Everything is Copacetic at Knuckle Puck’s Anaheim Show

It’s been ten years since Knuckle Puck released their debut album Copacetic, which immediately cemented their reputation as one of the best in their genre. To honor this milestone, they remixed and remastered the record and went on a short Copacetic Anniversary Tour through the US, with a show in the House of Blues Anaheim on May 9th.

For the first two dates of the tour (Denver and Anaheim), the band brought along Hunny and Stateside as support acts. Stateside starts off the night strong, as the crowd immediately goes berserk, with multiple crowdsurfers from the first minute to the last. Stateside’s vocalist Anthony Lemus jumps off the stage to sing with the crowd from the barricade twice. They just released single Stay Sweet off their upcoming album Vista Verde, which features Knuckle Puck’s Joe Taylor as well, which gets him on the stage by the second song already.

The mood has been set for the night with Stateside, and continues in a similar fashion with HUNNY. The indie rock band has music that feels like the soundtrack to a sunny California summer night. Even though it’s not as easy to crowdsurf too, the music is very danceworthy, and the crowd is having a great time dancing and jumping along.

There’s not a lot of bands that immediately get such a response from the floor as wild as the one tonight. From the very beginning of the Knuckle Puck set, people are spilling over the barricade in a neverending wave. The set for tonight starts with the band playing Copacetic from start to finish. Usually playing a record integrally live comes with certain challenges, because not every song is going to get a great response in live shows, but Copacetic is a bit of an anomaly in a lot of ways. Every song on the record hits just right, with perfectly timed slower songs “Ponder” and “In Your Crosshairs”, when everyone needs to catch their breath for a couple minutes.

The instrumental ending to “Untitled” is such a daring move for a ‘pop punk’ band as well, and such a testament to them not just being confined to the genre, but doing something beyond the standard, and it absolutely paid off. Copacetic means everything is in order, and if that’s not the truth for this record, or this evening by extent. After finishing up the playthrough, the Chicago-based band played a couple of other songs, not ready to let the party end just yet, and the crowd more than agrees if the moshpits and crowdsurfs are any indication.

The upcoming Brooklyn show has sold out, and the remaining dates of the anniversary tour have low ticket warnings, so hurry to https://knucklepuckil.com/pages/tour for your tickets to see this crazy pop punk night yourself. The remaining dates will feature Oso Oso and New Age Thief as support acts.