photos by Keith Marlowe

Time Out NY: These days, the Descendents seem to play more one-off festival gigs than full-on tours. How do you decide when to fire up the band again?

We go through periods of just blatant inactivity, and then we fairly whimsically just decide to start doing some shows. But because of the logistics of getting the four of us together, we seem to have bettter luck doing little weekends. You know, several of us have, quote, "real jobs"--Milo's job being very, very real, he's a biochemist at DuPont. And I guess in a way my day job, as it were, has become fairly real. I seem to have begun to lean on record producing quite a bit, although I still definitely do my fair share of drumming and songwriting. And so you throw those jobs into a pot of logistic stew along with everyone having wives and families and also the fact that we live in three different states... The bottom line is, we just get together whenever it's convenient for all of us, and as long as we continue to do it that way, then it's always fun.

Its been a long time comin', but the Descendents made it right at a sold-out Roseland Ballroom on Friday night with H2O and the recently reunited Suicide Machines. How was it? Their November set at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 was great (they've also since played NXNE and FYF Fest).

The show was one of a pair for Milo & co. this past weekend. The Descendents also swung by Philadelphia to play RiotFest East on 9/24 alongside Dead Milkmen, X (who are on their way towards NYC), Plow United, Hot Water Music, and many others. Descendents will next head to RiotFest in Chicago, their last scheduled US show for now. There they'll again share a bill with Suicide Machines as well as names like Weezer, Danzig Legacy (also coming to NYC and Fun Fun Fun Fest), ALL, Social Distortion (who play Izod Center with Foo Fighters tonight), and many others.

In somewhat related news, one of the Descendents' labels, Fat Wreck Chords (home of 2004's Cool To Be You), is having a CMJ showcase on 10/20 at Union Hall with: Dead To Me / The Flatliners / Banner Pilot / Old Man Markley / The Arteries. Tickets are on sale.

More Roseland pictures and the Descendents setlist is below.

Continue reading "Descendents played Roseland Ballroom w/ H2O & Suicide Machines (pics & setlist)"

We previously discussed Phily's Riot Fest East that will feature an appearance from the mighty Descendents and The Suicide Machines who they also play with in NYC. Riot Fest East, an offshoot of the Chicago festival, happens on September 24th.

The Chicago version of the festival, October 5-9, previously announced that Weezer, Social Distortion, Descendents, 7 Seconds, ALL (two different eras!), Helmet, and X (playing Los Angeles) were all on the lineup, but left one big announcement for today...

On Friday October 7, 2011 Danzig will headline Riot Fest and perform a career spanning show featuring sets of Danzig, Samhain and Misfits songs with none other than Doyle joining on guitar the Misfits set. We've waited years for this and we can't wait to see the inside of the Congress Theater turn into a churning sea of humanity.

Tickets for both Riot Fest Chicago and Riot Fest East are now on sale, and more band announcements are stil to come(!).

Tickets are now also on sale for the Descendents show at Roseland Ballroom that Suicide Machines and H20 are opening.

X are performing Los Angeles at both Riot Fests AND on two nights at Irving Plaza in NYC. Tickets are on sale for those shows too.

Riot Fest show flyers and some videos is below.

Continue reading "Riot Fest Chicago completes lineup with "Danzig Legacy"! Descendents East Coast shows on sale too"

Dead Milkmen @ Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

The NYC Descendents / Suicide Machines show is one day before both bands descend upon the first-ever Riot Fest East at Festival Pier in Philly on 9/24! The killer lineup also includes Dead Milkmen, Naked Raygun, X (playing Los Angeles in full like they'll do two nights in NYC), Hot Water Music, Weston, Samiam, Plow United, The Menzingers (who play Santos on 6/24), Excitebike, Shot Baker, Larry and His Flask, The Holy Mess and more. Tickets for the Philly festival go on sale Friday (6/24) at 10 AM. A Flier and more info below.

Riot Fest East is also one day of the 2nd annual Philly F/M Festival: "A Four Day Event To Promote Music and Film In The City of Brotherly Love To Occur Thursday, Sept 22nd - Sunday, Sept 25th 2011."

The second annual festival will take place over four days, largely in the Fishtown / Northern Liberties neighborhoods of Philadelphia, which in recent years have become a cultural center for music and arts in the city. This year's festival will feature over 15 indoor and outdoor venues with capacities between 100-5,000. Participating venues include: The Festival Pier, Trocadero Theater, TLA, World Café Live and The Ukie Club.

Modeled after successful long-standing events such as SXSW and CMJ, Philly F/M looks to establish itself as the premiere multi-venue music and film festival for the U.S. East Coast entertainment and tourism market. Last year's festival took place in 30 venues with 300 artists and over 60 films from around the world. Philly F/M 2010 attracted 13,000 visitors across all events with little or no "headline" artists. This year the festival will host at least fifteen 'headline-level' artists of all music genres, more than 100 artists total. Attendance projections for the festival is more than 25,000 paid attendees, which will include a core group of at least 5,000 all-access badge holders.

The whole initial F/M lineup and Riot Fest too, below...

Continue reading "Philly gets a Riot Fest (which is part of the F/M Festival) -- lineup announcements"

photos by Natasha Ryan

The reunion continues. The mighty Descendents played Toronto's Yonge & Dundas Square for NXNE on June 16 with Fucked Up, Off!, Rusty, and Metz. Pictures of the Descendents from that show adorn this post. Anyone have the setlist?

When we last spoke the Descendents had a few key shows scheduled like Riot Fest in Chicago, and now there are even more! One day before they play Riot Fest in Philly, the Descendents will finally grace NYC again with songs about about things sucking, coffee, and general boredom at Roseland Ballroom on September 23. The reunited Suicide Machines play both the Philly and NYC show. H2O also opens in NYC. Tickets ($27.50 in Advance, $30 Day of Show) to the NYC show go on general sale on Friday (6/24) at 10 AM, but are on presale now (password = voice).

More pictures from NXNE, and a video too, below...

Continue reading "Descendents played NXNE (pics), playing Roseland Ballroom"