From Ashes rise show pix

So I went to see From Ashes Rise, American Heritage, Despite, and Tusk last nite at the Fireside Bowl. I ended up having to go alone, thanks everyone! Anyway, I hadn’t been to the fireside in awhile so it was nice to go back. After a stop at Potbellys for dinner I got there in time to see the first band setting up and getting ready to play.

Tusk were the first band. They feature many members from the mighty Pelican, however they sound a lot different, and they have vocals. Sung by a demented man who looked like he was in a trance the entire time, and spazzed out, jumped around, fell, swung his mic around and almost hit the rest of the band, and people in the crowd, but ended up slamming it into the stage instead, and growled like a madman. They sounded like Racebannon, if Racebannon took the other path at the fork in the road. I enjoyed them, and I’d go see them again for sure.

Despite, from WI, were up second. They featured a dual vocal attackand reminded me a bit of early Napalm Death, which is a good thing. They had a lot of energy, and played a lot of songs and seemed to enjoy what they were doing. The crowd also seemed to dig them.

American Heritage were third on the bill. When they were setting up, their one guitar player dropped his guitar, thus breaking it. He had to use a spare guitar of one of his bandmates. During the first song, the other guitar player blew the fuse to the head on his amp. They were able to borrow on from a member of Tusk who was kind enough to loan him his for their set. That was very nice of him to share his equipment, just like the old punk days. AH were rather metal, I enjoyed a couple of their songs, it was a shame the equipment problems stopped their momentum.

From Ashes Rise took the stage last. They also fell victim to a bad head and had to borrow the same head from the Tusk member. That guy earned double good karma points last nite, that’s for sure. FAA kicked so much ass that I damn near shit myself from their intensity. They play rather old school hardcore with a bit of a modern flavor to it. Their new album is stellar and one of the best hardcore records to come out in awhile. In between songs, the main singer would talk about issues they had concerns with such as health care, etc and it gave the people things to think about. I am making a vow to try and see them every time they play here. I bought a shirt and 2 earlier records of theirs that I didn’t own that they were selling on vinyl. After the show I went home a happy man having seen a good show, despite having to go it alone.

I took a lot more pix, a handful which came out good, but I only posted a couple here. I decided last nite that I am going to put together a bunch of photo albums for the spontaneous site of shows that I’ve gone to and put them in the images section. I hope to get to that sometime in the next couple weeks when I finally have some free time.