Modern Baseball - The Borderline, London 26/09/14

29 September 2014, 09:00 | Written by The Line of Best Fit

(Live)

(Modern Baseball)

It’s hard to make the po-faced case for pop-punk in 2014. It’s one of those trends from ten years ago which has not only lost its foothold in alternative culture, but doesn’t even really surface with the ready suffixes of ‘retro’, ‘throwback’ or ‘homage’ which so many other wayward genres enjoy. In spite of this, Modern Baseball glide against the grain of current trends, with instantly lovable songs of just the right blend of snarl and sugar. Without making any overt attempts to update the classic sound to the palates of today’s audiences, they sound as at home in 2014 as any contemporary guitar music.

Tonight’s set is an exhilarating, whirlwind proof that adolescent pop-punk doesn’t have to have prepubescent maturity. At a scan, songs like “Broken Cash Machine” evoke the sort of comic tone which bands like Blink-182 built their reputation on. But the key difference is that Modern Baseball’s wit is sharpened on feelings rather than farts, and they always counterbalance self-deprecation with the weight of genuine heart. Couple this with shout-along choruses a mile wide, and you have the mix for two-minute nuggets which are impossible to resist.

The crowd explode into reaction from the very first song. In spite of the fact that Modern Baseball aren’t exactly click-bate over here, there are passages where the first pumping call backs from the crowd are louder than what’s happening onstage. It’s a brilliant showcase of the uplift which Modern Baseball’s everyman honesty can provoke – a blend of vulnerability and triumph, packaged in day-to-day walking-down-the-street narratives which we can all relate to. It’s what we always wanted pop-punk to be.

The band is charmingly disarmed by the frenzy of beer and crowdsurfers throughout their set, to the point of being annoyed at points. “Have fun, but don’t fuck things up”, they remind stage invaders. “Come on, we’re all here for the same reason”, when a critical mass of stage divers put their own enjoyment over the safety of the audience. What makes their concern about the crowd’s overzealousness so adorable is its genuine concern for everyone’s enjoyment of the show. For a while, an impromptu table of judges score people’s stage dives based on safety. (Having said all that, at no point does any of this outshine their unmistakable gratitude and excitement at how much people are getting into things)

This bashful blend of freewheeling fun is the same secret ingredient which makes Modern Baseball’s songs so good on record. Tonight, it’s wonderful to discover that, aside from flexing the scrappy, powerhouse sound that you’d want them to boast, they’re also pretty much exactly the bunch of guys who would write something like “Your Graduation”. They’re at once cool and dorky, incredibly enthusiastic, and thoroughly sweet. Pop-punk lives.