Show Pics - Seahaven, Supersonic Piss, Gag Reflex, The Fucking Party - 4/24/11 @ The Sandbox

 Seahaven

 

Supersonic Piss

 

Gag Reflex

 

The Fucking Party

Show Pics - Anal Cunt, + loads of locals - 4/23/11 @ The Sandbox

Anal Cunt

 

Wasteoid Vs. Acid Mouth

 

Hominoid

 

Wooden Coat

 

Tiger Blowjob

Agitate (MN)

Show Pics - Lightning Bolt, Ties - 4/5/11 @ The Waiting Room

 Lightning Bolt

Ties

New York Travel Story Pt.3

I woke up fairly early on Sunday morning to sharp pains in my right knee and hip from the previous nights attending the shows.  I would also notice that Andrew didn't make it in again from the night before.  That is too bad because I wish I could have spent more time with him than just a few hours on Friday afternoon.  Kenneth was still sound asleep, so I quietly made some coffee and cleaned up Andrew's apartment and did the dishes before we set out on a final day in the city, albeit as a tourist.  To anyone who is staying at someone place while traveling, doing something as small as doing the dishes as a way to show gratitude goes a long way.  Don't be an asshole.  By 11ish everyone was up and pretty much ready to head out.  On the way over to Liberty Island we decided to drive over the Brooklyn Bridge.  A note to tourist:  getting on and off this bridge can be quite confusing and awkward.  For some reason, the city planners didn't think of a good way to build on and off ramps to this bridge.  My advise would be to park and walk it instead of driving on it if you want to check the famous bridge out.  Eventually we would make it down to Battery Park, but we then ran into a serious problem... parking.  After driving around for maybe half an hour we eventually found a garage to park in.  The thing that pissed me off most about finding the place was that a cop was too lazy to mention that off-street parking was close by.  Whatever, we got a spot and walked over the super long ass line to get unto the ferry that stretched from the water all the way to the street.  Before I got in line I had to piss so I walked over to the public restroom.  There is always something super fucked up happening in public restrooms in major cities, and this one lived up to the expectations.  As I walked in, some dude in the stalls was dropping all kinds of bottles of something and then nervously walking out.  He was probably shooting some junk or some shit.  I had drank too much coffee and I had to piss badly so I can easily overlook some sketch and walked over to the end urinal and took a piss like any normal person would.  About halfway through my piss, a small Asian guy walked right up to the next stall over to piss as well.  Immediately I thought this was weird since normally, dudes don't piss side by side if other spots are available.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see this small Asian man looking around the stall divider at my dick.  Like I said I had to piss badly, so it was taking longer than I wanted it to especially for the situation.  I listened while he pissed and heard he was done.  But instead of zipping up and leaving he kept looking.  So in my mind I though, fuck it, take a long look creepy man, too bad you peeped someone with the Irish curse, take a long look.  After I was done, I zipped up and left without saying a word or even acknowledging anything was happening and found my place back in line.  Back in line, everything was moving slow as fuck.  This is because in our post 9/11 world, if you want to go anywhere you have to first go though airport style security.  I would say after about an hour and a half of waiting in ling and ignoring the vendors and sidewalk performers we were on the ferry to Liberty Island.  It was a mild day maybe of 40 degrees, but sunny, and not windy at all.  A good day to be out on the water.  We chilled on the back lower deck and watched Manhattan island get smaller and smaller as we ventured out, standing by two kids for some reason smelled like sausage.  It was pretty damn funny.  After a 5-10 minute ride we were unloading like cattle onto Liberty Island and decided to walk around the statue clockwise to avoid all the tourists.  After a couple photo snaps we walked into the gift shop.  Oh yes, the Liberty Island gift shop and what a joke it is.  If you ever want to experience the most fake, canned, and embarrassing presentation of Americana, just go to the Liberty Island gift shop.  Not only was there all things red white and blue up the ass, but they were blasting some bullshit USA #1 pop-country.  It took about a full 3 seconds to turn around and get the fuck out of there.  By this point we were pretty damn hungry, but the cafe was super full of people so we said fuck it and waiting to catch a ferry to Ellis Island.  Ellis Island to me as well as many Americans is a special place.  For many of us, it is the place where my family heritage as Americans began.  Ellis Island was left to ruin before being restored in the early-80's and I am glad that it had been.  The museum is really nice, allowing visitors to access their records to piece together family heritage.  It is something I would like to do in the future when I have more time.  The cafe here was much less congested because everyone ate on Liberty Island.  They even offer a veggie burger for those with an alternative diet.  I got a coffee and went out to the patio area facing New York City.  For some reason, there wasn't anyone out on the patio but because of that it was super quiet and relaxing.  Out of everything I had done and seen on my short trip, this moment was the most relaxing and enjoyable for me.  Being around so many people had really put me into a hyper mode of environmental awareness, but to have a moment to sit down in quiet with a spectacular view of the city was quite nice.  After a short while we caught the ferry back to Battery Park and by that time it was getting close enough for me to head to the airport to catch my flight home.  The drive from Battery Park to La Guardia was pretty shitty as far as traffic goes, but we eventually made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  On the way there there is a huge cemetery with very tall headstones that mimmic the city skyline in the distance that was striking.  At the airport I gave Kenneth much thanks for hanging out the whole time and driving everywhere.  I would have had a pretty stressful time getting around and seeing things without him.  Surprisingly I was able to get through airport security much more quickly than I ever could have imagined for New York City, especially for wearing the same dirty clothes that stunk like beer and piss, and not combing my hair or shaving the whole trip.  The flight back to Omaha went just long enough for me to finish the book I started reading on the first flight out, and was happy to be back home.  My trip to New York ended up being well beyond my expectations for what I expected to do while I was there and it was a great time.  I wouldn't mind going back to see all the touristy spots like the museums and such and possibly catch more punk shows, just not anytime soon.  

