Downpour

Even though this happened like last last Sunday I forgot to update. My other band Soul Train was supposed to play this show at Anchors Up but because they thought it was supposed to be the week before, we had to cancel because Dremus (our guitar player) had to go to this cancer benefit or something.

Anyway, the bill was originally Soul Train, Downpour, Road Rage, Roadrunner, and the Control. I'm pretty good friends with the drummer of Downpour, Jake and he offered to come to western Mass to pick me up and I had nothing to do so I was all for it. So he picked me up and me, him, and my friend Justin from CT all headed out. We went to Boston first to pick up Jake's other friend, Aaron and his girlfriend whose name I forgot (it might have been Ashley). We head to the show and find out Roadrunner or whatever dropped. I go right into the record store and buy a few 7"s and a Fucked Up live reel because they were 15 bucks. I think the 7"s were No For An Answer - You Laugh and I actually forgot the rest, haha.

Anyway for the band review.

First band, I'm assuming was the Control. Wasn't into it at all. Really bad chugga chugga.

Next band was Bastard Swine, who showed up unexpectingly. I was stoked because I've seen them before. They have like 3 or 4 songs and they aren't perfected but it's fast and sweet and I am into it. It's like Crossed Out kind of and that's good enough for me.

Then was Downpour and they are cool, but the highlight for me was them covering Strife - Blistered and them handing me the mic towards the end of the song. It ruled.

Roadrage also ruled. They were fast and there were even a couple circle pits.

Now for the aftershow. We left and headed to Boston to Aaron's apartment. He was invited over some dude's house for a get together and me, Jake, and Justin tagged along, getting pizza along the way. We get in and everyone is high or something and we just hang out for a few hours I guess. Aaron and his girlfriend get really drunk, like most of the people there and eventually we all leave. It's like 2am I think and Aaron grabs a fire extinguisher from the apartment and starts spraying it outside and I guess it gets on his girlfriend, who is also super drunk. So we're walking, me, Jake, Justin, Aaron, and this other dude I forgot who was also drunk, and Aaron's girlfriend goes "HEY AARON!" He turns around and BOOM she blasts him with the fire extinguisher right in the face at close range. We all run from the cloud and the drunk dudes start vomitting and shit. After that everyone was pissed. We went to Aaron's for a few then headed home. That's it in a nutshell! Fun times.

React! Records showcase weekend day 3

So this is the final entry for the React! Records showcase. It was a great time so here's what went down on Saturday...

Woke up and headed out with Colt for early taco bell, then his nice ass dad's house, though no one was home. Then we headed out to Mike Resolve's again to meet with them. He hung out a little bit and decided to go to the show early since today was special. The first 70 people inside would receive some super rare 7" so we got there probably 2 hour earlier. The euro crew were already there (Chris, Rune, Malthe, and some others I forgot) skateboarding so we all meet up and hang. Colt brought a chessboard and being the super chess king that I am, I beat him in it. It's then people start to show up so we get in line real quick. I beat Kyle Cherry in a quick game then people really start to roll in. Spencer and Mikey of Vermont x Crew show up and we all talk about random stuff and time goes by kinda fast. Then the dude comes out and hands everyone numbers to assure we get the special prize without people cheating and cutting in line. I'm number 17. Finally it's time to go in and it turns out the 7" is a super version of TFS - Connection (though no one knew it was Connection at the time). The cover was just black with TFS CREW on the front like the t-shirt (coincidentally the only T-shirt besides the one I was wearing that survived my fire tragedy). The labels also said TFS CREW. So now I'll let you know what I bought and reviews of each band. First note that I THOUGHT I lost my phone during the first band and was bummed because of it most of the day, but later found out that it was in Colt's trunk the whole time. Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhh I'm an idiot, but here we go.

I forgot to mention that I bought a Gone But Not Forgotten 7" day 1. Day 2 I got... a Keep It Clear shirt, Common Cause shirt, bought my friend a Mindset and On shirt, bought my other friend a Mindset shirt for his birthday, and I think that might have been it. I bought these very delicious vegan peanut butter frosting chocolate cupcakes.

