Back at the close of the 1990s, recent Epitaph Records signees Bouncing Souls and H2O teamed up for a run of dates that the former affectionately referred to as the East Coast Fuck U! tour. More than a quarter-century later both bands have changed record labels and drummers (Souls’ Shal Khichi was replaced by Mike McDermott in 2000 and then by Hot Water Music’s George Rebelo in 2013; H2O frontman Toby Morse’s son Max took over drum duties for his pops’s band from Todd Friend a couple years back) – the two powerhouse punk and hardcore stalwarts teamed up for another go at it. The 2025 version of the East Coast! Fuck You! tour was broken into four legs spread out over the bulk of the year, with the Northeast run setting things off in Boston on 9/18/25. Along for the ride on this leg of the tour were Chicago icons Smoking Popes and the comparative upstart, high-energy ska-punk machine that is JER. The result was a celebration that even though the bands in the collective lineup have been plying their punk rock wares for over a combined century, they can still unite to pull off one of the most fun and intense nights of the show-going year.
JER – the band – kicked the evening off at Boston’s 1000-capacity Royale nightclub at 7pm sharp. JER – the band’s leader, perhaps best known for their trombone duties in We Are The Union or, more likely, for Skatune Network – commented early in the set that this marked the first time that the current JER touring lineup (which includes Emily Williams and Ricky Weber and Esteban Flores and Elwood Bond) had played together, though you’d never know it given how tightly they wove through a setlist that included bangers like “Bothered” and “Silence Is Violence” and personal favorite “Tryin, I Really Am.”
Speaking of bands with fairly new lineups, Smoking Popes were next out of the chute. Longtime bandleader Josh Caterer was joined on this run by Ruben Baird on bass and Jack Sibilski on guitar as he has been for the last several years since his brothers Matt and Eli opted out of large-scale touring. Longtime Popes drummer Mike Felumlee also sat out this run of shows, meaning that some time Josh Caterer collaborator John Perrin was manning the kit for the time being. I suppose it says something about the strength of the lineup when a band as esteemed as the Popes are allotted a thirty-minute, second-of-four spot on the bill, so they wasted no time in making their mark on the evening. The new-look quartet ripped into “Golden Moment” from this year’s Lovely Stuff to set the tone for their set, and never really let off the accelerator for the duration of their eight-song set. “Welcome To Janesville” from 2008’s Stay Down was a pleasant surprise, as was what I think was the live debut of my personal favorite Lovely Stuff track, “Never Gonna Break.”
Everyone’s favorite purveyors of hardcore PMA, H2O, occupied the direct support slot. I’ve said a bunch of times on this site that I’ve never been much of “a hardcore kid,” but I’ve always had a soft spot for H2O’s sense of melody and, of course, PMA. The band kicked things off with an Ozzyfied rendition of their anthemic “5 Yr Plan” that brought the first of many crowd surfers to the front of the barricade-less pit. Now in that situation, one’s only real choice is to get up on stage, rock out for a second or two, and stage dive back into the abyss. It’s worth mentioning I suppose that a good number of attendees at a Bouncing Souls/H2O/Smoking Popes show circa 2025 – myself very much included – are well above what would have been their prime fighting weights had the same tour occurred in 1997, so this made for more than a handful of awkward half-leaps into a portion of the crowd that didn’t seem overly willing andor able to catch their plus-sized show-going brethren. Perhaps many of us should start taking fitness lessons from longtime H2O bassist Adam Blake. Anyway, the band stayed pretty much to the hits, plowing through a dozen songs that came mostly from their early self-titled-Thicker Than Water – F.T.T.W. run of records. This was very much a set for the old heads to revel in the camaraderie and the community that come with the territory in an H2O set, especially in their old northeast stomping grounds.
Which brings us to the band of the hour, the incomparable Bouncing Souls. I know I’ve said it a ton on these pages over the last decade, but I genuinely feel like the Souls continue to get not only better and better, but more and more important in the annals of punk rock history. They continue to set an example not only to the younger generations but to their peers about how you can continue to grow as a band and navigate the tumultuous waters of the 21st-century music industry while still staying vital and not losing so much as a mile per hour off your musical fastball (ankle injuries be damned). “Hopeless Romantic” kicked things off in epic fashion, instantly building off the frenzy that H2O really got started with their set. The barrage continued with “E.C.F.U.” and “Manthem,” the latter of which prompted frontman Greg Attonito to give the crowd a reminder that when jumping from the stage into the crowd, it’s best to do so to an area of the crowd in which there’s a crowd to actually catch you.
Souls’s guitarist Pete Steinkopf played most of the set propped against a chair, his right leg in a walking boot after a recent injury – not unlike Attonito’s own soccer injury that had him similarly booted up late last year, through and including the Souls’ epic Home For The Holidays run. The rhythm section of Bryan Keinlen and George Rebelo remain as locked in as ever, keeping the engine pinned full-steam-ahead without careening things out of control. The twenty-five-song set included a great mix from across the band’s three-plus decade career, including new tracks “United” and “Power,” the latter of which wouldn’t be officially released for streaming purposes until the following day. (Also, fun fact, I think yours truly appears ever-so-briefly in the “United” video…see if you can spot me!) What I guess we’d call the main set closed with “The Freaks, Nerds and Romantics,” but instead of taking an encore, Attonito grabbed the acoustic guitar for a rendition of “Ghosts On The Boardwalk” before being rejoined by the rest of the crew midway through “Ship In A Bottle.” The crowd-favorite anthems “True Believers” and “Gone” brought the evening to a close in singalong fashion, once again proving the point that with a little love and unity, we can collectively find some light in the ever-increasing darkness.
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