Went to a show on Friday. Saw three bands in three distinctly different genres:
Violence: Danish dark synth goth rock thing with still one foot in the hardcore scene. Very unique, very creative, enjoyed it a lot.
Hexis: Very extreme harsh wall-of-noise black metal-ish hardcore sludge. Whatever that means. The sonic equivalent of being hit in the face with a sledgehammer. The stroboscopic lighting added the visual effect of a machine gun being emptied into your eyeballs.
Loma Prieta: Nearly primordial post-hardcore screamo. Well known to those in the know, severely under-appreciated otherwise.
This is how you put on a punk show. Three bands and no time to get bored because one band bleeds into the next as far as the musical stylings go. Went from "pleasantly surprised" to "completely overwhelmed" to "dissolving into the music" in the span of about four hours, all of which I can only describe as positive experiences. No feeling of wanting to leave early.
So, no, hardcore show promoter, I’m not particularly interested in a bill of six old school hardcore bands, doors open at 5pm, ending just after the last train left the station so you have to decide whether you want to see the encore (aka the one song you really wanted to hear) or actually get home without having to bop your way back to Coney Island.
Not to mention the headliner is the band that influenced the five openers so unless you’re really into these bands, they’ll start to sound awfully familiar by about the third act.
It’s the reason that Pitfest was the only festival I could really stand to be around, having such a weird (positive) eclectic line-up ranging from grimy street punk to extremely "serious" black metal and everything in between those two. There’s simply no opportunity to get bored with whatever’s going on on stage.
My sincerest apologies, dear reader, no deep thoughts on art today, but the nice compact nature of Friday’s cultural outing made me feel good about going to concerts1.
In lieu of something to chew on mentally, I hope the photos up top are correct compensation for your mental anguish.
Bigger, better thoughts next time.
Maybe.
1Not that I felt particularly bad before, but the point of the endless night of hardcore certainly still stands.