of Bodom was the one that’s mentioned in the book. Alexi Laiho and his playing were kind of supposed to be what he would be styled after, what I had in my mind for sure.

Dying Scene:  Cam, how different were the earliest versions of the ducks in this world? Did they all kind of stay the same, or did you change anything up a bit?

Cam Hayden: A lot of it was locked in when we did the initial first issue. We kind of took a first crack at it about ten years prior. When we went to finish it off, I wanted to go back and redraw the first issue because I’d gotten ten years more experience. As far as the character designs and things like that, we had to lock those in early. They stayed pretty consistent as it progressed to the version that we have now.

Dying Scene: Did the story change at all in those ten years from the initial idea to the finished product?

Justin Heggs: Yes, I think so. I stopped writing after Death Metal Duck after the first issue came out in 2017, so I didn’t have the rest of the story finished yet. I just had some notes and such. When I came back to finish it in 2024, some of my notes were there, but I think it changed from what it would have been back then because it’s a lot more. I’ve been saying it’s a little autobiographical of myself. I think it took a more real turn. I was thinking maybe Spinal Tappy or something like that. I don’t think the story ever really ended up leaning that way. It always just sort of came out a little more… I don’t know about serious, but sincere or something like that.

Dying Scene : I don’t think that would have been a bad comic, but I think this is the better version of that story.

Cam Hayden: I do think it sort of sets that up a little bit. I think when people see it on the table, their first thought is probably, “This is going to be this crazy gonzo rock story with just excess and mayhem.” Then we pull a bit of a switcheroo on them when they read it. They find that it kind of hits them differently than they’re expecting, which is good so far. There’s just that sincerity that sort of hits them in the feels a bit.

Dying Scene: Trying to juggle art and grown-up shit hit me really hard. Were there any world rules or logic rules for Death Metal Duck, or just ducks as humans?

Justin Heggs: I really like the collaborative nature of comics, working with somebody else like this. So I try to, if I don’t have a specific thing that I’m picturing for whatever reason, like maybe later down the road that has to come back so it has to look a certain way, I really like just handing it out there and seeing what comes back. There were no rules other than when he’s older, he has a bald spot. Like he’s got three pieces of hair when he’s younger, two pieces later, so you know when the flashbacks are. Other than that, it was anything goes. Cam came back with things like, they don’t wear shoes or any of that sort of stuff. That was all him, which is awesome.

Cam Hayden: Which sort of cuts off the ability to give them like Gene Simmons KISS boots and stuff like that.

Justin Heggs: No need for platforms.

Cam Hayden: So they’re fully decked out in every other way, except they just got their bare feet hanging out. I guess they’re gnarly enough.

Dying Scene: Were there any tiny details that you added that readers may miss? Any kind of heavy metal Easter eggs or anything like that?

Justin Heggs: There’s a couple. I think there’s a few connections that maybe people miss or don’t pick up on maybe the first time through. I wrote it sort of dishing out the information a little bit at a time and sometimes out of order. 

I still sometimes have people surprised, like, “Who’s Michael?” And he shows up four pages later. So, you know, you’ll piece it all together. I didn’t want to have a scene where they just sort of explained that. It just sort of comes in. So I think there’s some of that that gets missed, little details. There are definitely a couple of rock legend cameos in there that Cam put in.

Cam Hayden: Yes, I grew up reading Mad Magazine, so I was a big fan of the Will Elder Chicken Fat. I like to put little things in the background just for some visual spice, I guess. They’re definitely sprinkled throughout. Little callbacks to metal things and comic things.

Justin Heggs: There’s definitely a duck Lemmy. I’ll say that.

Dying Scene: Cam, were there any key decisions outside of the “no shoes” you had for the character designs?

Cam Hayden: Not really. When I got the script, I just started drawing it and sort of feeling it out. I didn’t do a lot of planning ahead. I just wanted to see how it would come out when I just started drawing it. If there were any changes along the way, then I would go back and make adjustments. I kind of just wanted to follow my intuition on it. 

I didn’t want to make them look like Disney ducks. I wanted them to be fairly human-looking because it lends itself more to realistic band equipment and things like that. I didn’t want it to look like a Disney rip-off. I wanted it to look more underground, which I tend to lean towards anyway. Not a ton of pre-planning. I just kind of did what I do, for better or worse. 

Dying Scene: How did you guys come up with the band name?

Justin Heggs: I think that’s something I had. I don’t know where Puke Hammer came from. I think the idea was that the logo could definitely be very splatter-heavy and unreadable. That was supposed to be one of the ideas as well: having Puke in there and then Hammer.

Dying Scene: And it’s like the most metal name anyway. How has Puke Hammer not been taken all this time?

