Date: September 14th, 2018
Opening Band: Pilfers

I’ve only ever been on one boat show from Rocks Off and that was for Mephiskapheles and Inspecter 7 in 2012. I couldn’t really see the bands for that one so I haven’t gone back since. That changed when Goldfinger and Pilfers played together on Friday September 14th. One of my favorite shows of the year because it was mayhem!

My twin brother Matt and I arrived at Pier 36 and was wondering where to go for the boat. There wasn’t a whole lot of signs, if not any. I guess they just assumed everyone knew where to go, behind the factory buildings to the piers. The boat loaded up pretty quickly, well if you got there early enough. It took us 20 minutes to figure out where the stage area was on the boat since it was a big Mississippi River type of boat. The main floor door by the loading area was closed so figured out another way by the merch and down some stairs.

Then it was just a lot of sitting around and waiting for the Pilfers to come on first. People were still coming on the boat after 7 when were supposed to leave the dock. Having the boat sitting idle like that is worse for me. Definitely was starting to get a little woozy. I honestly didn’t even feel the boat leaving though since Pilfers came on and brought me back to 1997. Of course I try to see the band whenever possible. It was extra special since Vinny playing with the band again since this was a one-off show with Coolie and the rest of the guys. It was a blast to see and try to shoot the best photos I could under the circumstances. Giant pole in the way, poor lighting in spots but I managed.

Pilfers were awesome as usual, playing a lot of Vinny centric songs since he was present. Nothing from the new album since Vinny doesn’t know that but we heard lots of tunes from the first album. Songs like “Roller Coaster,” “Hypnotized,” “Show No Fear,” “Climbing,” “Generation” and “Yakuza.” Some of the songs were played briefly because Coolie thought they had to get off stage at a specific time. So he would cut them off short. I thought they could have played a few minutes more and would have been fine. The crowd certainly didn’t mind and were really into it. I think majority of the crowd were fans of both bands, after all they were both on the same label in the 90s.

At one point, Coolie took off the hat and did what he does best, work the crowd in the crowd. Then Vinny soon followed after that as well. It was great to see Vinny playing alongside Coolie again and wish it was more often but obviously can’t do it because of family commitments, job, etc. He certainly can still jump around and scream into the mic when needed though. It’s something about Coolie and Vinny playing together that it just seems right, like peanut butter and jelly. If you missed out on this sold out boat show, you can see Coolie and the other members in the band play a few dates with Roger of Less Than Jake’s side band Rehasher in October. Seeing the Pilfers just reminds me how much I love that band and still to this day, one of my favorites of all-time.

Up next was Goldfinger and that’s when the mayhem started to happen. The band consisted of John as the only original member, then Mike from MxPx, Phil Sneed from Story of the Year, and then Cyrus Bolooki from New Found Glory. A bit of a supergroup if you will. The band came out and the lighting seemed to have gone darker so I broke out my speedlight for my camera. Sorry to the band for blinding them but at least I got better photos that way. They started things off with “Spokeman” and the crowded was into it from the start. Lots of pushing around, but not done in an obnoxious way.

Then they played songs like “Counting the Days” and “Get Up,” which are excellent tracks and great for singing along to. At one point, John brought out his young daughter and she was very reluctant. He then picked her up gently and made her crowdsurf. She just had this funny smile on her face as the crowd gently carried her around and then brought her back. Including myself, everyone was cheering like crazy during that moment. That’s when the crowd surfing seemed to have opened up from that point. John was crowd surfing and then made his way to me…As I’m trying to take pictures, I’m holding up John with my head and shoulders and struggling with it. Thankfully nothing broke and my camera/glasses were fine.

He did it again and I was like oh no, thankfully he didn’t land on me again. I was in the same spot for the majority of the show since I thought it was the best spot to take pictures. The spot seemed like a good spot for crowd surfers to land too, so I had a few more end up above me. At one point a guy landed me, hit my head and camera. My camera was okay. I picked my head up and my glasses weren’t on my face. I didn’t realize they were until a minute later. Thankfully they were right by feet, unscathed. But then that’s when I had enough of that spot and got the hell out of there before something did get broken. The next day I felt like I was still on the boat, had headaches and felt woozy. Maybe I got a mild concussion and didn’t even know it? Guess we’ll find out if it continues….

Oh yeah, back to the show. Besides the other songs I mention, Goldfinger also played songs like “Here In Your Bedroom,” “Superman” and “Tijuana Sunrise,” with Matt and Billy from Reel Big Fish, who played a few songs with the band. For the ska-ish songs, they would pop in and out like they do from time to time when RBF and Goldfinger played together in the past. John was loving this boat show, especially it was a small room. Felt like the early days of the band. John brought his wife up and talked about how she’s from Jersey and they met at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park. It seemed like half the boat was her family haha. Other notable songs Goldfinger played included “Mable,” “Miles Away,” and “Open Your Eyes.” Towards the end, they broke out into covers like The Specials “Nite Klub” and The Cure “Just Like Heaven.” There was a few others that were played but at the point, I was upstairs talking with Coolie and looking merch.

It was an awesome show and one of my favorites of the year. Reminded me of the 90s show where some great bands played a small basement show or some veterans hall. Pilfers were great and Goldfinger were awesome as well. Couldn’t have asked for a better time, and nothing got broken from crowdsurfers either!

Here’s some photos from the show, I’ll have more up on SkaPunkPhotos.com this week.

Pilfers

Goldfinger