Now for the bands..

Secret People I've never heard before but they ruled. They sounded oldschool as fuck and I was into it. They covered Side By Side, too. They honestly were probably one of my favorite bands of the night and I'm looking forward to seeing them on the east coast when they come over. Check them out if you have the time because they rule.

Praise was next and this band features 3 members of Mindset, Andy from Champion and Colby from Reignition. They were pretty damn sweet and was definitely a fun band. I didn't move around or anything because I was still kinda mad about the whole phone situation but this band was awesome and it'd be cool to see them again soon.

Not Sorry is such a fucking great band. Intense music and vocals and heavier than the average youth crew band. Kids were into it and even though I was still mad about the phone, I couldn't help but sing along from the sidelines. This band also needs to come back east soon.

Nails was next and holy fuck was this band great. It was a 3 piece with Todd Jones on both vocals and guitar and the intensity of this band was like no other. I swear the drummer looked like he hadn't slept for months and his facial expression was the same throughout the entire set. Something like "I'm a fucking zombie demon who never rests and if you come near me I'll fucking smash your head open and devour its contents." Wouldn't fuck with that dude. The bassist was insane too and seemed in his own little world. Todd was insane too. This band was hard as nails, pun intended. It was heavy as fuck with japanese hardcore-esque fast parts. I was really really into it and hope they hit up the east soon.

Common Cause was simply incredible. I didn't expect the reaction they got though. It was real cool to see everyone going nuts to this band. They sounded fucking great and I remember this one song had this really groovy, bouncy breakdown. I don't know the likelihood of ever seeing this band again, but I'm glad I did.

Keep It Clear was sweet as well. I've wanted to see this band for a long time and they did not disappoint, though not as many kids were into it as I'd imagined. They covered Blind Justice by Agnostic Front which to be honest took me a while to get but I sang along to the main part. It was cool.

Next was On. To be honest I never got too into this band on vinyl and was hoping seeing them live would change that a bit. Still, it didn't, but kids were still into it and the best part was when they did 3 Bad Brains covers in a row. Big Takeover, Sailin On, and Right Brigade. The place EXPLODED.

Then Mindset took the stage. I wasn't sure how the west coast was gonna react (pun intended) to this band because I've seen them probably close to a dozen times already on the east coast and they just get better and better. Ev started with a pretty intense speech and kids were already pushing from side to side and stagediving so I knew this set was going to be nuts, and it was. They also covered Antidote's Something Must Be Done and Stephen TFS took the mic for it. They had the best set of the fest after 7 Seconds.

7 Seconds... the band that started it all in terms of youth crew, even before Youth Of Today really. It was breath-taking to see this band, especially since Kevin sounds EXACTLY the same as if it were like 82 or something. It was insane! All those weird punk kids went nuts, 'asshole' hardcore kids went nuts, everyone went nuts with sing a longs and stage dives and it was great. They only song they didn't play that I wanted them to was Clenched Fists, Black Eyes, but whatever it still ruled. Kevin was a great front man and he was really concerned about the safety of the kids in the pit which was cool. Whenever someone would get piled on he'd be like "Make sure that person gets up!" even mid-song he'd say it. Really cool dude.

Post-show wrap up:

After the show we took a few pictures and I said goodbyes to all my friends, old and new and we headed to a pizza place where all the Sacramento dude and Kevin Seconds were. It was cool to meet him though I didn't say a lot. We all ate and talked and eventually broke up and everyone went home. Colt almost fell asleep but we made it okay. Then bed.

The next day we were just trying to find stuff to do since the fest/showcase was over. We ended up going to Plead The Fifth's practice spot for a few hours where I discovered my ability to be almost good at drums which was cool. Eventually we left there, picked up Gutto and went to In-And-Out Burger which was cool. Then we went to a bowling alley with an arcade. I played DDR, being the nerd that I am, and then we played Time Crisis 4 and got pretty damn far. After that we decided to call it a night. I said my goodbye to Alex then went to Colt's for bed. In the morning he brought me to the airport and 6 hours later I get home and go to bed. That's about it folks.