Cam Hayden: Puke Hammer and the title Death Metal Duck, both of those just knocked it out of the park. Coming up with those, they’re very direct and attention-grabbing. It’s all good. My hat’s off to you.

Dying Scene: How did you incorporate metal aesthetics without parodying them too much?

Cam Hayden: I think because I’ve played in bands, I sort of understand the seriousness of it. I know some people look at stuff like that, and it’s done in a jokey way, and it’s sort of ridiculous. I think it is, in a lot of ways, sort of like a uniform, like a musical tribe. I know it can be kind of goofy and zany, but the script didn’t call for it to really be like that.

In most cases, there are a couple of instances where we kind of lean into the funny aspects of it. Anyone who likes metal is aware of that. I’m a big fan of KISS. Part of the attraction of KISS is how goofy they are and the way they fall on their face all the time. They’ve got some great albums and then they’ve got some just absolute stinkers. Their costumes, their get-ups, on one hand, they’re kind of goofy. 

On the other hand, that’s what drew me to them in the first place, and it’s awesome about them. I still love bands like Ghost and GWAR, all that stuff. It’s visually awesome. It’s entertaining. I think I wanted to approach it in a respectful way because I’ve played in bands similar to that. I love bands that are like that, so I respect it.

Dying Scene: Do you have a page or panel that you feel captures the book, what the book is about?

Cam Hayden: I don’t know. The splash page turned out pretty good.

Justin Heggs: I definitely have panels that are like… There’s one where Murphy’s exhaling and he’s like, “Have you been crying?” I was like, “Holy shit, that’s all I do now.” I really like that. That was mostly just for the detail of a duck exhaling smoke. There are a lot of pages that have a lot of meaning for me, but I don’t know. It might be them on stage.

Cam Hayden: Yeah, there are a lot of different layers going on. Maybe I’m too close to it as well.

Dying Scene: Did you have a way to figure out the dialogue? Did it start feeling more autobiographical than you were expecting it to be as you were going through?

Justin Heggs: When I came back to start writing again, that was literally the day that I told Cam that I was going to finish Death Metal Duck. So that was me coming back after a long time off from writing anything at all. A lot of that coming back into the music stuff that Curtis is doing, there were a lot of feelings of that coming back into the writing part of it for me. There are definitely some parts in there that are text messages that I have with friends and stuff like that on Instagram or just whatever, talking about what I was going through at the time. Reading it back now, I put a lot of that in there. It was definitely affected for sure.

Dying Scene: Outside of Howard the Duck and Metal, were there any non-metal inspirations that shaped the comic?

Cam Hayden: I would say that even though Puke Hammer is a metal band, as a guy who plays in bands, I can say that it is very representative of my experience as well in bands that are not necessarily metal bands. I think that’s true for a lot of my friends who are in bands, who are our age, and who have had a family kind of land in the middle of what they thought was being on the verge of taking off in their band situation and just having everything kind of reprioritized and the card deck reshuffled. If you’re looking just at music, I think any sort of genre of music, I think it’s applicable too. I find a lot of the band dynamics transfer pretty readily across every band that I’ve ever been in, at least.

Justin Heggs: I think for me it just ended up being the importance of creating. If that’s something that you’re drawn to, we would have printed this and sold it ourselves at the shows that we happened to go to. It would have been similar to the other 2017 version where if you bought it or if you read it, you got it directly from us because that was the only way to get it. We were totally going to do that, you know, no big deal, and then it got picked up; it blew up into something different.

The importance of creating it as part of the story. Like, if that’s in you, then bottling that up doesn’t work. That’s what Curtis is doing. That’s why it’s not so much that there are obstacles he has to overcome, whatever it is. And like, that’s what the story is that kind of goes pretty smoothly for everybody once they decide what they want to do. But that’s the story, you know, like these things happening for all these characters and based on just going back and tackling that dream again, right?

Dying Scene: What was your collaborative process like? How did you guys divy up the work, if you will?

Justin Heggs: I think once I had sent Cam the script, I just sort of stepped back. I didn’t know if he was going to send character sketches or anything like that. I think the first thing that he sent me was the first three pages done. As far as what he’s doing and what I’m doing, I wrote it. There were very little changes or anything like that. Anything that has to do with that was all his department.

Cam Hayden: There may have been a couple of instances where I would send a page and you would have a couple of notes on it, but it was nothing, no crazy redraws or anything. It’s kind of just you fire me a script, and I would turn it around and shoot it back at him. And then usually it was, it was okay.

Dying Scene: Were you guys mostly on the same page? 

Justin Heggs: There were a couple of things I noticed. There’s maybe two word balloons that I think Cam added in that sort of move the story forward a little bit between panel progressions. And it was like, “Oh, yeah, you know, that works or whatever,” just sort of like, I think he put it like a “so” just to sort of move the scene on. I was like, “Yeah, that works perfectly.” I think those were the only things that I noticed. Other than that, I think it was pretty accurate to what I had written.

