Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Phobia, Skarp, Basura, Bumbklaat and Protect The Innocent @ Che Cafe, 6.22.08
The show kicked off at the Che about 30 minutes after it was scheduled (8 PM), but few people were there when the bands were playing their sets. Protect the Innocent went on first (their name is typical of those HxC bands, and unfortunately, it was a sign of what was to come). Protect the Innocent are your typical liberal-political grindcore, and even if you don’t look at the lyrics of any of their songs, it can be assumed by their tagline “Animal Liberation” and other things that they were one of those preachy bands. Basura was another sub-par band; following them was Bumbklaat, who were arguably the low point of the entire show, then Skarp was on afterward. The great thing about Skarp was their vocalist (but not necessarily her vocals).
Again, these are all issues of worthless aesthetic, but that’s the deal with mediocrity, because it leaves you with nothing else to judge. Perhaps these bands explain why only 10 people were there in the beginning, then about 40 or 50 were there at the end, just in time for Phobia.
I was really hoping they wouldn’t be horrible (as I had stood through about 3 hours of pounding formulaic noise), and as my luck would have it, they weren’t. Their music is highly reminiscent of Carcass and Terrorizer, and they generally upheld the best influences of grindcore, with most excellence. However, some of the songs, possibly their newer ones, came off as awkward and formulaic (particularly the novel 2 second Agoraphobic-Nosebleed-like song they ‘played’) as the more novice bands that had played before them, but if it weren’t for them, you would have nothing to compare Phobia to, because Phobia were really that much greater. There were more good songs than bad, and the show was worth the $8 after that.
The other problems inherent in the show were the audience. Granted, they aren’t a part of the show itself, but grindcore seems to attract hipsters, unfortunately, and one particular douche wearing a fucking FEDORA was moonwalking or skanking in the moshpit while Phobia was playing, possibly in an attempt to be “ironic,” amidst a crapload of potentially fatal-injury-inducing body movements by others near the front stage. I took great care to avoid the moshpit during the show so I could listen to the music, and so I wouldn’t get injured by 200 pound fatass hardcore dancers, who often prove to be the bane of good health.
