June 27 Worcester, MA – Palladium Upstairs

Reach The Sky

A Loss For Words

Reign Supreme

Cruel Hand

Smartbomb

I should start this review off by saying that I had been looking forward to this one for months, maybe years if you count how long I wished Reach the Sky would play a reunion show in Massachusetts while I was home from tour.  Reach the Sky was the band I can fully credit with getting me involved in hardcore in the first place.  To this day they are one of my all time favorite bands, so when the rumors started swirling about a possible Worcester show I had a twenty-foot expectation boner for it.  

Now, my friend Jay was the person I can credit with getting me into what has become my favorite band in the first place.  When we were a lot younger he would tell me to come to shows and I was always too busy riding bikes to ever really want to go.  That all changed when he gave me my first really awesome mix tape.  It had songs from Bane, American Nightmare, (although I think at the time they were called American nothing) Diecast, the Suicide File, and of course Reach the Sky.  I would eventually fall in love with all of these bands, but “a year and a smile” by Reach the Sky came on and I immediately understood why Jay was so adamant about them. 

That tape never left my cassette player until it finally got eaten and destroyed.  I followed this up by buying both records until those got too scratched up to listen to.  I would eventually buy them one more time (at this point RTS were no longer playing shows) until just recently I bought them for what will hopefully be the last time on iTunes. 

I can’t stress enough what this band has meant to me over the years, I had a girlfriend who wouldn’t get into my car because she was so sick of listening to Reach the Sky and Death threat.  She eventually went on to bang a bunch of random bmx dudes, so I probably should have just left her on the side of the road.  

In any case, when I was first introduced to RTS I was probably fifteen, I’m twenty four now and they might mean more to me now than they did back then. 

After a pretty long day of riding, Jay and I met up at my favorite bar in Worcester, Ralphs Diner (R.I.P. Ralph) and caught up over a few drinks.  As we were leaving the bar and heading to the show, it began to torrentially downpour.  Worcester was a fucking swimming pool by the time we got to the palladium, and we caught up with a few people outside before heading inside.

The palladium has a lot of history in Massachusetts, a lot of amazing shows have gone down there over the years.  I saw Bane there for the first time (and many subsequent times), I saw Hot Water Music with Glassjaw there once and too many random hardcore shows to count.  We filmed our first video there, upstairs, for “heroes get remembered..” and I will never forget Mat Brusso getting kicked out immediately after jumping off the high balcony,  suffice it to say a lot of really fucking rad shit has gone on there, and this would be some of the raddest shit yet.

It’s also worth mentioning that I’m pretty used to being one of the older people at shows these days, but tonight was completely different.  I was closer to the median than usual, and it was awesome to see as many people hanging out at the bar getting loose as there were.  After buying some owed beverages for some old friends, and being a little girl and buying some RTS merch right away, Smartbomb started soundchecking.

Smartbomb are rad Worcester dudes and they even have a song about Worcester so you know they fucking rule.  They play really fast, upbeat Pop punk. (Or whatever you want to call it)  Their drummer, Perkins, also plays in No Trigger and Outbreak and filled in for Set Your Goals on Warped Tour last year where he and I spent a lot of time seeing how much weed we could roll into joints and smoking them under bleachers with whatever other scoundrels would come and indulge.  People are into them, but everyone’s catching up with friends and having preemptive brews before the main event.

As they are playing people are still funneling in.  It’s already a good turnout but plenty of familiar faces keep pouring in.  I can’t help but notice how many red, white and blue “21+” wristbands there are.  I notice two vintage Shark Attack shirts and I have a huge erection for them.  

My notes say “piss #3, ‘bro-fest,’ and “this is rad as hell.”  I can’t stress enough that by the end of this show I was pretty inebriated so reading back through my notes is fucking hilarious.  I can barely even read my own writing already at this point, although I’m glad I had the foresight to keep notes as theirs no way I’d have anything other than “RTS rules I’m wasted” to write down.  It’s also hilarious how idiotic you look walking around a show with a notebook in one hand and a beer spilling everywhere in the other.

