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Hello readers and friends alike, thank you for reading! I am writing to you this Thursday morning with more energy than usual. As of late, I am beat by this point in the week and struggling to get my thoughts into writing. I guess there is somewhat of a struggle that still exists today cos I’m not really writing about a record, but a handful of bands I just saw live over the weekend. To get us going, I wanted to mention that we now have the DELCO MF’s 7” I wrote about last week in stock NOW! This band fucking rules, seriously. Their live performance is so damn good. Non-stop hardcore action. I saw them live a few weeks ago, which is why I wrote about them. I caught them again at the fest this past weekend, and they were even better. They played at like 2 in the morning too, and still completely annihilated. I would be so tired and trashed by 2AM, there is no way I could’ve held it down like that. I can’t wait to see them again and hear what they release next.
Going along with this theme, I thought I’d write about the bands that really stood out to me at the fest. All the bands that played ‘Something To Talk About’ were legit good, and each day was fully stacked. Unfortunately, I did miss a few killer bands like ICD 10 and MUJERES PODRIDAS. I was beyond excited to have played the same bill as HORRENDOUS 3D. This band was unbelievably good. I have never seen a band play like this before in real life. They are so fast, in the crashing not blasting fashion. The guitar tone is harsh as fuck, ahhhhh... I heard they will be touring down the East Coast later this year with FUCKIN LOVERS!!! I really hope I can catch them or even bring them to N.C. Now I’ve seen FUCKIN LOVERS a fair amount of times, but they played a top-notch set at the Friday after show. It was the best I’ve ever seen them, easily. The tone was perfect, the drums were loud AND fast. It sounded like a GAI flexi or something. I really could not get enough.
Backing up a bit, the first night YDI played. I am not a big YDI fan. I think I have that reissue 12," but I was still excited to witness these Philly legends. I think only the vocalist is OG? Nonetheless, the band was excellent. Even the newer songs were pretty cool. I was worried they would completely suck, haha. Before they played, some friends and I were hanging in a back corner and noticed this guy with a huge Freddy Krueger glove on sitting all alone.. I wondered who let this mofo into the club with that thing on? Turns out it was the vocalist of YDI, Jackal. He also wore a plastic mask/helmet that had mohawk spikes on it. Pretty ridiculous haha. This same night, SCALPLE tore the fucking club up. Jesus. I had never seen them before, so I had no idea what to expect. They were certainly one of the best performances of the entire fest. I can’t wait to see them again. Right before they played was RAT-NIP. We had their EP before in the shop but foolishly I had never heard their stuff before, so I really had no idea what to expect. I quickly noticed RAT-NIP had the same drummer of BLOOD PRESSURE, so I got excited to see them after the realization. Their songs and performance were excellent. The band reminded me of POISON IDEA. They stood out a ton at the fest to me, and I would certainly drive up to 6 hours just to watch them again.
Moving onto Friday, the bill was overflowing with excellent bands. My boys RECKONING FORCE opened up the evening. It’s always good to gig it up with the homies, and these mofos are never a let-down live. Looks like they’re on like the fourth fucking pressing of their LP? If you’ve been sleeping, better grab one before it goes out of print! YAMBAG from Cleveland played a few slots after. This is a name I kept hearing around, and after I saw them, I understood why. This band ripped, totally full of raw energy. Seriously great band to see. Before SAVAGEHEADS took the night away, it was QUARANTINE. If you read my Staff Picks at all, you probably know I am a QUARANTINE fanatic. If you missed it, here’s a link to the fanzine I did when their LP came out. I’ve seen them three times now I think? And they punished the crowd at the show. Certainly the best I’ve seen them. Totally locked-in, and they played a new song! Hell yes. Word is they will do an LP sometime again, and I cannot wait. Does SAVAGEHEADS even need a write-up? Insanely good band. In every way. They also played an encore that consisted of a song played previously in set being played yet again, haha. The crowd still loved it. I wonder how many people even realized. It’s a shame about their LP pressing being totally fucked. The world is gunna eat that shit up once it’s finally out.
AMMO played the same after show as DELCO MFs on Friday night. I briefly checked out their debut 12" after Daniel dubbed it ‘Record of the Week’ a few weeks ago. While the recording didn’t really stick with me, their live set 100% did. It was 100% fucking hardcore. Non-stop, just like DELCO MF’s. We heavily stocked this record when it was released, but it has since sold out. However, I will still leave you with a link to grab one, cos we have a nice stack of restocks on the way. If you missed out and don’t wanna keep religiously checking the page, you can always enter your e-mail address on the link I just dropped and you will get an e-mail automatically when it is back in stock! Fun fact: AMMO and DELCO MF’s both had the same style encore as SAVAGEHEADS, haha hell yeah.
To finish off, I guess I will talk a bit about my band SCARECROW. If you didn’t know and care, Daniel and Jeff from Sorry State are also in this band. I was really happy to have played Jim’s fest in Philly. Jim is solid as fuck and I can’t thank him (and Amy!!!) enough for everything they have done for us. I love you guys. Soon SCARECROW will travel up north again to play the fest in NYC, and very soon after that we will embark on our month-long European tour. We have a new EP that will be released in the next week on my label with Jeff, and you can check out some of it here if you’d like. Alright, that is all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone for the support! Peace!