Ah yes, the return of Long Island Hardcore – well actually LIHC hasn’t really gone anywhere, I’ve just been out of New York quite a bit in the past three years because of that whole University thing…Anyway, this was an AMAZING show, and probably one of the craziest shows I’ve ever been to. According to the people who put this thing on, 234 passed through the door into a fairly tiny (but well proportioned) bar. Needless to say, it was a tad warm inside, but a packed in crowd certainly set a positive tone for the afternoon.

Kicking it off with a few songs were the local guys, STRONG POINT. Since I’ve been out of a touch with the scene, these guys were new to me, and their brand of metallic influenced hardcore was fairly captivating, although not very original. The band only played three songs, each about four minutes in length, and some of the kids sung along. Not really much to mention about them as they just got the ball rolling. IN PIECES came down from our northern neighbor, Connecticut, and I was very much impressed by what they had to offer. Forging a passionate, yet stunningly heavy hardcore sound somewhere between POISON THE WELL and SILENT MAJORITY, I was eating it up. Their vocalist and lead guitarist were very animated folks and it was fun to see if the guitarist would swing his instrument around so much that it might knock someone out in the pit. Speaking of the pit, holy corn dog! At once, on the launch of breakdown, the venue just exploded. The only gripe I had was that some of IN PIECES’ songs were approaching the six, seven minute mark, mared by a few hundred timing changes…Anyway, this is clearly a band that I want to see again.

From this point on, the show turned in a mix of mayhem, emotion, and downright devastation. FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES has been hailed as one of the Island’s best new bands in quite some time, and needless to say, not only do I agree to that statement, but I’ll raise it by saying that there is no other band on Long Island besides SKYCAMEFALLING that’s rips it up in the metalcore genre like they do. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this band was that their drummer was flat out killer as a drummer and a second vocalist!!! He was a terror on the kit! Absolutely thrashing fills set to some wicked double bass action, matched to sickly sweet vocals…he even was wearing a wireless headset to do the singing! To be perfectly honest, there is nothing that I can aptly type that will do FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES’ set justice because the fact of the matter is, after every track, I turned to my buddy Dave and went, “”dude, that was AWESOME!”" Their new album on Ferret should be out sometime this summer, and if you like some of the bands on Ferret, then I guarantee you’ll go nuts over this too. I rave about quite a lot of bands these days, but I would be doing a disservice to the hardcore community if I did not properly award praise where praise is no doubt due. Wow….

Following up from the aforemention band was not easy, but fortunately, the talented Philadelphia five-piece, THIS DAY FORWARD did their best to keep the flow of the show going. I’ve liked this band for nearly two years now, as both their debut disc (on Break Even records, soon to be rereleased by Eulogy) and their recent one (on Eulogy) find themselves in heavy rotation in the ol’ stereo. It was extremely refreshing to see a good deal of the crowd going off for these guys knowing the words and corresponding breakdown/sing-along moments. Highlights from their set included, the creepier thriller “”End of Autumn,”" and the all out crusher, “”If I Wore A Mask.”" The only down thing about them is that the vocalist sometimes uses a high-pitched bark in a place of a scream (mostly becase the mic misses his mouth) and it reminds a bit like the awful vox by Rick Ta Life. By this time, Someplace Else was completely packed in, almost to the point of breathlessness, which of course set the stage perfectly for the truly incredible, THURSDAY.

THURSDAY is a band that I can earnestly say “”I knew about them before everyone else did,”" heh…Not that it matters, but when I saw them in February of 2000, before they signed with Victory, I knew this band was special. Now, with an arsenal of new songs to dish out live, I was more than stoked to see these guys rip it up. Playing emotional hardcore without sounding corny or detached is tough, but none do it better than these guys, not even that band known as BOY SETS FIRE who usually claim king to the top spot. Vocalist Geoff just has that kooky stage presence and devilish charm that gives him an inordinate amount of command amid the crashing symbols and wailing guitars. Songs hit were, “”Understanding in a car crash,”" “”Cross out the eyes”" (by far their best song…), “”Paris in Flames,”" “”I am the Killer,”" “”Standing on the edge of summer,”" and their set closed out with two old classics…It should be said that crowd went absolutely nuts during their set, knocking into the light rack on the ceiling (yes, the ceiling!), and causing all sorts of chaos around and on stage.

At this point, the bar owners were getting visibly upset with the potential for damage, but in an appreciative and admirable move, all they did was plead with the crowd between the next set change to take it a easy and respect the venue, as they did not want to see anyone get hurt, or put the venue in jeopardy. As Geoff of THURSDAY put it, “”We really don’t need any lawsuits guys, we all know that’s what shuts venues down…”" Thankfully, the owners kept their cool, and for the crowd’s part, nothing dangerous happened during SKYCAMEFALLING’s set. Speaking of which – SKYCAMEFALLING came out to play to an already exhausted, but well reserved crowd (the show at this point was approach 5 hours of music in a room that must have easily been near the 90 degree mark). These guys have a brillant new disc out called “”!0.21,”" and they started their set off with the most brutal of songs from there, “”Shallow Like Sand.”" Unfortunately, I was only able to stay for the next two songs, “”Laura Palmer,”" and old one from their debut disc on Goodlife Recordings in Belgium. However, from what I was able to catch, I was floored with the both the precision and artistic exposition exhibited by these five lads. Combining gut-busting growls with eerie bittersweet backing vocals, gave their songs a nice layered feel – of course, this was all mated with a dual guitar crunch and some blasting drum work, heavy on the rapid fire double bass. I really wish I would have been able to stay longer. This was the first day of tour between SKYCAMEFALLING and THURSDAY, and if you get the chance to catch them at a venue near year, DO NOT miss out on this ubelieavable pairing!

Long Island Hardcore is alive and well, and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to go to shows in my home county and to appreciate the fact that the kids around here can share in the same experiences I had while growing up here. To this, I hoist a hearty fist in the air to the owners of Someplace Else for giving the bands a kickin’ place to play.

(above picture is SKYCAMEFALLING from Quebec, 1999)