Like, the old version of the book was like, one of the best things I had done up to that point. I was super proud of it. Getting the art back for the redraw of what turned into all of this blew my mind. Cam definitely leveled up a few stages for all of that. So I was very grateful for all that. I think the detail that blew my mind was in the word balloons for when Curtis is talking to his daughter, Macy, and he says, “What are you going to scream when I’m on stage?” And she says, “shit.” The word balloon’s tail is all squiggly, and it just sort of comes up. It was just perfect and not a detail that I had added in at all. He did the lettering and the art as well. The lettering is a huge part of it. Stuff like that was genius. It communicates just with a squiggle in the balloon line.

Cam Hayden: Yeah, for me, I think it was kind of when the scripts for Part Two and Three came in, because where we left off in Part One, it definitely could have gone into kind of this gonzo, crazy rock story. I was pretty blown away just by how deep the script was. For anyone who’s seen any of my other work that I do, it’s pretty lowbrow, just goofy comedy, horror stuff. It put me in a bit of a different ballpark than what I’m normally functioning in. The depth of the story kind of blew me away and knocked me into another lane, which I think is good. I think a lot of people who buy it, who are familiar with my previous work, are impressed with the script that Justin has done for this, as I was as well.

Dying Scene: Are you guys going to do any more?

Justin Heggs: It’s hard to say. I definitely have a story for it now, but I don’t know if it’ll be like the next thing we do or anything like that, trying to get this one sold as much as possible. Get that out there, but there is definitely a Side B for this. I mean, it took us ten years to make this one. Maybe we have to wait ten more years for the sequel. That just might be how it works.

Cam Hayden: We are getting a really good response from it, though. If there are people who want more, and there’s a script ready.

Dying Scene: Did you pitch it to Black Panel Press, or did they have a copy of the old one and pick it up? 

Justin Heggs: When Cam was probably halfway through redrawing the first issue, I was like, “Holy shit, we should pitch this instead of just trying to do it ourselves.” I think by that time, we had the first issue done, the first twenty pages, which is a great amount to be able to send to people because it breaks off the story in a nice little cliffhanger or whatever. We were able to send twenty pages to all the places you can think of that you would want to publish your stuff. Black Panel got back to us probably a month later, and just based off of those twenty pages, was interested in it.

Dying Scene: I like their lineup of books because they’re very unique in what they choose. What feedback have you received from comic readers that surprised you?

Justin Heggs: I guess I’ve been surprised that everyone’s been pretty positive about it. That’s been a pleasant surprise, just because I’ve never put anything out there beyond personally selling it to someone at a convention. People in stores that I don’t go to and don’t know have bought and read the book. It seems like it’s been received pretty well. I think it’s personal, but it also sort of makes it more general because everybody is kind of feeling some piece of something that I’m mentioning in the book. That’s why I’m happy when anybody says that they connected with it, or what they took out of it, maybe not music. Just the parenting stuff or getting older. I guess 100% of us are doing that.

Dying Scene: Have metal fans read it? Do you know if they like it?

Justin Heggs: I think so. I don’t know if they’ve specifically said, “We represented the music well,” or something like that. When we were at TCAF (Toronto Comics Art Festival) selling it, there were people who came the second day because someone told them on the first day that there’s a book called Death Metal Duck.” All walks of life, right? So, I mean, I hope they liked what we did afterwards. That definitely brought them in. 

Pick up Death Metal Duck through Black Panel Press. Follow Justin and Cam on their socials to keep up with the rest of their work.

If I were to describe Death Valley Girls.. imagine the perfect soundtrack to a grainy, pulpy, exploitation film from the late ’60s/’70s: chicks kicking ass and taking names, muscle cars through desert highways, motorcycles in hot pursuit, and a cool ass psychedelic cult just around the bend. Death Valley Girls provide that soundtrack that Tura Satana would have loved.

Before their tour kicked off, frontwoman Bonnie Bloomgarden suffered a vocal injury, but it didn’t slow them down for a second. If anything, they played with even more heart. Don’t get me wrong, I love blasting Death Valley Girls in the car all the time, but god damn… I think they somehow sound even better live. I was blown away.

Throughout their set, you could feel the genuine love and care each band member has for one another and that warmth spilled over into the crowd.

In a music scene that is male dominated and often celebrates toughness over tenderness, Death Valley Girls showed up for us in a different, much more refreshing way.

