Featured Live Show: Hot Water Music

2.01.2008 - Metro (Chicago, IL)

As some of you may remember, I did a "Get the Fuck Back Together, Idiots" on Hot Water Music a little while back. Well, they listened. Backing up the release of Till the Wheels Fall Off, a collection of rarities, songs from splits, etc, HWM went on tour. I also mentioned this on the site when I first caught wind of it. Turns out I kinda really think Hot Water rocks the fuck out of the world.

So I obviously went to this reunion show, and it was, of course, fucking amazing. Hot Water are one of the greatest bands to see live. Each show is chock-full of raw energy and crazy fist-pumping. On top of that, every time I see them they get a little better. This time around they played as tight as can be, even though there was a good amount of liquor in them. Surprising, isn't it? Chris was looking pretty wasted by the end of the show, actually. Chuck was drinking whiskey and Guinness. He's probably the coolest guy alive at this point. Not because he drinks whiskey, but because he just knows how to bring the rock like no other. Anyway, they played hella great. The crowd was going nuts for everything, but songs from Caution and Never Ender were the biggest, which is pretty much to be expected. When they unleashed "Alachua" during the encore, the place exploded. Beer was flying everywhere and I somehow ended up on my back. I think some homeboy tried to grab onto me on his way down for support but just dragged me with him. It's cool though, that's the price to pay for being front and center. I do have to say, however, that there was a high turnout of fuckwads at this show, which always sucks. We got tickets to the show that was NOT all ages for obvious reasons (they are playing another tonight in the Chi that is all ages), but that doesn't mean you don't have immature cuntrags showing up. The one I attended was 18 and over, so we still got stuck with some high school-esque fuckers that were trying to emulate what they saw on MTV in the pit. At one point I literally had to grab some kid by the neck and tell him if he hit me in the head again I was going to beat the shit out of him. That seemed to remedy the problem.

I heard in the pisser that Small Brown Bike was supposed to open but canceled. I don't know how true that is. That would have been a double reunion show of two fantastic bands, but whatever. The bands that did play with HWM were pretty uneventful, and I spent the time during their sets downing liquid courage, so I am not going to bother mentioning who they were or how they played.

I just hope Hot Water takes all the shouting of "Get back together!" to heart and decides to do just that. I miss those guys. They even managed to tug at the heartstrings by mentioning how much they loved playing the Fireside Bowl. Damn.

Here's about 20 seconds of them playing last night:


Here they are playing live somewhere before they broke up (watch Chris rock out pretty hard in the background):

Dispatches from Powerviolence: Hot Water Music Reunion Tour

That’s right, loyal readers, HWM is getting back together for a reunion tour! There is really nothing in this world that could be more fucking gnar, unless we could manage to get Jello Biafra on the presidential ballot. Shit, I still say this Hot Water tour is more hella. So why did the boys decide to reunite? They say that it is to help bring attention to their new release of B-sides and singles on No Idea Records called “Till the Wheels Fall Off,” but I think they just realized that the world needs a little bit more rock in it. We here at the Belly certainly agree, so mad props to Hot Water for bringing what we want. In true HWM fashion, everything is pretty much up in the air at this point. Those boys sure don’t like to get shit figured out. So, as it stands, there are only three stops right now. They say they don’t have a limit on how many shows will be played, but they haven’t really bothered to think about it either.

So go see them if they stop in your town or anywhere within 200 miles of your town. Check out the album, too. It drops January 22nd. They obviously read our site, since we did a “Get the Fuck Back Together, Idiots” on them a little while back. Right now it’s just a tour, but let’s hope for some new jams. On their site, they answered a few questions about all this mayhem, and one was whether or not they are going to begin working on some new stuff. The answer simply said, “We haven’t even rehearsed the old shit yet.” That’s still not a “no.” Keep your fingers crossed.

Tickets go on sale November 10th.

Here are the current dates:
January 19 - House of Blues (Orlando, FL)
January 25 – Starland Ballroom (Sayerville, NJ)
February 2 – Metro (Chicago, IL) Booyah!

Check the HWM site for updates.
Hot Water Music Site

Here's the video for "Paper Thin."

Get the Fuck Back Together, Idiots: Hot Water Music

I miss you, HWM. You guys always brought the rock. I miss watching you guys knowing that even though I was completely wasted, you were more wasted. What's the deal? People like me need you in their lives. Remember how you used to say you were breaking up all the time or post a show as your last and then play said show and at the end tell everyone you love this too much so you weren't going to actually break up now? Remember that big ass run-on sentence I just wrote? So what if three of you started The Draft? The Draft sucks. And now poor Chuck's all solo about it, which is fine, but it's just not the same. I cried when I heard about you deciding to end it all. Alright, I exaggerated that, but I was pretty bummed. Breaking up was very unpowerviolence of you, and you can quote me on that.

Just get some beers, pick up your instruments, and start jamming again. I know you want to.

Hot Water Music: Remedy