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| Ceremony. Photo credit: Jared Van Earle |
09 July 2012
Saturday July 07
Hi-Fi, Sydney, NSW
Despite Hardcore 2012’s founder proclaiming: “there will
be no hidden surprises,” nothing could have prepared the nation’s heavy
music community for the events which took place on Saturday night.
Perhaps last year’s absence made the heart grow fonder as
both nights at Sydney’s Hi-Fi venue sold out. The genre’s supporters
came from all corners of Australia to catch international trailblazers,
homegrown heros and one act on the brink of cessation. Rubbing shoulders
and filling the Hi-Fi to its ceiling (NOTE: the upstairs level isn’t
recommended for this type of standing show), the sense of community
stayed strong and loud over the following six hours.
Of all the humbling revelations that happened on Saturday
night - some as simple as Mark Bawden (Break Even) and Cavechest’s
(Miles Away) patriotic t-shirts, or as eye-opening as the fervid
response to Break Even’s second-to-last show and the vocalised cultural
understanding from LA band Terror - this showcasing had as much to do
with its players, as it did to do with its place in music.
“Come up the front and lose your fucking mind. One last time!”
Perth quartet Break Even commanded a chaotic circle pit
from their second song and while the security guards were at times
insensitive, they were put to work with a constant barrage of bodies
spilling over the barricade.
After an emotional set that was as ardent as it was
riotous, fellow Perth band Miles Away took the stage taking the crowd
one step further with Cavechest creating an opening for crowd members to
jump onstage and dive off into the wide pit. Stripping hardcore back to
its core, the frontman buried himself in the crowd letting his fans
sing the best parts of stand-out track Turn Your Back.
From frontman Ross Farrar’s epileptic antics to guitarist
Anthony Anzaldo’s gravity rebelling up-do and studded denim vest
(complete with the Prince symbol on its back), Californian band Ceremony
powered the sea of surfing bodies with their firing short, fast, loud
tracks. As Farrar’s scream resonated from underneath his own
button-front shirt for Zoo, the rest of the band menaced the sweat-soaked crowd who were reaching for a turn on the mic. “I'll sing you a song, it's about having your period,” said Farrar before Hysteria.
Much like his likening of the lyrics “no birth without blood/no
confusion without us,” to menstruation, Ceremony’s career and their live
performance is slightly left off centre, exactly where they like it.
When three crowd members jump off the stage in the first
two bars of Mindsnare’s set, anarchy will ensue. From the synchronised
masturbatory strumming from the band’s guitarists to the raw aggression
they incited at the Hi-Fi, the Melbourne face-melters may have upstaged
some other acts on the bill but that was far from their intention.
“This song is going out to Graham from Resist Records for their 20th year together,” declared frontman Matt Maunder before From Blood To Dust.
“He had his testicle removed today, or something.” Nixon, Founder of
Resist Records actually had surgery last week to repair a hernia, but
whatever.
When final band Terror took the stage, raised fists stretched back as far as the exit and when singer Scott
Vogel asked us to “climb on somebody’s head,” a fierce dog-pile erupted
from the pit. “This is positive hardcore,” he yelled before throwing
his mic deep into the mosh. Not once did this take away from the set
however, every lyric was screamed in perfect simpatico with drummer Nick
Jett.
“Truth be told we don't often play to 1000 people,” admitted Vogel, “not to sound too retarded but this is a dream come true.”
A decade since their inception, this band had a lot to
teach their fellow performers and their audience; what better setting to
instill the integrity and bullshit-detectors they have fought so hard
for since 2002? The highlight flared when the band dedicated Life and Death to Nixon and invited two fans onstage to sing with them.
This wasn’t just another indoor gathering of like-minded
music palates, it was more than that; Hardcore is necessary for a
community whose acceptance and popularity may be rising but is still
fighting for its right to hold down the underground.
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