React! Records showcase was the shit and I can't wait to go next year.

Peace!

React! Records showcase weekend day 2

Day two was pretty fucking awesome. Colt and I first went and got some food at taco bell, then headed out to Davis, CA to meet up with Mike Resolve and 'Arkansas' crew who were staying with him, Kyle, Jimmie, and Blake. So we get there and hang for a few minutes and then head out to Berkeley which was only around an hour from Davis so it wasn't too, too bad. We get to the venue and we're pretty damn early so we all take one car and head to get vegan pizza nearby. The pizza place was pretty cool, but I've had better. Then we all head to a record store called Amoeba. It was 4 of us in a back seat which is pretty illegal and we started yelling out compliments towards innocent bystanders. "HEY I LIKE YOUR PONYTAIL! HEY YOUR SHOES ARE REALLY NICE! HEY YOUR SHORTS ARE FUCKING AWESOME! HEY NICE OXYGEN MASK!" You know shit like that then suddenly a police officer on a bike pulls up next to us with his hand on his gun holster and he's like "PULL OVER!" We pull over and it turns out he's just pissed about the 4 people in the back seat thing. He ended up being really cool and didn't give anyone a ticket. Me and Colt got out and headed to the record store which was only a few blocks away. The record store was pretty sweet though a bit expensive. We met up with Mike, Kyle, Jimmie, and Blake a few moments after and we all rape the hardcore/punk section. I ended up getting a Resist LP for like 6 bucks and then 7"s from Right Idea, Asshole Parade, Mad Minds and one other I can't remember right now. We decided then to head back to the venue but we didn't wanna risk getting pulled over again so Colt volunteered to trunk it.

Fast forward we get to the venue and there's a line, though not too big. I see some familiar faces immediately like Mike Driggs, C-Murda, and Dylan Press and start talking to them. Then I head to Walgreens real quick and come back and chill in line for a little while before we're all allowed in. I walk into Gilman St and it looks DIY as fuck. After all, it is a historical venue for HC, and it really was awesome as hell! I decide to get the merch situation out of the way so I buy my shit and see some more familiar faces and React boarders like Chris (ChrisxToday) Mahon, Irish pride! So now I'll just give a review of the bands that night and a list of shit I bought. I'll start with the material things. I bought the Get The Most record release LP which was out of... 177 or something like that. I also bought a Get The Most shirt, Damages 7", got a Mourningside 7" for free, bought a It's Okay Not To Drink reprint shirt, Don't Need Drugs reprint shirt, and I think that was it for day one. Now for the bands:

Damages played first and boy was I into this band. Some definitely revolution summer shit going on right here and I loved it. They even did an Embrace cover which ruled. I liked them so much I was enticed to buy a record from them. Seriously, awesome band.

Circles was next and they had a similar feel with the revolution summer thing, though I thought Damages was definitely better. With Circles I liked some songs as the riffs were catchy as hell but some songs were boring to me and I found myself yawning a lot (which I do in general when I just stand in one spot for a long period of time). Sometimes I just have to be in the mood to listen to these kinds of bands, though with Damages I was just into it the whole time.

Gone But Not Forgotten had to drop due to a family emergency which was a bummer, but totally understandable.

True Colors, as usual, was astounding. That band has so much energy it's ridiculous. This was my 4th time seeing them on this tour and 5th time seeing them ever and boy were they great. They opened with Slow Down by Youth Of Today and the place exploded. They did the set they always did except they played a song from the Perspective 7" which was pretty sweet. They covered Straight Ahead and Warzone too which kids were into. Bummer this band is breaking up, but I'm glad to meet those guys and see them as much as I did.

Next was Punch! but I kinda missed them I forget why. I think I heard them from outside and it sounded cool but now I regret missing them for real.

