idobi Radio Summer School Fest Tour Graduates in Anaheim

Brand new touring festival Summer School completed its last show at the City National Grove of Anaheim in California on August 17th. From founders Eric Tobin (Hopeless Records), Michael Kaminsky (KMGMT), and Kevin Lyman (Warped Tour), an affordable, diverse, and exciting music festival was born. With numerous sponsorships subsidizing lower ticket prices and utilizing media reach, Summer School aims to highlight independent artists, labels, and promoters by putting together the next generation of headlining acts. In addition, each ticket purchase includes a charity donation to the Save The Music Foundation, which provides grants, instruments, and other various resources to schools for music education. Visiting over 25 cities in the course of two months, the festival features hot up-and-coming bands Stand Atlantic, Magnolia Park, The Home Team, Scene Queen, Honey Revenge, and Letdown. Every Summer School show begins with Letdown. and Honey Revenge, followed by the next four bands playing in a rotating order each night.

As a special treat for the sold out Anaheim show, indie-shoegaze artist Noelle Sucks kicked off the festival with a short set. Even though the venue had not filled up yet and the majority of the attendees were not familiar with Noelle Sucks, she definitely gained some fans in the crowd. Letdown. was next, Chicago-based rock singer-songwriter Blake Coddington’s project. With songs often about his mental health struggles, Coddington has music you can headbang to while also being vulnerable and relatable to listeners. Reaching almost overnight success on social media when he started his project, Letdown. is therapy for Coddington as well as his followers. Songs like “Karma” and “Go To Hell” were standouts of the set, getting the crowd into the performance with flashing lights and lots of hair flipping from Coddington and his guitarists. After a short break, pop-rock band Honey Revenge came on stage in all pink and black outfits to “Recipe For Disaster” from the extended edition of their debut album Retrovision. Being a fan of them or not, it’s impossible to ignore Honey Revenge’s infectious high energy and joy when they’re playing. On a steady rise since 2022, vocalist Devin Papodol and guitarist Donovan Lloyd are no doubt destined for big things, and seeing them on stage, it’s clear they have what it takes. From their synchronized kicks on beat to their fun and upbeat music, their set was short and sweet but left a lasting impression on the crowd, especially with fan-favorite “Airhead” as the closer.

The first of the headlining bands to take the stage was The Home Team, a self-described heavy pop band from Seattle. The band consists of vocalist Brian Butcher, guitarist John Baran, bassist Ryne Olsen, and drummer Daniel Matson. Starting off their set with shenanigans, various members of the tour came on stage holding large Fatheads of The Home Team, plus someone in an elephant suit and none other than Brian Butcher himself popping out of a large inflatable rat suit, to everyone’s surprise. After this, they jumped into “Brag” from album The Crucible Of Life, which was released just last month. The majority of their setlist was off this album, although you wouldn’t know by how many fans in the crowd were screaming every word to each song. The packed venue had multiple mosh pits and crowd surfing during their set, getting rowdier by the minute. Highlights were hater-anthem “Hell”, working class ally “Overtime”, relatable and humorous “Watching All Your Friends Get Rich”, and sexual banger “Loud”. The Home Team is a band that needs to be on everyone’s radar, and are sure to keep upping the ante.

Next up was pop punk/alternative rock band Magnolia Park. From Orlando, Florida, the five-piece band incorporates components of rock, pop punk, and hip-hop to effectively create their sound and dark aesthetic. The band consists of vocalist Joshua Roberts, guitarists Tristan Torres and Freddie Criales, keyboardist/bassist Vincent Ernst, and drummer Joe Horsham. Beginning with “Misfits” off 2022 album Baku’s Revenge, the whole set was full of energy and fun surprises, like Brian Butcher from The Home Team coming out to sing with them for a song. Once their time was nearly over, Roberts asked to slow it down and had everyone light up the room with their flashlights. Devin Papodol of Honey Revenge came out to sing “Unholy Heart,” their collaboration on Magnolia Park’s 2023 EP MoonEater. Bringing the energy back up for their final song, “Feel Something,” Magnolia Park was certainly a good choice for this festival and didn’t disappoint.

Third in the rotating roster was singer-songwriter and bimbocore founder Scene Queen, dressed in all pink. Her music style is a hyperfeminine subgenre of metalcore, with lyrics focused on taking the power back, calling out sexual misconduct and violence against women, and sexual liberation. She started off with one of her most rage-filled songs, “Pink Push-Up Bra”, about getting justice after sexual assault. The song is fresh off her new album “Hot Singles In Your Area”, released in June, which she played much more of to a very welcoming crowd. If someone came to the show specifically for Scene Queen, it wasn’t hard to tell, as they would be wearing all pink, some even with her signature pink cowboy hat she sells as merch. She brought out her boyfriend and the vocalist of In Her Own Words, Joey Fleming, to sing “Barbie and Ken”, about a homicidally toxic relationship. Finishing up with “Pink Panther” and “Pink Rover”, Scene Queen went off stage to say hi to everyone at the barricade and sang to the adoring crowd. Her confident presence, feminist conviction, and unabashedly NSFW lyrics have made her an icon to many that find comfort and freedom in her, and she puts on a great show.

Finally, it was time for Stand Atlantic to close out the festival. The pop punk band from Sydney, Australia, is composed of vocalist/guitarist Bonnie Fraser, guitarist David Potter, bassist Miki Rich, and drummer Jonno Panichi. They began their set with new single “WARZ0NE” off of upcoming album WAS HERE, releasing this month. Since this was the last time all of the bands and crew would do a show together, everyone was goofing off on stage and to the side of the stage, including a group of tour members doing a “shoey” (drinking beer from their shoe) behind Stand Atlantic during “hair out.” During “GIRL$,” multiple women that were part of the tour came on stage and jumped around with the band for the last chorus. Brian Butcher was brought out to sing “LOVE U ANYWAY,” another new single and rare love song from the band. Their latest single “CRIMINAL” brought the house down and had everyone jumping, screaming, and letting loose. A group of four children were crowd surfing over and over for the entire set, the crowd being incredibly gentle with them, allowing these kids to have the time of their lives. Stand Atlantic finished with “deathwish,” bringing out Joshua Roberts from Magnolia Park to sing the guest vocals. Stand Atlantic had not even left the stage before the crowd started chanting for one more song, other tour members egging them on. Eventually, the band came back, along with Butcher, Roberts, and Scene Queen’s guitarist Boy Hero, to play a delightfully chaotic cover of Linkin Park’s “Faint” together.

Ultimately, Summer School had an incredible lineup of energetic, exciting, and talented bands, and it seems like the tour was a success. The values and motivations of the festival are admirable and it felt great to support a charity and great bands at the same time. I hope to see the tour return next year and I’m eager to see where these bands go next. Check out our full gallery below for all of the fun at Summer School:

NOELLE SUCKS – AUGUST 17, 2024 – CITY NATIONAL GROVE (ANAHEIM, CA)