This gig was definitely overshadowed a bit by the recent presidential election, which featured two of the most repugnant human beings I have ever encountered. Seeing people from the hardcore scene cheer on either of them makes my skin crawl. Infest however stepped up and absolutely tore the house down.
John and I headed out to this show after he met up with me where I live now. We caught up on the way. It was nice to be with him in such disturbing times. He has the same vicious, cynical, unrelenting humor that I do. We always felt a bit out of place in the scene because not a lot of people shared our politics or humor. I tried for a long time to make that work, but it proved totally futile in the end.
I think we missed a few bands, but caught a bit of Pure Disgust. I hope they did not name themselves after a One Life Crew song. They were okay as were Iron Lung. I really enjoyed Scapegoat’s set. We went back outside a few times because, as always, even in really cold weather The Church got ridiculously hot. After awhile it was time to pack it in up front for Infest.
I first heard Infest as a teenager. I had heard OF them for awhile, but back then you couldn’t just go online and download a record collection so stuff trickled in. There was a bootleg CD with most of their stuff a friend told me about and I bought it at a show. I was absolutely floored by what I heard on it. Slowly I played it for all of my friends and each had the same reaction. Infest was the perfect mix of the speed of bands like DRI and the style and aesthetic of Youth Of Today and SSD. They were mysterious too: Were they straight edge? There were rumors they still practiced every weekend well into the nineties. The interview in Hardware offered some answers. There was supposed to be an unreleased record, which eventually did come out.
Infest were as good as I hoped they would be at this show. They blew through pretty much every song I could think of them playing and were tight as hell. I didn’t really move much because I was so floored by each song.
Afterwards, we said goodbye to a few friends and drove back home. I can’t believe I finally saw Infest.