Get The Most was fucking awesome. Seriously one of my favorite current bands in hardcore and this was my 3rd time seeing them and it was fucking great! They played all the songs I love so much, some killer new songs, and played Vitality by Beyond which was fucking unexpected and awesome!

Betrayed headlined and they were pretty damn sweet. I was really digging the new songs they played, especially the song Above The Influence, Against The Grain. I love they intensity they show as an edge band with that style. Kids were flipping and diving and were into it, though not as much as I would expect from the west coast.

Overall day 1 was a fucking blast. There were an absurd amount of people with nice hair. I mean it was pretty ridiculous but if dudes wanna have nice hair, they can have nice hair. There were also some pretty awesome punk kids circle pitting a lot and getting pissed at the 'hardcore kids' who were pushing side to side and karate moshing. Can you blame them? It was funny though. Then we headed back to Colts and called it a night! Stayed tuned for day 3...

React! Records showcase weekend day 1

So when I got my taxes around Feburary I decided that I wanted to attend the React! Records showcase that would be held in Berekely, California on April 9th and 10th. I figured I really liked most of the bands playing and that this would probably be my only chance to see some of the NW bands I'm so fond of. So with my taxes I bought my round-trip plane ticket, which came to about 390 and that was that. Fast forward some months and here I am laying down at my friend Colt's house in Sacramento.

Ieft thursday afternoon, missing my biology lab entirely. I'm most likely gonna fail from the classes which would suck, but who knows I might still have a chance. I left from Bradley International at like 12:40 ish and met up with my friend Dylan there because for some reason we were on the same airline, at the same airport and left at around the same time, but he wasn't flying into Sacramento so we had different flights.

My plane went to Atlanta first and because of some shitty storm I was suck there until around 8:30pm and ended up plsying this computer game to pass the time. So after leaving I ended up getting into Sacramento around 10:30pm because of the time difference. In actuality it took like 5 and a half hours. I was met there by the dudes I'd be staying with, Alex and Colt. They are in a badass band called Plead The Fifth. I ended up attending their band practice that night which was pretty sweet. Then we got burritos at some place that to me wasn't that good, but whatever. Then went to a tattoo shop and met some dudes then Gutto's (Alex) place and met some more dudes then finally Colt's and went to bed.

Bad Days reunion/last show

So my other band, Soul Train, got asked to open for a show in Westfield that happened last night and I completely forgot to get it off from work but due to some last minute contacting, I got someone to cover my shift. The line up of the show was Chuck Brunswick, Boys Club, Stereo State, Bad Days, Rustbelt Lights, Daybreaker, and Soul Train. Honestly I didn't really want to play it just because I don't really like playing shows with Soul Train to begin with for many reasons that I will provide some other day, but we played and I wasn't really into it as usual and neither was anyone else. But anyway Daybreaker was next and they were pretty fucking incredible and sounded like Weezer and did a Weezer cover. I missed the next band because I went to get pizza and it took a zillion years. I got back for Bad Days whose set was a lot more tame than I'd have imagined. Stereo State played and they were hilarious and ended their set with a Kid Dynamite cover which I was stoked on. Boys Club was okay, but not my thing and Chuck Brunswick was cool though at this point there were like no one there. That's all I really have since this show wasn't very appealing to me at all. Peace!

