We recently saw The Misfits at Crocodile Rock in Allentown,PA, one of our favorite venues. Over the 30 year history of The Misfits there have been multiple line up changes, the only original member of the band currently touring is Jerry Only. They have been traditionally a four piece band with a dedicated lead singer, first Glenn Danzig then much later Michale Graves. For the past few years, they have been a three piece with Jerry Only on bass and vocals, Dez Cadena, of Black Flag on guitar and vocals and Eric “Chupacabra” Arce, of Murphy’s Law on Drums. It’s different and some hardcore Misfits Fiends don’t consider this to be the real Misfits, but you have to give them credit, it’s a fun show with some awesome songs. Though I do have to agree with one fan I was talking to, The Misfits have always had outstanding vocalists, especially for a punk band. While Jerry Only has sang backup for years, it’s just not the same when he sings lead.
There were several local bands opening the show, including The Last Remark, Anticitizen and Stone Cold Fever. The openers were great, keeping the crowd entertained for a few hours before The Misfits hit the stage at around 9:30. Then a cloud of smoke crept over the stage as the band entered, each band member with their own monstrous look. First they played a couple newer songs from last year’s release The Devil’s Rain, but once they got into the older songs like “Attitude”, “Some Kind of Hate”, “Static Age” and “Twenty Eyes” and the crowd wiped into a frenzy and didn’t let up till the end of the show. It was a fairly young crowd for the most part so even the 90’s Michale Graves era songs like “Scream”, “Dig Up Her Bones” and “American Psycho” went over really well. All and all it was entertaining, nostalgic, and just fun.
I also enjoyed a show of Misfits. I guess that they are always different in their performance.