PB&Jams: The Front Bottoms
It’s rare that I end up going to a show and falling in love with the opening band. More often than not, I awkwardly nod my head to the bass line and sometimes even pretend to know the lyrics. Two exceptions to this rule stick out in my concert-going memory. The first being when fun. opened for Jack’s Mannequin at the Electric Factory in 2010, long before the album Some Nights had even been released – I know, it’s hard to believe. The second was this November when The Front Bottoms toured with Manchester Orchestra.
The Front Bottoms defy any sort of genre characterization, and attempts to define their sound include descriptions such as “acoustic-indie-punk.” I’d say their sound is more of a feeling than a category — something like friends chilling on a porch in the middle of a summer night when your cool skater friend decides to pull out his guitar. The melodies are catchy and the lyrics are clever and casually timed, so much so that they often don’t even seem to fit with the beat.
The New Jersey-native band’s first, self-titled album was released in 2011 and is like an addictive dose of punk angst bundled up in the perfect package to play in your car on repeat.
In the album’s second song “Maps,” vocalist Brian Sella declares, “You say ‘I hate you,’ you mean it/ and ‘I love you’ sounds fake/ It’s taken me so long to figure that out,” so casually that it’s not until a few seconds later that you find yourself in full agreement.
“The Beers” sounds like a suburban house party, setting the scene with, “There’s beer in coffee mugs, water bottles and soda cups,” and hitting the hilariously endearing chorus of, “I will remember that summer/ as the summer I was taking steroids/ ’cause you like a man with muscles/ and I like you.” If there was any doubt in your mind that a crowd of people would willingly start chanting “as the summer I was taking steroids” in unison at a show, let me assure you that they will — and it’s killer.
The Front Bottoms’ second album Talon of the Hawk stays true to their witty lyrics with lines like, “keep me in love/ keep me believing it’s with you” in “Everything I Own” or references to “a safety pin and a ballpoint pen” and “a tattoo on my right thigh I will probably regret one day” in “Backflip.”
The standout song on the album is undoubtedly “Twin Size Mattress.” Like a plea to a struggling friend, the song reaches its first peak with, “They cut your hair and sent you away/ you stopped by my house the night you escaped/ with tears in my eyes I begged you to stay/ you said ‘hey man I love you, but no f*****g way.’” It then offers, “I’m sure that we could find something for you to do on stage/ maybe shake a tambourine/ or when I sing, you sing harmonies.” The song ends with an emotional declaration, which, like the rest of their music, is best with the volume turned all the way up.