The Souls’ story actually begins a few years earlier than that historic gig. “Pete [Steinkopf] and Bryan [Kienlen] had a cover band called The Switch around ‘86 and ‘87,” recalls frontman Greg Attonito. The band was largely booked at parties teeming with college chicks and kegstands, and occasionally, their friend Attonito would join in to channel his inner Roger Daltrey or Billy Idol.
“Then we started another band called Brad Karma and the Absent Minded Fruit Bats,” says guitarist Steinkopf. “There was one song that we had called ‘Quest For Goodie’ and Greg would jump around and sing all kinds of crazy shit to it off the top of his head. We were all teenagers growing up in the suburbs, just looking to create our own fun.”
The threesome spent ever more time hanging at shows in New York City and haunting Trenton’s legendary, late, great City Gardens. The chemistry was undeniable and unstoppable, and it wasn’t long before their creative juices flowed together. Tapping original drummer Shal Khichi, the band holed up in Greg’s dad’s attic and started writing what would make up the early Souls songbook.
Like any young band with energy to burn and original songs under their belt, the boys took to the road in order to share their music and spirit with any crowd that would listen. While there were aspirations to find audiences across the globe, even college parties and basements were enough to keep hope alive in the early days. As bassist Kienlen puts it, “We never spent too much time worrying about the future. The point of the band was always celebrating the here and now, trying to make the best of whatever was in front of us at the time.”
Though it wasn’t until 1995 that the band was able to tour on a full-time basis, they soon found the road to be a more frequent home than the comfort of their own beds. From headlining tiny rooms in remote towns to playing Wembley Arena with Green Day and Tokyo’s Budokan with My Chemical Romance to spending time on seven different editions of Vans Warped Tour (totalling 11 months, with more sure to come), The Bouncing Souls have clocked more travel time than most airline pilots.
Since 1996, the band has had a constant traveling companion and honorary fifth member – their primary touring vehicle, lovingly called The White Castle. For ten years, she gave dutiful service, until The Gold Tour, when her engine gave out – with 300,000 miles on the odometer. Regarding her decade of service before temporary retirement (the proceeds from that tour are rebuilding the old gal’s guts), Attonito says, “We converted those miles into road hours. Estimating about 40 MPH – because a lot of them aren’t highway miles, with plenty of time sitting in traffic – it was staggering. Our estimate rounded out to 333.33 days driving in our truck! No exaggeration: that’s about a full year!”
