the final plan from timefallsnear on Vimeo.
I am pretty sure the date on that video is wrong. I think it is early 2002 because I am pretty sure this was the first show I went to after 9-11. I kind of ducked out for a bit after that because of some other shit that happened. Not going to shows for awhile, and dealing with other things in my life, made hardcore shows seem oddly detached. I felt this weird distance between me and everyone who was there.
This was right about the time that I really began checking out of the hardcore scene. I think one of the most important things that happened to me around this time was beginning to hang around with people who were not in the hardcore scene. Part of it is the typical coming of age young people go through when going to college. But since my early college years were…weird…I was just getting around to that. I began paling around with a young lady named Sarah at this time. We spent a lot of time together (uh, not like that…not that I would have minded…) and it gave me a real perspective on how fucking stupid hardcore was. She was an activist and liked books and was just…cool. She was so chill too.
This was also around when I started spending a lot of time with queer people. I dated a few queer people during this era and my friendships definitely filtered in that direction. I was changing and evolving a lot and hardcore really felt backwards at times generally, but especially after 9-11 when this poisonous patriotism flooded the scene. Fuck that shit.
The Final Plan had my old buddy Casey Kulas and some other Cleveland kids in it. They were pretty cool and I think only did a demo. I was tight with a bunch of those dudes, so it was cool to see them again.
Striking Distance were an up and coming band at the time. I never liked their records much, but Dave Byrd was a cool dude and they were always great live. I had not cut my hair in awhile and it felt weird to mosh with longer hair to their Minor Threat cover.
I packed it in up front and then quickly slipped onto the stage for American Nightmare. The place exploded when they played. I did not like their records much either, a pattern that seemed to keep emerging during this time, but people went off hard for them. Jesse Stand Hard was filling in for them at this time on bass and I remember us busting out some sort of tape trade. I think I set up another one with Brett at this show too.
