A few years ago I re-watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie for the first time in years; I’m talking first grade when I had the TMNT backpack and matching pencil case. But it didn’t matter; the impression the movie had left on my brain was so strong that I still remembered all those dumb jokes and one-liners. Watching Mission of Burma play “Signals, Calls, and Marches” Saturday Night at the Bowery Ballroom was a pretty similar experience. I haven't listen to the album in a long time, but I still knew all the words to “Academy Fight Song” and “Red.”

Sure, it’s all about nostalgia, and that’s fine—at least they still have all their original members (except for the dude who works the tape loops behind-the-scenes, but honestly who cares). They even played a selection of pre-Signals cuts before they got into the album itself, which seemed to please plethora of aging music nerds who populated the audience.

But don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed Mission of Burma beyond their nostalgic appeal. I wouldn’t go as far as to say they resembled a band half their age, but they rocked pretty hard; they were real loud and their songs, ahead of their time to begin with, still sound great.