Sunday, December 2, 2001 -
Boywunder, A Life Once Lost, XVincentPrice'sOrphanPoweredDeathMachineX -
Student Center-Millersville College
Sunday, December 2, 2001
Boywunder, A Life Once Lost, XVincentPrice'sOrphanPoweredDeathMachineX
Student Center-Millersville College
Even though I just started getting into it, I am a big fan of hardcore music. I've been listening to a lot of
Converge, Throwdown, and Poison the Well lately, as well as a really good local hardcore band based
out of Harrisburg called Boywunder. While interviewing them recently, Eric told me they were playing
at Millersville College soon with several other bands, notably XVincentPrice'sOrphanPoweredDeathMachineX,
and A Life Once Lost. I marked my calendar. I mean, what else is there to do on a Sunday night?
That day, I jumped in my car with fellow hardcore enthusiast and buddy Josh (bass for See You Auntie)
and headed on over to Millersville.
After several wrong turns and detours, we arrived fashionably late at the Millersville College Student
Center. Drawn towards the sounds of erratic cymbal crashes and double bass, we walked into a
clean, bright, newly built auditorium. An oddly "nice" place for a hardcore show. (Most of them are in
old fire halls, I was at one in an empty garage once when I saw Do It Pussy, Death by Nostalgia, and
x24thSolutionx.) I don't remember what band was playing when they got there. Most of the bands
on the roster were bands I didn't know, but we stood around and watched a little. Of course, there's
always the familiar faces. The few kids you see at all the shows, cause this is pretty much all they do.
The guys from Clancy 6 were there, as well as Chris, a good friend of mine. (His brother Warren is the
drummer for The Boils, a punk band based out of Philly.)
After that band was done, a few of the guys from xvpopdmx set up some of their stuff and did
a few songs. Pretty entertaining. Man, can that one kid scream. Almost reminiscent of Jacob
Bannon at times. (Vocals for Converge. On the new album, Jane Doe, track 10, Phoenix in Flames...)
They pretty much just goofed off and "jammed" for a little while, and then the rest of the band
started to set up. That's when this one guy, a big, dark haired guy in a very "Ivan-the-great-esque"
fur hat got ahold of the Mic.
"Wanna hear a joke?"
"Get the fuck off!" followed by laughter. This didn't seem to phase the lad, he continued...
"A man walks into a bar, and the bartender says 'What can I get for you'? The man says...
'AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!'"
A few snickers followed each obnoxious yell until eventually by the last yell, everyone was laughing.
"Then the bartender looks at the guy and says, 'Get the fuck out of here, we don't have that.'"
Hmmm, I would have to say that qualifies as one of the best jokes I've heard in a long time. It's definitely headed
towards the "classic" category. Most everyone else seemed to think so too.
Josh and I took a walk through the halls while xvpopdmx finished setting up and sound checking.
Nothing too interesting about that. Passed a few bulletin boards ... Noticed that one Samantha
Flinchbaugh (nope, don't know her...) has a 91 VW Jetta for sale for $2560...(call her on her cell.)...the
Chameleon seems to have mostly local and regional acts on this month...the "Do a Co-Op"
program (which I though said "Do a Cop" program, hahaha) is forming now ... and someone doesn't like
Jeremy Wagman, they drew on his picture for Student of the week, or some shit. Oh and also, room
154 is actually a men's bathroom, and there are no vending machines in the cafeteria ... God, I am sooooo hungry ...
On to see xvpopdmx! These guys are a grindcore band based in the Lancaster area.
In case you don't know what grindcore is ... it's a type of hardcore characterized by
totally incomprehensible vocals, really heavy guitars combined with insanely fast,
sporadic riffs, very erratic drumbeats with lots of double bass and cymbal, and songs
which are usually very short in length. This combines to form chaotic noise more or less,
but can be very entertaining. xvpopdmx usually performs with 3 vocalists, but there were
only 2 tonight. Josh and I were probably standing about 20 feet from where the band was set up.
(Hardcore bands don't usually play on stages from what I've seen, they like people to gather up around them.)
