Review – Jeff Rosenstock w/ Shit Present, Marble Factory, Bristol, February 11th 2024

Jeff Rosenstock, Marble Factory, Bristol, 11th February 2024

A cold, wet “school night” in Bristol didn’t deter Jeff Rosenstock and his band from absolutely tearing the roof off Marble Factory on a Sunday night.

Before Jeff and his crew took the stage, Exeter’s Shit Present did a formidable job of warming up the crowd. Yes, that’s their actual band name, and Shit Present serves as a cautionary tale about choosing a band name wisely; otherwise, you might end up like them, having to explain yourself to the folks towing your broken-down vehicle away.

Shit Present’s excellent set mostly comprised tracks from their debut album released last year, “What Still Gets Me,” which came out nearly 8 years after their previous EP. During this time, lead vocalist and guitarist Iona Cairns grappled with a mental health diagnosis. This struggle was poignantly explored in one of the set’s highlights, “Voice In Your Head,” with cathartic screams of “You better learn to control me, I’m the voice in your head // I’m here till you’re dead. I could fucking destroy you or be your best friend.”

Before Jeff and the band hit the stage, System of A Down’s “Chop Suey” blasted through Marble Factory’s speakers, clearly amping up the crowd even more as the whole place shouted back the lyrics. Jeff and the band then finished off the song, giving us an early taste of the energetic performance that was about to unfold over the next hour and a half. That energy barely waned throughout the entire set as they ripped through over 25 songs.

Opening with three heavy hitters, “WILL U STILL U” and “HEAD” from 2023’s “HELLMODE,” and “Scram!” from “No Dream,” released in 2020, probably one of the worst times for a musician to release an album. Afterwards, in one of the few brief musical interludes in the set, Jeff laid out some ground rules for the show, instructing the crowd to introduce themselves to the people next to them and encouraging them to grab security for (and I’m paraphrasing here) anyone acting like a dickhead.

The set was incredibly tight, rarely giving us time to breathe apart from a literal moment where Jeff conducted the crowd in a collective breathing exercise (“You’re so good at breathing, Bristol, you brought the lights up”). It was evident that the whole band was having a blast throughout, playfully bouncing off each other and jumping around the stage. They ripped through Jeff discography, with the crowd lapping it up, enthralled by Jeff’s charismatic stage presence, singing along to every single word.

Jeff Rosenstock has been professionally creating music for nearly 30 years, starting with the Ska Band “The Arrogant Sons of Bitches” in 1995 before co-founding “Bomb the Music Industry!”. On top of this, he’s created film soundtracks and his passion for music shines through tonight as the set covers all 7 of his solo albums, whilst most of the latest output could be labelled as pop-punk, this would do a disservice to a talented musician where we get to witness “Leave it in the Ska” from his 2021 Ska album and a moment where Jeff leaves the stage to later reappear on the balcony for a Saxaphone solo in the crowd before heading back down to the eruption of a giant mosh from the crowd.

Tonight’s performance at Marble Factory was nothing short of sensational. With a dynamic setlist, vibrant stage presence, and moments of unexpected brilliance, Rosenstock and his band proved themselves to be masters of their craft.

Words and Photos by Craig J Simmonds Media