Tag: hardcore

Death or Glory Fest Giveaway-Guess The Mystery Headliner???

Janky Smooth Central Command May 7, 2025

Death or Glory Music & Tattoo Festival is the newest kid on the festival block and its buzz has already made a huge splash. With the very first San Diego performance of Detroit hardcore legends, Cold as Life, they are going to host a performance West Coast Hardcore Kids have dreamt about ever since the band reunited. Hosting one of hardcore’s most notoriously badass bands isn’t all that’s causing chatter in the scene though. The festival already has a diverse lineup of bands within the hardcore and hardcore punk genres, giving audiences a taste of every vibe out there today. Add a tattoo convention and San Diego Harley Davidson for the venue, and you have one of the most insane and hardcore cocktails that will ensure this fest will go down in So-Cal history. Oh but that’s not all. One of the headliners of this baby hasn’t even been revealed yet. Followers on the festival’s instagram got a sample of the fest’s lineup but came away with more questions than answers. Namely, who else is headlining Death or Glory??? Well, fans will find out eventually but if you can predict who’s going to be on the next lineup announcement in

Scowl At 1720 Sell Out The Venue But Not Their Souls

Danny Ryan September 22, 2023

One of the biggest Catch 22’s of being a punk rock fan is wanting the artists you love to succeed and reach a larger audience, while also wanting them to avoid selling out and the inevitable softening of their edge that comes with popularity. While bands that maintain a consistent sound are often doomed to become dull and uninteresting after a couple of releases, there’s always a lingering fear of bringing in new audiences that don’t “get it” when an artist experiments with new aesthetics or explores other genres. Scowl and Militarie Gun have both had some of the most talked about punk releases of the year, and their recent show at 1720 proved that neither artist has sacrificed their unruly hardcore spirits in the evolution of their sounds. While tough-guy hardcore purists may be complaining online about the alternative direction that these artists have been taking, it’s clear that they haven’t witnessed the chaotic party that Scowl creates up close in-person for themselves yet and it’s only a matter of time before everybody starts to embrace the “Psychic Dance Routine”. related: Scowl Interview- Talking Limp Bizkit, Kevin Smith and Hardcore 1720 has established itself as one of the best

Metal Injection Festival Will Conquer Orange County September 16th-17th

Rob Shepyer September 12, 2023

Having served the global extreme music underground since 2004 when they were launched by co-owners Frank Godla and Robert Pasbani, Metal Injection has become the premiere source for heavy metal and hardcore news, reviews, humor and more. To celebrate the magazine, its contributors, readers and the bands they love, Metal injection has evolved into a festival with just as much power and style as they’ve always put out. Since their inception, what’s made Metal Injection stand out from the rest of the flock is the exceptional curation and vision held by its creators and family of contributors. The very first Metal Injection Festival features that same sort of expert eye for talent and timing with two nights of metal and hardcore heavyweights, old and new. At the top of the first night’s bill, Saturday September 16th’s Observatory Orange County opening night features Max and Igor Cavalera returning to their first albums, Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation. Those who experienced their more recent Arise/Beneath the Remains tours and their Roots revival before that, know this regression in form only adds up to more volume, brutality and mosh pits because these songs, though you might not know them like the back of

Touche Amore at the Regent by Taylor Wong

Touche Amore Play 4 albums in 2 Nights at the Regent Theater.

Taylor Wong March 27, 2023

Touché Amoré brings a certain level of nostalgia for most, myself included. When I was in high school I had the chance of seeing Touché at our local teen center. They were pretty much my intro into something a little more hardcore than punk music. I was blown away. Flash forward 15 or so years and here we are- Touché Amore is headlining 2 sold out nights at the Regent Theater and playing 4 albums in their entirety. This has been a new trend with bands over the past year as they hit 10 to 20 year anniversaries. I love these kind of shows because you know what you’re going to see. So many times I’ve gone to a show and been disappointed by a set list. For the show I attended on night one they played Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me and Lament. The only thing that could have made this a better show for me, would have been trading Lament for Stage Four which was played the next night. Touché came out heavy starting out with “PSBBM” with the first song- which may be my favorite Touché song. They played straight through the first two songs then

PHOTO RECAP: Drain at 1720

Janky Smooth Central Command March 8, 2022

SOS Productions should stand for Sold Out Shows because they are on fire with their recent events, most notably Drain‘s appearance at 1720 which brought every kid and their boogie board out of the wood work to surf the crowds all night during this hardcore banger for the history books. If you’re not familiar with Drain by now, they’re one of the dopest sounding hardcore bands with a crossover edge at the moment. Their Sound and Fury set is so legendary, crowds keep trying to recreate the magic. Along with No Pressure and Ingrown, this was a night LAHC won’t soon forget. We stan for Drain here at Jankysmooth, so here are a bunch of photos from the night. Photos by: Manuel Arredondo Drain No Pressure Ingrown

Photo Recap: Madball at 1720

Janky Smooth Central Command March 8, 2020

NYHC legends Madball were in the house at 1720 and gave the entire venue a lesson in how much style and bounce you can pack into hardcore. These guys are OG’s in this game and by the sound of their set, it shows because hardcore this heavy and ass-kicking could only come from the mind and guts of a pack of guys who’ve been around the block. Accompanying the band for this show was Death Before Dishonor, Section H8 and Stone Cold Stunner. Every band’s hardness and brutality shined on this night. Check out our pics from the show: Photos by: Veronika Reinert Madball Death by Dishonor Section H8 Stone Cold Stunner

California Takeover Part Deux: Earth Crisis, Strife, and Snapcase Tear Down Teragram