Next up was Cruel Hand.  They are from the icy north of Maine and are another awesome representative of Bridge 9.  They are doing a bunch of touring coming up and are hard as hell.  This band fucking rules, and if you haven’t scoped them out you probably should.  They have a guitar player with wicked long hair wearing a Hawaiian shirt so I was down before the first chord. I’m embarrassed by my drunken descriptions of this band.  “Hard as hell, kids get loose.”  Although, honestly that works pretty well to describe whats going on.  There were a ton of people up on the balcony and I’m surprised no ones jumped off of it yet, I suppose its because they’ll get dragged out and miss RTS if they do.  Probably a good call.  Towards the end of their set my friend kip tells me I “need to write down that the guitar player is wearing a Hawaiian shirt.” Hilarious that I beat him to it.  Great minds think alike…

Reign Supreme is up next and I’d be surprised if you haven’t already heard of these guys, they’re making a pretty good name for themselves these days and it’s totally understandable, these dudes rule.  Oddly enough they actually recorded their record in New Jersey at the same studio we’re currently recording at.  I got to meet J, who sings for them a while ago in Philadelphia and he is one of the nicest people you’re likely to meet.  His appreciation of The Starting Line and booty shorts makes him one seriously rad dude.  This band is heavy as shit and kids are going wild, its awesome to see them kill it in Worcester like this, I had heard about their live show for awhile but this is the first time I’ve gotten to see them, definitely lives up to the hype.  Still no stage dives, but I think it’s mostly because no one wants to get kicked out.  Go check out their new Record “Testing the Limits of Infinite” on Deathwis Inc, its fucking rad.

Now it’s time for our good friends in A Loss For Words.  I’ve said it before but it makes me so happy to see these dudes doing well, and tonight was no exception, tight as all hell and kids are going wild.  I jumped on a fat girls shoulders for good measure and got crushed by an even fatter dude. Shit rules. Hell yes.  I can’t forget to mention that Matty who
sings for AL4W was playing this show with a severely broken hand and a huge smile on his face.  These guys went wildly out of their way to play this show and the drives cross country, mid-tour, for this one is appreciated by everybody there.

After a couple select whiskey drinks everyone’s ready for Reach the Sky.  I put my notebook away for a bit because this is one show I need to be involved in.  I wish I had a scanner so I could show you how terrible my post-show notes were.  I have to apologize if this review sounds a little weird for me, but honestly I was like a little kid all over again.  When the lights went down I ran the risk of cumming all over everyone in the front of the room.   I had more fun than I thought I was capable of.  Ian sounded amazing, all the dudes were tight as hell, everyone was going completely fucking ape-shit.  I can’t complain about a single thing.  Everyone in the building had a grin on their face.  Even the two kids whose faces got smashed apart in the front, the smiles never left.  As fruity as it sounds, I think I counted thirty high –fives during their set.  They played every song I would have asked them to play.  My eye socket got fingered and I think whoevers filthy hand got in my skull might have given me pinkeye but I didn’t give a shit.  I haven’t headwalked more in my entire life, there are people climbing on top of people on top of people.  It was seriously awesome seeing dudes from the ages of thirteen to forty all going completely nuts with no problems at all.  No one caused any trouble because everyone was too stoked.    

When their set ended I couldn’t believe it, I would have stayed up and watched them for another four days.  If you aren’t familiar with RTS, do yourself a favor and listen to a very important band in Boston hardcore.  A lot of bands who play heavier music with pop influences owe a lot to this band, even if they might not know it.  It’s unfortunate that if you haven’t seen them before it’s unlikely they’ll play much more, but it’s still some of the best, most honest music I’ve ever heard.  

When the lights went on and everybody got kicked out, me and Jay headed back to Ralphs wasted and exhausted.  Jay broke his ankle, I had a seriously clawed apart face and was covered in bruises, but both of us fucking loved life.  Check out some pics at future-breed.com and returntothepit.com! Till next time…   

Tags: Massachusetts

Here is Josh’s first article – check it out. Lurk the shit out of him here and here.

The Carrier

I Rise

Ruiner

Final Fight

Commit

The Durrty Durrty

Jumping Ship

VFW Post 3657

Worcester, Massachusetts

I was pretty stoked for this show, iRise was just on tour with 108 and Soul Control(get into it) and this was partially their welcome home show.  I’ve been to a lot of VFW halls over the years, but I had never seen this one before.  It was buried in a part of Worcester I never really venture too, but I’m always into scoping out new venues and new parts of one of my favorite cities.

After driving aimlessly for a few hours due to some piss poor directions from my bands guitar tech I found this place nestled in between two mountains of garbage.  Well one mountain of garbage, and one enormous stack of picnic tables.  No one had really gotten there when I showed up, which isn’t a surprise.  Nobody wants to get gnarly when it’s still daylight out.  

The interior was pretty epic, it was an obnoxious purple with periwinkle trim, had a sick fireplace and disco ball.  All along the back wall were huge crests for the different military branches with swords and armor, pretty fucking sick if you ask me.  

The dude who put the show on is a fellow ginger from Worcester named Joe Who runs JNAWN booking, they booked us a few years back, and although that show was one of the sloppiest things I had ever seen, it was also a lot of fun.  

Allegedly Pull Through was originally going to play this show, however I was there at doors and they did not unless there was an alternate dimension they were in or something.

