Fastcore Photos - Issue #2

8/3/2019 Fastcore Photos - Issue #2

1/17

ISSUE #2

FASTCOREPHOTOS


2/17

content

Hello all,

Looks like you're back again! My first issue was an epic 2010 recap ofpictures issue. This issue is quite a bit different... this one turns outto be a collection of show reviews I wrote for Maximum Rock'N'Roll's

website for a column called Wow, What A Show.'' I'd like to thank Paul,the web coordinator, and all the lovely people at MRR. After the show

reviews are photos I've taken that didn't make it onto MRR's website.

Another big thanks goes to Kent and Ebullition. I never thought I'd doanything but give away issue #1 to friends and sell a dozen out of mywebstore, so thank you. The last and most major thank you goes to JaceKuhn, who did the entire layout front to back for this zine. Totally anawesome dude.

Let me end with a generic punk aphorism: go out there and book a show,start a band, videotape a band, take pictures... do something other thanlying in front of the television and wasting your life in the stupidest damn ways. Ride a bike, have some fun, when you're done having fun..

write your own zine and send it to me!Will ButlerFastcore Photos / To Live A Lie Records

[email protected]

http://www.flickr.com/fastcore

Reviews

Photos

All photos and reviews : Will Butler

Zine layout and design : Jace Kuhn

Double Negative, Devour, Corrosion of Conformity 4Burma, Kakka Hata 77, Acid Reflux 8Old Painless, Buy The Steak, Thieves, Chest Pain 10

Natural Law, Dystrophy, Trapper,Dethroned Emporer, Burma 14Dropdead, Magrudergrind, Wasted Time, Cough, Ilsa 19

Big Eyes 24Libyans 24Direct Control 25Shards 25

Logic Problem 26Man Will Destroy Himself 26Leather 27Stripmines 27Backslider 28

Leather 28Big Eyes 29

Man Will Destroy Himself 29Nimbus Terrifix 29Wall 30

Dodsfalla 30Disciples Of Christ 31

.. ..


3/17

A secret show!

Well, not really a secret show,but a secret band playing anallages house show. The showwas billed as Double Negativeand friends. I would draw thisout and make it nice and mysterious but I'm pretty sure the

reason you're reading this is because their name is in the titleof thia. Corrosion of Conformity

was indeed slated to play alowkey house show with Double

Negative and Devour. Holy shit.When I saw COC play two months

ago at King's, it was packed,cost me $12, and everyone stood

around while the band playedon stage. Tonight had none ofthese expensive, drab, or impersonal elements.

I showed up at a time I thoughtwas going to be a little late,half on purpose and half be

cause my record label work isneverending (like the story...nah nah nah, nah nah nah, nahnah nah).

Turns out that I arrived righton time for DOUBLE NEGATIVE to

be loading gear into the dankbasement of Dregg's Grotto,and in little time they werepounding out fast blasts leftand right. There was one brandnew song, I later found out istitled"Do the Writhe," which

was a slower jam that I liked alot. They belted out about fourother new songs, newer thanthe Daydreamnation LP. Goodquality set, people were sing

ing along to the older stuff. Ithought Kevin was pouring Four

Loko on himself at one pointbut then realized it was justwater from a SIGG bottle. Overall solid set. / doesn't haveoff nights.

Next was CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, playing second just

in case cops came to the house.The band is now back to theirAnimosityera threepiecelineup, which consists of Woody,

Mike, and Reed. Their set is alittle hazy in my brain sinceI was somehow simultaneouslytaking pictures, recording HDvideo with my fancy new cell

phone, and recording audio.Unfortunately the audio didn't

record for unknown reasons.Things I did pick out: perpetual

raging out, killer hair whipsby Sir Mullin while drumming(which in turn whipped me when

I moved from the front row to

the back of the room), and dudesfrom Double Negative with hugesmiles on their faces. Yes, they

played Technocracy."

After their set, since I wasright behind their drummer, Ichatted with him for a second. I

assume people who have been inbands forever... aren't exactlyjerks but are kind of weirdwhen you compliment them. Ipatted him on the back and saidthey sounded great and thatI had seen them previously. I

was greeted with some fancyhandshake work and kind words

back. Later on I said a similarpositive remark to their guitarist as his arms were fullof equipment and he promptlystopped and was super excited

as well. Another two notes here:(1) they played a free/donationssuggested house show, and (2)they didn't set up merch. So allthis compounded on me thinkingthese guys are just... well, there

isn't a better word for this,but they are sweethearts. Sure,they didn't have to drive too

far, as they live in the nearbyareas, but none of the hype or28 years of being a band hasleft these guys greedy or fullof themselves.