Rob Shepyer March 3, 2020

90’s hardcore was a period of peaks and valleys. You had legendary bands that changed with the times but also had a few bands like Earth Crisis, that changed the face of hardcore entirely. The original California Takeover featured Earth Crisis, Strife and Snapcase and in its second installment, decades later, the same bands came together again to get a totally evolved scene slam their hardcore hearts out. related content: The Hardest So-Cal Has To Offer, Strife Plays “In This Defiance” At The Roxy The night began with Hesitation Wounds, a hardcore outlet for Touche Amore singer, Jeremy Bolm, who uses this band to scream and howl with more aggression than we’re used to seeing from him. There’s no room for sensitivity here, Hesitation Wounds does not hesitate to destroy whatever is in their sights. The turnout was good and the set was great this early in the afternoon, so we were all assured this show would only get more insane as the doomsday clocked ticked down to Earth Crisis. One of Triple B’s best bands, Magnitude, were next and of all the bands off this label that I’ve seen in my days going to hardcore shows and frequenting Sound and

Photo Recap: Toxic Holocaust at Resident

Janky Smooth Central Command December 9, 2018

Toxic Holocaust is a band that shines most as a headlining act. It’s still a treat catching them on tour with bigger bands or at fest, but the mixed crowd they bring on their own makes for a wild (and occasionally dangerous) time. Their recent performance at Resident is a perfect example of metalheads and punks losing their minds alongside each other to some of the most memorable thrash tracks released over the past decade. The night opened with SoCal crossover act Take Offense and LA heroes Scrapmetal and Parasite. Resident has earned it’s title as the (unofficial) home of metal and punk this year and I’m excited to see what acts they host in 2019. Photos by: Dillon Vaughn Toxic Holocaust Take Offense

United Kingdom, United Scene: Basement at the Hi Hat

Rob Shepyer October 17, 2018

When you listen to Basement, you hear so many different styles of rock converging into one sweeping underground sound that whether you’re into alternative, emo, or hardcore, you feel pain, pleasure, and everything in between. These young chaps from the United Kingdom call themselves melodic hardcore but hardcore is the least of what you hear if you span the Basement catalogue. They’ve recorded a song for every scene but don’t alienate anyone in those scenes. It’s no wonder all these different people came together to sell out Basement’s Hi Hat show the same day tickets were made available. Basement could draw at a much larger venue at this point so this show was something of a rare treat. related content: Nirvana Leads To Nothing… At The Regent Basement’s 2018 North American West Coast tour featured San Francisco’s Pllush as the opening band. A sweet and meaningful shoe-gaze experience, Pllush plays long, drawn out riffs that seemingly come straight from the heart. Featuring three women on strings and a guy on the kit, every member of Pllush balances a delicate sound with a mean punch. Pleasant Hill’s Elder Brother plays an emo that could’ve only been spawned in Nor Cal. It’s got chill vibrations

I was Straight Edge for a Night: Slapshot at Toxic Toast Theatre

Jonathan Reyes October 3, 2018

Hardcore shows are weird when you can’t drink. It’s like everyone’s a designated driver, people actually have money for merch, and you can see the spinning heel kicks coming. The benefits of remembering every detail of the night is that you can vividly appreciate what you’re seeing. In this case it was Slapshot at Toxic Toast Theatre in Long Beach. I went in with a lot of ideas about the band. Why do hardcore bands have more former members than The Dead? How white can a person be? I’ve never seen so much Boston represented in a band. I had to double check that it wasn’t Whitey Bulger screaming into the microphone. I also thought this is what Dropkick Murphys sound like if they weren’t awful. Jack Kelly is so pure hardcore or “haadcorr” as he pronounces it, he doesn’t want to be a role model he just wants to be, he wants to be in his band lighting up the territories. Slapshot, a band fronted by a straight edge singer in a venue that doesn’t serve alcohol feels like Superman on the sun. It’s just pure hardcore music, nothing against any hardcore shows that have alcohol but when it’s just you

GØGGS a-go-go at the Teragram Ballroom

Jonathan Reyes September 19, 2018

Is it C.F.M or Ty Segall, the Muggers, Freedom Band, Parliament? I don’t even think they know half the time. I think they show up to a venue, in this case it was The Teragram Ballroom and whoever gets the mic first decides which band is performing that night. related content: New Album Review: GØGGS is Damn Good Gravy On The Ty Segall Catalog There is one way to tell and that’s when Chris Shaw saunters over with that thousand yard stare. You know right away you’ve got GØGGS. Which is just enough time to make your peace with your teeth because the energy he infects the crowd with is fucking bonkers. It’s not often that you get a band that can be so intense but maintain the musicality they obviously work so hard on. They could easily just do the one band and call it a day. The branches of the tree of creativity that they come from stick out in so many unique ways. But they don’t let complacency tempt them into mediocrity and fans respond with pits that don’t neutralize after the first song, they keep their phones away because how could a cellphone ever capture what

Photo Recap: New Age Records 30th Anniversary at Garden Amphitheater

Janky Smooth Central Command August 31, 2018

Legendary Southern California hardcore record label New Age Records held their 30th anniversary show at Garden Amphitheatre where landmark alumni and current bands of the label played insane sets. Bands like Trial, Mouthpiece, Strife, and A Chorus of Disapproval played to name a few. New Age Records is what hardcore is all about, keeping it real, tried and true, for thirty fucking years. Here are some photos from the anniversary: Photos by: Albert Licano Trial Mouthpiece Strife Mean Season A Chorus of Disapproval Safe and Sound Countervail Drug Control Decline Crow Killer Last of the Believers One Choice Walk Proud Hellfire Trigger RedBait Collateral Damage