New York Travel Story Pt.2

I woke up early Saturday morning and checked on the nerd to see what shows were happening that day.  I knew ahead of time that the Sick Of It All 25th Anniversary show was happening that day, as well as an Urban Waste reunion with a ton of other bands, and the OFF! show in Lower Manhattan.  As I would have assumed, the SOIA show was well sold out by the day of the event, and the Urban Waste show had over 13 bands playing, starting at 1pm.  Attending that show would pretty much be the day right there.  So we decided to check out OFF! show but it didn't start until later in the afternoon.  Kenneth had rented a bad ass V Dub for the weekend, and had a GPS, so we decided to do what most people would think is unthinkable... let's drive over and spend the day in Manhattan.  Lucky for us the traffic on Saturday isn't nearly as bad and there are less people milling about since most business down in the Financial District were closed.  So fuck it, we jumped into the car and drove over there to find something to do for the day.  It was a sunny day, but still cold and windy barely above 30 degrees.  Walking around we saw many of the iconic buildings that are famous worldwide:  The Chrysler building with it's jutting gargoyles, Union Station with it's elevated roadway, and the huge public library with tons of people just chilling on the steps.  After walking around and people watching the tourists we decided to go up to the top of the Empire State Building.  Outside of the famous skyscraper, people work on the street that sell admission tickets to get to the top as well as ferry tickets out to Liberty Island as a group purchase at a discount.  To anyone who has never been to New York as a tourist, take advantage of these kind of tickets.  Because we bought our tickets down on the street, we were able to bypass the ticket window inside the building and go straight to security.  THis had to have saved us well over an hour after seeing that the ticket line was long as fuck.  Less than twenty minutes later we were up on top of the Empire State Building along with the rest of the tourists.  At 86 stories up you have full view of the entire area.  To the North you can see past Central Park into Harlem, the East you can view all of Brooklyn and Queens, to the South, you can see Downtown Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge, all of Lower Manhattan's Financial District, as well as the Statue Of Liberty.  And to the West... dirty ass New Jersey!  Yeah, not too many people over on the west side, but hey, you can see Madison Square Garden down there, and the subway railyard.  Before I left on my trip I promised people that I wouldn't be doing any of the touristy stuff, but after going up to the top of the building I was glad that I did and was looking forward to going out to Liberty Island the following day.  We decided to just walk around midtown Manhattan the rest of the afternoon spotting many of the well known places along Broadway and the Fashion District.  After a quick bite to eat we headed back to Brooklyn to get ready for the OFF! show.  Surprisingly we were able to find a parking spot on the street just around the corner of the venue.  We had to wait outside for what seemed like an hour with maybe only 20 other people.  Once doors open, we were able to get a ticket without any problems and chilled in the venue as people slowly filtered in.  At the time of doors open, there wasn't many people there at all and we though, holy shit! everyone must be at the SOIA show because early on it looked like only a few people were attending this show.  The venue its self was way over the top in the truest rocker venue fashion:  fairly large stage, a very large standing area, a band seating area off to the side way up high, and insanely loud sound system with speakers lined all around the walls, 2 bars (none in which had any non-alcoholic drinks), and smoke and laser machines!  I would later find out that a lot of rave style shows happen at this venue.  Eventually more and more people started to show up.  Here is the show review: 