Upon telling my friend Hankthat I was probably going to

write this up, he told me thatany good show review includesquotes from the night. So thisquote of the night is per HankWilliams (yes, that's my friend's

real name!) quoting someoneelse at the show who said, Thisshow is like a colostomy bag of

mayhem."

12/11/2010 DOUBLE NEGATIVE, DEVOUR,WITH SURPRISE GUESTS CORROSION OF CONFORMITY

DOUBLE NEGATIVE

REVIEW

S

MOSHERS

4

5


4/17

DEVOUR went on last. The placethinned out a bit, not in a bad

way but in the perfectamountofpeople type of way. I thinkthey were having mic problems

because at some point I real

ized I couldn't hear any ofCody's vocals. Mic issues seemto be a curse at Raleigh houseshows. Another side note: thesoundboard they were usingsaid Wiley PTA" on the side. Up

until then it was sounding awesome... I hope we didn't kill somepoor school's sound system.

Devour held their own afterfollowing a crushing set fromCOC. Scathing, disjointed, dystopian psychoblather. Notes of

interest: Daniel did some cooldelaypedal guitar loops between songs, and Dave was wear

ing a really cute argyle mockturtleneck sweater.

I'll leave you abruptly withthis, this year has been a great

year for music for me. As far as

local Raleigh house shows, thisdefintely took the cake for2010. I don't imagine having thechance to see one of the found

ing crossover bands in such anintimate setting again.

DOUBLE NEGATIVE

DEVOUR

DEVOUR

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY



6 7


5/17

The first cold snap hit hard inNovember, well as cold as it willget randomly around then in

North Carolina. I got sick as hellfor a few weeks and hardly wentout around that time. One exception was a show on the 13th thatI had been looking forward to

for quite some time. I'll admit tobeing lame and I was not actually familiar with the band fromFinland. I had seen their name

before because it is proudlydisplayed on the front of a MRRthat lives in my bathroom. Any

who, I had managed to see AcidReflux a town over about nine

months ago and was really excited about seeing them again. I

really like bands with little tono internet presence. So on to theactual show...

KAKKAHATA 77 played a solidset. Very clean and snotty punk.People were getting into it, andI was having fun and taking

pictures with my ADHDaddledbrain. Next up was ACID REFLUX.I talked to them after the show

and found out that this wastheir last tour as a band! So this

was my second and last time tosee them play. Everyone ragedextraordinarily hard for them

and I was pretty surprised at thenumber of people who knew theirlyrics and were shouting along.

Ira, who booked the show andput it on at his house, was goinginsanely nuts the entire time andI couldn't help but laugh at the

faces he was making (see the toppicture on the opposite page forproof) . Sparklers were affixedto their guitar while playing

for some reason. The band musthave stopped through South ofthe Border. After Acid Reflux

played, the place emptied outbefore the last band. Unfortunate, but I think the reason thishappened was the fact that thelast band was supposed to be a

surprise band and all the out of

town bands had already played.So next and last up was BURMA.They are a group of younger kids

who were X'ed up and seem to playa sort of hybrid Converge/Infeststyle. The mic (happened to be

my mic) got decimated during theAcid Reflux set so Matt just ran

around stomping and screamingas loud as he could. He somehowpunched his own face so hard hewas bleeding at the end of theirset. Drumming was on point. The

night concluded with Acid Reflux running around shooting

off fireworks and I think theyall antiqued each other faceswith confectionery sugar. All Iwas thinking at this point of thenight was that I had to get outof here before I had to put up a

rowdy band at my house, and thatI actually had a really great

night full of some varying stylesof music. Distort Raleigh!

11/13/2010 BURMA, KAKKA HATA 77, ACID REFLUX

BURMA

KAKKA HATA 77

ACID REFLUX

ACID REFLUX

.. ..

....

....

