From The Vaults - R.A.M.B.O. (2005)

 This is the very first band I ever recorded on video. This is the only time I ever used that $15 camera I mentioned a few posts ago. I came down and spent the day with my good friend Kelly Dawson and bummed around Columbia SC for a bit before driving further down south to this show. At this point I was about to finish college but had only been working weekends so I didn't have much money to travel to see bands, but how could I miss RAMBO playing at an armory in South Carolina? Just like in the videos, there were kids there with cardboard swords in the moshpit. Not quite as epic as the Philly shows where they descended a cardboard helicopter off a balcony or a full on cardboard tank vs a cardboard robot person, but pretty good still. I saw RAMBO again for the last time at Best Friends Day and they had a BMX bike that was meant for crowsurfing where the pegs were actually things for people to hold it up above their heads. Both shows were in their thrash punk stage before they started to sound like a Tragedy clone. Also if anyone knows of pictures from this or the BFD show, I'd love to see them. I can see a guy holding up an SLR in front of me during this video!

2/22/2013 - Fuck The Facts

Glad to see another show at this house, I think the official name is X Manor (not to be confused with an ex-house show house called Axe Manor on the other side of town). None of my pictures came out because I was literally too close to the band with the wrong lens... one hell of a day to leave my fish eye lens at home. Got some pretty good video. I had to run out the door at 5 at work to get to this side of town at 5:45, right when FTF went on for their early matinee show before their show in Chapel Hill. Was great, see for yourself!

From The Vaults - Double Negative (2007)

This video is probably the first time I have been armed with a video camera other than my mega cheapo $15 Walmart digital camera from way back then. It really is too bad that technology hadn't been a little faster to where I might have the setup I have now, or even a flipcam around this time period. I would have captured even more mayhem. This video was taken on my friend Chris Cable's camera with both of us standing on a bookshelf above some of the insanity. This was the only show I captured there and I got eleven minutes of it until his video camera battery died. The show was at 1304 Flint Place which was my direct neighbor's house at the time. Andrew Breeland had gotten stoked about having shows happen and continued the tradition that Hans had set forth to having people over to have a good time. That summer of shows everyone was having a good time thanks to Hank Williams who is posted up front in the lime green shirt by the window... he booked a slew of awesome hardcore punk shows. Double Negative been together for a year at this point and had been building up a huge following in Raleigh. I hope you enjoy this little tidbit of Raleigh history.

2/16/2013 - Last Words and Thick Skin

I was getting nervous that I may miss this show, the big flakes of snow continued to fall through the morning and into the afternoon this Saturday. Luckily it never stuck and the water on the road never turned to slush nor froze so the hour long drive to Greensboro was no issue. Snake Baptist had to unfortunately drop this show which is a bummer because I was excited to finally take pictures of my friends' band... plus they all spazz out when they play so I'm sure I would end up with some interesting pictures. BrainxToilet went on first, they have added a bass player to the mix. This band is comprised of Jeremy who is a really competent guitar player, but is still killer playing drums in this band. Both Jeremy and the singer Jordan play in Priapus, and this band isn't too different of a band. They opened with an almost ignorant metal/hardcore sounding song that was pretty awesome. Thick Skin went on next and had a killer set. I didn't realize they had members from Over and Out who I saw a month back. Definitely dug Thick Skin's sound a lot more. They all seemed to be super good friends with Last Words who went on last. Last Words is Raleigh homies and I'm glad to see people get buck for them in other towns. They surprised me and pulled out an Agnostic Front with a friend of Marina's singing (see the first song in the video posted below). Pretty cool show space, it appeared to be a DIY collective coffee shop/meeting space in Guilford College. I hope to see more shows there!

2/16/2013 - Last Words and Thick Skin, a set on Flickr.

2/7/2013 - Torche and Bats & Mice

Went to this show with my co-worker for his birthday and we met up with someone else at work from another department for dinner and beers for them. Got a killer vegan burger and walked down to the show in the rain. It is always great to see Ricky, Steve, and John and I still haven't talked too much to the new guitar player of Torche but we talked for a second and he is pretty nice. As we walked up I heard a familiar Bats & Mice song and was glad I hadn't missed much of their set. I have known about the band for several years as I had been a big Sleepytime Trio fan back in the day. I believe they had an addition to their normal crew, an ex-member of the White Octave I believe. Great performance. Torche went on and I never have any complaints about them. They played a new song off their new EP that was killer, a good indication of where they are headed. Glad I finally got pictures of them and really glad I got to see both bands. Steve is also in Floor and I heard word they are touring soon and Rick and John are in Shitstorm who are putting out a few new records and hopefully touring on those releases soon.

2/7/2013 - Torche and Bats & Mice, a set on Flickr.

2/1/2012 - Violent Outburst, Abuse., Church Whip, Future Binds

A new house to have shows opened up in Raleigh (about time!) known only as the Danger Room. A bunch of people peacefully protested Church Whip's "raping the east" tour. Dumb name for a tour but I wanted to support a new house and see Violent Outburst. Quick show review: Future Binds was a little sloppy but were playing with heart, Abuse. sounded awesome but Ace had some bass distortion pedal issues and Alex had a little bit of PA issue, Church Whip had a weird stage prescence but the music was awesome and guitar and bass player were killing it, and Violent Outburst was a rager.