OFF!  photo courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

Kenneth and I waited in a small seating area and people watched as show goers eventually found their way inside.  OFF!  features vocalist Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame, so loads of older people showed up for this one.  I even spotted a few guys walking with canes, it was a pretty interesting sight.  Trash Talk was also playing with OFF! on their current tour, and they brought in a lot of hardcore kids between the ages of 18-21.  SO yeah this was an interesting pairing for for a hardcore show.  Also mixed in was what I would assume would be the rockers who live in the city with their pointy shoes, and patched out jean jackets.  There was also a good variety of super trashy looking girls who looked like they just got off the dancing pole.  It was unreal... lingerie as attire, complete with ass cheeks all hanging out, and tossed hair.  This is the kind of show goer that only New York could offer, and I loved it.  The first band of the night finally played and they were a young local group that although played really loud and fairly tight, had a pretty boring sound style.  They did however have an interesting front man, who was an artsy black guy with a dangly feather ear ring similar to what Mr.T wears.  He was super energetic and jumped down into the audience to slam up front with the young kids who knew of them.  Not bad for an opening act.  Trash Talk played second, and by this point in the show it was getting pretty packed up front, and I decided to move up closer to check out the show.  I've seen Trash Talk Three times in the last six months so, I wasn't too excited to see them again, but they are a good live band.  Trash Talk did indeed live up to their reputation on stage playing tightly.  The kids went off hard for these guys with loads of dives everywhere and some rough moshing up front.  Note to stage divers:  dive into a direction where people are.  I had to save some idiot from breaking his neck by catching him... well, more like re-directing him into people.  After this happening a couple more times, I snuck over to the other side of the stage without getting hit somehow.  By the end of Trash Talks set, they were climbing all over the bars, and back merch area.  It was pretty cool set, and the audience cheered in between songs loudly.  OFF! soon later set up quickly and by this point there wasn't much standing room at all, not even in the pit... a packed house.  I have have read on the nerd before the show about how lame OFF! is by having their albums released on VICE records, and etc., some pretty petty shit.  But to all the naysayers out there:  This band can fucking PLAY!  OFF! has managed to take the classic First Four Years-era Black Flag sound adding a few modern twists resulting in powerful mid-paced punk.  Throughout the set, lots of older show goers were stage diving and even a few girls took a leap or two during the set.  It was a sight to be seen with the mix of people up front who had an age difference of more than two decades between them. The pit area was more of a wave that would surge all the though the venue, so I found a good spot to stand next to a support beam where I could watch and still have space while everyone was beating the shit out of each other.  By the end of the set I was very happy we chose to check out this show over the others that night.  It would be safe to say that OFF!  played the best set out of all the bands I saw the entire weekend.  Defiantly check these guys out if you ever get a chance.  After the show we headed back to Brooklyn exhausted and hungry.  We ate leftover Chinese food and listened to HOT97, the legendary rap radio station in New York that didn't live up to my expectations at all by playing top 40 pop rap tunes.  The next and final day of my trip we would check out Liberty Island.