So I’ll be honest… I intended on going to this show to catch DVG and I had absolutely no idea who the headliner was. When I got there and found out it was Man Man, I started making assumptions based solely on the crowd, which, from my observations, appeared to be made up almost entirely of Phish fans. How could I tell? Easy. Because if there’s one thing Phish fans love more than Phish, it’s telling you they’re Phish fans. Anyways!

I always say I’ll try anything once, and I’m really glad I stuck around for Man Man. I wasn’t sure what I was walking into, but watching them weave together so many different genres (and effortlessly) like avant-garde, carnival punk, cabaret, jazz, and folk into something was a pretty great surprise. Man Man, you just gained another fan.

Highly recommend if you’re into bands like: Mr. Bungle, Peeping Tom, Faith No More, Modest Mouse.

Check out more photos on Instagram!

Die Laughing opens with the song “Battle,” with a riffy intro that signals back to East Bay Ray’s better days. This song is full of the piss and vinegar needed to set off an album with this much angst. While there are a few softer moments, a term I use loosely, “Battle” immediately shows that The Mistakes took the lessons these previous bands taught us seriously and presents them in a great opening track with enough political bite to make Joe Strummer proud. It’s loud and fast, and it gives the finger to the proper authorities. It’s a battle cry for the oppressed and a warning to the oppressors.

While there’s no shortage of shitty politicians in the world, The Mistakes target the world’s douchiest billionaire, Elon Musk, in a ska punk song that hits all the marks. Symbolically, Musk is a good replacement for Margaret Thatcher and the Queen as someone completely out of touch with a normal person. This leads into the anthemic one of the poppier moments on the album, “Life’s Too Short.” While this doesn’t lessen the ire in the song, it is a contrast from most of the tracks on Die Laughing.

Some moments feel very symbiotic with American punk rock, especially some of the ’90s Epitaph punk rock. The songs “The Pit” and “Sons” are fantastic examples of this. You could throw this song on a late ’90s Punk-O-Rama. Fast punk in the vein of Pulley or Straight Faced, with bass lines clearly influenced by Rancid’s Matt Freeman on some songs.

Then you get to a song like “Get Cancelled” that feels like a TSOL song in the melodic phrasing and the vocal delivery of the chorus. I feel like I’ve heard about some of the British influence on some of the street punk bands, but you never hear about it the other way around. This record feels like the product of that. While early American punk had the art part of it down, British punk brought a lot of the attitude and pushback regarding social issues. The Mistakes do a great job of continuing this sentiment.

My only complaint would be that this album sounds too bright in spots. While it’s clear that the Mistakes put a lot of heart into this record, it just sounds a smidge too polished for me. I’m not saying it’s not a valid piece of punk rock because it wasn’t recorded through a tin can; it’s just a bit smoother than I would like. The mastering gives this record a shine it doesn’t necessarily need.

Overall, this is a phenomenal record. I keep saying I wish that these types of songs and lyrics weren’t still relevant, but unfortunately we live in a world where they’re still necessary. The Mistakes have put together thirteen songs that get you ready for the fight. Influenced by bands from both sides of the pond, there’s something for everyone on Die Laughing. While this would be the perfect place to drop a pun about how not getting this album would be a mistake, I will say Die Laughing is one of the better punk records I’ve heard this year. They are able to take these influences and repurpose them in a way that doesn’t sound redundant or like they’re beating a dead horse.

Check it out now on Sell the Heart Records.

 The premise of this current tour is to celebrate all corners of the Popes extensive catalog; night one features songs from Get Fired (1993), Destination Failure (1997), Stay Down (2008) and Into The Agony (2018), while night two highlights Born To Quit (1994), The Party’s Over (2003), This Is Only A Test (2011), and their latest record, last year’s Lovely Stuff. This creates the effect of having two nights worth of a mix of longtime crowd favorites and deeper cuts that don’t see the traditional light of day in a standard Popes set circa 2026, and gives the current lineup – Josh Caterer on vocals and guitar as always, joined as has been the case more often than not lately by Reuben Baird on bass, Jack Sibilski on lead guitar and John Perrin on drums – plenty of space to explore and jam and shred their punk rock hearts content.

Night one – Thursday 7/23 – kicked off with the always enjoyable Into The Agony track “Simmer Down,” which sounds like it was written to be a show opener, a perfect, punchy, two-and-a-half-minute anthem to staying in the fight. From there, the quartet blazed through another dozen-and-a-half tracks from the four albums of the moment; “Star Struck One” into “No More Smiles,” into “Let’s Hear It For Love,” “Stay Down” into Jawbreaker-ode “You Spoke To Me” into “Welcome To Janesville,” and on and on through an energetic hour-plus set. Sibilski is a constant ball of frenetic energy, while Baird and Perrin are a remarkable locked-in rhythm section, not just for the first night of a tour. Later in the set, the crew went perhaps predictably off-script by throwing the classic “Need You Around” into the set. They went even further off-script during the encore, adding a request – “Writing A Letter” – for a fan who’d come all the way from the Popes’ hometown of Chicago.

