Music: Drivethru Records brings on the punk nouveau

This Sunday, Drivethru Records' Invasion tour is hitting the Cat's Cradle with a five band marathon headlined by the suburban Pennsylvania punk foursome, The Starting Line. Also on the bill are Drivethru Records bands, Allister, Homegrown, Senses Fail and The Early November.

For the most part, the bands don't veer too far from their roots. All of the bands have that distinctive high-school feel and exuberant energy to them; they're the punk nouveau of suburbia, mixing hooks with cringing guitars and pumping bass lines.

 These bands are the fresh faces of the music once held firmly by bands like New Found Glory, MXPX, and Rancid. It's almost as if Drivethru Records is trying to pass the torch down as soon as the kids graduate from high school. Yet despite their similar sound, each band brings its own story and mix to the equation. The Starting Line has a Weezer-esque nerdy edge to it--the band, after all, met on the internet--while Homegrown sparkles with SoCal glam and surf-derived punk with enough Beach Boys-harmonized "Woahhhs" to make Brian Wilson collapse in his sandbox.

 Every song that these bands play is good old-fashioned romping punk fun. They're the reason pink hair dye exists in the first place. And forget the worries of OD-ing on raging teen angst; they're bands "who value hooks and heart over aggression and angst," and that's a good thing. If Joey Ramone got reincarnated as a suburban youth without a pressing social agenda, he'd be proud of these bands and would adorn his wall with their likenesses. Yes, these are the children of punk, the generation where too much equality and social welfare has transformed rage infused tirades into heart-throbbing love tunes. All-in-all, Sunday's show amounts to a great way to shut out the worries of the world and for one night embrace yourself in the mad-hopping, can't-get-you-out-of-my-head beat of the new wave punk drum. So catch them if you can, while they're fresh out of the garage.