Badr Vogu, Negative Standards, DHC, and Arrastrados

The Blogspot program is being a chump about some of my photos so I'm just going to go with what I have. This show was another killer one at the Swamp. I freely admit that the proximity to my house of this venue endears it to me but they have been bringing some really rad bands there lately. I believe this was an all locals show with Badr Vogu, Negative Standards, DHC, and Arrastrados.

I don't think that this was their first show but Arrastrados are a brand new crust band from the North Bay. They have two female singers who trade off screams, one a bit prettier and the other totally gnarly. The PA was fucked up so when the gnarly screams singer was singing, she was totally blasting out the sound and it sounded incredible.

DHC played next and they were a lot of fun. The Swamp is a pretty enclosed space so Eric really got up in the crowd's face. This really is a solid band and despite the name, they keep it together. With a name like Drunken Hardcore you don't really expect much out of them.

Negative Standards are always quality. Here's an elusive photo where you can see both Wills' faces in the same shot.

Badr Vogu closed things up. They have really been playing a lot and the set is getting pretty tight. You can tell that they are a touring band now. They are getting a little theatrical with lots of feedback and adding more samples. It keeps getting better.

No Statik, DHC, Face the Rail, the Deadbeats, Side Effects

It has been way too long since I updated and there are a lot of shows I've been to that I'm going to have to give the rush job to. Like this one: No Statik, DHC, Face the Rail, Side Effects, and the Deadbeats. I'm pretty sure this happened on Feb. 5th and was a birthday show for the rad lady who runs the Swamp whose name is probably something like Allie. There's no pictures for this one because I had the pleasure of getting a ride and was partying at my house pre-show and forgot the damn camera. This was a really rad show out at Burnt Ramen, which I don't think I'd been to for almost a year.

I don't remember Side Effects at all, I probably didn't like them and hung out in the back. Face the Rail gets better each time I see them. They keep getting more garage and less hardcore as they feel out their sound more. It was my first time seeing DHC and they were a lot better than I expected. Fast '80s style hardcore with lyrics about drinking. The members of this band are people I've seen around and, for the most part, wrote them off as punk rock fuckups who were more into partying than music. I was wrong, somehow these dudes pull it all together into a pretty good band. And yeah they party. Immediately after the set, Eric the singer jumped off stage, ran to the bathroom, and threw up about 7 times.

No Statik are always awesome. I probably gush enough about them as it is but this show was fun because there was enough space in the room for people to escape Ruby when she started crashing into people. You could see the apprehension on people's faces as they shuffled backward when she charged across the floor at them, trying to look like they weren't running away and losing any punk points.

The Deadbeats finished out the night but the car I was riding in left early so I didn't see much of them. They played throwback rock 'n' roll and some kids got a little dancey. I had come to see a punk show so they were a little strange for the bill and I wasn't stoked on them but they seemed pretty good. I'll have to give them a second chance when I haven't been watching a bunch of hardcore bands.