Night two started with the already classic “Golden Moments” from last year’s Lovely Stuff, another perfect, anthemic ode, this time a paean to the power of live music. Both nights’ sets were high energy as you might imagine, but night two seemed like it was ratcheted up by a few degrees. The crowd seemed a little bit more engaged a little bit earlier in the set as well. “Rubella” and “Midnight Moon” and “Madison” and “Fox River Dream,” and some extended guitar shredding on “Gotta Know Right Now” have that effect on people. The standalone single “Allegiance” appeared late in the set and is always a personal favorite of mine. “Need You Around” made another appearance late in the set, as did “Writing A Letter” again, much to the enjoyment of the same Chicago crew from the evening before. Two Smoking Popes shows in two nights about a block from my office made me, in a word, happy. I see a lot of live music (obviously) and most of it is good and some of it is great and a lot of it is cathartic. But the Popes live experience makes me uniquely happy, even all of these years later, which is maybe a little ironic given that so much of their back catalog especially is about pain and heartache and unrequited love. But Josh and the crew make it sound so fun!

Radiator Hospital opened both of these shows in Medford, and indeed, all shows on this Northeast run. Based in Philly, the now one-man project that’s the brainchild of Sam Cook-Parrott is as much performance art as it is a live music show. Backed solely by a tape player that he frequently manipulates to cue up and pitch-change backing tracks, Cook-Parrott sings and dances his way along to the music in a way that’s as earnest and individual as any set I’ve seen in recent memory. There were more than a handful of fans who voiced that they’d come to both shows specifically for Radiator Hospital, and then stayed for the Popes’ sets, becoming new fans of the seminal band in the process. That, right there, is what live music and this scene are all about. Also, shout out to the one-man Wall Of Death during Radiator Hospital’s set during night two; little fella couldn’t have been more than three years old himself, and was a cosntant ball of energy, running back-and-forth non-stop at the front of the stage for the better part of half an hour.

Check out more pictures from the evening down below!

Todd Smailes’s Four Records:

0-10: Beach Boys- Pet Sounds

Teenage: Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction 

Twenties: The Weakerthans – Fallow

Recent Record: Lost Balloons – Self-Titled

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www.DyingScene.com

Opening song: Rad Skulls – Loud as Shit

Closing song: Lucas Perea – Underneath Ashes

Rookie: Mike Chaiburi (Whispers) – Octopus Stage

Formed in 2014, Whispers is a hardcore band from Bangkok, Thailand. They’ve been slowly building a fanbase since then. Dubbing their sound as Bangkok Evilcore, they frequently combine music rooted in 1990s metallic hardcore with lyrics influenced by Buddhist proverbs focused on realism, human nature, and self-reliance. Click here for more info and links to tickets for Whispers’ upcoming tour dates

Dying Scene: What’s been the most surprising thing about Warped Tour so far, good or bad?

Mike Chaiburi: As a kid, I watched a lot of this when I was thirteen or fourteen. Now today, it’s just happening. I’m here on the Warped Tour in Long Beach. It’s crazy. It’s very crazy for me.

Dying Scene: What did you think playing Warped Tour would be like before you got here?

Mike Chaiburi: I never thought about it before. I can tell my mom about it. She’s really excited. All my family back home is excited. Before I came here, I stayed in Bangkok for 10 days because we had just done the European tour. We had a gap of twelve days between our day off in Bangkok and Warped Tour. The whole time I was like, “Warped Tour is going to happen in the next two weeks. I’m so excited.”

Dying Scene: Have you played any other shows while you’re in the States? 

Mike Chaiburi: Yeah. We just did San Diego yesterday. The first show was in Corona. We’re going to LA. Awesome. Awesome. We have eight shows this time. We’re going to finish in Portland. It’s a hardcore fest, too.

Dying Scene: What do you hope fans remember about your first Warped Tour run?

Mike Chaiburi: Yeah, I just want to see people moshing. I just want to see everyone having a good time and everyone enjoying our set. I hope it’s going well.

Veterans: John Tran and Adam Lorbach (Home Grown) Years Played: 1998, 2002, 2003

While Home Grown did not play a set at the Warped Tour this year, Adam Lohrbach and John Tran are Warped Tour veterans from the late 1990s and early 2000s, stemming from their breakthrough album Act Your Age (1998) and their time on Drive-Thru Records, a label whose acts were very influential on the evolution of the Warped Tour itself. Home Grown is still riding high after reuniting in 2024. Here’s hoping they’ll be on a Warped Tour stage in the future. Keep up with all the excitement here. 

