Civ-Hands Tied-Sweet Belly Freak Down at The Stone Pony In Asbury Park NJ Winter 1997

I’m not super sure when this show was exactly, but it was definitely when I was still in high school because I remember a ton of random, on the fringe, people going to this show to see Civ. I remember having mixed feelings about Civ because I did like some of the more hardcore songs on the record, but the rest was so stupid and shitty. That video they did too was awful and it was kind of embarrassing to have all these random townies think Civ was what hardcore was about.

I remember a lot of skinheads were at this show, but particularity some of the local fake tough guys who would pose hard and fight people five on one like true hard guys. They didn’t treat Sweet Belly Freak Down, who were a kind of reformed version of Swiz, very kindly. One of them was the cousin of the best friend of the girl I was dating and it was so awkward listening to him shout borderline racial shit at Shawn Brown. Fucking edgy bro! Sweet Belly Freak Down were pretty good, but I’m not a big fan of their record.

I remember absolutely nothing about Hands Tied’s set. I DO remember however this kid John (Not John P from Parade Brigade Fanzine) buying a big bag full of Hands Tied shirts and records. He sold them at school during the next week to various punks and random people. Weird shit like that used to happen at our high school all the time. Seeing this goth girl in a Hands Tied “New Jersey Straight Edge” shirt a few days later cracked me up.

Civ were okay I guess, but I wasn’t really into it. Their rock pose shit was pretty corny. I dove during their Kraut cover and got a beer dumped on me by a punk rocker. Wow, zany antics there dude!

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