Jumping Ship started things off, kids were still slowly funneling in at this point and I couldn’t help but notice a higher amount of hot redheads than usual.  Not really that odd considering Massachusetts, and in particular Boston and Worcester are a sort of ginger spawn point.  I would put the babe to dude ratio at about 1 in 10 at this point.

Jumping Ship is a local Worcester hardcore band, and they have a song titled Moshin’ Mitch.  Take that as you will.  They played well, kids seemed pretty down, but the New England semi-circle of crossed arms was in full effect.  I was stoked that I’m going to have one horrible note stuck in my head forever from the ten minutes of feedback mid-set. Their usual singer was absent and they had a fill in who looked exactly like the guitar player from NJ band Bad Blood, he was wearing a Last Lights shirt so he had to be pretty solid.  He did a good job all things considered, and I could definitely appreciate his periodic trips to a stack of gear to read a sheet of lyrics.  Aside from sporadic two stepping from a couple twelve year olds everyone seems tentative to get loose.  One of their songs actually had a really awesome bass part, which is hard to describe but came out of nowhere and was really awesome.  The temp-singer at one point spin kicked a bunch of dudes, which was fucking awesome/hilarious.  The end of the set was pretty awkward, it seemed like they ended mid-song and no one really seemed to know what was going on.  I should note that as I’m reading back through my notes on the show I for some reason wrote “PRETTY BIG BICEPS.”  I have no idea what that is referring to, but it made me laugh reading that.

The next band up was called The durrty durrty.  I didn’t really know what was going on at any point during their set, people didn’t seem too into them a lot of heads rolled outside.  Right up front they had a small group of sexy girls in tights with nice butts.  They kept yelling spring break and then flirting with people.  They tried to entice people to move up front, ending with one of the sexier of the babes screaming “IF YOU MOVE UP I’LL SHOW YOU MY TITS!”  I obviously moved up, but it wasn’t enough and at this point in the night my vision was unfortunately free of young sweet breasts.  

You couldn’t hear the vocals at all, which made it hard to decide if I was into it or not, it seemed like any time his mouth was open you would simultaneously hear a pinch harmonic, so maybe this band was rad, I don’t really know.  I think at some point they said they are no longer going to be durrty durrty, but “Here To Stay” instead.  A couple kids were fake moshing at one point, and then stopped.  I notice a trend of kids fake moshing, which would be funnier if they actually moved around for real ever.  

I decide I’m not that into this and go outside and have a beer with my friends Jesse and Rich from last lights, Jesse was filling in on guitar for iRise on the 108 tour and they had just rolled into town.  After a short intermission I cruise back inside and hear laughter, I’m pretty bummed because from what I can make out someone ate a ton of shit while I was outside.

Next up was Commit.  They are also Worcester dudes, which automatically makes me into them from the start.  This was their final show, which is unfortunate because this band is actually really fucking awesome.  I suggest checking them out anyways, just really fast dirty hardcore.  Apparently all the dudes in the band had their parents come out since it was their last show, and it was pretty surreal being at a grimy vfw show hanging out with a large group of older people.  I definitely back this though, parents rule and its sweet that they were interested in the band.

Kids got pretty wild, first pile-ons of the night which was sweet.  The mosh got crucial for a minute.  At one point a super hot babe with a backpack on came in and started hugging everyone, I’m pretty jealous of them and nearly demand a hug for myself.  About this time some form of technical disaster strikes their bass player, forcing a really, really long pause in their set, I actually thought it might be over, but then they track down a bass to borrow and come back, even louder than before.  

After they played a few more songs some of their friends came out and started randomly playing some songs, I think it’s a joke I can’t even tell.  They call themselves “Bear Fort” which is a fucking weird name.  They sound like a fucked up version of Hammerhead.  Hammerhead is sweet, plus I think I’m an idiot and they actually called themselves “Barefoot.”  Makes way more sense now.

Round Three of Commit:  Commit is still fucking awesome.  The Barefoot kids are moshing.  The backpack blonde girl is still hot.

A bunch of kids found an awesome nook to perch on, I’m fucking jealous of them.  They look like eagles.  The kid from Bear fort punches himself in the face a bunch of times.  I laugh.  The parents seem pretty pumped, I’m pumped too.  This band rules.

I wind up standing behind two sexy girls, who must have been part of Commit’s family because they were pretty obviously not there for their love of hardcore.  They really do not get the mosh.  I wish I got their sweet butts.  The current babe ratio has increased and is at about 1:5.

Now after another brief brew-down Final Fight from Los Angeles, California come on.  They’re on Panic Records.  You can tell they’re from Cali since they’re all wearing shorts, couple shirtless dudes, some sandals.  The singer is shoe-less.  Kids seem stoked, they play a really awesome melodic and heavy as shit intro and kids move up and start to get down.  I know Australia has like a vicious hatred of my ginger brethren, so I was extra in tune with the ging and at this point there are 4 gingers moshing.  This was their last show before heading back home to LA.  VFW Post 3657 has become a breeding ground for babes.  

