No Sleep Records threw quite a party Tuesday night and UTG was there to witness it.

The No Sleep ’Til CMJ Showcase brought a whopping eleven bands out to play at The Paper Box in Brooklyn. The diversity in the showcase’s lineup brought fans from different scenes together in a tiny space where gear filled almost half of the floor.

Closed out by Taking Back Sunday’s John Nolan, several good acts preceded (XERXES, Chris Farren, The Felix Culpa, etc.) Directly before Nolan, however, was a band called ’68. This two-piece, hard rock outfit comprised of vocalist Josh Scogin (ex-The Chariot) and drummer, Michael McClellan, put in some serious work. “This is gonna be soooo wild,” the kid with the beanie that enveloped most of his face said to me as the band walked in.

The band, jokingly introducing themselves as AC/DC, Nirvana, and more, played a (rather small) number of songs from their most recent record, In Humor And Sadness, which is especially notorious for its “R e g r e t n o t .” track titles. Their thirty-minute set, however, was enough to keep the crowd fired up. “We’ll play maybe like three songs, because our songs are like… ten minutes long,” Scogin announced.

Despite the fact that I am personally not big on the band’s genre, the dynamic duo’s energy completely stunned me and kept me thoroughly entertained. McClellan is probably one of the most energetic drummers I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live. The photographers struggled as they all tried to attempt to capture the madness that was unfolding. Scogin’s foot, as he was shredding, was on McClellan’s ride cymbal at one point. I’d show you, but my personal photography skills with that amount of movement were especially inadequate. Just let your imagination run wild.

It was a solid half an hour, to say the very least.

Live review written by Dana Reandelar

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Dana Reandelar

If not hunched over her desk writing about music, Dana can be found binge-watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls or condensing long rants to 140 characters. She also writes for Idobi Radio, and is an Off The Record podcast contributor.

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