Good Press

Punk rock show? Kind of
Something Corporate lead singer Andrew McMahon hit the nail on the head when he said last Thursday's show at the Alliant Energy Center's Exhibition Hall was "kind of a punk rock show." Kind of is right. Headliner Good Charlotte certainly looks like an angry punk group, dressed all in black with various piercings, and lead singer Joel Maddan sporting an insolent red stripe in his hair. But dismissing Good Charlotte as just a watered-down, cleaned-up copy of the real thing doesn't really do them justice. They may be just OK at playing their instruments, and Joel Madden isn't even that charismatic a singer, but they do have a kind of noisy chemistry that only years of touring can bring, and a few of their best songs, including "Girls and Boys" and "The Day That I Die," are contagiously appealing. >T<

Good Charlotte, Green Day, NOFX To Rock Against President Bush
Good Charlotte, Pennywise and Sum 41 have always been known more for their practical jokes than their practical advice. That may soon change...Next year these bands, Green Day, NOFX, Alkaline Trio and others will unite to raise political awareness and encourage pop-punk fans to vote in the next presidential election — against George Bush. The groups will each contribute a track to the compilation Rock Against Bush and take part in at least one show on a tour organized and funded by NOFX singer/bassist Fat Mike, who also owns the label Fat Wreck Chords.Green Day, NOFX and Alkaline Trio will record new songs for the album. The other groups haven't yet announced whether their tracks will be new cuts, remixes or previously released tunes. The album should be in stores by April or May. >V<

Concert Review: Good Charlotte mixes love songs with punk angst
The boys in Good Charlotte have been shunned -- by their peers, critics, and, for band co-leaders (twin brothers Benji and Joel Madden), their father. It's no wonder the Maryland pop-punkers feel most at ease performing in front of the "Good Charlotte Army," a legion of fist-pumping disciples who empathize with the band's tales of heartbreak and suburban angst. At the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday night, Good Charlotte led crowd sing-a-longs of earnest hopefulness and teenage togetherness like cheerleaders for the anti-Abercrombie crowd. The often-dissed group sounded surprisingly tight and forceful. Good Charlotte creates three-minute, hook-filled, sitck-in-your brain songs rooted in mainstream rebellion and sass-back suburban snottiness. But, led by the 24-year-old Madden brothers, Good Charlotte eschews the toilet-bowl humor and rowdy, party-boy celebrations of its punk-pop elders in favor of loads of love songs.>S<

Good Charlotte Stop Clowning, Show Signs Of Growth On Tour Kickoff
MADISON, Wisconsin — What a difference five months and a half-hour make.
The last time Good Charlotte came through the Midwest, they used their slot between Less Than Jake and New Found Glory to pummel the crowd with an hour of their fastest, most furious tunes (see "Good Charlotte, New Found Glory Let The Music Talk At Civic Tour Stop"). As they kick off their Young and Hopeless Tour as headliners, though, they took their extra 30 minutes onstage to focus on quieter, more thoughtful material. If you didn't know any better, you'd think these guys had grown up a lot since April.
Running back and forth across the stage, Joel Madden mixed adolescent humor with an arena-rock sense of purpose. His singing was stronger than ever, and he even closed "Girls and Boys" with some goofy yet entirely appropriate vocal riffing. The set's first half-hour focused on crowd pleasers, but Good Charlotte's expanded time slot let them throw in tunes like "Seasons" from their debut CD, and the crowd responded with just as much fervor to the pensive guitar strumming and harmonics of "Motivation Proclamation" as it did to the fist-pumping choruses of "The Click" and "Hold On.">M<

Good Charlotte lives by the rules — its own
If punk is basically living by your own rules, not someone else's, then Good Charlotte qualifies. That, along with spiky poster-punk looks and guitar-ripping music that runs the gamut from sarcastic (the group's hit, "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous," blasts O.J. Simpson and Marion Barry for buying their way out of trouble) to personally cathartic (songs about the father who abandoned Madden and his twin brother, Benji), have made Good Charlotte the punk band of the moment, even if no one can agree on what the term means. What Good Charlotte does care about is its fans.>B<