Asbury Park, NJ – 13 March, 2025
Never Forget How Good It Feels To Be Alive
I first stumbled upon RX Bandits in late 1998 on a Go Kart Records double cd compilation, Double Exposure. I spent years after watching in awe as they converted themselves from sun soaked poppy SoCal ska into something a bit harder to pin down. Each record was a new layer of maturation, growth and new ways to blow my mind. I sadly failed to catch the band until 2022 when finally the stars aligned to allow me a chance to see them live… and they were worth every bit of the wait. So of course I was going to catch them again in 2025 as they invade an Asbury Park bowling alley/rock venue to kick off their tour celebrating the 20th (22nd, by my math) anniversary of the classic The Resignation.
Venezuelans Zeta graced the stage with their genre bending and genre blending brilliance. Earlier this year, the undefinable rockers dropped an absolutely brilliant LP, Was It Medicine To You. If you’ve not yet checked it out, pause the reading here, stream it and be prepared for a series of holy shit moments to flash through your speakers. Filling the small stage, the South American rockers didn’t put on a performance, these motherfuckers gave the crowd an experience.
The four-piece killed the performance tonight experimenting with Caribbean beats, jazz grooves and post hardcore melodicism as their sound flourished and soothed. The quartet’s South American musical influences blended with post and rock and hip-hop and rhumba put a hex on the crowd, stoked for the constant discoveries of what a band without fear could accomplish. They were hungry to exhibit their talents and the audience anxiously lapped at the flames of their passionate performance. Zeta held the audience in their hands and thanks to their positive vibes, the crowd was blanketed in the love of that grip.
After a very long break between acts (likely first night hiccups) it was finally time for RX Bandits to saunter to the stage. Taking the stage with a brief addressing of the need for community, the love of our neighbor and a simple reminder to treat strangers and friends with decency, the Bandits didn’t waste much time. Between Zeta’s ass-kicking performamce and the headliner’s skills we simply didn’t need it. They came out, said their quick and potent piece and bound straight ahead into “Sell Me Beautiful.” We were off to the races. The crowd immediately went cuckoo-bananas, blowing the fuck up and bringing the temperature in the room up at least 3 degrees in 3 minutes. Things didn’t cool off throughout the set. The Bandits wouldn’t allow it to.
The band, who have shifted from poppy ska-punk to reggae-saturated post-hardcore were pitch perfect for the entirety of their set. With absolute classics on the record being celebrated; cuts like “Overcome (The Recapitulation),” “Mastering The List” and “Dinna-Dawg (and the Inevitable Onset of Lunacy,” flew by with hips shimmying and lyrics sung across the crowd. When it was time for the 3 song encore featuring personal favorites like “Ruby Cumulous” or “In All Rwanda’s Glory” the band served the crowd a proper dosing of ditties, leaving fans euphoric and satiated.
In a time when we all need something to bring us together, something to make us feel and something to shine a light toward a brighter future these bastard Bandits out-shined all of my optimism. What a beautiful set, what a perfectly curated tour and what a beautiful evening of love and music.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