Death Threat Show / Providence Basement Show

So I almost forgot about this whole journal deal so now I'm gonna recap on it a bit. Last wednesday was Jamie Riddle's birthday. He drums for Death Threat and the show line up was originally Death Threat, Living Hell, Shoot To Kill, Revenge, Can't Heal, Reckless, and Vexed. Living Hell ended up cancelling because some members couldn't make it or something. I attended this show with my friend Jake Miller and Steve Pokal. It was a Waterfront show and it was a wednesday so half of me figured a lot of kids wouldn't show, but it was Death Threat and Revenge and I thought a lot of people from out of town would go. It was a decent turnout anyway. A main draw for me was seeing my friends in Vexed since they are from Cape Cod and my other band did a weekend with those dudes a couple months back. I had to come support. They played, though not a lot of people were there at the time, and they fucking killed it. Seriously, they were tight as hell and the songs were great and they even dedicated a Strife cover to me which ruled. Reckless was next and they were cool. Can't Heal I wasn't into like at all. Revenge was next and as usual they killed it. They even covered Burn - Shall Be Judged which was cool, though that is a vegetarian song - oh well. Shoot To Kill were great as well and Death Threat was sweet. In terms of heavier hardcore, I don't get that involved where I move around or anything, but it's cool stuff. I prefer 90s kinda metal -influenced vegan animal/civil rights shit you know like Strife, Green Rage, Torn Apart, Snapcase, Earth Crisis, etc stuff like that, but I also like thrash influenced shit and somewhat heavy NYHC stuff. Too many damn categories... but the show overall was long as hell, but ultimately fun. Good times.

Fast forward to saturday aka Awesome Providence Weekend 2010. In the morning I got my backpack together and headed to the bus terminal to take the Peter Pan bus into Providence. I got in around 1:30 ish and my friend Cooper from the Cape (Cod) met me there. We went on this street that was a strip of stores/restaurants called Thayer Street and walked down a bit then ended up going to Providence Place where we met his friend whose name I forgot already, but then headed back to Thayer to get Cooper some shorts and to get some pizza from Nice Slice. Nice Slice was a pizza place with a lot of cool vegan options. They even have a pizza called the Earth Crisis which was awesome. There we met up with Ian Adams who drove from NJ, Tim, Jon Cen, and some other cool dudes I ended up meeting. We ate there and then went to the park for a couple hours because the weather was so damn good. There my friend Felicia and Charlie met up with us and we hung out for another 30 minutes or so before heading back to Nice Slice. There I met up with Mike Puffer, Kara, Chelsea, Shawn, Bobby, Shana, and these other two kids whose name I forgot my bad. We ate some pizza then broke up with Mike and Kara and went to some Cafe. Then after that me and Cooper went back to Nice Slice (again) and saw Craig and Dan from Waste Management. Talked to them for some minutes then headed to the show. On the way we almost died because Cooper's GPS told us to turn down a one way and we did and there were a lot of cars coming towards us.

We got to the show and it was a cool environment. A lot of people were hanging out outside and there were a lot of familiar faces. Too many people I can't even begin to name but it was a great time and I'll go through my reviews of the bands and their sets.

First band was Tabernackle, and earlier in the park and at Nice Slice I hung out with their drummer, Jeff, who turned out to be a cool dude. Tabernackle was pretty awesome and gave me a 90s kinda vibe. One that I like a lot and kinda reminded me of early Trial a little bit. They also covered Project X - Straight Edge Revenge which is a cover that's done a lot, but I always lose my shit to. Wolf Whistle and Free Spirit both had to drop and the members of Neon Bitches weren't all there so Waste Management was next and their set was pretty fucking awesome. A lot of cramped moshing and singing along. Very fun times. Next up was fucking RAMPAGE and I haven't seen them before up until this point and I had been listening to the LP and the 7" a lot the week before so I was amped. They were fucking great and kids went apeshit. It was also discovered that they would start playing more shows and only didn't play more shows because no one asked them to play. Haha. Rival Mob went on after and as usual they killed it. Brendan even crowd surfed (mind you the ceiling of the basement was inches above my head and I'm 6' 4) He also ended up chewing on the insulation that was on the ceiling. Fun fucking times. The aftershow we all hung out outside for a bit and talked about this and that and said our goodbyes to a lot of people. I was gonna head to Worcester with Puffer and Kara so we all went to Nice Slice one last time for some hangouts. Almost saw a chick fight but didn't, which was a bummer. Then we headed to Worcester and went to bed. The next morning was Easter and I just went home. Overall the weekend ruled. I love hardcore and all my friends. Sounds cheesey as fuck, but it couldn't be more true.

