The Bouncing Souls Count to 20

Name a band that’s been together for five years. How about ten? Can you name any with 20 years under their belts? We could only think of a handful without dredging up reunion acts and vanity projects under familiar names. One that almost totally escaped us was The Bouncing Souls.

Coming up in the late 80s in New Jersey, The Bouncing Souls built their rep in the New Brunswick college scene, honing their punk rock sound in Knights of Columbus Halls and house parties. Their first full-length dropped in '94, their second two years later, and in '97 they made their eponymous national introduction on Epitaph.

Since, The Souls have recorded--and toured on--some of their strongest material to date, emerging from an internal shake-up (one drummer enters, another leaves) into their current position as punk stalwarts.

They’re celebrating their 20th anniversary with a series of vinyl-only releases and a stop tonight at Neumos.

Like fellow Jerseyman Bruce Springsteen (who, along with the E-Street band, took thumb position in our earlier count), The Bouncing Souls just wanna make mates and rock your Docs. We’re not long enough in the teeth to have friendships in the decades, but we’ve got time enough tonight to start.