t seems that I make an annual trek now to This Is Hardcore for at least one of the days. A few of my friends went to see Tragedy the night before, but I had to wrap up grading for a summer class so I could not go. I wanted to clear out grading so I had the weekend to myself so I could see Judge.
I thought I left for the show early enough to catch World War IV, but some traffic miscues and finding parking meant I only caught their last two or three songs. They sounded good and have a new demo coming out soon. I caught up with those guys later in the day and they will be playing more shows soon.
Now, the rest of the day is a bit of a blur of long waits and hanging out with friends, but I will try to do this in order. I had been looking forward to seeing Absolution, but they seem to have canceled. I caught Maximum Penalty’s set, but besides the songs from Where The Wild Things Are, they mostly played new songs. Their demo tape is straight up one of my favorites EVER.
What was up with all the smoking by the way? When did that become okay at shows? Half the crowd seemed to be lighting up at any given moment? Fuck off with that shit.
A few super hyped up bands I caught were Nails and Mindset. Mindset were average posi core that reminded me of Better Than A Thousand and The First Step musically, but the lyrics were so corny and “uplifting.” Yeah, this summer’s treatment of Trayvon Martin, Chelsea Manning, Texas’ assault on women’s rights, North Carolina’s assault on teachers, etc has me feeling super fucking uplifted. They had an anti drug song with the chorus “above the influence!!!” Isn’t that the name of one of those 18 million dollar government websites? LOL. I am so over positive music. At least ill straight edge bands like Youth Of Today were pissed off.
Another hilarious edge moment: At one point, I was eating dinner and three edgemen were in front of me. These boys were noting to each other whether they would “hit it” with every pretty young woman that walked by. Gah. Break down the walls!
Nails were decent death metal influenced by all the classics. My interest in that genre in mostly in the classics, so it just made me want to listen to Carcass on the way home. A lot of people are really into this band, and that is cool, but they didn’t really move me too much. But seriously check them out and judge for yourself. I’m no authority.
Killing Time (Full Set) from hate5six on Vimeo.
Killing Time got a great reaction from the youngish crowd, which really pleased me. They stuck to the hits and despite some sloppiness at times sounded good. I was tempted to mosh a few times, but decided against it.
The Rival Mob got a really good reaction as well, but what is with all the stage potatoes before diving and the slow mo skanking? Get off the stage and dive! Stop milking it for the Youtube video.
A bunch of bands played in between all of these and most sounded horrible. A few bands sounded like a mix between Life Of Agony and these weird almost Linken Park style parts. Ugh.
I watched some of Ceremony’s set, but their new indie rock style bored me a lot. I think it was interesting that they tried to switch up their older songs to fit that style, which is worth a try, but it didn’t really do anything for me.
I did not watch h2o, who I have zero interest in, or 7 Seconds because I was outside catching up with some old friends and having a good chat with with Bob Shedd about days both old and new. I kind of really hate the hardcore scene, but the friends I have made I would never exchange for anything.
Of course, the big draw was Judge and the room packed up real fast. They came out to the Darth Vader theme, which was pretty funny. Sorry Judge, you aren’t the Cro-Mags. Now I was sad that World Peace wasn’t about to begin. Judge opened with Take Me Away and Bringin It Down and I went off, especially for the later, and then just huddled up on the side to watch the rest of their set. They sounded good at times, but a bit off...Sammy seemed to be a step ahead of the band at times. He is a great drummer, but it might have just been exhaustion from a long day. Judge did not go on until after midnight. Mike Judge had good stuff to say about songs (including one seriously DARK story about a family member holy shit…and that is a great example of the difference between people who are edge for a reason and pissed and not this positive self help horseshit). It was a long day, so their set did drag a bit, but I think they would be a lot better at a four or five band gig.
I got out of there pretty fast and drove home to drop into sleep.
