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!
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