Tag: hardcore
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The Hardest So-Cal Has to Offer, Strife Plays “In This Defiance” at The Roxy
Rob Shepyer
August 27, 2018
Southern California has always been a hotbed for hardcore punk from Black Flag to The Circle Jerks but carrying on the torch into the 90’s was a band from Thousand Oaks, California called Strife. Exhibiting that classic straight edge, beat down character, Strife was a band that from the get go, had the feel like they belonged on a stage with a pit belonging right in front of them. Their second album, In This Defiance, with its many guest appearances by Dino Cazares, Chino Mareno, and Igor Cavalera, became the band’s definitive album. They were a band that could get hardcore kids to dog-pile and sing together songs so undeniably powerful and demanding of an audience, that they became essential to the Southern California hardcore canon. related content: For The Children 2017 At The Echoplex: Hardcore Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving Strife’s impact resonated beyond their sound though. Each band that would perform on this evening at The Roxy had a connection to the band. Beginning first with Fixation from Philadelphia, who even though are in the early stages of their career, played a set that was cohesive and powerful enough to make you envision a long and
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New Song Premiere: The Dividing Line – “Deadbeat”
Janky Smooth Central Command
August 20, 2018
We all know that special someone that drags down the group and sometimes those people need to learn their lesson the hard way, or rather in this case, the hardcore way. if there was ever a song to get someone to reform there ways it would be The Dividing Line‘s “Deadbeat”. New Age Records’ The Dividing Line create some of the most aggressive and unhinged hardcore you can hear in 2018 and their latest banger “Deadbeat” brings the pain on every level. The slam dance part is crushing and filled with plenty of bounce for you to get those punches and kicks flying. This is the kind of confrontational songwriting that gave hardcore it’s reputation as both music with balls and music for the people by the people about real shit. The Dividing Line just finished recording their 7″ to be released on New Age Records in late summer 2018 called Turn my Back on the World.
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Beast from the East: Sand at Toxic Toast Theatre
Rob Shepyer
July 30, 2018
There are the kinds of music nerds that collect the vinyl albums of their favorite bands and then there are the kinds that sift through the Japanese imports section looking for new favorites. Japan has always been one of the best countries to make hardcore music whether it be bands like Stalin or Loyal to the Grave or my favorite of the lot: Sand. Conceptually, Sand represents an original idea that transcends hardcore in that it makes you rethink the use of language in music. They’re a Japanese band that sings in broken English. They could just sing in Japanese but that would miss the point they’re aiming for. A foreigner might not know your language well but chances are the way he expresses it will bring new meaning to the words. Such is the case when Sand performs songs like “Poser” with unforgettable lyrics like these: Your lyrics sound like an ethics class book. A model father. Sundays in church. A Bible reading pig. I’m gonna puke. DIE! All sounds phony. What a fucking scam. Your lyrics sound like some kid slamming down cheap beers, bragging like he’s been through hell. Then through the filter of a thick Japanese
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