Homegrown hardcore punk rockers look to return to 'real venue' in Archer Music Hall

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — In a 20-year career, Nazareth-born, Allentown-bred hardcore punk rock band Pissed Jeans has achieved a modicum of success.

It's released six critically acclaimed albums and three EPs on Sub-Pop Records, once the home of such groundbreaking acts as Nirvana and Soundgarden.

It's toured Europe and once was chosen among Fuse TV's 30 must-see artists at the prestigious Austin, Texas, music festival SXSW.

But bassist Randy Huth said he's looking forward to the band's show Saturday, April 12, at Allentown's Archer Music Hall because it will be the first time Pissed Jeans has played a Lehigh Valley show at "a real, proper venue."

“For me, I think it’s gonna be a little unusual," Huth said in a recent phone call from his Philadelphia home.

"I mean, I’m looking forward to it, because we grew up playing pretty often in Allentown, but it was always, like, a warehouse. We came up playing just kind of dirty, but amazing, warehouse spots.

"And they weren’t nice venues by any means. They were just punk warehouse show. Which we have a ton of good memories – blurry ones, but …

"But I’m looking forward to playing at, like, a legit venue. Just a little unusual.”

The show also will be unusual for Archer Music Hall — Allentown's new Live Nation-run downtown music hall, which so far has presented shows by national acts.

The Pissed Jeans show will be the first by an act with Lehigh Valley roots.

“Yeah, I’m excited to see it,” Huth said.

Courtesy

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Sub Pop Records

'That's how it ended up'

Pissed Jeans has continued to gain fans — and win critical praise — two decades after its members came together at Nazareth Area High School.

Its latest disc, "Half-Divorced," released just over a year ago, earned rave reviews for its surprising aggression this far into the band's career.

Huth said there was no intention behind that.

“I think when we’re doing a record, I don’t know that we’re necessarily aiming [to ask], ‘What would you want from this record?’" he said.

"I think it just kind of comes naturally — whatever we’re doing, we’ve been playing in this band together for a long time at this point. And we’ve kind of embraced it.

“It’s definitely like a faster, punk hardcore record in the more kind of traditional sense, more than the other records. There’s always a fast punk song, for sure, but there’s a lot of kind of straight-forward, kind of two-minute hardcore songs.

“And it was the songs that we were enjoying putting together as a band. That’s how it ended up.

“It’s kind of a different direction, maybe, for a band who’s been a band for 20 years to have whatever number record this is be your fastest, shortest songs, but we’re all into it.”

'This thing that we love doing'

Perhaps one reason, Huth said, is that it's been seven years since Pissed Jeans's previous album, 2017's "Why Love Now."

“It’s kind of the pace I feel the band always works," he said. "But you have to add those [coronavirus] pandemic years in there, too, which kind of washed away three years.

"But I mean, if you look at the discography, everything is usually, aside from the first couple of records, it’s always about four years in between.

"It’s just … we love doing this band, we love playing with each other, we’re like lifelong friends. But it’s never been a career thing, if that makes sense.

"It’s always been this thing that we love doing, like a really cool hobby that we get to keep doing with our friends. Sometimes we get to see a little bit of the world, play some cool shows.

“So there’s not that pressure that a lot of bands have — you got to do a record, then you gotta tour on that record, go through the States a couple times, hit Australia or Asia, then come back and start working on a new record and get it out before everyone forgets about the last one.”

Huth said something else that has added to the length between records is that now, "we all have families and kids [he pauses during the call to have a brief exchange with his daughter].

"And, like, jobs. So getting everyone together in the same room seems to be more and more difficult every year, I feel like."

That being said, a new record may come more quickly, he said.

“Yeah, we’re definitely kicking our ass for new ideas," he said. "I think I can speak for everyone — I feel like that’s kind of the most fun, aside from playing a really great show, is getting together with everyone and working on new songs.”

'My whole life growing up'

Pissed Jeans came together as students at Nazareth Area High School in 2004, first as Citizens Unheard, and have, in various incarnations, recorded music together ever since.

Huth joined in 2007 after playing on his own as Randy of Nazareth and with a metal band, Pearls & Brass.

“I mean, it was great," he said. “I grew up with these guys and played in bands since I was 14 years old. I feel like just playing in bands in general was pretty much my whole life growing up."

Pissed Jean guitarist Bradley Fry and Matt Korvette "didn’t play in those bands, but we had a tight crew of probably eight to 10 friends, just all playing in bands. That’s just basically all that we did.

“And Pearls & Brass were great and we were all friends. Pearls & Brass practiced in Allentown, where is also where Pissed Jeans practiced and our other friends in the band Air Conditioning.

"All these very different bands, but all like-minded kind of friends. Those were great days. We had a lot more free time and always it was playing in bands."

'That's where I grew up'

Before Huth joined Pissed Jeans, the group even recorded its albums at Dan's House Studio in Center Valley. The last Pissed Jeans album recorded there was 2007's "Hope for Men."

He didn’t play on that disc, "but I toured for that record, did the video, all that kind of stuff."

Pissed Jeans did record a single, "Sam Kinison Woman" backed by "The L Word," at Dan’s House on which Huth played.

Asked the last time Pissed Jeans played a Lehigh Valley show, Huth said, “good question."

He said he remembers a show at National Sokols Lodge No. 93 in Bethlehem — with a capacity of 150 — just a few years ago.

"All these years kind of blend together — probably maybe three years ago, something like that,” he said.

But Huth said he still gets back to the Lehigh Valley often, and Fry still lives in Hellertown.

"My parents still live up there — my brother lives up there," Huth said. "And that’s where I grew up.

"I grew up in Nazareth with Brad and Matt. I’m going to try and see my folks this weekend, so I might be up in Nazareth.”

PISSED JEANS, with Orphan Donor, 7 p.m. Saturday, March 12, Arrow Room at Archer Music Hall, 939 Hamilton St., Allentown. Tickets, $31, www.archermusichall.com.