Ward 6 is the coolest venue Tucson’s had in a hot minute. Only months old, its single, brown-tiled room, its walls covered in B-movie glory and DIY sound-proofing, has hosted a myriad of events and genres. Despite that variety, hardcore and metal are the currency of this space, and on June 28th Ward 6 was knee deep in that richness.
A mashup of hardcore from California courtesy of Absence of Mine and Scowl, grind from Arizona’s own Languish, all capped with death metal from Massachusetts’s Fuming Mouth and Texas’s Creeping Death. Scowl’s brief set was a jagged blur of raw punk rock, opening the evening proper with just the right dose of savagery. Absence of Mine, likely the evening’s most broadly anticipated act, followed with their alt-rock infused hardcore, fresh from their newest album Smile! Aren’t You Happy?. Mixed with their older, heavier-flavored material, AOM slaughtered Ward 6 with their eclectic set and palpable energy.
Scowl
Absence of Mine
Languish
Languish, following the release of their insane debut album Unworthy last year, raised the iron curtain on the night with their rumbling, monstrous grindcore. Fuming Mouth, a personal favorite, carried the molten torch on with their own serrated, hardcore-flecked death metal. Their feral set boasted selections from their earlier, brutal demos, and their vast, relentless Triple-B Records debut album, The Grand Descent. Creeping Death closed the evening like a guillotine to the head, their brute force metal crushing all in its path.
Creeping Death
Fuming Mouth
Don’t take my word for it though, let Pablo Vigueras’s excellent photography do the heavy visual lifting.
