As much as I dig going to St. Andrew’s shows, this six band madness must end. This was a long, long, long show…and my legs were telling me to stop the pain. But alas, it ain’t so bad when the music is pretty kicking and the atmosphere is enjoyable. SUMMERSETT kicked things off with a hearty dose of energy and full out power punk. Their vocalist suffered a little from SAVES THE DAY syndrome, but he varied things up with some screaming as to not stay in a strictly melodic rut. These guys hit pretty hard and although the music at times sounded somewhat sloppy, it was a solid start to the evening. I don’t know about the rest of the band, but the singer goes to the University of Maryland as well, and it is always good to see people around here active.

BY THE YEARS were up next, hailing from upstate New York. Some of you might, or might not know them by their previous name, HOPEWELL. Anyway, I was impressed by this band. Combining a strong DESCENDANTS influence with some drumming straight out of the GOOD RIDDANCE handbook, I was pretty hooked. The vocals are a little poppy for the rest of the music, but regardless, it was some pretty intense and racing stuff. I look forward to hearing more from them in the future. A ROCKET SENT TO YOU have been making some big waves around here recently, or at least it just seems that everything I read has them playing somewhere nearby. These guys contribute some fairly heavy emo/rock with the occaisional hardcore part thrown in for good measure. During their set I couldn’t help myself from watching the drummer literally beat the absolute crap out of his drumset. Geeeeze! The drummer was a big guy, and he was hitting extremely hard. It was hilarious to watch because he really got into the music as well. In fact, the entire band was rather entertaining to watch even when their music wasn’t all that moving. The band used two vocalists, and one was much better than the other, which created an odd dynamic, but oh well. In any rate, it was a pretty cool set, and another band that I wouldn’t mind seeing once again.

After a brief interlude, EASTERN STANDARD TIME mixed things up with their traditional ska sounds. Going from heavy emo/rock to traditional ska was rather weird, but a little diversity never hurts. I’m not a big fan of this style so I found myself hanging around the back of the venue. The 250 + in attendance however seemed to enjoy themselves with the change of pace,and the nine piece band packed quite a punch.

Soon after EST’s set, the room seemed to fill up a lot tighter, and THE STRYDER came out to a anxious crowd. Everytime these guys play the Church, their following gets larger and larger – no doubt a good sign. Also, without an extensive catalogue for fans to learn, most of the people seemed to know the words to the songs they played, all coming off of their debut album, “”Masquerade in the Key of Crime.”" As with experience comes better stage presence and a stronger live sound. These guys must have good equipment because they sounded huge! Some of the songs hit were, “”sucker,”" “”intoxicated,”" “”11:11,”" “”my plastic you,”" “”king of coronas,”" “”new york woman,”" and “”got you last.”" I know these guys have written some new songs, so I dearly hope they get into the studio soon and crank out another release. There are a lot of pictures of this show on THE STRYDER website, so check them out (i’m in the one above somewhere).

By this time, I was exhausted and hungry so I figured I’d catch about 20 minutes of THE IMPOSSIBLES and scoot. I’m not a huge IMPOSSIBLES fan essentially because I think they sound a little too much like WEEZER, and if I want to hear WEEZER, i’ll listen to WEEZER. But I thought i’d give them a chance anyhow, and they were really good. The crowd, which was relatively tame all night surprisingly came alive during their set and people were very much into the songs that the band played. A fairly good size pit got started too, but it was heavily on the sloppy side of action. Since I wasn’t too familiar with this band to begin with, I left when my hunger took over all my bodily controls. The stomach won again. In any rate, it was another successful night at the Church.