Knuckle Puck, Boston Manor, Free Throw, Hot Mulligan | 4/8/2018
Michigan’s Hot Mulligan bursted onto stage and wasted no time before launching into their first song. Even though they were one of the first bands of the night, fans were warmed up and ready to scream along to every word. Singer Tades Sanville clearly noticed this, getting close, making eye contact, and offering the microphone to the fans. Almost the entire room seemed to know the band’s music, something that I can’t say for many opening acts. After the band’s set, fans flocked to the merch table to pick up the bands most recent album, “Pilot”.
Free Throw matched the previous act’s energy from the second they stepped on stage. The band’s fans began crowdsurfing almost immediately. Neither the band’s or the crowd’s energy fell throughout the set. As the band began playing their last song, Two Beers In, fans who had previously been sitting in the pack poured back into the crowd to join in.
One of my favorite things is seeing bands grow. The first time I saw Boston Manor was October of 2016. They were opening for another band at one of the smallest (but one of the best) venues in Indianapolis, the Hoosier Dome. Seeing them now playing in a room probably 5 times that size was incredible. As I was dodging crowdsurfers and trying to photograph the show from the photo pit, I heard a fan in the front row tell her friend, “This is the shit I came here for!” Towards the middle of the set, the band started the first pit of the night. While Boston Manor may have traveled the furthest, the fans’ connection with the music was intense.
Going back to what I said before, I really do love watching bands get larger and larger. I saw Knuckle Puck opening for another band, also at the Hoosier Dome, in January of 2014. I’ve seen them move from opening at this tiny venue, to playing Riot Fest multiple times and headlining huge sold out shows at the Metro in their hometown of Chicago, and now playing a nearly full show in the same city that I first saw them in.
Not only was this the last night of the tour, but between songs, Singer Joe Taylor let the crowd know that the morning of the show, they found out that their bandwagon wouldn’t make the drive. The band piled themselves and their equipment in other bands’ vans, trailers, and a Uhaul. None of this stifled the band’s energy. I might just say this every time I see them, but this was one of my favorite performance’s of theirs that I’ve experienced.