Wow... I haven't been to a hardcore show in a while... I forgot how out of control they tended to get.

The days events started at 2pm and the bill had eight national bands. Unfortunately I didn't know that doors were so early and I missed the first six. The crowd seemed to be around 300 strong and the majority of them had to be under 21. Aaaaanyway.

I was greeted by the San Fran based band Animosity. They were a wild bunch. At the start of their set they invited everyone in the crowd to join them on the stagem which is a big no-no at Jaxx, but luckily the hardcore crowd didn't seem to be in the mood for this band. Animosity reminded me a lot of The Red Chord mixed with Between the Buried and Me. The bands frontman was a complete psycho, but held pretty firm to what you would expect. Screaming, growling, yadda-yadda-yadda... The bands two guitar players were very much the contrast. One of em was incredibly subdued and chill, while the other one seemed to be a very angry individual. The large bloody wound in the center of his head didn't make him seem so civil. The guitar duo played flawlessly, ripping throught scales and incrediobly whacky time signature changes. The drummer was fuckin' awesome to watch as well. It was as if the whole set was a drum solo. The bass player was a danderous fellow, indeed. At least a dozen times he nearly knocked the hell out of a person in the front row with the headstock of his axe. But he wasn't just all flash. He had serious chops. He danced all over the fretboard inverting his hands, doing taps and pulloffs and every once and a while he would break out into slapping and popping. Overall the hardcore crowd didn't really seem swayed by the brilliance of this band and they stood there waiting with their arms folded. The only time the crowd got bonkers was dudring the last minute of the last song in which some dude decided to volunteer to be the launchpad, when he got down on his hands and knees and let people blast up into the air at the stage. Oh well, I don't care if they liked Animosity. I sure as hell did! I rate em 9 out of 10.

When Bury Your Dead took the stage, the whole mood of the venue shifted. It became instantly volotile. The violence of the hardcore scene hung heavily in the air. The band was a whirling dervish during the whole set, constantly on the move. I seriously wonder if the whole band had done some lines of coke before the set. Either way, taking photos was a serious challenge... I found it very difficult to get shots of them because they were so animated and the fact that I had to be on the lookout behind me, as not to get assaulted, made the task of pictures that much harder. The band was tight and the music was simple. No flash here. Just aggression. The singer spent a lot of time bounding from speaker to speaker and letting the crowd sing into the mic with him. The singer did his part in getting the fans worked into a frenzy and the stagediving was a little out of control. There were more than a few times that band members got hammered by bodies flying out of the crowd onto the stage. When the set had started the floor was pretty much full, but as the show wore on, many of the people decided to head to the bars around the room because the higher ground was just the safer place to be. During the last song in which the vocals were, "Bury your fucking dead!" The floor of the club erupted and dozens of bodies were launching at the singer and when they would hit their target they would attack the singer and try to take his mic while they were screaming along with him... It litterally looked like the club as a whole was trying to kill him, but since he just went with it, I'm guessing this is how they end their shows. I rate these guys as an 8 out of 10. They did what they do and they did it well.

Here is my editorial on the whole event. I found it odd that at a place that has a strict no "stage diving" policy, was not getting on the bands asses to make them chill these people the hell out. I was very disappointed that both bands I saw were inviting people to act like this and disrespecting the club. I wonder what these bands are thinking when they do this. Does it make any sense to piss off the club so they can look "hard"? If I was the owner of a club and this shit was going on, I sure as hell would let the bands know that they weren't going to be invited back. Considering that this show had eight national level bands and they only drew about 300 people, I would say that these bands don't have the financial power to afford to act as they did. Yeah, a band like Pantera could get away with it, but Pantera could sell out any venue. Ok. There's my grumpy old man rant.

In my next report I hope to give you the scoop on the Behemoth show tonight! Stay tuned.

Go to the BGR gallery (CLICK HERE) and check out my pics from last night's the show.

BE SURE to check out our friends at JAXX NIGHTCLUB! www.jaxxroxx.com

If you would like to attend a Jaxx show please let me know. I might be able to drag you along with me.

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And oh yeah...

Peace and Metal Grease!

berube