I went to this show with my friend Rebecca. After meeting up with her, we headed up to this show, which was at a creepy Mason hall. Rebecca and I used to argue a lot in the car. She was super PC and pretty, uh, “open minded” about her hardcore, so it led to some amusing arguments. Looking back, I took that stuff way too seriously. I have not talked to her in a long time.
Opening this show was Automaton, which had Alex Soudah (ex 97a) and my friend Jason Scheller, who I would meet officially a year or so later because he went to the same college that I did. He also ran the American distro for Crucial Response Records. They were great and busted out a Beyond cover. In all the mayhem, I remember Rebecca got roughed up a bit.
The Degenerics were this awesome local band that did a few seven inches but then suddenly got really good. They had this Bad Brains meets a lot of 90s bands (I always heard a lot of Econocrist in their sound) with a bit of reggae and modern hardcore.
Worthless were a pop punk band that played a lot of central Jersey shows for a few years. I had their demo, but did not like it. A friend I went to high school with interviewed them, but I do not think he ever printed it?
Fanshen and Stormshadow were political bands with pretty experimental sounds. Sue from Stormshadow was someone I saw around a lot back then.
You and I (featuring another person I went to college with) were absolutely disgusting. Emos cried and screamed and freaked the fuck out. The whole thing was so fake and contrived. But I hung out up front and chatted with them afterwards because Rebecca was buds with them. Egads.
We hung out at her parent’s house afterwards for a bit. I think this was the night the dude from INXS killed himself and I think we watched some bit on the news about it. I left afterwards and headed home.
Rebecca ended up going to college with a friend of mine in West Virginia for awhile too, so I saw her around a lot. I have not talked to her in a long time now though.
