Burning Fight!

First of all, I am sorry about the massive Flickr posts on my blog. I have to go back and fix my preferences on my account. Anyways, Last weekend I flew out with two friends to Southern California for a bit of nostalgia. Several 90's hardcore bands from my childhood were getting back together for charity and the release of the book, Burning Fight. Burning Fight is an oral history of the 90's hardcore punk scene(Straight Edge and what not.) from several key perspectives of the folks involved. This of course was one of two reasons for my trip. The other being able to see my family and take some time off of from my busy schedule. I drove out to the show with my cousin, Mike, who I used to drag out to shows back in the day. The show itself was very interesting. It's been several years since I've disconnected myself from "The Hardcore Scene," a scene from which I've never felt 100% about from the beginning. I'm not going to "talk shit" about my differences with the scene. I believe that would be unfair to those who worked really hard on this book and event. I missed the opening band while i was talking with people outside. I believe it was Festival of Dead Deer. Several of my friends were really excited to see the next band: Threadbare. I think I might have seen them at the Velvet Elvis in Seattle, but I can't remember.

Technically they were pretty tight and from the looks I got from friends while they were swaying with a shit eating grin, I believe they enjoyed it. Next up was Portraits of Past. Which were more spastic and stylist then I remember. I missed the first half of their set because I was either getting food or buying another drink.

I ran in and took some pics. I headed to the merch table afterward to purchase a P.o.P. shirt and a couple of badges for my friend Shannon in Boston. Next up was by far my favorite band of the night, Undertow. One of Seattle best hardcore bands. I'm not saying that because of a possible bias. They just brought their A-game that night. Check out the video!

Seattle peeps came out of the woodwork for this set. I haven't danced like that in ages! The next two bands were Swing Kids and Unbroken from San Diego. Swing Kids was a previous band of Justin Pierson from The Locust. From what i remember this band wasn't around for that long. Maybe a year? This was by far embarrassing to watch. Justin seemed to be singing in his "insect" voice from his newer bands All Leather and the before mentioned band. Of course they were missing their original guitar player who is now no longer with us. Sadly to say his lost was felt throughout these last performances which had an uneasiness felt throughout the night. How were there two band going to pull it off?? It was a very eerie. Unbroken of course was amazing. They played all the hits. I didn't go up front for their show. I think i was too tired from bring sun drenched and full of alcohol by the end of this night. A memorable night indeed. My favorite part was at Joe's BBQ while waiting for one of the set changes. Mike and I looked at the walls of the place and noticed several concert posters of all the shows we attended while we were teens. So surreal. I almost regretted moving to Seattle. After Unbroken, I participated in several crew pictures one being Seattle and the other the I.E. crew picture.

Pictured: Jill, Felicia, Chrisy, Josh, Marc, Zach, Jason, Brandon, Me, Bobby, and Kate.