United Blood Day 2/Heading to Baltimore

Day 2 of United Blood was pretty fucking awesome. We woke up around 8am or so and a bunch of the dudes from Buffalo went to the pool/hot tub. I decided to show instead. After they came back we decided to head with them to Wawa while Eric and his friend, whose name I just forgot because I tend to forget names real fast but I think it was Alex, stayed in the hotel. At Wawa I got this amazing veggie hoagie and a half gallon of the infamous Wawa iced tea. So we all ate and shit and went to Whole Foods after since a few of the Buffalo dudes have never been to Whole Foods. It was cool there and we went to Trader Joes after since they've never been there either. After some horsing around in there and buying a few goodies we briefly stopped at Petco in hopes to see some cool dogs but there were none but greyhounds so we went back to the hotel. We dropped off our shit and headed to the show. Got to the venue and copped some sweet gear, including some from Flooprunch who had stuff set up for some reason though they didn't play that night. I missed Concrete Reality which was a bummer because I recently met one of the members and I wanted to check them out. Next I think was Harms Way and I missed them because I'm not a super huge fan. The order of the rest of the bands are a bit hazy to me so I'll just talk about the bands I remember seeing and liking. Free Spirit killed it. This was the first time I've seen them outside of Massachusetts so I wasn't sure how wild it would get, but it was easily the best time I've seen them. They covered Slow Down by Youth Of Today and a Rampage cover. They also played the new songs from the upcoming 7" and kids went ballistic. Another honorable set was Fire & Ice. I have their 7" and I was really into it as it reminded me a lot of Leeway. It just so happened that they began their set with GI Joe Headstomp exactly how Sick Of It All did it in their early live shows and I lost it. Fire & Ice all around was pretty impressive to me. The Rival Mob completely killed it as well as it was on of the best Mob set's I've seen. Steel Nation was pretty cool. Mind Eraser sounded evil and it was awesome. Wasted Time also killed it. I went to get Falafel sometime after Mind Eraser and once again lost track of time and missed Foundation, which I was later really bummed about. Also missed Maximum Penalty who was someone I really wanted to see, but as it grew later I was just so tired I didn't want to move or do anything. We headed back to the venue to kinda watch Bracewar, then Blacklisted, then Cold World without Dan singing. Something happened with his kid and he couldn't make it so George from Blacklisted sang a couple songs and a bunch of other dudes sang and their set was ridiculous as hell. Then the moment came for Madball. This would be my first time seeing them and I had no idea what to expect and being the wimp that I am I was in the far back where I had a clear view of the stage and pit. After what seemed like forever they finally got set up to play and I could tell it was gonna be nuts. They started playing and kids went fucking chaotic. Lots of ninjas starting spinning and kicking, lots of pile ons, stage dives, headwalks, singalongs, you name it and it was going on. At one point they played some really old stuff like Get Out and I came out from under the shell and had to join in and it ruled. Then the show ended and we all went outside. I said my goodbyes to those I wouldn't see after that night. Then we went back to the hotel, this time with Dan of Future-Breed photography fame and watched videos of some kid called Tsim Fuckis and went to bed. The next morning the first batch of Buffalo kids whose names me and Easy tried to get down the entire weekend: Brian, Shaun, Arty, Mike left a bit early to Buffalo. We sat around the hotel talking about random hardcore stuff and left around 10. Now I'm on the road with Easy driving and Dan sleeping in the back seat. We're listening to Bound (singer of Kid Dynamite's old band 90s vegan hardcore) as we head to DC to eat at a vegan cafe/restaurant/bakery joint called Sticky Fingers, then the MIndset record release, which should prove to be an awesome show for sure.

