Fall is officially here...

Summer has finally come to an end and fall is here. Students have already returned to school, football season has started, days are getting shorter, and the leaves are starting to change. The last 3 months of the year have brought quite a few good shows to Nebraska with quite a bit of variety style wise. I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to write up a brief recap the summer scene as well as the upcoming shows this fall. So here it is...


The summer started off with a local hardcore band breaking up. Era played their last show early June to a good sized group of friends at the Ghost House with all local bands as support. Era's last show went really well with good crowd participation and the band sounded as good as I've ever heard them before. You can get whatever records the band has left over from Nihilism Records. In mid-June Hercules officially released their 2nd lp Moonriders to the masses playing a large release show before going on what seems to be never ending tours. Second press of Moonriders on green vinyl should still be available via Nihilism Records. In other release news this summer, power violence heshers Hominoid, and party core extraordinaires Highdive both released demo tapes this year (click band name to buy). Earlier in the summer, Clean Sweep and Velawsa Rapture also released good cd-r demos that is worth checking out. Math rockers Techlepathy have a brand new disc out as well on the legendary (to me) local label Speed! Nebraska. These guys are good so check them out. This summer I also got to see a few new local bands: skate-rockers Deadtread, the old styled Chopping Block, Pop-punkers Hoof Hearted and Thunderbolts, and the blackened Vermin all played out for the 1st time this summer to good crowd responses. Expect to see recorded material from these bands soon. My local favorites, Wasteoid played out quite a bit this summer, and I've heard rumors of new recorded material could be coming out sometime in the near future.

Robots Don't Cry brought the summer to a close with a reunion/final show. Robots Don't Cry's entire set was recorded, so I'm sure this recording will surface sometime in the near future, so keep your ears open for that. In other local news, OLD schoolers, Cordial Spew have been playing shows here and there throughout Omaha. These guys originally started in the late-80's and play a skatepunk style of hardcore that is a lot of fun to see, especially coming from dudes who are your parents age. Finally, Lincoln screamo band Ghost Towns officially have their posthumous split 7" w/ Lautrec for everyone to check out. Bringing an end to the summer, Box Awesome in Lincoln has closed it's doors and will serve as a teen dance hall that will no longer feature live hardcore shows. It's always sad to see places to play go away, R.I.P. For the national acts, just about every show this summer was awesome. MDC, Foundation, and Cruel Hand all really stood out. I'm glad some bands still think of middle America when they plan out their tours. I'd like to give big shout out to the promoters: Accidental Therapy & and Black Heart Booking, and houses: Ghost House, The Manor, The Milhouse, and 12 Deep House along with everyone else who has helped at all the shows, we'd have nothing without you.


The fall show lineups are slowing taking shape. So far Soul Control and Rotting Out will be rolling into town September 25th playing Ghost House with local support from Hercules, and Clean Sweep. Forfeit will be returning to Nebraska for the 3rd time to play Ghost House on October 5th with Backtrack. I expect to see the mosh brought again for this show. Death Before Dishonor will return to Omaha bringing Steel Nation to play the floor of Mosaic in late October. I missed them the first time through earlier this summer so I'm pretty excited to get a second chance to see them this year. Melodic hardcore favorites Strike Anywhere will be in town this month with Ruiner as well. For all the local hardcore show listings, check out the Nebraska Hardcore Myspace for all the upcoming show info. It's updated regularly so be sure to check it often.


Here at the Crucial Changes HQ things have been on a steady pace. Soon (more than likely tomorrow), I want to talk about all the classic hardcore albums that have received official re-pressings recently and where you can buy them. Very soon, another installment of local demo downloads is going to be up sometime this month. It seems like lots of new bands are popping up, so be on the lookout for some new local music. I'd also would like to get in an long over due local spotlight (sorry I've been so lazy on those). In mid-October I'll be taking my 2nd hardcore road trip of the year to Chicago to see the almighty Cro-Mags and the recently active Marauder are playing the final Jim Grimes promoted show with awesome local Chicago hardcore bands playing as support. I'm really excited for this show, and hopefully I'll be able to get a good vantage point to take some good action shots. Expect to see a full show review as well as a travel story with special photos. That is it for now, more local hardcore news and adventures will be posted as they happen. Peace.

-Keith