2/16 - VERSE 5 Year Anniversary Show

So this was the day I had been looking forward to for a while. As I hadn't seen VERSE since the summer in Brooklyn, and I hold a special place in my heart for HAVE HEART and DOWN TO NOTHING. I started the day by rounding up the crew which consisted of Rob, Gw and Chris. We got some breakfast at the local bagel place and we were off to Providence, Rhode Island. I had a cup of coffee to start the ride and it was shaping up to be a great day.

So as we are driving along I-95, we pass the NY/CT border and of course I get into a fucking car accident and total my car. Great fucking job. I hit some Buick suv/van thing, and to make matters worse she hit the person in front of her. So the cops and the fire department come and everything gets sorted out. My parents pick us up, my car gets taken away to get junked. We arrive back on LI and decide we can still make the show, so off we go in Rob's car. About 3 and a half hour later we get to Providence, but not after getting lost because our exit was closed, good job dickbags of the road for doing construction when I go to your city.

We find a spot real quick, and run to the venue, Club Hell. SOUL CONTROL is in the middle of their set. This means we missed RAMPAGE, MELTDOWN and ST. JUDE. Which sucks because i wanted to see RAMPAGE and MELTDOWN, but I was told later on that RAMPAGE weren't that good, and that MELTDOWN was great. Back to SOUL CONTROL, they played very tight, as I would expect them to since Providence is their home-town. I couldn't really see from where I was standing but I'm pretty sure kids were into them. Which is great because the band is awesome, do yourself a favor and get Involution and read those lyrics, fuck so good. The only problem i have with seeing SOUL CONTROL is that the singer, Mattdude, doesn't always sing the words into the mic. So it makes it kinda hard to follow. But nonetheless he has a great stage presence and is fun to watch him get really into it.

Following SC were SHIPWRECK(ad), for those of you living under a rock, SHIPWRECK had some trouble with some shitty band who had the name before them, so to avoid being sued they had to add an AD to their name. So they came on and JD started talking about some type of historical event before playing their blistering set. Kids were doing their thing for the wreck the entire set, and if you have been to a SHIPWRECK show before, you know theres a high chance you could get hurt. But this is hardcore right, so deal with it if you do. The new songs off Abyss were fairly well received by the kids, but some more than others. Everyone went nuts for the both of the 7" stuff of course. They closed with Miasma, which surprised me because most bands play their biggest song or a song that they know kids will go nuts for, to close their set. Mostly everyone stood there catching their breath from the previous song, which I cant remember what the fuck it was. (this is a problem I have at every show, I can never remember what songs the bands played, even if I was singing along). So SHIPWRECK had a kind of anti-climatic end, but you know what I give them a lot of credit for it. Give it a few more months and soon everyone will go off for every SHIPWRECK song.

After checking out some merch we walked to the middle and THE FIRST STEP came on. If you aren't familiar they play hardcore in the vein of a youth crew revival type deal. I had only seen them once and kids didnt really care. This time though, kids were going nuts! I was glad, because while im not that into THE FIRST STEP, I do like them and they put on a great set. Every song was introduced by the singer screaming the name of the song, then the band following with the opening chords, which pumps kids up but gets old after a few times. They had their new 7" but I chose to save my money, as I have to buy a new car now.

Up next were Richmond's DOWN TO NOTHING. First of all, I love DOWN TO NOTHING, so I was super excited for this. They came on and David Wood was wearing the Straightedge letterman jacket, nice touch. There was not a dull moment during the set, they play great every time and kids go off for them. And it is well deserved because they always look like they are having so much fun playing and that just makes me want to go nuts and have fun. One of their friends did guest vox during Unbreakable, I dug that.(cant wait to see MURDER WEAPON at UNITED BLOOD). Kids were trying to dive but it wasn't easy, because of the low stage, so you really had to go for it if you wanted a good dive. One thing Sean from VERSE said was that you always know when DOW TO NOTHING is in the room/playing, because they come with a entourage and are usually being loud and hilarious. So true. They gave shout outs to the Jersey Shore and Long Island, maybe more but I cant remember.

Boston's HAVE HEART was up next, and Pat Flynn was sporting a full fucking beard. God damn, beards rule. So they came on and you could tell that their popularity has really grown over the last year and a half, as the front was fucking packed. They started and of course, kids went nuts, pile ons, headwalks, dives, everything. A Long Island native got to do guest vox for part of a song, pretty sick! HAVE HEART even played a new song off "Songs to Scream at the Sun" everyone bobbed their heads along, it sounded great and it just make me even more excited to hear that record. July 1st is the date, mark your calender. They played a extremely tight set and it was obvious that everyone enjoyed it.

After they played, is when i decided to hit up the merch tables and buy shit. On the way to the show I was thinking that it would be cool if HAVE HEART made the Boston Straightedge hoodie into a crewneck, and wouldn't you know it, they did and I fucking bought one with a huge smile on my face. All the bands had good merch, but I only got from HAVE HEART, VERSE and SOUL CONTROL because, well I have to fucking buy a new car.

Lastly were VERSE, this was their show, celebrating their 5 years in existence as a band. Although, they did point out that both DOWN TO NOTHING and HAVE HEART have been around for longer. But this show was going to help them get out of debt from a tour mishap early on. Both VERSE brother bands had good things to say and reminisce about VERSE, and they reciprocated. They started their set with a great song, and I cant remember which one it was. I really need to try harder to remember these things. Anyway, VERSE played a great set, and played 2 new songs off their B9 debut "Aggression", both were awesome and I cant fucking wait to hear that LP. They only fucked up once, I think it had something to do with the drummer, who I think was from HAVE HEART and filling in, or maybe he is in VERSE now. Either way no big deal, they played a different song and then went back to that one. I like that bands can admit when they fuck up, its funny and makes light of the situation. Anyway, even though some moronic kids definatley left before them, VERSE got a great reaction, and were on stage for maybe 45 minutes. Great fucking set. Everyone went nuts and had a great time.

After the show we went back to Rob's car to discover I had left the ceiling light on. Pretty stupid of me, but luckily the battery didn't die. We drove and found a pizza place and had to drive around for 15 minutes until we found somewhere to park. We ate then i got some coffee at 7-11. Finally, were were on the way back home, and made the trek in about 3 hours.


VERSE