New York Travel Story Pt.1

Tear It Up have been one of my favorite hardcore bands all-time yet alone for the early 2000's when the band was active.  Unfortunately, the band broke up during a period in my life when I didn't have the funds nor a reliable car to travel to see them play when they toured within 500 miles of Omaha.  For the longest time, I figured that Tear It Up would be solidified in the long column of:  "Could have see them, but wasn't able to" list, along with other great punk bands that never toured to Nebraska during the late 90's/early 2000's.  Now fast forward eight years later to 2011.  Six Feet Under Records announced after some talks, a re-release of Tear It Up's classic lp Nothing To Nothing.  To "celebrate" the re-release of this record Tear It Up announced two reunion shows in New York and New Jersey at the end of March.  Tickets went for sale online in early January, and figuring that I rarely get second chances to see a band I loved, I decided to scoop up a couple of tickets and travel out to see the show.  Here's the story...


Andrew is a former band mate of mine who currently lives in Brooklyn.  So I emailed him asking if I bought him a ticket to the Tear It Up show, I could stay at his place for the weekend.  He agreed, and I soon bought my plane ticket and got everything ready to go.  After a wait of nearly 3 months, the day was approaching to when I was about to fly out to New York, a city I've only driven through briefly in the past.  That being said, I had no idea what to expect of the city.  A couple days before I was to leave, Andrew wrote me an email telling me how sketchy his neighborhood is and etc., so I was feeling the anxiety.  I was smart enough to take a direct flight from Omaha, to La Guardia and only within a few hours I was landing in New York.  It was going to be a chilly weekend and there was some snow on the ground still from that morning.  Getting a cab, I told the driver to go to Bed-Stuy, the neighborhood I was saying in.  Not many people must be taking cabs from La Guardia to Bed-Stuy, because the cabbie ad no idea how to get there.  Lucky for me, I knew the exact address and we eventually found were I had to go via GPS.  On the way there, I received a text from my friend saying that he though I would be flying in at 11pm instead of am, and he wasn't going to be home.  Luckily for me he had hidden a key outside for me to get into his apartment.  After surprisingly only a 20 minute drive, I was dropped off outside my friends apartment only having to pay a small cab fare.  The particular street Andrew lives on is like those you see on TV with the brownstone style row houses.  After finding the key, I let myself in to find out that my friend has a nice studio apartment with plenty of space.  The show wasn't until the next evening, so I had most of the day to take a nap and read a bit until Andrew would come home from his bands rehearsal.  I would soon get a text saying that he would be spending the night at his girlfriends instead, so I spent the rest of the night scrounging for what little food I could find, and entertained myself by reading some coffee table books about Factory Records.  I have moved quite a bit in the last five years, so sleeping in new and weird places is a non-issue for me.  The next morning, I drank some coffee and waiting for Andrew to get home so we could venture out into The City and check things out.  By 10am Andrew would get home, and it would be the first time I've seen him since 2004.  Quite a bit has happened between the both of us since then:  Me, moving back and fourth from Minneapolis, and he graduating from art school and living in New York.  Although it had been a good while since I've seen him, nothing seemed awkward at all.  We decided to take a train over to Manhattan and walk up from the Lower East Side all the way way up 5th Ave/Broadway till Central Park.  This was a damn far walk, but I had my running shoes on, and the conversation the entire way made the distance go by unnoticed.  We were able to catch up with things in life, and to chew the fat on the current state of punk and hardcore in general, good shit ya know?  I had no idea how far we walked until we took the hour long train ride from Central Park down to Brooklyn.  Along the way I saw a rat, welcome to New York.  I would later come to find that Andrew wasn't going to able to attend the show due to a birthday party he promised to attend, and I was going to go to the show alone.  I had a secondary plan and texted someone I knew who was driving up for the show from Reading, PA and asked him if I could hook me up with a ride.  Within an hour, Kenneth was outside ready to head out for a night of loud guitars and mosh pits.  Kenneth lived in Omaha last year, and I got to know him pretty well from hardcore shows, and we remained friends after he moved.  Anyway, we went to the show up in Williamsburg blasting the hood with Bathory's Blood Fire Death the whole way.  Here is the show review:

