(A) Local Love of Violence
You wouldn’t think anything of The Warehouse by its exterior, a plain, grey facade embellished only by a garage door. You especially wouldn’t think of anything of it if, like me, you arrived ten minutes late and everyone had moved inside. The only thing that gave away that anything was out of the ordinary was an unusual number of cars parked on the street and the dull roar of guitars as I approached the building. I entered at the unfortunate end of Mutually Assured Destruction’s set, a set, which based on previous experience, I expected to be very good. To my surprise, it was a packed house. I’d seen Integrity, Backtrack, Youth of Today, and Judge all at the Warehouse and none had been this crowded, let alone at the very start. Sure, the bill had some big names, Never Ending Game and Trail of Lies, but the majority, M.A.D., Bracewar, Division of Mind, are local acts. Something I have noticed over the past couple years is that, when dealing with mid-sized venues, a local act will almost always outperform outsiders, even if the crowd is smaller, the energy is larger.
M.A.D. finished, the lights turned on, and the room was filled with the blast of electronic music. I milled about to the merch tables, eagerly hoping to spot a Bracewar shirt, preferably with some fat anime tiddies on it. I was shaken to see no Bracewar, no garish graphics hinting at the meathead, scumbag chic I associate with the group. A few minutes later, Never Ending Game began their set. Unlike half the shows I see where I have never heard of the opener, I actually was familiar with N.E.G. and had relatively high expectations. I am happy to say they exceeded expectations. Bodies were flying, the crowd pulsated with feral energy, the chant of lyrics was like that of an angry mob.
God Forgives
N.E.G. Don’t
Towards the end of N.E.G.’s set, vocalist Mikey took a moment to shout-out all the other bands in attendance, M.A.D., T.O.L., D.O.M., no mention of Bracewar, I was crestfallen. Still, the show must go on. And go on it did. I’ll admit. I can dig Trail of Lies, but it doesn’t impress me. Still, spending their set towards the front watching the dude with shoulder length, unwashed hair and gauges duke it out with the guy in full FTP and basketball shorts for twenty some minutes was very, very entertaining. The set ended with all the violence and energy I had come to expect of the evening.
The lights came on one last time, I happened to notice the constant blast of electronic music was actually coming from a live DJ tucked in the back of the room. Moments later, the room started to gradually fill with an odd stench, followed shortly thereafter by a steadily growing cloud of smoke. The lights went out, the room was red, the crowd moved close, closer than I would expect. I was proven right within minutes when the mass of flying bodies pushed the crowd back several feet to safety. With every song, every breakdown, the animalistic frenzy grew, half the crowd had become acrobats, my throat was raw from barking lyrics. D.O.M.’s vocalist Lee between songs ordered that we treat the rest of the night as if there would be no recordings, no digital memory, we would live the experience and then it would never happen again. And live it we did.
D.O.M. was the first hardcore act I ever saw. It was at Lil Ugly Mane’s birthday show, I didn’t know what to expect. At the time, my idea of hardcore was still Minor Threat and Black Flag. Nowhere in that idea was someone twice my size barreling into me on the first chord, a friend with a heart condition temporarily losing sight, and several broken noses. That night, I hated what I saw. Since then I, like the rest of Richmond, have come to love the violence.
If you are even remotely intrigued by anything in this article, I would heartily recommend you give the bands a look. Both Division of Mind and Never Ending Game have LPs on Triple B records as well as Mutually Assured Destruction having an EP on Vinyl Conflict.