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So we ended up going to Sticky Fingers and that place was pretty damn awesome. I bought some Clubwich or something which consisted of vegan bacon, ham, turkey with lettuce, tomato, and veganaise which ruled. I also got a cookie cupcake which was sweet. After that we drove to the show in Baltimore and found a nice parking spot. In the show I saw a bunch of familiar faces. Outlast dudes, my friend Ben from Deleware, Nate from New Jersey, and a bunch of others. Eventually the place got packed which was cool because that venue was probably one of the best venues around. So let's fast forward to the bands. Outlast played first and they ruled. I seriously love those dudes. Next band was Force Fed, another band I love. So fast, so pissed, but it seems there's never kids losing their shit, including me, but my excuse is that I usually need someone to ignite the chaos. I join in shortly after. Thought Crusade is yet another current band I fucking love. It appeared consisted of all my current favorites in hardcore, which is awesome. Rival Mob was after that and they fucking KILLED it. I enjoyed their set here way more than at United Blood. United Blood was chaotic, but I like smaller venues where it's more intimate and there's not a million kids in the way. Then was True Colors, who also had an amazing reaction, especially their ending cover of Straight Ahead where I broke my x swatch, unfortunately. It can easily be fixed so that's cool. Last band was Mindset. Best fucking time I've ever seen them. Place went completely nuts with stage dives, sing alongs, and intense pitting. A light was even broken. They also covered Living A Lie by Side By Side which made my night. All around the show ruled. I met some new people, saw a lot of old friends, saw pretty much every band I'm super into these days, and bought some cool stuff. After the show we decided to go get food instead of watching the 2nd show. We went to Brick Oven Pizza and met up with Bobby, Shana, Claire, Chris, Gaby, Nikki, Cendrowski, and some others. It ruled and we ended the night by almost getting kicked out of the place because they had a jukebox and actually had hardcore bands on it. I guess it was online based. So we played Can We Start Again by Bane, Something More Than Ink by Have Heart and ended it with Firestorm by Earth Crisis in which me, Cendrowski, and Chris Alaska, but Chris lost it and ended up moshing until he got outside. Then we all said our goodbyes and Mike started playing the Firestorm intro by beeping his horn and Chris moshed again, throwing his soda all over the place. Now we're driving back. Me, Puffer, Kara, and Dan and we're chatting it up in the car. Peace!

United Blood weekend

United Blood day 1 was pretty fun. We got there and there was already a line. I saw a bunch of people I knew which was cool and then stood in line. The only interesting thing about waiting in line was some drunk homeless guy calling someone (not sure if this person existed) a "faggot" and that he wanted to fight them. So fast forward we get inside and I decide to get the True Colors merchrun out of the way. We played with them the night before but I didn't really get anything then and wanted to get stuff people they over crowded with people (which didn't really happen) but I got this sweet basebell jacket among other things. Let me just say this now I do like a lot of current hardcore bands as there aren't many bands I don't like, but on the real I mostly went to United Blood to see True Colors as many times as possible on their tour and see a bunch of friends that I would only see at fests. With that said I didn't really watch Dry Spell much though from what I heard they sounded pretty damn sweet. Donnybrook really isn't my thing but some of their songs I was really feeling. Backtrack was fucking awesome and they are everything I imagine when it comes to current bands doing the NYHC thing. True Colors has an amazing reaction as there were a lot more kids here than Haverhill and I'm fucking stoked for them. Awesome set as usual and tons of kids were into it, stagediving, piling up and singing along. My friend Easy from Virginia, who was originally supposed to drive up to Haverhill for the show and drive back bringing me, also missed True Colors here because he got stuck in thick DC traffic. After True Colors me Brian, John, and Cendrowski headed to this falafel place and man was it delicious. We were there talking almost 3 hours and didn't even realizing it and we missed Swamp Thing, Naysayer, Alpha & Omega, Dead End Path's suprise set, and probably one band I'm forgetting. Oh well. I missed Title Fight's set too but it was because Mr. Taylor Steele of Four Wall Falling fame found me and me him and my friend Joey were talking outside about 80s hardcore which was pretty cool. I'm kinda forgetful of what happened but Easy finally arrived and he was bummed to miss True Colors. I ended up checking out the Triple B table to learn yet another Floorpunch show was gonna happen in June which I got stoked on.