8 9


6/17

Since this show was about threemonths ago, a lot of the nuanceshave melted out of my brain.That being said, I'm going to

keep this short and sweet. Thiswas a surprisingly good show,full of some bands you probablyhave never heard of (and at thetime I had yet to hear). So here

is what went down in the dingybasement of Dregg's Grotto inRaleigh on September 18 of 2010.

The first band to play was OLDPAINLESS. Their first showever was the night before, whenthey played in Greensboro at

Legitimate Business and openedfor Nails. Let me say, holy crap,what a second show! Rewind to acouple months ago. I'm friends

with their drummer Rodney andwe were eating at Chubby's Tacos. He was telling me about the

new band he just started withJosh Dobey, Rich Lombardi (fromCloacal Kiss and The SawtoothGrin), and Alex Taylor (fromStripmines). He dropped the wordgrindcore on me and my heartsank a little bit.

I'm a fervent lover of grindcore,but any time I've heard thatgenre referenced in NC, it just

means watered down DiscordanceAxis style music to the point it

is just sped up metalcore. Thiswas definitely not the case. Verytechnical grindy parts, lots ofof super fast blasts (Rodney is

a world class drummer), and I really enjoyed Rich's stage presence.

After Old Painless, BUY THESTEAK took the stage (well, tookthe basement). I had just startedto see these folks come out toshows so it was cool to see their

band. Femalefronted thrash metal from Garner, North Carolina.Fun band. I remembered thinkingtheir guitar player, Logan Holloway, looked like an old man inthe hat he was wearing. Unfortu

nately, I think you can add thisband to the list of shortlived,defunct bands from the area.

Next was an awesome surprise setby THIEVES, who wasn't slated toplay this show. I'm pretty sure

9/18/2010 OLD PAINLESS, BUY THE STEAK, THIEVES,AND CHEST PAIN

OLD PAINLESS

OLD PAINLESS

OLD PAINLESS

BUY THE STEAK

10 11


7/17

this only happened becausemy roommate kept chantingfor them to play since all theguys happen to be at the show,so they borrowed equipment

and played a ripping quick set.Their bass player Ben loves todo quirky things at every showhe plays... I remember him wear

ing a full 80's workout getup, hewore a suit once, and I think heeven wore a bear costume at oneshow. Since it wasn't scripted,I think he decided to sit down

in the corner and played basswhile sitting Indian styleagainst the wall to add tohis repertoire. On to how theysounded: They sounded awesome.Super fast and thrashy hardcore. Rodney (yeah, the same one

who drums for Old Painless alsosings for Thieves) got up in my

face a lot while I was takingpictures. Thieves was definitelyON this night.

Last to play was CHEST PAIN. AllI knew beforehand is that they

were a powerviolence band. Thatcould mean a number of things

to me... much like my thoughts ongrindcore above, but I had highhopes because they are fromTexas. I had corresponded with

Matt from the band a few timesbut had somehow never heardthem and couldn't find any mu

sic online. I was very positivelysurprised with their style ofvisceral and blasting powerviolence. Any band who has a shirtless singer with a gauntlet on isgood by me. I also remember theguitar player bending back

wards so much that he lookedlike has about to snap his back

and Matt ended up chomping hisbass strings at the very end.Quite a night for a show when Ididn't know what to expect.

BUY THE STEAK

CHEST PAIN

CHEST PAIN MOSHERS

THIEVES

12 13


8/17

Perfect timing for a slightlyout of town show... I had Fridayoff for New Year's so a show

an hour away wasn't a stretch.This was originally going to

be in a Raleigh basement butdue to some roommate issues, itgot moved to a Greensboro showspace called CFBG. Word is thatthe place is a dance studio, and

it had some cool artwork up.Appears to be a business wherethe owner is nice enough to let

bands come play.

Technical difficulties caused ashort delay. I think a PA neededto be brought or found or setup. A large bass cab was then setup for vocals. BURMA went onshortly after. They share mem

bers across Raleigh and Greensboro so they are a perfect bandto have already been booked to

play in Raleigh and to also playthis night in the other town.

12/30/2010 NATURAL LAW, DYSTROPHY, TRAPPER,DETHRONED EMPORER, BURMA

BURMA

They pumped out some jams to aroom of smiling faces. I think

I must have been spoiled byMatt's antics at their last showwhen he went off... tonight hewasn't as energized and bloody,although a guitar was swungfairly close to his head a fewtimes. There were shouts for a

Minor Threat cover but alas nocover. The great thing about

Minor Threat is the fact that isreally hard to ruin their songs,they are both solid and sloppy,so I always enjoy seeing onecovered.

