I have seen Youth of Today play live 7 times since 1986 including last November in Brooklyn, New York. Each of their live shows has been great and unique. The one show that is a great testament to their spirit and captures their sounds & sights live to great affect is this 2016 show in Berlin, Germany. Wish that I would have been at it. Even through YouTube it touches your heart & mind, fills you with raw energy, and makes you want to jump around and do the creepy crawly. This is a great full set of New York City Hardcore (NYHC) at its finest and watching it is better use of one’s time than arguing about meaningless things that in the end make no difference! I’m into music and want my equipment to lead me to this:
And decades later hardcore continues with the same intensity, urgency, honesty, and attitude. Agnostic Front formed in 1980 and next month they will be playing in Germany, Hungry, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, CZ.Republic, and Poland:
My wife can’t believe that I’m still listening to this music from my youth. She asks me all the time, “when are you going to grow up?”, and I smile and respond, “hopefully never!” See, in my head, I’m still that 17 year old hardcore punk kid running the streets with my punk friends waiting for the next band to come to town. Oh! the rejuvenating power of music:
To me, Heresy and Ripcord were the top of the class of UK Hardcore (UKHC) bands from the late 80’s. I wish that they would do a reunion show so I could see them play live.
Another band that was short lived but left a lasting impression on me was Can’t Decide, composed of the ex Heresy singer John March and Steve “Baz” Ballam on guitar (who played guitar for both Heresy and Ripcord) and John Miller from Ripcord on drums. Can’t Decide didn’t play at hypersonic speeds like Heresy or even at raging blazing speeds like Ripcord but they carried a good tune with socially conscious intelligent lyrics. This is one of my favorites, from their demo tape:
Pulled out the old bass and guitar for a little Hardcore solo jam session today. The speed is still there and creativity is easier, as they say not older but wiser! Maybe I will lay down some tracks and get my son to help on the vocals. As I played I felt 17 again! The power of music. The equipment is nice but the music is what it’s all about for me:
Another slow Saturday here on WBF. The thread discussions have been uninspiring. As “Ray of Today” quite correctly says, if we want the current conditions & outlook to be different then we need to take make the change ourselves:
Great, motivational and inspirational spoken word personal history piece related to Black Flag by Henry “Garfield” Rollins:
I can relate to his story in how much music has shaped my life and served to guide me to conquer challenges to achieve success. Great story by Henry. You can’t win if you don’t give yourself a chance.