Featured Live Show: Converge / The Red Chord

4.05.2008 - Reggie's Rock Club - Chicago

Alrighty. To begin, I need to say that the lineup for this show was fucking incredible. Here's the order of gnardeath appearances:

1. Hewhocorrupts
2. Genghis Tron
3. Baroness
4. The Red Chord
5. Converge


So let's do a little play-by-play so all you readers can get a feel for the destruction. As you already saw from the lineup chart I so generously provided, Hewhocorrupts took the stage first. And of course they were fucking awesome. Pounding through their sharkbite set of grind, these fuckers ended up in their underwear by the end of the set. Unfortunately, I missed the opening songs because I was bit late. You know how it goes; gotta get some of the drinky-poos in before you head out to the venue. Side note: I was wasted by the end of this show. Anyway, these guys tore it up from what I did see.


Next up was Genghis Tron. I love these guys. If anyone remembers, I did a "Found You, Asshole" on them awhile back. Made up of three members (a guitarist, a singer, and a guy that handles all the electronics), GT puts on a pretty interesting show. With a backdrop of these creepy, tall light things that flashed along with the music, the trio brought some killer cybergrind for the crowd. They obviously played a lot off of their new album, so a lot of their set was a little slower than the non-stop blastbeats I was looking forward to. But don't fret! They were still incredible. And, they were amazingly tight. I wouldn't have been surprised if they sounded a bit sloppy because of their goofy setup, but they weren't at all. Nice job, fellas.


After GT came the sweetness that is Baroness. With the booze kicking it and the sounds of sludge/psych-metal blaring, I was pretty much in greatest place ever at this point. I want to make note that our new writer GnarHammer was rocking out harder than fuck to these guys, so you know they have to be good. Baroness actually got a chance to play for a pretty decent amount of time. Unfortunately, as is the case with most shows these days, the crowd seemed a little too young to appreciate the complexity of this quartet, so it didn't really get too jumpin' during their set. Most of these little fuckers were just standing around waiting for their moms to pick them up. This was beginning to irritate Psycho Killa, GnarHammer, and myself, and all this would come to a head as The Red Chord took the stage.


I've seen The Red Chord a few times before, and they are always fucking amazing. This was no exception. How can you not get down with their crazy-yet-still-brutal technicality? It's impossible to try and fight it, or so I thought. Remember the kids waiting for mom? Nobody moved. Literally. Nobody. While the band tried to egg the crowd on, these jackholes just stood there in defiant silence. This is when a few of your favorite Bellions went into action. While I am not one who usually thinks hardcore dancing is all that cool, something needed to be done. So we broke that out to the horror of these 15 year old bastards. As complete confusion overtook most of the crowd (Are these kids actually dancing? Mommy!), some people finally figured out that it was okay to break it down to a band that you like. I lost my hat though during this, and that is the only sad part. Oh yeah, and Psycho Killa and GnarHammer BOTH fucked up their ankles pretty bad. That sucked, too. I made it out with just cuts and bruises, but that is because I am super-human.


Converge. What can be said? They are the godfathers of hardcore. They constantly reinvent themselves and push the boundaries of extreme music. Their shows are always top shelf. As expected, they exploded once on stage and put on a pretty good show. I do have to say, however, that I think they get a little sloppier each time I see them. Maybe I am just losing my excitement, since I have seen them about 5,000 times by now. I don't know. They were great, but it was nowhere near the intensity of the first time I saw them. Or the second. Or the third, etc. Maybe it was the venue. I know the crowd had a lot to do with it, as well, but still, I felt a little let down. There was no Jake grabbing peoples' heads and screaming in their faces. In fact, there was really no crowd interaction at all. I don't even know what to think about it. I think I am just going to blame this on the crowd, but I don't know how much I am just forcing myself to think that since I love them so much. I think I just need them to play in the alley behind my apartment before I make a full-on decision.

So all in all, the show was pretty damn good. My entire party of ragers got a little wounded, and the music was great. Plus there was booze, and booze is our lifeblood. I just wish that the crowds at these shows didn't suck so bad all the fucking time. I literally think I am becoming "that guy" that sits around and thinks about how things used to be "back in the old days."