So Paint It Black blew me away and I missed Death Threat. I'm not big into really crowded shows. After the show we followed Eric back to the hotel, which was farther away from the venue than we had imagined. It was also a pretty sweet hotel called Hillton and there were 8 of us in a room booked for 2. They ended up being really cool dudes so it was cool. The conversations they were having were pretty insane too. But anyway we went to sleep around 1:30 or so instead of going to Econolodge where everyone else I knew just so happened to be staying. And that ended day 1 of United Blood.

True Colors in Haverhill / On the road to United Blood

So since I've recently rediscovered my passion for writing again (or typing, rather) I've decided from this day forth to write a journal of my experiences in hardcore. Sure there are many things that happened in the past 3 years that were also important to me but I'd say it's better late than never. I don't know who would be reading this in the future, but this is just another outlet one could say. So here it goes.

Thursday night (yesterday) Mike and Kyle picked me up because we had a show at the venue Anchors Up in Haverhill, MA. The bill was The Rival Mob, True Colors, Alert, Street Sweeper and Caught In A Crowd. Wolf Whistle was supposed to play but something happened and they had to drop off. So we headed out, picking up our crusty friend, Nick Pajak, along the way. Fast forward we get to the show around 7pm ish and the show hadn't started, which I was glad about since I wanted to see all of the bands. So we got there and set up our shirts, which was a second batch of the yellow ink on black shirt that Jay Jacoby had stirred up for us since the first ones got burned in an unfortunate housefire. We also had probably half a dozen 7"s left so it was cool to actually have stuff at a show for once.

So then the first band, Caught In A Crowd played and they were fucking awesome. They were way tighter live than I expected (I always say that though I don't really know what I expect to begin with) but they killed it and did a Bold cover. I just missed the first song because I was outside briefly with a couple friends. A lot of kids from Cape Cod came out to support the show which was cool too.

Second band that played was Street Sweeper. They were heavier new york style which I'm all about, but their set was a bit sloppy. Regardless I was into it and would see them again for sure. I made sure to grab one of their demos.

Next was us, Alert. This show would be our first with our new drummer, Brendan, who actually sang in the Rival Mob. We've only practiced about 3 times and they weren't very consistent at all so I was a bit nervous about how things would turn out, even though he did learn the songs extremely fast when we did practice. We opened with Find Your Way and pretty much played the whole demo except for Stay Alert. We also covered Sick Of It All and Turning Point which had cool reactions. I guess we sounded good which was cool to hear.

After us was True Colors. Let me just say that True Colors is my favorite current band in hardcore and it was fucking awesome to not only see them, but play a show on their last US tour. They were ridiculously good and it should be cool seeing them 3 more times on their tour. They covered Straight Ahead, Warzone, and Youth Of Today and you can't go wrong with that!

Last was Boston's own Rival Mob. As usual, Brendan's stage banter was hilarious and their songs were awesome. Kids were into it, though I'm extremely excited to see how RIchmond is gonna be since I heard that when they played there with Free Spirit a little while ago it was absolutely insane.

So that was the show. Kids bought shit which was cool, and I got to talk to a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. I had with my a piece of luggage with some clothes and shit and my laptop because I'd be leaving to Richmond Virginia for United Blood fest that night. I rode along with my boy Brian who sings in Caught In A Crowd and this kid John, who is also cool. We actually entered Virginia not too long ago finally after driving through the night and stopping at a Jersey rest stop for 4 hours to sleep in the car. So that's about it. In the car now rocking out to Shelter's album Mantra as we draw closer to RIchmond. Today should turn out to be pretty awesome. Peace!

Change Of Direction

So I've decided since not a lot of people know about this blog, I'm going to turn this into a hardcore blog. I'm going to post about going to shows and playing shows and that overall experience of hanging out and seeing some awesome (and some horrible) bands. It's whatever, so for those few who will have discovered this blog or to the one person who follows it, enjoy!