Following Burma was DYSTRO

PHY. I was really hoping this

was the Cali thrash punk bandwho put out We're Nice Kids,but it turns out this particular Dystrophy still rules and

also contains my friend MattThompson... quite a pleasantsurprise. This Dystrophy is a

NJ area death metal band. Lotsof riffage which had quite a

few people jumping around andgetting wild. They played asolid long set and even covered

a Death song.

This next band I had neverheard of before, but based ontheir look, I was highly interested. DETHRONED EMPORERtook stage (took floor). Theguest vocalist during the Dystrophy set is on drums and theirsinger as the guy I noticed

wearing a Cryptic Slaughter

BURMA

TRAPPER14 15


9/17

and talked to me earlier in theshow and I was in kind of a quiet

mood so I felt like a douche, soI wanted to make sure to getsome good pictures of them. The

band hails from Charlotte andthe other guitar player helpedto book the show at this venue.

slow down... lots of boundingaround and bending backwards.Some of this stuff falls off my

radar as I write it off as Bridge9/Converge type jams... in actu

ality they are probably morealong the lines of Doomrider orNails.

The final band is one I had

heard so much about but hadnot actually heard, NATURALLAW. The fine folks from DoubleNegative talked about them inhigh regards and Ira wouldn't

Trapper had a definite hardcore sound but did have somedarker guitar tone which wascrunchy at times and I noticedsludge influence. I spent mostof their set trying to get a picture of the singer who wouldn't

NATURAL LAW

NATURAL LAW

jacket earlier in the night. Hisguitar setup was super loud andcrunchy on sound check. Later onI noticed he has two instrumentcables coming out of his guitar

and each cable was connected toa different head connected tothe same stack. I talked to him

later as I was super curious andhe gave me an overly technical

answer that I forget most of,but I know he was running eachpickup to a different amp headand he mentioned taking off hisvolume pot and running 1 out

Agathocles is known for.

The second to last band thatplayed was TRAPPER. Theirsecond guitar player was nice

to overdrive the whole rig, Ibelieve. The sound of this twopiece death metal band was morefamiliar to me than the previous band. They obviously draw

a lot of influence from earlygrind. They had a few partscontaining what I call the mince

beat... that really awesomeslowed down grind beat that

DYSTROPHY

DYSTROPHY

16 17


10/17

The almighty Providence grind/violence band DROPDEAD hasn't

played a show in DC in thirteenyears! Well, all that changedwhen the band drove all theway down just to play DC andturn around and go back on withtheir normal lives.

I'm not sure if anyone likes

a show review to be more likea journal or not but I thinkit makes it more interesting,and I'm the one writing here soyou'll have to deal with it fornow. The kids of Burma, a localRaleigh band, were nice enoughto let me tag along with themon the way up to the show. Had

an entertaining ride up. Wethen caught up with Greg from

Deathrats (sorry this seems tobe shoutout heaven right here),who was nice enough to showus around town for an hour ortwo before the show. We went toSmash and Crooked Beat Records,

and then by Sticky Fingersbakery so that I could get akiller vegan cinnamon bun andsome coffee to get me ampedup for the night (and so that I

wouldn't crash early because Iwoke up at 9 a.m.) As we roll backto the house, Greg starts to flipout as there is a van parked

in front of the house. He looks

over at me and says somethingto the extent of, Please don'tlet me flip out Dropdead isover at my house now." Awesome

nice folks. I had met Ben a fewtimes before as he has toureddown with bands and when Dropdead played Richmond for BestFriends Day a few years ago. Aquick aside: When they playedRichmond it was one of the most

insane house shows I've everbeen to. The show got moved froma venue to a house, the house'sbasement ceiling got rippeddown during their set and I wasclinging to the water heater for

shut up about their Slump EP,so I was excited to see them. The

band shares members with BlackKites and seems to be a scatteredNew England/DC crowd. I laterfound out that their bass playerlives with two members of Death

rats. The band played nonstophardcore jams that definitelygives a nod to Double Negative

but with its own originality. Youreally should do yourself a favor and track down their demo or

7". Definitely worth a listen!