Vans classics are officially back, there were probably around 100 kids at the show at this point and I’d say 85 of them had black classics on.  Sick.  

Final Fight is pretty sweet, lots of sing-alongs and pumped kids.  They do an interesting cover of Oasis’ “wonderwall.”  I see my most recent introduction to the ‘row the boat’ mosh.  I got bonked pretty hard, I love it.  

Now Ruiner comes on, and if you haven’t gotten into Ruiner, kill yourself.  They’re on Bridge 9 and are fucking sick.  They’re from Baltimore, MD, which from my touring experience there is a pretty fucking hard place.  They put on a really intense live show, and sounded awesome.  Kids go ape-shit.  There are two kids in identical Bruins jerseys two stepping side by side.  I FUCKING LOVE MASSACHUSETTS.

Mid-set a girl in a skirt gets tackled, assumably by a friend since she’s laughing
wildly, and everyone gets to see her ass.  Hell yeah.  The whole building smells like farts right now, I think someone just shit in the ancient men’s room, which was definitely a mistake.  

The singer from Ruiner gives a mini-speech presong about getting older and it makes me feel old as hell.  That impacted with the average age of show go-ers nowadays makes me feel 100.

Ruiner is fucking awesome; I can’t believe the show isn’t way more blown out based on them alone.  Go listen to Ruiner.

After their set I cruised to the adjacent bar of the VFW and they have incredibly cheap beer with a viewing window to the show.  This is where things start getting a little wilder, I overhear the very old, very grizzled, bartender telling someone “white girls are prettier but for the action I’d go with a black girl.”  Only at a VFW…

Now iRise is up, they’re on 1917 records and have made quite a name for themselves in recent times.  They just wrapped up a tour with 108 and Soul Control the night before.  I may be a bit partial to this band since the drummer of my band was one of the founding members and their new guitar player and drummer are my very good friends Pat Murphy and Jesse Menard from Last Lights.  Both of them also used to be in the band Morris.  Pat also filled in for Ligiea for a bit and was also a member of Eva Braun and has been in countless really awesome bands.  They also have rad Worcester dude Chris Berg from Verse playing bass.

You can tell the show is underway since a random Goth just showed up.  The more Greek members of the band are eating feta cheese and are ready to rage.  As an aside, Nicky, who sings for iRise has been brought up to me a million times over the years as “that Greek kid with the huge dick.”  Think about it.

They play a really sweet set, if you haven’t, go listen to them.  They make Massachusetts proud.  Everyone comes inside and the show is immediately blown out.  Kids go completely nuts, everyone is being destroyed.  It is totally awesome.  See at least a dozen people annihilated.  I love that the guy booking the show was not only a ginger, but was also going apeshit.  I think they cover Soilwork, the cop that had been keeping an eye on things doesn’t look too thrilled but realizes he can’t shoot everyone so he stays quiet.  The last few songs are totally mental, I really wish there was something to jump off of.  

Now Alex K. the guitar player of iRise has some beats coming through the PA and starts rapping, apparently it’s a surprise “Applesauce” set.  In all honesty I’ve never been able to figure out if his rap side project is a joke or not, it won a Worcester music award, so I guess people are into it.  I just had another beer and listened to the loop “SUCK MY ENTIRE DICK” for like ten minutes before he finally called it quits.

Everyone filters out and for a minute it looks like The Carrier might be in for a rough night.  However, as soon as they start in with the feedback kids crawl out of the woodwork.  I have no clue where everyone came from, there might be more kids now than there were yet.  Must have had to go get a quick nicotine fix.  

The Carrier is on Deathwish Inc. and put on a sick show.  Really brutal and kids at the show fucking loved it.  The vocalist sends the whole set out to his little brother, I don’t know if it was a literal little brother or a figurative little brother, but either way it was a good set to send out.  Very well received.  

The whole place opens up and while I do see some of the grossest mosh I’ve ever laid eyes on, kids are going wild.  At one point there is a possible little kid fight, I can’t get close enough to see any youthful bloodshed though so I gave up.  

My notes here say, “Band is good.  I need beer.”  I had to leave the show early to go to Pat Murphy’s Surprise birthday party before he got there, so I missed the last few songs but it seemed like a success.  As an added note of oddness, the girl in the skirt whose ass I saw was at the party, and at one point was topless ripping a hula-hoop yelling “THIS IS FOR YOU PATRICK MURPHY.” Which ruled. Hard.  Sweet show, sweet night, sweet tits.  Happy birthday Pat, hope those bodacious boobs treated you well.

- Josh

Tags: Massachusetts