Think about what most people were doing on Tuesday, July 29. Maybe they went to work, ate a fancy dinner or had too much to drink while watching the Cubs. Some people however, went to The House Café to see the legendary punk rock band, MXPX. DeKalb was left a sweaty mess in their wake.

Being a band that has played to thousands of fans in places like South America, a venue like The House is very intimate. Before the show, we caught up with drummer Yuri Ruley and guitarist Tom Wisniewski to talk about the upcoming set.

Northern Star: You guys tour fairly often, so do you go into the studio planning to write music that would translate well to the stage?

Tom Wisniewski: Well, sometimes when we are arranging them, we think to ourselves: ‘Yeah, this part will really open up when we play it live,’ but when we are recording, we just focus more on trying to sound our best.

Yuri Ruley: You always have to keep in mind that you are going to be touring when you write your songs.

NS: As a band that has played to much larger crowds then the capacity here tonight, how does a small show like this affect your preparation, in terms of making your setlist, stage dynamics and things of that nature?

YR: We really just get up there and give it our all every night, and try not to focus on the stage size. Over the years, we have played so many shows that we have tried to figure out how to best interact with the crowd, and usually smaller shows are a little bit more unpredictable, and sometimes even a little more fun.

TW: I think you have to be on your toes a bit more during a small show, because people will sometimes jump right up on stage with you there in a smaller venue.

After an eager crowd waited the whole night, the boys from MXPX walked out, picked up their instruments, and made DeKalb theirs. They had already run through two songs before the flashes from dozens of cameras had died down.

Unlike other larger touring acts, MXPX knows that while they have new albums to promote, the fans want to hear a mix of new songs and all the old favorites. Their setlist did not disappoint.

They played “Party, My House, Be There” and “Chick Magnet,” and for both songs, the entire crowd was moving, dancing and singing along with huge smiles on their faces, as people remembered why they loved those songs in the first place. Everyone sang in unison, and the crowd interaction was phenomenal.

As their set grew closer to its end, they played more classic songs, including their cover of Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ‘69,” and took requests from the crowd. They even played “Responsibility,” a song that converted this reporter into a punk rocker at the ripe age of 12.

The room’s air was so thick that it became hard to breathe, yet if MXPX was hot, they were not showing it. They ripped though the end of their set as if they had just started playing, and when they went into the first few bars of “Punk Rock Show,” the crowd went absolutely insane.

Every single person in the venue sang along to what could be one of the most classic punk songs of the ’90s. As the lights went on, and MXPX said their goodbyes, there was no doubt that this punk rock show was one for the ages, a cramped, sweaty reminder that we can all have a little too much fun in Dekalb on a Tuesday night.