Dying Scene: You guys have a lot coming up in the next year with the 25th anniversary of Kings of Pop. Are you guys releasing new music next year, or are you going to wait for the year after?

John Tran: No, I think we’re going to release some new music this year.

Adam Lorbach: We’re going to have to do some drops here and there. A couple of singles, maybe, but there’s plenty of material. We’re just waiting for the right time, but some singles this year, for sure.

Dying Scene: How has Warped Tour shaped you guys musically, professionally, or personally? 

John Tran: Well, I mean, Warped Tour 1998 was the first time we did the Warped Tour. So if you can sweat it out in a van in the South and still survive and be a band, that means you’re probably going to make it. We did. It definitely built resilience in us. Oh, 10-hour drive? No problem. Overnight? Yeah, okay. No showers in five days? Okay…

Dying Scene: What do you feel is the biggest difference between Warped Tour then and Warped Tour now?

Adam Lorbach: We just got here, so…

John Tran: It’s still a giant cluster

Adam Lorbach: It’s still hot 

John Tran: Port-o-potties are probably really hot and sweaty and stinky.

Adam Lorbach: I’ve heard more tracks from here than the stage, but I mean, it looks cool, man. It’s awesome seeing everyone still on the scene, walking around, dressed like they were in 2002.

Dying Scene: Did any bands become long-term friends with you guys because of Warped Tour? 

Adam Lorbach: Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s part of the reason why we’re here. We just want to come back and say hi to some of our old friends: Reel Big Fish, The Starting Line. 

John Tran: Simple Plan’s playing, Hoobastank’s here. MXPX is playing. Early November. All the Drive-Thru bands.

Adam Lorbach: We just want to be out here; it’s our hometown.

Dying Scene: Is there a Warped Tour set that you guys still talk about after all these years? 

Adam Lorbach: I mean, the one that sticks out for me is the Drive-Thru Records stage one. That was a pretty special moment in time. You know, you didn’t even realize it so much when you’re in it then, but looking back, it’s pretty cool with all of our friends always traveling to the same place, going out to have dinners, just having good quality time together. It’s pretty special.

Dying Scene: Is there a part of Warped Tour’s culture that feels essential to you and something that has defined the tour?

John Tran: Honestly, Warped Tour, to me, back in like 2000, no, maybe like 1990-something, had skateboarding. Skateboarding, you know. If all the skateboarding culture was like pop music, that’s what we grew up on. It definitely defines who we are, and who we are today, for sure. I love skateboarding. To this day, I still love punk rock music.

Adam Lorbach: I think it’s pretty cool having the legacy artists. It’s kind of like how Warped Tour was back in the day, always giving a spotlight to new artists, people to come up. So, all these different side stages give people a chance to see you that they might not have otherwise. I love the ethos of Warped Tour. It has a blend of both, so you can have fun with the old music, you know, and sing along. You might discover something new here.

Veteran: Mike Davenport (The Ataris) – Years Played: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2026

This year sees The Ataris play their ninth official set with the Warped Tour. Last year saw the band release their first bit of new music since 2011, “All Souls Day” and “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” with the promise of an album in the near future. While putting the finishing touches on the new record, the band has been playing the festival circuit, including stops in Mexico City and Montreal for the Warped Tour. Keep up with the Ataris here.

Dying Scene: One of my favorite Warped Tour sets I saw the Ataris play was 2002.

Mike Davenport: It was a killer set. It was a surprise set. We were supposed to be on the Warped Tour, but we were making the So Long, Astoria record, so they called us over to play there just to surprise everybody.

Dying Scene: It was like a small label’s booth, wasn’t it?

Mike Davenport: Yeah.

Dying Scene: Do the Ataris have any type of Warped Tour ritual you do when you guys play?

Mike Davenport: We did our first Warped Tour in 2000, and then we’ve done eight after that. My favorite part is the barbecue. We love the barbecue. We love hanging out with everybody. The coolest thing is my friends. Even today, it brought me back because I’m going in and I’m seeing Basement over here and Bowling For Soup over there and all of my favorite bands.

Dying Scene: What’s the lineup for the band right now? Is it the So Long, Astoria lineup or is it a bit of a hybrid? 

Mike Davenport: It’s a hybrid. It’s me and John and Kris and then our drummer’s Dustin. Not Kid (Chris Knapp). We’ve had Dustin (Phillips) jump back in. He’s been with Kris on and off for the last 10 years. 

Dying Scene: What’s changed the most about performing pop punk live since your early work tour? 

Mike Davenport: I’d say it’s slick, man. All of these digital LED backdrops. A lot of the bands that my kids listen to, pop-punk bands, have a lot of screaming in them. We didn’t do screaming in our day. That’s something that came with that next generation of Hawthorne Heights and Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil.