BURMA

NATURAL LAW

DETHRONED EMPORER

DETHRONED EMPORER

3/12/2011 DROPDEAD, MAGRUDERGRIND, WASTEDTIME, COUGH, ILSA

MAGRUDERGRIND

1918


11/17

protection.Fast forward to actual showtime. The show was at a church a

few blocks from Greg's house andeven fewer blocks from StickyFingers, where we had gottensome eats earlier in the day.Really awesome setup for shows.ILSA went on first. This is theonly band I had no idea about

before seeing them. Prettygood downtuned sludge/doom. I

noticed one person in that bandwho I recognized but couldn'tplace it at all. I later realized

he was in a twoyoungerkidgrindcore band I had seen maybe

four years ago in Baltimorecalled Wyld Stallyns. I had

always wondered what happenedto people from that band so wasexcited to make that connection.Aptly, COUGH followed. Sludge

jams, backtoback. I saw theband five years ago and thesinger was too obliterated tostand up, so the new configu

ration of the band was a hugeimprovement. I tried my darndest to get pictures of the bandto where they didn't have hair

splaying in their faces butdidn't have much luck. I knowCOUGH is on tour with MAGRUDERGRIND and I think that is a

perfect combination... a crawlingslow band and a ripping fastseem to compliment each other

perfectly.

Next to play was WASTED TIME.

The band rips every time.Slightly different than any

band playing the night, but wassomehow a perfect transition

between the sludge and grindbands. I was standing at oh sothe wrong place during theirset and was about to get my camera smashed by a stagedive whenthe guy realized what I had in

my hand and made a felineesqueleap right over my head. Later

in the set I turned around andsaw three different peopleholding their noses, people

were in the pit crowd killingand freaking out really hardfor the band. Later in the nightI had the pleasure of meeting

Mark and Alex from the bandfor the first time, and got tosay hey to the lovely Brandon

as well.

I was stoked to see that it wasearly, only about 10:30 or so,

before MAGRUDERGRIND goeson. Their band is definitely oneof my favorite bands... solidsongs as well as solid guys. Some

bands have just one guy you canapproach about the band, buteach member of this band is very

approachable and has somethingquite interesting and differentto say. Good personality both

in the music and the people,you could say. Back to the musicpart of it, they delivered ahelping of grindcore mayhem inside that church. Lots of stage

WASTED TIME

COUGH

ILSA

COUGH 2120


12/17

dives and smiling faces.Last was the cherry on top ofan already awesome show, DROPDEAD... lords of grindcore andpurveyors of animal rights.During the whole set, peoplewere clamoring to share themic with Bob as he was beltingout song after song. I reallydon't even know what to saythat gives them justice. I felt

kind of awkward as I was theonly person on stage duringtheir set but I had a bird's eye

MAGRUDERGRINDDROPDEAD

MAGRUDERGRIND

DROPDEADDROPDEAD

view of the maniacs in the pit.I saw even more people holdingtheir noses as if each person inthe place was systematically

punched squarely in the nose. Ithink they did their thirteen

year absence justice.

I normally focus on the goodparts of a show. There unfortunately were a few fights, mainlynear the end of the night. BothMichelle from Sick Fix and Gregseemed to do a good job keeping

things under control. I thoughtBobby Egger from HeadcountRecords was about to jump in

and break up one fight. I'm anoutsider to things that go on in

DC so I hope nothing was moreserious than someone got hit

wrong in the mosh pit or something.

My night concluded back at ahouse with DROPDEAD, eatingthe biggest piece of vegan pizzaI have ever seen. Amazing show,good town, good trip, awesome

friends. Thanks to Chris Moorefor putting the show on.

2322


13/17

PHOT

OS

DIRECT CONTROL

DIRECT CONTROL

BIG EYES

SHARDS

SHARDS

LIBYANS

24 25


14/17

LOGIC PROBLEM

STRIPMINES

STRIPMINES

LEATHER

LOGIC PROBLEM

MAN WILL DESTROY HIMSELF 2726


15/17

BACKSLIDER

BACKSLIDER

LEATHER

BIG EYES

NIMBUS TERRIFIX MAN WILL DESTROY HIMSELF

2928


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30 31

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

DODSFALLA

DODSFALLA

WALL

WALL

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST


17/17

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