When the band started into the first song, Josh and I ended up backing up to 35 feet from the "stage".
The tightly packed bodies up front erupted into dancing (which looks more like convulsions to me ... most
people fling their limbs about everywhere and run full force into each other, arms and legs flailing, trying to
take each other out). I wasn't too keen about getting a Chuck Taylor to the face, so I backed up and watched from afar.
After a few songs, apparently someone complained and one of the singers from xvpopdmx made a short
announcement. "Guys, we want you to have fun, but if one more person gets hurt, we have
to stop the show. So dance ... have fun, and hit people. But not hard." Ahh, wise words indeed.
The show continued. xvpopdmx's performance was much like their music ... heavy, loud, and erratic ... but not
short, they played the longest out of any band the whole show. I was definitely entertained, and yet still hungry.
After xvpopdmx was done, I bought myself a brownie (courtesy of a group of Vegan kids) and then
headed over to the campus store to buy more food. (What a hog, haha) More conversing with pals
and walking around campus. We even found a CD on the ground. An Equal Vision Records Fall 2001
CD sampler. Converge is on it, track 7. Very nice. Josh, put that in your pocket awhile ... Another
band played a few songs, but I was more interested in my Pringles. After they played, it was time for Boywunder.
I must say Boywunder is my one of my favorite local hardcore bands. Their music is a combination of standard
hardcore stuff, with some Poison the Well-esque riffs, emo like background vocals for a few songs, and a very
charismatic front man. Actually that might be an understatement. How about a fucking awesome front man.
Usually people add the "F" word to accentuate things and make them sound better. I usually think
that's dumb. But I decided to try it there ... oh well ... While their performance didn't make people kick
each other in the face like the xvpopdmx had, it made people actually listen and watch the band working
and to take in their performance, and people applauded them well after each song. Andy (guitar)
sang some great backing vocals in "To the Tune of Indifference", even though they weren't loud
enough. New bassist Ray got really into it and attacked a few people mid-song. He seemed to fit the
band really well. Drummer, Dale, pushed the band onward. He's a pretty soft-spoken guy,
but I think he's an awesome drummer. And Eric (vox) was crazy. At one point he walked
around without the Mic grabbing people and screaming the last verse of the song. Very
emotional. He also breathed fire at the end of one song. That totally owned. Of course,
the same man who criticized the XvpopdmX kids for roughness had something to say about
THAT.
"No, no fire here!"
Eric's reply ... "Oh, sorry about that, I was unclear as to what the rules were." I had to laugh at that one...
Boywunder's set was cut short due to the fact that A Life Once Lost had yet to play. But they played the
songs from their 4 track EP, as well as 2 new songs I had the pleasure of hearing first (I think, maybe ... just
like to be special) at their practice a week or so earlier. Everyone should go see this band, they're
a very tight, talented unit.
The next band, the headliner was A Life Once Lost. Josh was pretty excited about these
guys. He thinks they're the most talented band in Pennsylvania. I told him he better think Stereo
Logic is the best band in Pennsylvania if he wants to get home. (haha) A lot of the crowd had already
cleared out, but this 5 piece took the stage pretty quick and began. These guys ARE good.
They're stuff is straight up HARDcore. These guys are pretty young, yet very technical. The
two guitarist threw in some harmonizing riffs that were almost Throwdown-ish. A powerful
vocalist and rhythm section. You get a different kind of dancer for these bands ... as opposed
to the ones we saw earlier. These guys were big tuffy's, ready to kill each other and eat each
other's hearts out! Haha, OK, maybe not that bad, but scary still ... A Life Once Lost played
two songs, and then they were cut. Apparently use of the facilities had been abused and they
had to stop right then because the show was running too late. Many kids started to protest it,
telling the band to go on anyway. They asked if they could play one more, and the Powers that
Be said no. Josh proceeded
to get a little pissy. Hmmm, I can definitely say that I shall have to see
ALOL another time, and perhaps talk with one of them.
So, we were off, like a prom dress. It was cold that night too. That temperature outside was only 27 degrees, my car told me so ...