Ensign-Good Riddance-Weapon X-Hands Tied-Shutdown-In My Eyes-Fastbreak @ Manville Elks Lodge Manville NJ 8-9-97

This show was one of the big end of summer shows (along with Back To School Jam and the show that Gordo did) as the summer of 1997 began to wind down. We packed a crew into my car (and literally packed lunch) and headed up to the show.

Weapon X would play their only show. WX had members of Ensign, Purpose, Kurbjaw, and some others and played pretty generic 1988 hardcore. They covered Turning Point and Judge. I interviewed Nate after the show. Their 7” was released in a limited edition of 200. I ended up with a handful of them that got spread out to Europe via trades. I will always remember Weapon X because on my second day of college I met Joe Oz because he was wearing a Weapon X shirt.

In My Eyes and Fastbreak played back to back. I remember hanging out on the side for a lot of their sets because a lot of people were dancing pretty hard and it got a little rough in there. Aggressive? I just remember being annoyed by it. It was funny to see skinny straight edge dudes try to get hard around a bunch of other skinny straight edge dudes. Both bands were still at their heights of excellence though and were great.

Hands Tied got added on this show to play their first gig since some member shifting. Out were Sean and Pat, in came Dan Hornacker, Geoff TDT, and Matt Smith. It was weird when they played…Justin and I seemed to be the only people going off for them. Most people just stared at them.

While Shutdown played we went to get food. Down the street there was a bad car accident. A few townsfolks were standing around and spoke to us about the show. It was cool to have normal people listen to us and not think we were freaks. During Shutdown’s set, I guess there was a fight.

I was outside during Good Riddance’s set hanging out with friends. I tried a few times to get into that band, but I just did not get it at all.

Ensign were…Ensign.

Like I said, we interviewed Weapon X after the show. This show was pretty long and I remember a few people in the car sleeping on the way home. This would be it, I think, for me until the fall. I focused on working and getting ready for my first semester of college. Oh! I also was finishing up the second, first “real,” issue of What Was Said Fanzine, which I literally do not have a copy of anymore. I would love to get scans of it because some of the interviews in it are not online yet. Surely someone must have a copy of it somewhere, right?

Right about this time I also did a one pager for What Was Said that was a split with another friend. I admitted to listening to the Spice Girls, John Coltrane, and Sisters Of Mercy more than hardcore and said friend threatened to kill another friend for breaking edge. Good times!

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