Punk Rock Bowling 2025 Preview: Most Anticipated
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Punk Rock Bowling, an annual happening that is part-showcase for the current international punk scene and part-murderer’s row of the best touring punk and punk-adjacent bands representing the past 50 plus years of carnage.
Growing from a 1-day event in 1999 that featured a 1-band kickoff party and a 7-band event day lineup, (in the now closed 950 seat Huntridge Theater) to the now multi-day event taking place over the Memorial Day weekend, with 2 festival stages featuring 42 bands, a 5-band kickoff party and evening club shows hosting 82 bands at 9 venues, as well as daytime pool parties with another 11 bands. And don’t forget the Poker Tournament, as well as the Punk Rock Museum tours from many punk rock legends… oh yeah… and the actual bowling tournament!
This will also mark the third year we’ve attended, lured first and foremost in 2023 by LA punk rock legends L7’s featured club show and festival slot and the then-recent opening of Fat Mike from NOFX’s first-of-its-kind Punk Rock Museum. The headliners that year were Rancid and Bad Religion, which is a testimony to both bands’ enduring status in the scene, as well as appeal (the crowds for both bands’ sets were enormous, Rancid’s particularly enthusiastic reception meant a lengthy pause mid-show while the crowd barrier was repaired, during which Tim Armstrong took the opportunity to serenade the multi-generational crowd with his acoustic guitar).
While we may be drawn in by the bands that have created a mighty foundation in the punk genres of our younger years, we are also introduced to bands new to us and/ or new to the scene in general.
Photo credit: Taryn Lee (@theetarynlee)
In the past years we have become huge fans of younger bands laying new bricks, and making new waves, the likes of NIIS and Slaughterhouse in 2023 (and again in 2024), Destroy Boys, Die Spitz, Starcrawler and Vial in 2024. Or the brilliant English Oi! band The Chisel (check out one of our favourite albums of the last few years “What a Fucking Nightmare“), who made their 2024 PRB debut when in America touring with none other than G.B.H., just a few years after forming in 2020, enrapturing a crowd with every note after just a few years in. We can’t forget the huge impact The Chats from Australia made at their PRB debut, also in 2024, where they drew a crowd so big that it edged in on the entrance gates 2 blocks away. While they may have formed over 10 years ago, they seem to be finally catching on in North America and their presence is noted, from young to old the crowd showed up for them in hordes. Scowl, seen most recently playing the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, are another band that graced the second stage of PRB last year to great acclaim (check out their truly excellent new album We are all Angels).
On to that murderer’s row of international punk rock and punk rock adjacent icons, we’ve seen memorable one-night-only Rocket From the Crypt, the multi-legged festival highlight machine that is Ukraine’s Gogol Bordello, Australia’s indestructible Cosmic Psychos, street punk icons The Exploited and GBH, an Agnostic Front that were almost invisible behind the dust kicked up by the churning pit, Billy Bragg, who managed to bring many gown adults to tears, including ourselves, Northern Ireland’s always relevant Stiff Little Fingers, punk rock covers supergroup Me First and the Gimmee Gimmees, Ska powerhouses and mass skanking instigators Madness, and the absolutely incredible music experience that is Fishbone, among many, many others.
This year, as befitting a 25th anniversary, there are some pretty big milestones, the last ever show of the brilliant Cock Sparrer, and a first PRB festival appearance for the mighty Social Distortion. On the punk adjacent side, Peter Hook’s new project Peter Hook and the Light brings Joy Division to the PRB, which is no bad thing at all.
Our most anticipated bands this year are the UK’s Bad Nerves, who have been rocking their US tour alongside another of our most anticipated, USA’s multi-genre-influenced punk band Spiritual Cramp. As well, UK duo Lambrini Girls make their PRB debut after releasing their killer debut album “Who Let The Dogs Out” just a few months ago and finishing a tour with Idles. Canada’s very own Bad Waitress from Toronto and Montreal’s Juno-winning Nobro are making their PRB debuts, along with the UK’s Gen and the Degenerates. And once again we will have the chance to see Nashville’s eclectic punk rockers Snõõper who you can catch in Calgary at this year’s Sled Island Music and Arts Festival, June 18-25.
And honestly, the thing that keeps us coming back to PRB is that through-line running through all these experiences of an electric and invigorating sense of community and inclusiveness. This is where punk as a scene shines. The organizers are unabashed that this is a progressive festival that platforms progressive voices. There’s certainly a high level of subversiveness in that in this current climate. It’s a potent demonstration of punk’s continued importance and relevance and ability to act as a beacon and sanity-check in troubled times.