Anyway, I went to Guelph this weekend to see a rad show in Guelph. My wonderful friends Snake Charmer who I've had the pleasure of seeing multiple times were playing as well as The Mighty Atom, Born Wrong and Social Divorce, all of whom I have heard of a bunch but somehow avoided in concert so far. All things considered it was one of the craziest shows I've been to and I'm so happy I got to make it there after my night was almost ruined by a giant gaping asshole of a greyhound driver.
I knew the show was going to be a little wild when I walked in and saw that the room where the band was playing was pretty tiny. The drumset took up about a fifth of it, so it was going to be packed and there was no doubt in my mind that the crowd would get a little wild. This is a recipe for a memorable night as well as some serious mosh, which is something that I am all for.
Mighty Atom started things in pretty raucous fashion. They were loud and rockin' and got the crowd really stoked. Though afterward the band said they thought they had played terribly, the opposite was evident as they sounded tight and loud as fuck. They're noisy and fast with a great stage presence. To get an idea of their set picture this song in (maybe, if that) 12ft x 12ft room:
I was upstairs in the house when Born Wrong started but as soon as they did a huge rush of adrenaline shot through me. That might be hard to understand for non-punk kids, but when a band is absolutely killing it and right on the mark on a night, you can tell from the first note. As a result you get really excited because you know the rest of the set is going to be just as good and you can't wait to see it. This happened that night. I really don't think Born Wrong can sound any better than they did this past weekend, their set was perfect. Fast and aggressive, with the entire crowd going crazy. People were jumping off of the staircase onto the crowd and the band was getting just as into it as the crowd was, as the singer spent roughly 100% of the set in the middle of the mosh. I spent most of the set watching everything go down from above and can definitely feel how hard I was headbanging in my neck right now.
I had heard about Social Divorce since their inception because two of the members are also in Snake Charmer who I know very well. However, I had never seen or heard their music somehow (some friend I am, right?). It feels like I'm just repeating the same thing over and over, but holy hell did they kill. They were fast and angry with just the right amount of humour thrown into their banter to keep the crowd stoked. Not to mention absolutely ace Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys covers. They have a demo, but it definitely doesn't how tight and intense these guys are live. For example:
Snake Charmer are just something else. I can't speak with absolute certainty, but I'm fairly sure that in forming the band they took the heaviest, fastest and most pissed off hardcore and then said "Let's play heavier and faster and get more pissed". They get better with each time I see them and have parts where I just have to sit back and think "Whoa, this happening right now" and parts where I just completely lose my shit without even thinking because it just gets so intense. Having legitimately the best drummer I've ever seen play live also helps their case. They play shows around southern Ontario all the time and while they are extremely intense on-stage, they are some of the nicest, genuine and most down-to-earth people off of it, so you have no excuse to miss them. While the rest of the bands sure did whip the crowd into a fury, it was nothing compared to the absolute mayhem that happened when Snake Charmer player. There's some video from the show and it looks a little something like this:
The show got me pretty stoked and has put me on a huge hardcore kick since.
Ragin' y'all.
