The Bouncing Souls completed an amazing series of shows recently in Hollywood. They played 8 albums, 2 albums each night, 4 nights in a row, in 4 different cities. That’s something like 106 songs. I mean, sure they have been around now 20 years. And sure they are on the road constantly. And sure, they are great at what they do. But keeping all those songs straight…its kind of an epic achievement even for the consummate professional.
If any of you reading this have ever partaken in a mosh pit, you either did it of your own free will, or were dragged in against it. So when legendary east coast punks Bouncing Souls played the legendary Troubadour — once a regular home to misfits like Jim Morrison and George Carlin — there was likely going to be inevitable, irreparable damage to both venue and attendees alike. (Especially seeing as how tonight was the last show of their 20th anniversary tour, and the boys were going to go all out to kick our suntanned-and-spoiled west coast asses.)
And sure enough, looking down from the club’s balcony, I saw that the vortex was slowly starting to swirl — so I rushed down to join the fun.
If you ever dipped your toe into the punk rock stew, you inevitably got a little Bouncing Souls on you. This band has been around the scene for 20 years now and they are holding steady as one of the most hard working, rocking, always relevant bands out there. It was my pleasure to interview bass player, Bryan Kienlen to hear how the years have been treating him as an icon of the scene.
We asked kick ass punk rock bass player, Bryan Kienlen of the Bouncing Souls to pick a mood and then tell me 5 songs that put him in that mood.
Mood: Great; charged up; ready to conquer the world.
Photo by Matt Cabani, provided by Bryan Kienlen