Dying Scene: Is there a Warped Tour set you still talk about all these years later?

Mike Davenport: We loved Warped Tour 2003, San Diego. That set was insane. It’s immortalized on the 2003 Warped Tour DVD. If you ever see it, the sun was going down, we were like the last band playing. You just see people until you can’t see people anymore for days and they’re just crowd surfing.

Dying Scene: Is there a part of Warped Tour’s culture that you feel is essential to it, something that’s defined the tour?

Mike Davenport: I just think that, like Kevin Lyman, he was our first manager, and he’s always run Warped Tour like a bro’s thing. These are all his bros. He’s still sitting back there in his tent, hanging out and just enjoying the moment. And it’s about enjoying life and playing music with friends.

Dying Scene: Do you have any advice for first timers that they never listen to?

Take chances, take risks. You’ve got to take risks. No risk, nothing’s going to happen. I know so many great bands that were too afraid to get in the van, to go on tour, to sleep in the van and rough it. That’s what we did, and that’s how we got bigger. All of my friends’ bands, they did the same thing, and they are here today. The people that don’t take risks, that are afraid, you don’t want to lose your job at Taco Bell or whatever you’re doing, that’s not living. Living is taking risks.

Rookie: Rae and Addison Scott (rosecoloredworld) – Ghost Stage 

rosecoloredworld is making their debut this year on the Warped Tour. Long Beach was their second date after playing the tour’s Washington, D.C. stop. Blending raw emotion and pop punk, a lot of their songs focus on topics like mental health and community. A great combination for the Warped Tour and its ever-evolving ethos. Catch up with rosecoloredworld here. 

Dying Scene:  What did you think playing the Warped Tour would be like before you got here?

Rae: It’s way cooler than whatever I thought, that’s for sure. It’s an amazing community, and the fans have been very awesome to us.

Dying Scene: Did the stage you were assigned to shape your set at all?

Addison Scott: The stage was amazing. It was more than anything we could have hoped for.

Dying Scene: Have you had a “Oh, Shit I’m playing the Warped Tour” moment?

Rae: Yeah, right before we went on. I think it all hit us. 

Addison Scott: We played DC a month ago, and it definitely was crazy. 

Dying Scene: What do you hope fans remember about your first Warped Tour run?

Rae: I hope they feel hopeful, and I hope that they remember having a ripping time with the people they came with.

Dying Scene: Did Warped Tour shape your trajectory as a fan or a musician?

Addison Scott: Yeah, both. I mean, I grew up on the scene, and it definitely is how we are, and who we are.

Rookie – Seth Girard, Thomas Sullivan, Jack Wensky (Good Sleepy) – Vans Stage

Fresh off the release of their second album, Constant Humming, Good Sleepy made their Warped Tour debut in Long Beach this weekend on the Vans Stage with a late afternoon set. Before they grace the stage at Warped Tour’s Montreal, Quebec dates, you can catch them on the road. For more info, check out their official website.

Dying Scene: What did you think playing Warped Tour would be like before you got here? 

Thomas Sullivan: Honestly, I had no expectations. I wasn’t really sure what it was going to be like, but it definitely exceeded all my expectations. I tried to go into it with a clear mind, but yeah, it’s been so sick.

Seth Girard: It’s funny, this morning I was chatting with everybody, and I was like, “Oh yeah, you know, like 12,000 people,” and everyone was like, “No, it’s like 80,000.” So my expectations were blown out of the water.

Jack Wensky: For me, it’s like, I don’t know, I went to high school, so I had an expectation of what it was going to be like. It’s a lot different than I anticipated.

Dying Scene: Did Warped Tour shape your trajectory as a musician or a fan? 

Jack Wensky: My entire music taste is definitely based on Warped Tour, especially from 2016 to 2018. That’s when we were in high school, and all the bands playing Warped Tour were our favorites. They helped us get into this type of music and even start our own band.

Dying Scene: Did the stage you were assigned to help shape your set at all?

Thomas Sullivan: Not really, going into this, we only knew the time. We didn’t know our stage until about two weeks ago.

Dying Scene: Have any bands helped you navigate the chaos?

Seth Girard: We have a lot of friends playing today, a lot of people like telling us what to expect and stuff. Shoutouts to bands like Hot Mulligan, Arms Length, those are some of our good friends. They’ve definitely helped us out.

Dying Scene: What do you hope fans will remember about your first Warped Tour run?

Seth Girard: That it was fun, hopefully. Hopefully, they had a lot of fun; they had a good time.

Jack Wensky: That’s really all we care about is everybody having a good time.

