by Cynthia Jo
Staff Writer —
March 2-4, 2012 OC Fairgrounds Costa Mesa, CA
The 5th Annual Musink festival rolled around last weekend March 2nd through the 4th to celebrate anything music and ink. Compared to previous years it seemed less populated, yet, fans were there to enjoy the tattoos and especially the music. With the same vendors and artist as most years, it was clear that this year’s theme was pop punk all day.
The first night was a successful psychobilly kickoff with the Howlers, Guana Batz, and Tiger Army but it was something about the second night that had fans eager to drive down to Costa Mesa, New Found Glory, Yellowcard and Bayside.
Queens, NY quartet natives Bayside, had the crowd pumped from beginning to end. As always, vocalist Anthony Raneri had his sharp melodic vocals through songs “The Walking Wounded” and “Already Gone.” What fans really seems to attract to the most was the extremely crowd-pleasing guitar riffs and extraordinary punk hooks on crowd favorite “Blame it on Bad Luck.” It was a great initiation to the night and really pumped up the crowd.
Minutes before Yellowcard began, the relatively small venue on the Fair Grounds was filling up. People were really excited to see the “has been” mainstream hardcore brand of pop punk. Diving right into the set with their 2003 “Way Away” Yellowcard fans remembered how great of a live band they truly are. The entire room was yelling and singing along to every note singer/guitarist Ryan Key sang. Older hardcore Yellowcard fans were extremely pleased that the Florida natives had older material like “Rough Landing, Holly.” The crowd became emotionally yet satisfied when the quintet played “Light Up the Sky” from their 2007 album Paper Walls. Prepping fans for the self-proclaimed kings of pop punk, New Found Glory.
Initiating their set with “Understatement” from their 2002 Stick and Stones, NFG were way ahead of schedule but fans weren’t complaining. With the crowd pushing in and trying to get as close as possible, the energy transcribed through “At Least I’m Known for Something” and very known song “All Down Hill from Here” As the band broke through a very good rendition of the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop,” the corwd of hundreds had their fist up on every ‘hey!’ and ‘oh!’ Continuing with other tracks such as “Hit or Miss,” “My Friends Over You,” and “Ready, Aim, Fire!” the best song of the evening was their rendition of Green Day’s “Basket Case.”
Perhaps, this was a very odd line up for Musink, but in it’s fifth year it proved to be very punk and very rock and roll. Although, the crowd seems to diminish year after year, the hardcore fans will always have Kat Von Ds back.