Pittsburgh Area Bands: Punchline

Pittsburgh Area Bands: Punchline

Just so you know what you're getting into from the start: I'd go to the ends of the earth for this band. I first heard them back in middle school when "The World" made school dance rotations. Saw them live around 14 or 15. Am now 20 & have seen them live more times than I can count. Literally. My brother & I have seriously gotten into light-hearted arguments about just what the number is. I wrote a review of them live for an online local magazine once. I'm actually wearing a Punchline shirt right now (this is a coincidence, I swear). So yeah.

I'll cut to the chase as quickly as I can: I really don't have a single negative thing to say about this band. Sure, there are songs I don't like as much as others, but that happens with every artist. What matters is the fact that the good songs are more than good. They're stellar. If they weren't I, & others, (including my little brother) wouldn't keep coming back, or blogging like crazies. They're pegged as pop punk, but personally, there's more to their sound than that. I can't nail it down to a genre that's not general and huge like just plain rock, but there's more depth - musically and lyrically - than the typical pop punk connotations bring to the genre discussion table. They're responsible for some of the songs I consider to be among my favorites of all time. Yes, that's a very bold statement. I stand by it.

They're also amazing live. What's the difference between a good live band & a great live band? Great live bands get you and your friends to a point where you say, "Oh man, we haven't seen Punchline in a while. We need to do something about that." This happens frequently, except for this year - I think my brother & I managed something like 4 shows so far plus one coming up. Combine that with merchandise and music & the amount of money I've spent on just Punchline just in 2009 is probably an embarrassing figure.

Their most recent release was the online b-side collection Night Lights, and we all know that I loves me some b-sides. And what makes it interesting is the money factor - free for a few songs, $6 for the whole thing - or more, if you feel so inclined. I gave $7 because that's all I had in my PayPal. Hey, I'm in college & I haven't freelanced and gotten paid for it since October. I'm pretty broke. And the money goes towards recording more material, & what fan wouldn't want to contribute to such a wonderful cause as that?

So, humor me & check them out. Really, you can't go wrong here.

Punchline on MySpace!