Teenage Bottlerocket Pool Party at 2025 Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival
Teenage Bottlerocket on the roof of the Downtown Grand Hotel in Las Vegas - All photos courtesy of Paul Holstein
It was a late night followed by an early morning, but the Teenage Bottlerocket pool party was literally expected to be the highlight of the festival for me. I love the pool parties, and what band could be better for a mosh pit in a swimming pool on the roof of a hotel in Vegas than TBR? It would also be a sprint as soon as they finished, as the first bands to play the festival would be the ones I was most looking forward to - Revolt Chix and Terror Attack. And to top that off, I still had to sort out my photo pass for the festival on my way in. I couldn't think about that now, though; it was time to just live in the moment and rock to TBR.
We got there in plenty of time and were lucky enough to run into secondSELF talking to Ray Carlisle (lead vocals for Teenage Bottlerocket). That gave me an in to ask Ray to sign my photos. The first thing he said was "Nice socks" (I had on my dayglo green TBR socks purchased at a previous show). We talked about the Punk In The Park festival where I had taken the photos, and he pointed me in the direction of the other band members. Kody really liked one of the photos and gave me his contact info to send him a copy (Kody, if you are reading this, I didn't forget and will get that to you soon along with some photos from the pool party).
We were too late to get a free silk screen poster at the Monster Energy tent, but they did give us free (non-alcoholic) beverages and coozies. After that, The Hot Patooties were taking the stage, so we headed up front. I had listened to a few of their songs before the show and decided to film "Fast Zombies Suck," both a good song and a saying that I could relate to. They were great, but this show would get better and better with Béton Armé up next and then TBR.
Béton Armé are an Oi! band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I'm a fan of Oi! music, so I was looking forward to this one, and they were over the top with energy as well. They played a 12-song set that was mostly in French but included a few songs that I knew ("Chemin de Croix" was the standout). It must have been 100 degrees, but the singer was running around, hanging from the scaffolding, and got out into the mosh pit for part of the set. There was not a lot of shade to be found, so I had to move away from the front for part of the set to reapply my sunscreen, but I came right back and pushed back up to the front to stake my spot for Teenage Bottlerocket.
Ed Measel from Aggro or Die!
During the Teenage Bottlerocket set, Ed Measel from Aggro or Die! (a local Detroit band) happened to be standing right next to me. He noticed my Koffin Kats hat (another local Detroit band) and introduced himself. In another fun moment from the weekend, when he was leaving, I shook his hand and said, "See you next summer.” He laughed and replied, "See you next year."
Teenage Bottlerocket absolutely killed it, easily one of the top 5 sets of the weekend. According to the set list, it was a 25-song set, but the songs flew by so fast (other than "Why the Big Pause?" of course) that it was hard to keep up. Some of the highlights were "Bigger Than Kiss," "Bloodbath At Burger King," "Bottlerocket", "Strung Out On Stress," "Skate or Die," and "Headbanger." Kody slammed a PBR during "Why the Big Pause?" and Ray smoked with the audience. Miguel balanced his guitar on one hand and later did a headstand. But mostly they just played crazy fast and tight and kept the audience moving. I can honestly say that if this was the only set I saw all weekend, it would have still been worth the trip.
