Text and Photos: Charles Nickles
I can’t really wax too nostalgic about the value of the matinee gig. I was too young for the heyday of hardcore at CBGB’s and too politically ambivalent to have really committed to the new wave that rose up in the crumbling anarchy of ABC No Rio but I made it to a few and when Wetlands was still a sweaty death box bereft of most fucks, I slammed an all-day shift now and again but it was never really a regular thing for me so I’m not about to tell you how glorious it was to be hip-deep in the exultant violence of youth but…you know…it was.
And I guess it still can be.
I’m here at Vitus mid-day again and though I’m reasonably certain this isn’t an all-ages freakout this is definitely no gig for old men.
Deject
I want to say hardcore like HAWD-COHER but that would be boorish. It still makes me chuckle, though, as dudes bust out with the flip kicks and shit. This is either Deject’s first or second gig. Doesn’t matter. They’re tight and pissed and ready for Philly.
Syndromes
Dude from His Hero Is Gone. Post-crust thrash attack delivered with unwavering belligerence (and some surprisingly choice soloing). I used to hate this kind of bark and scythe relentlessness but now I find it comforting. Pretty sure I can pin that 100% on No Fucker.
Nightfear
If I’m gonna beef with thrash at all, it’s gonna be with so many of the genre’s vocalist to go all frustrated tenor on me when they should be bellowing hoarse as drunk hockey dads. I don’t actually know if Nightfear consider themselves a thrash band but they’ve got the riffs and hooks to earn a circle pit any day of the week and their frontman brutish with his delivery. Should’ve bought one of their t-shirts.
Blame God
If I go to a show and see a skinny dude in a baseball cap and long sleeves, I stay the fuck away from him because that dude has come to kill. Blame God’s frontman is one such dude and kill, he did, relinquishing mic duties to Nightfear’s barker so he could fuck shit up in the pit. Man’s gotta do, ya know ESPECIALLY when your band is that brutal.
Noisem
YES! YES! YES! I was reading something somewhere about Noisem being some sort of death thrash weirdos and they were and that’s awesome because the world needs that kind of shit, man. It needs loud and fast and fuckit with fire until the walls scream horrible freedom and Jeff Hanneman’s licks were as valid a reaction to classical tonality as a Coltrane solo and didn’t this band used to be a five piece? Gilding the lily, son. POWER (VIOLENCE) TRIOS FOR LIFE
