One could think pop and punk are mutually exclusive. The initial punk movements of the '70s and '80s — which hit the Quad-Cities with a show by The Clash in 1984 — were all about counterculture. Pop was the enemy, not the aim.
Radio success was a critique, not a trophy. But all that changed in the late '90s and early 2000s, with the rise of pop-punk, a power chord-laden genre where songs had the breakneck pace of punk, but with more easily accessible hooks and vocals. San Francisco ska-punkers Green Day were some of the first to bring the genre to the mainstream.
They played at The Mark in 1995, and came back ten years later after a revival with their record "American Idiot." By then, the genre grew far beyond Green Day. The biggest bands in pop-punk were household names: blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco, All-American Rejects and Jimmy Eat World, who opened for the second Green Day gig in Moline.
With themes of heartache and teenage unrest, pop-punk (and similar subgenre, emo pop) was quickly the soundtrack to suburban house parties nationwide. Chicago band Fall Out Boy, one of emo pop's most prominent pioneers, played multiple small gigs in the Quad-Cities in the early 2000's. In 2004, they played at Quad-City Live in Davenport, a small venue located at what is now the Freight House Farmer's Market.
By 2007, they were big enough to play The Mark. FILE - Rocker Avril Lavigne takes a break from singing while performing at The Mark of the Quad Cities in J.
