Smoking Popes

Power-'Stalgia Slack-Rock Back with New Live Album

Ultimately, we have to thank the Smoking Popes for all of the Alkaline Trios, the Thursdays and the Baysides out there. Without the Popes, the world may have been one without The Get-Up Kids or Vendetta Red or Fall-Out Boy. Without the Smoking Popes, bands like Green Day or Weezer or Jimmy Eat World may never have gotten to the point that they have gotten to today. Before automatically jumping to the conclusion that the Smoking Popes' biggest accomplishment was unleashing a blight of pop-punk domination upon the cultural world, you really ought to give their music a listen. Fans starving for some new Popes tunes are in luck: the band debuted two new songs at The Taste of Randolph Street festival last weekend in Chicago, announcing that the tunes would be included on a new album that will be released sometime in the near future.

The Caterer brothers haven’t skipped a beat, pumping out all the classics they’d solidified years ago. The droves of drunken, tattoo-plastered hipsters sang arm-in-arm with shirtless, beer-soaked yuppies. The cool night air and tree-top cover set a perfect stage. The Popes charged through a fan-favorite set, stopping everywhere between debut album opener “Let’s Hear It For Love” and fan-favorite “Pretty Pathetic.” Willy Wonka classic “Pure Imagination,” played by request, got the whole crowd crooning along. “Before I’m Gone” broke wide open for a feedback-filled solo, as Josh Caterer proclaimed his love for his hometown. As an encore, “Writing a Letter” left the whole crowd smiling. The two new songs (both available on the band’s MySpace page), however, may have been the most memorable of the night. “Grab Your Heart and Run” had an anthemic hook worthy of any prior Popes classic. “Welcome to Janesville” crunched along with heavy, rhythmic guitar and driving bass. Non-Chicagoan Smoking Popes fans are in luck though: just pick up the 2006 “At Metro” live recording at your local record store and you’ll experience a nearly good-as-being-there concert.

When the band came home to Chicago on November 11, 2005 for their first show after a seven year hiatus, they showed the world the way pop-punk should be done. Lead singer Josh Caterer and his brothers Matt on bass and Eli on guitar (drummer Rob Kellenberger is featured on the CD/DVD, while Ryan Chavez beats the skins on the new album), agreed to reunite for the Flower 15 concert series at the Metro that raised over fifty thousand dollars for Chicago area charities. Luckily for those that missed the concert, the career-spanning set was captured on audio for their reunion CD entitled, logically enough, “At Metro.” The show was also recorded for a DVD that accompanies the CD. Each and every one of the 23 songs from the power-packed power-pop concert are represented in video format, while nearly all (19) of them are also collected in CD form for those long car rides.

Just listening to the CD might give an un-informed listener the idea of a lounge singer fronting a modern pop-punk band; as if Johnny Mathis stepped in front of the microphone for Weezer before Rivers Cuomo got the chance. Once the catchy songs and tense guitar solos draw the new listeners in, they’ll have no choice but to pop the DVD into their home theater systems. Lo and behold, the lead singer is sporting old school Chuck Taylors. The guitarist does have black thick-framed glasses and wicked sideburns. But upon closer inspection, the listener unfamiliar with the Popes surely will exclaim something along the likes of “Those dudes are old!” In fact, the band formed in their hometown of Chicago in 1991(with drummer Mike Felumlee, now of Alkaline Trio) and released their debut Get Fired in 1993. This concert makes quite clear the difference between the Smoking Popes and modern pop-punk bands: 1) The Popes have been doing this for a long time 2) They started making this kind of music before it was deemed cool and marketable 3) They are doing it (even after a seven year hiatus) in such a way that the raw emotional power of the songs live on. For some reason, the DVD sometimes gets this point across better than the CD can. But in either case, the concert is a marvel of pop sensibility coupled with unbridled emotion.
There’s something about Josh Caterer’s voice, as it soars majestically over the crunching power-pop of the rest of the band. It’s a nostalgic necessity, an undeniable manna from the pop-punk gods. When he insists “I am with you all the way” in the song “Don’t Be Afraid,” you have no choice but to believe him. Even when the Popes delve into the more down-trodden realm of the emotional, there is no denying an utter sincerity lying beneath it. Take for instance the song “No More Smiles”, with a chorus of “No more smiles from now on, they are all gone, I’ll never understand what went wrong”. A band would pump the song full of sap until it started dripping out like maple syrup. The Smoking Popes refuse to run that course, keeping the drum beat light and driving while the guitars power on, marching on their neo-innovative pop-punk roots.

A few songs stick out from the stellar twenty-three song set. “Gotta Know Right Now” is one of the songs that seems to have aged the best. It’s easy to tell, both visually and audibly, that Josh Carterer keeps a sincere grin plastered on his face. He sings with conviction and good intentions while the guitars rip into an uplifting progression, the bass thunders out a steady time and the drums rumble along like a warm thunderstorm. “If I told you that I really, really liked you a lot” Carterer smirks and croons, “I’ve wanted to for a long, long time but never had the guts.” The music and lyrics both seem so simple, but the sincerity and technicality throughout make the song an impossible to deny nostalgic gem, a relic of power-pop before it became a commercialized waste of time.

by Adam Kivel

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