THIS IS HARDCORE... To Me..

There was a time in every scene big and small, old and new where things have begun to deviate from our folk tradition and culture into something that has led the world we live in to feel dirty or wrong in some ways. I hope to do my little part and bring back the aspect of the dirty word “unity”. That’s right, just like my old friend Rick Ta Life, I feel like there is a sense of division amongst bands, kids and our world is not sitting properly aligned the way it used to. I’ve always tried my best to look at someone at a show as an equal important part of the hardcore world. I’ve always tried to see my fellow bands on tour as another piece in this old puzzle. Whether or not it was the stuff I was into, I couldn’t argue or not relate to these guys who were miles from home, dirty, sweating and tired but loving every second of it the way that I did.

I type these words thinking about my first show at Gilman Street. Summer of ’99 Comin’ Correct, Dysphoria, All Bets Off with if my memory serves me Kill The Man Who Questions and Pg. 99 as well as Sworn Vengeance jumping up for songs?? Either way here I am across the country for the first time in my life staring in the eyes of guys from my home city who’ve I never had a real conversation with but being there at that moment we felt more inclined to speak then ever before. This is despite being from the same hometown, being at the same shows and why? Because I was the jerk who started silly shit at shows, got shows shut down and was a little prick and these guys were some of the most thought provoking, sensible guys in the core. I still feel and hold Mike Mckee to that level of quality. Years later and I can talk to him as an old friend because we had that moment where we forgot the nonsense that kept us from communicating at home and really just kicked it out front of Gilman Street.
I bring this memory up and its relevance to what I am trying to say about hardcore now by pointing out that I can’t think of how many shows I’ve played, booked, been to where the connection was so weak. Where the bands didn’t even watch other, where you didn’t even know whom to pay because the band shuffled in and just “did their thing”. We’re all in this thing together, whether you like to dive with your cut off shirts and shirts and think I am wigger for being in a gang and ninjakickin people when I like a song. We all took our time and money and place ourselves in the same room. Does this mean that I want everyone to start a fucking circle jerk? No, I am just saying the connection to the core is so vastly different for so many people over the stretch of the past few years that I don’t see as many bands kickin’ it unless they were already friends, or going out of their way because they know what its like to be in a band too. At This Is Hardcore I watched John Joseph (BloodClot) and Mike Score (All Out War) stand and watch the guys in Have Heart tear the place apart and then go into the back room and tell Agnostic Front about it. I saw two Philadelphia bands that never played together before close out one of the best shows, let alone weekends I’ve ever been to. I can’t tell you how great I feel about the core when I witness the dudes from RingWorm watching ColdWorld or Righteous Jams.
It reminds of the things I mentioned above. Regardless of what you wear, where you’re from or what you’re doing in your own life when you walk through the doors for a show, as a band, as a kid or the promoter the floor is level. We’re all fuckin here, we all chose this shit to ruin our eardrums and get our aggressions out. This is my motivation for another This Is Hardcore Fest. More then ever I watch as bands categorically rise with the trends and alienate one or more crowds as their success blossoms, as one crowd moves from one band, they join another band’s bandwagon. I’ve grown tired of reading the message boards with the public praise for the smallest of bands from the shittiest scenes that never put out more then a few good songs get treated like the next Hardcore Jesus.
Our world as a whole has grown larger and yet so smaller with the availability and access the internet gives us to old music that we all find our mp3 collections growing at such a rapid rate that the strength of the music, the emotional excitement of a “find” becomes more and more necessary to feed the habit and the overall impact these bands are making is weakened altogether. Sure more people are noticing more smaller lesser known bands but in a week they will have gone onto something else. Welcome to the ADHD generation as they say… Or it could be that since we’re just experiencing these bands over the Internet through a computer that the feeling of being there at that moment will never come to you. So you may be excited as hell about the addition of Starkweather’s The CrossBearer but soon after you’ve posted on every board about the greatness of the band you realize there is no time machine, that moment on that cd was then and will not be now you have to move on to the next great thing or something that someone mentioned in regards to that band. We’re growing in our knowledge of these bands but our experiences are becoming more akin to the need/greed instead of the pleasing revelation of showing up to a show to see a new band. Can’t do that, can’t watch a band you don’t know or possibly didn’t like their myspace tunes. Instead you’ll sit at home gripe about the downfall of hardcore and download hundreds of songs in a night to truly only feel the impact of a handful of songs.
So many great bands are OUT NOW. They’re screaming, sweating and bleeding for you and you’re minds have grown closed in your ability to have immediate knowledge of most things past and near present. Fuck even “future” is achievable with the invention of “leaked” CDs. The concept of going to see 5 bands and watching all 5 is an antique model for a world that is no longer around. These kids know what they want and know it so well that they’re programmed to rarely check something in person out, which is ironically so contradictive of their online life. And when we get down to it, not everyone goes to shows every single day so the argument that I am making is that the average hardcore kid spends more time online then at shows per week, thus creating the deviation from the old way of things which was to “check bands out live”. People are influenced and pay too much lip service to what they read online and never make a true evaluation for themselves in person. I’ve found out how many times a band’s myspace song or EP sucks only to fall in love with the band live. I’ve tried many a time to really enjoy Modern Life Is War records and it just falls on deaf ears to me but live they are so engaging and alive that I can’t help but enjoy them. Had I left my first judgment on their CD material, as the end all be all of what I think of them I would never realize how much I enjoy their band live. I am sure as people will read this that they will argue and make exceptions and excuses for themselves but the truth hurts and everyone always try to argue their way out of a bum rap.
The world of ours is opening up and yet the minds that drive it are closing on preconceived notions of their own good sense of judgment that I’ve proven to be maligned solely by Internet interactions with our world. This thing we do is alive. Its never something that can be with someone who’s never been to a show but downloaded everything from the bad brains to the new mongoloids in 6 months but went to 3 shows in that time. The power our world has over other music scenes is in the live show, its intensity, its collective agreement to accept the violent dancing and diving as “part of the show”. When we like a song we punch our friends, when we know a lyric we take the mic from the singer who wrote the song. These are not things someone would dare to do outside of our world. I know this is wishy washy idealistic stuff but god help me if I want to give kids one weekend of all of this greatness that has truly kept my life moving forward. Have them get sweaty and wish the band would play their favorite song so they can move. I want the kids from California to ask the kids from New Jersey where the best place to eat downtown is. I want the kids to see their favorite bands, spend their times rifling through record bins at the distros looking through for that LP they couldn’t find anywhere.
I want people to live this thing that we’ve come to spend our time, money and LOVE on. If I can get you people off of your asses, away from your computer screens (even you weirdo sidekick dudes that love to stand on the floor looking at it like you’re unimpressed by what’s going on around you) and have you make one life connection to this, one truly amazing moment that you will be able to relive in full detail 1,5 or 10 years from now it was worth it.
I am not a talented guy; I rely on the availability and the willingness of the bands to make the shows work. I am lucky that the current crop of hardcore bands have more heart then any I can recall in the past 15 years. They have more of a sense of togetherness and they’re all so god damn good live it hurts to not have a band on the bill that made an impact the last 2 years. It’s these guys that deserve it the most. They leave their lives, their aspirations aren’t to become our doctors and lawyers, they want to fill the back of a van with equipment and ride into the night heading to a town they’ve never been to and shred the place apart. They want to get on stage and have some kid from ½ way around the world take the mic sing the words and do a flip when he’s done. They’ve signed their souls away to make the world of ours continue to go around and if we can all really come together again for one more weekend and let go and just fucking enjoy ourselves the way it was truly meant to be it will all be worth it…
THIS IS HARDCORE 2008.