Mission of Burma at Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club

I honestly had no idea what to expect from Mission of Burma's show yesterday at the Beekman Beer Garden at South Street Seaport. I had seen a couple youtube videos of their recent performances and had an inkling that, despite their age (I believe they're all past 50 at this point), the men of Burma could rock hard. Well these pentagenarians can indeed rock very, very, very hard. They spared no energy or effort in yesterday's set, and the spirited crowd greatly appreciated their monumental presence. Burma was ushered back for not only one, but two encores.

The great majority of their set consisted of material off the most recent three albums. In fact for roughly the first forty-five minutes of the set the only pre-hiatus songs they performed were "This is not a Photograph" and "Dead Pool." However this clearly disappointed no one. The crowd never was bored or just waiting to hear the classics; a surprising number of fans knew the newer material very well in fact (something I've been working on).

While this first forty-five minutes or so was very enjoyable and high energy it was the close of the performance that made it truly special. They wrapped up the initial set with a trio of classics: "Mica," "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate," and "Red." They left the stage but the crowd did not budge an inch. Immediately, the disparate applause and cheers became a resounding, in-sync plea for Mission Of Burma to return to the stage. As to be expected they wasted no time and returned to the stage to play "1001 Pleasant Dreams," and "Peking Spring." The crowd naturally went crazy for "Peking" and when Burma exited again, the crowd also refused to budge once again. This time it took a little more convincing. But they did eventually return for the second encore, and Roger Miller said we were very annoying for making them do another song in such awful heat. But not only did they do another song, they did two of the best songs in their entire catalog, closing the show with "The Ballad of Johnny Burma" and "Academy Fight Song." The energy and volume was palpable at this point. I think we, the crowd, would have stayed to try to get another encore, but we all knew two things. One, that what we just saw couldn't be topped. Two, we probably couldn't take any more. It was positively overwhelming in the best way.

Needless to say this was a great show. It's hard to say much more than that. This was a solid, energetic show from some of punk rock's great pioneers.

Pictures below include a couple of shots of the opening act, The Labor Pool.