Veteran – tiLLie – Years Played: 2017 and 2026 

tiLLie has made a name for herself in the intervening years since her 2017 Warped Tour debut, having played other festivals including Slam Dunk and Rock for People. This year finds tiLLie rocking the Rex Stage and bringing her electronic-tinged pop-punk set to fans of the Warped Tour. Fans can catch tiLLie on the Warped Tour’s Orlando, Florida stop in November.  For more info, please check out her website.

Dying Scene: Did the stage you were assigned to shape your set at all?

tiLLie: No, I don’t think so. You don’t really find out until pretty late what stage you’re going to be on, so I think you have to go into it with what you’re bringing, and the rest you have to figure out when you get there.

Dying Scene: What’s been the most surprising thing about performing at Warped Tour, good or bad?

tiLLie: I don’t know what was surprising. I think for me, the surprising part was being on the same bill as Third Eye Blind because they’re one of my favorite bands, and my older brother got me into them when I was like a baby. He unfortunately passed away, but I think it’s been so amazing to have this opportunity, and I know wherever he is, his mind is blown, and my mind is blown.

Dying Scene: Did Warped Tour shape your trajectory as a fan or a musician?

tiLLie: Absolutely, yeah, I grew up listening to this. I was definitely more of a Fueled By Ramen girlie. I listened to some of the harder stuff, but I saw Paramore when I was really young at Warped Tour, and that was huge for me.

Dying Scene: Is there a part of Warped Tour’s culture that you feel is essential to you?

tiLLie: I think the community around it, the fans. I just think, especially nowadays, this new iteration of it is a really safe space for all types of people. I think we’re all a little bit outcast and maybe the weirdos, so it’s nice to all be here together and share that and not feel so alone.

Dying Scene: Have you made any friends this year?

tiLLie: I don’t know if I’ve made new friends yet. I’ve seen a lot of friends like Honey Revenge and Nova Twins, some people I’ve played with before. No, I need to make some new friends.

Rookie – Brian McShea (Good Terms) Door Dash Stage

Long Beach was Good Terms first of two Warped Tour dates with their next show being Orlando, FL’s stop on the Warped Tour. Their inclusion on this years tour coincided with the release of their record, Burnout Deluxe. Find them on the road before they make their next appearance. More info, here. 

Dying Scene: How many times have you been to Warped Tour as a fan? 

Brian McShea: I came last year, and then before that, in 2018, was the last one. That was the first one I went to. The guitarist in my band went to like fifteen in a row. I remember watching Warped Tour Wednesdays on Fuse, but I felt too young to go, and I didn’t know anyone doing that kind of thing. I was fourteen or fifteen, and I was into jazz. I was kind of out of it for a little bit, and I missed a lot of music that I now love.

Dying Scene: What’s been the most surprising thing about Warped Tour, good or bad?

Brian McShea: In my band, the other members have a lot more experience performing at festivals for other artists and I’ve never done that. I didn’t know what to expect. Showing up and having your merch going one place and your gear going a different place and you’re going to a different place and you will meet up with it later on. It’s pretty fascinating watching all those systems work. 

Dying Scene: To see how the sausage is made? 

Brian McShea: Yeah, I was the kind of kid who loved watching gears and conveyor belts and shit. Watching all that shit play out is pretty satisfying. Other than that, how fucking tired I am. I was here last year, and I had a lot more energy and emotional energy. It really took a lot out of me. I’m trying to meet our fans, I’m trying to do all the things for our band. It was like, I didn’t get to be in Warped Tour as much, which is fine. I mean, it’s the most Warped Tour we’ve ever done. That was definitely a new thing.

Dying Scene: Did Warped Tour shape your trajectory as a musician or as a band? 

Brian McShea: Warped Tour Wednesdays on Fuse was all the music that got me started on guitar. Green Day and Fall Out Boy were really big bands for me. All the stuff that would have been on Fuse at the time came my way. I came across Taking Back Sunday, Underoath, and all that. That’s where I got started. I stepped away from it as I got into other genres of music, but it was definitely that foundation. I think there’s always been this punk rock ethos I’ve looked for in everything as I’ve gone on. And it’s everywhere. You have to look for it in other genres a little harder, but sometimes you have to look for it here, too.

Is there a part of Warped Tour’s culture that feels essential to you, or something that defines Warped Tour?

Brian McShea: Pick up anybody who falls down. Those are definitely words to live by. I don’t think that’s exclusive to Warped Tour necessarily, but it is a big, important part of how today functions. I think walking around and seeing all the different kinds of people. There are pop-punk kids, there are hardcore kids, there are metalcore kids. There are people with spiked hair, there are people with tucked-in shirts. There are all sorts of people here, and we’re passing through each other. We’re bumping into each other. You’re making friends in lines for things.

Thanks for your time, everyone. If you missed Dying Scene’s review of the Van’s Warped Tour Long Beach, click here