Music News: Scott Kempner, Dropkick Murphys, Bad Religion and Full Force Festival

Have you ever been to Ferropolis, Germany? Well, you might want to make sure you go in June of 2024 because if you don't, you might be sorry. There is a massive music festival happening between June 21 and 23 and you are going to love the Full Force festival so much! (I promise.)

The festival (I also promise I am not getting paid $1,000 every time I mention the word 'festival' but I am also not saying I am festival...I mean, not) announced its line last week and there are some most excellent bands that might be even better live than they are on their records. A couple of the headliners are Bad Religion and the Dropkick Murphys, for instance.

I have seen the Murphys a couple of times and one time they were simply good and the other time they were massively fantastic. In a festival setting, they should be even better as they get a lot of their energy from the crowd. The same goes for Bad Religion as well.

Full Force festival news and the passing of Scott Kempner

Other headliners include Architects, Five Finger Death Punch, and Ice Nine Kills. INK definitely has a shtick by incorporating playful horror clips behind them as they act out their horror-filled songs on stage. As bad as I make that sound (it's my writing that is bad, see), they still put on a great show.

In much sadder news, Scott Kempner passed away last week at age 69. Kempner was co-founder of the proto-punk band the Dictators. The group slightly predated the Ramones in the 1970s and likely influenced Joey and the boys. The band's first album was called "The Dictators Go Girl Crazy" and was released on Epic Records.

The Dictators broke up after three albums and Kempner went on to form the less-punk Del Lords. Both bands arer worth your listen, though.

In 2021, Kempner was diagnosed with early onset dementia. He was in a nursing home when he passed away last week.

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