I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 17, 2025] PUP

My son and I have seen Pup twice and have enjoyed both shows immensely.  I assume I’ll want to see them whenever they come around because they are so much fun.

This was the first time we were fairly close to the stage (we were one person from the barricade at the beginning of the night, although by the end we had been pushed around a bit.  And indeed, my son jumped in the pity later in the night.

This was a busy bill–3 bands, with Jeff Rosenstock playing an hour.  I was really impressed with the efficiency of the night (are you listening Wet Leg?).  15 minutes between Jeff Rosenstock leaving the stage and Pup taking over.

I realized that I hadn’t listened all that much to their new album, which was not a great plan going into a tour for the new album.  All Pup songs are catchy and fun, so it doesn’t really matter if you don’t know them–except that when you know them you can sing/scream at the top of your voice.

But it wasn’t all new songs at all.  They opened with a new song (the opening song of the album).

I noticed here that we’ve seen Pup three times and they’ve played a few of these songs each time.  And that’s no bad thing, because singing along to “Free at Last” (just because you’re sad again, it doesn’t make you special at all) is a super fun thing to do.

One of the best things about PUP is their attitude with Stefan saying, “My hope is that everyone leaves here feeling happy and like they are part of a community.”

And the crowd was pretty berserk.  Lots of pit action.  I was near the barricade and off to the side (in front of bassist Nestor Chumak who jumps almost as high as singer Stefan Babcock), and the pit never quite reached me, but I did get pushed around a bunch.

So they played 9 songs that we’ve now seen 3 times.  Do they not have much faith in their back catalog?  Who cares, because the woah oh oh part of Sleep in the Heat is wonderful (even if the song is quite sad).

Last time we were in front of guitarist Steve Sladkowski, so we weren’t as close this time, but we could still hear him of course.  And he shreds wonderfully.  After another new song, Stefan said that they were going to play some songs from Morbid Stuff, including the title song and Kids (one of the catchiest songs ever).

I’m not sure if this is a popular opinion, but I like The Unraveling album most from them and would have happily listened to them playing the whole thing.  But hearing Totally Fine was great, even if it was the only one from that album.

And of course, everyone loves when they sing If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will– a whole room of people screaming Why can’t we just get along? is more fun than you might imagine.  As is DVP (she says I need to grow up).

They ended the main set with two new songs and then Familiar Patterns.

Incidentally, throughout the show, Stefan was great–speaking his mind (getting on the soapbox he said). Basically saying that our country was fucked, and how it’s insane that saying “genocide is bad” could be controversial in any way.  But he gave us hope that across the country, they encounter people who hate the way things are going.  Drummer Zack Mykula chimed in a few times as well, but mostly he just pounded the crap out of the drums.

Then he said that he was going to play a song by himself (so you can see what a fraud he is as a guitarist) and then something special was going to happen.  And what that was was the rest of Pup came out and Jeff Rosenstock and his band came out too and finished the song together.

When the song was over, they played the theme to 2001 a Space Odyssey as they slowly lifted a wonderfully cheap, homemade curtain that said (in silver masking tape) DOUBLE BAND.  And for the next four songs, all of the members of Pup and all of the members of Jeff’s band played together.

They played two Jeff songs (which I didn’t know), but which were a ton of fun.  Jeff sang on the studio version of Get Dumber, so it made sense that they’d sing it together.  Jeff and Stefan had a lot of fun throwing the mics back and forth to each other and created a pile of spaghetti cables.

They ended the Double Band with a blistering version of Reservoir–the crowd was insane for this one!

But the night wasn’t over yet.  Because if a Double Band was great, imagine how amazing a TRIPLE BAND would be.  They called out Ekko Astral and 12 people on stage played an insanely fun cover of Alanis Morissette’s You Oughtta Know.

Wow, it was fun, but after three nights of standing concerts, I was pretty beat.

JUstSayYourLines recorded the show

 

2025 (Fillmore)	2023 (Pier 17)	2022 (Franklin Music Hall)
Hips Don’t Lie [tape–Shakira song]	Morbid Stuff ⊗	Four Chords ξ
No Hope ∞	Kids ⊗	Totally Fine ξ
My Life Is Over and I Couldn’t Be Happier ≅ [3]	My Life Is Over and I Couldn’t Be Happier≅	My Life Is Over and I Couldn’t Be Happier ≅
Free at Last ⊗ [3]	Dark Days ¶	Guilt Trip ¶
Dark Days ¶ [2]	Totally Fine ξ	Free at Last ⊗
Concrete ∞	Robot Writes a Love Song ξ	Sleep in the Heat ≅
Sleep in the Heat ≅ [3]	Free at Last ⊗	Robot Writes a Love Song ξ
Hallways ∞	Sleep in the Heat ≅	Reservoir ¶
Morbid Stuff ⊗ [3]	Habits ξ	Edmonton ⇓
Kids ⊗ [3]	Reservoir ¶	Matilda ξ
Falling Outta Love ∞	Scorpion Hill ⊗	If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will ≅
Totally Fine ξ [3]	Waiting ξ	DVP ≅
If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will ≅ [3]	If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will ≅	Scorpion Hill ⊗
DVP ≅ [3]	DVP ≅	See You at Your Funeral ⊗
Hunger for Death ∞		Waiting ξ
Old Wounds ≅		Familiar Patterns ≅ (Blisted Fister was printed on the setlist)
Familiar Patterns≅ [2]		PUPTHEBAND Inc. Is Filing for Bankruptcy ξ
DOUBLE BAND		Morbid Stuff ⊗
Shut Up (Stefan solo, then double band) ∞		Kids ⊗
Hey Allison! (Jeff Rosenstock cover) (with Jeff Rosenstock)
Get Dumber ∞ (with Jeff Rosenstock)
We Begged 2 Explode (Jeff Rosenstock cover) (with Jeff Rosenstock)
Reservoir ¶ [3] (with Jeff Rosenstock)
TRIPLE BAND
You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette cover) (with Jeff Rosenstock) (and Ekko Astral)