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

We arrived to the venue at least an hour late, but typical to most hardcore shows, it had yet to start.  The venue was more of a bar primarily with a stage on the other end.  Although the stage was a bit tall, there was plenty of standing room, and the venue had good sound.  Playing the supporting roles for Tear It Up that night were Cell Mates from Maryland, and a reunion show of Western Mass rippers Last In Line.  The first band, Cell Mates played more of a '77 styled punk rock instead of hardcore while most of the audience stayed on the bar side.  They played well and even did a cover of Born To Kill by The Dammed that went over everyone's head.  Not a bad start but I could tell that everyone there wanted to hear fast hardcore.  Last In Line played second, and they brought quite a few fans with them.  Last In Line was another great early 2000's hardcore band that broke up before I could see them, so it was nice I got a chance to check them out live.  I have a handful of Last In Line's records, but like a noob I couldn't remember any of their songs.  I watched from the edge of the pit while their fans moshed most of the onlookers.  They played a good set, but maybe a tad bit too long.  While Tear It Up was setting up I decided that I would move up front for the show.  Within a few minutes Tear It Up was ready and surprising they opened the set with a cover of Black Flag's My War.  The place was packed at this point and the whole front of the stage erupted into a sing-a-long.  The remainder of the hour long set would cover nearly all of Tear It Up's songs with the front screaming along and stage diving the entire time.  The band themselves sounded super tight and vocalist Dave had the energy of five people, displaying some of the highest leaps I've ever seen.  Tear It Up would play songs from every release and finished their set with the Nothing To Nothing closer This Is The End with nearly everyone climbing on stage at this point to take a dive.  I was smashed up against the stage the whole show, but it was worth it. I could have flown back to Omaha that night and would have had a great trip.  At the show it was announced that another hardcore show was happening later that night at someones apartment.  Knowing that I more than likely wont be in New York in any time soon, Kenneth and I decided to check out that show, so we bounced out and headed to second show.  This particular apartment was formally a warehouse of some sort and was super raw with exposed concrete.  The place was quite large and would soon be filled with over 100 kids, some of which I just saw at the show just an hour before.  The modern New York hardcore scene is quite different in Brooklyn compared to what most people are familiar as NYHC with bands like Madball and Merauder, etc., but instead more of the lines of art students.  Let's just say that I've never seen so many dudes wearing black girl jeans in my life.  Playing this show were locals Creem, Hoax and Waste Management from MA, and another set by Last In Line.  Creem feature members of some of my current NY hardcore bands and they didn't let me down one bit playing a tried and true style of 80's hardcore.  Hoax played next with a slightly down tuned and more ugly style with a super intense vocalist who at one time attacked someone in the audience.  It was pretty bad ass, and most of the kids up front were slamming pretty hard for both bands.  No one was safe up front with the maniacs slamming, not even the girls.  Waste Management would play next and damn, this band is gooood.  I have most of their records but this band utterly kills it live.  Super intense and fast, perfect.  It was getting late by the time Last In Line was setting up and we were starving so we beat the fuck out of there and picked up some Chinese food on the way back to Andrew's place.  While eating we decided to check out the OFF! show that was playing in Manhattan the next day.

Mix CD-R Vol.1 available now!

Second printing of the Crucial Changes Mix CD-R Vol.1 is available to purchase worldwide.  8 tracks/15 minutes of punk/hardcore/metal/grind from Nebraska locals:  Acid Mouth, Lockjaw, Mothra, and ZEDLDÜ.  Four different colored sleeves (all of 10):  red, orange, yellow, and blue.  Printed on heavy 64 weight cardstock.  Hand numbered, and comes with lyric booklet. $3 in person, $4 ppd anywhere in the US.  International inquiries, please email. 

Paypal:  

CrucialChangesHQ@gmail.com  with description and mailing address.

Send well hidden cash to:

Crucial Changes HQ c/o Keith McGrath

110 S.49th St. #410

Omaha, NE 68132