ThinkBlog

Tuesday of this past week I went to the New Brookland Tavern in Columbia to a hardcore show.

I was in Greenville about to head to Columbia after some lunch at a local Chinese place when one of my friends (and a former roommate) called to see if I could give him a ride. I did so, driving from Greenville to Charlotte and then—after burning an MP3 CD full of songs he wanted me to hear and then killing myself getting some food at Captain D’s—down to Columbia. It was great to see him; we had an excellent conversation and it had been the first time in years that I’d seen him.

After some fiasco involving money and the lack thereof, we all got in to the show an hour and a half (or so) late, in time to hear the latter three of four or five bands.

These bands were all hardcore. For those of you that are unfamiliar, hardcore is faster and heavier than “heavy metal,” usually with growling instead of singing. That doesn’t mean it’s Satanic, no, and it doesn’t mean that these guys can’t sing or play, either; though of course, that’s a common misconception here in SC.

Dead to Fall was setting up when we walked in, and I have to say, those guys are great showmen. The lead singer/screamer had a deep growl, a good voice, long hair, no shoes, and tattoos saying “DRUG X FREE” around his ankles. (It’s very common within the hardcore subculture to be Straight Edge, a counter-drug-culture movement having grown out of the ’80s punk/hardcore movement in which StraightEdgers partake of no illicit chemicals of any kind, usually including alcohol. Find out more here.) These guys had a good sound, and were excellent showmen, as far as I’m concerned. (My friend’s complaint was that they sounded too much like other hardcore bands, but his argument fell on unsophisticated ears; if I critique grocery-store sushi but it’s all you’ve ever had, you don’t have anything to compare it to.)

Extol was phenomenal. I may be biased because this is the Norwegian Christian hardcore (i.e., “Christcore”) band that my friend wanted to come see in the first place. I found myself liking it more and more as they played, just because they seemed like such nice guys. The lyrics (insofar as I could hear them intelligibly) were wise, and the music was driving and unique. I’ll be picking their CD(s) up soon, which is not something I would say for most hardcore bands. Usually, I’ve found, hardcore is like punk, only angrier. But this wasn’t Extol. Between the third and fourth songs of their set, the guy thanked everyone for coming out, and then proceeded to witness to the love of Jesus Christ to this huge group of hardcore punks. It was really awesome: this tall skinny pale guy with a Norwegian accent and black hair down to his waist gets done screaming over the top of some powerful riffs to talk about Jesus and how God loves you. I was (favorably) blown away. Extol single-handedly changed my opinion of hardcore as a genre.

Haste the Day was good but slightly less spectacular as showmen and lyricists. We left early to go play pool. I’ll reserve judgment on Haste the Day until I hear more and can more accurately judge their work.

I used to listen (in my early high school days) to Christian “death metal,” which amounts to very dark and poignantly-themed Australian-or-Norwegian heavy metal. In fact, I came into the art of apologetics in arguing the benefits of different genres of Christian music, and that our sensibilities do not baptize or anathemize any given genre of music. I’m glad for this concert; I have enjoyed Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s—well, everything—and now here’s some hard music I can really sink my teeth into.

Thanks, PJ, for broadening my horizons.

More later.

Tuesday of this past week I went to the New Brookland Tavern in Columbia to a hardcore show.

I was in Greenville about to head to Columbia after some lunch at a local Chinese place when one of my friends (and a former roommate) called to see if I could give him a ride. I did so, driving from Greenville to Charlotte and then—after burning an MP3 CD full of songs he wanted me to hear and then killing myself getting some food at Captain D’s—down to Columbia. It was great to see him; we had an excellent conversation and it had been the first time in years that I’d seen him.

After some fiasco involving money and the lack thereof, we all got in to the show an hour and a half (or so) late, in time to hear the latter three of four or five bands.

These bands were all hardcore. For those of you that are unfamiliar, hardcore is faster and heavier than “heavy metal,” usually with growling instead of singing. That doesn’t mean it’s Satanic, no, and it doesn’t mean that these guys can’t sing or play, either; though of course, that’s a common misconception here in SC.

Dead to Fall was setting up when we walked in, and I have to say, those guys are great showmen. The lead singer/screamer had a deep growl, a good voice, long hair, no shoes, and tattoos saying “DRUG X FREE” around his ankles. (It’s very common within the hardcore subculture to be Straight Edge, a counter-drug-culture movement having grown out of the ’80s punk/hardcore movement in which StraightEdgers partake of no illicit chemicals of any kind, usually including alcohol. Find out more here.) These guys had a good sound, and were excellent showmen, as far as I’m concerned. (My friend’s complaint was that they sounded too much like other hardcore bands, but his argument fell on unsophisticated ears; if I critique grocery-store sushi but it’s all you’ve ever had, you don’t have anything to compare it to.)

Extol was phenomenal. I may be biased because this is the Norwegian Christian hardcore (i.e., “Christcore”) band that my friend wanted to come see in the first place. I found myself liking it more and more as they played, just because they seemed like such nice guys. The lyrics (insofar as I could hear them intelligibly) were wise, and the music was driving and unique. I’ll be picking their CD(s) up soon, which is not something I would say for most hardcore bands. Usually, I’ve found, hardcore is like punk, only angrier. But this wasn’t Extol. Between the third and fourth songs of their set, the guy thanked everyone for coming out, and then proceeded to witness to the love of Jesus Christ to this huge group of hardcore punks. It was really awesome: this tall skinny pale guy with a Norwegian accent and black hair down to his waist gets done screaming over the top of some powerful riffs to talk about Jesus and how God loves you. I was (favorably) blown away. Extol single-handedly changed my opinion of hardcore as a genre.

Haste the Day was good but slightly less spectacular as showmen and lyricists. We left early to go play pool. I’ll reserve judgment on Haste the Day until I hear more and can more accurately judge their work.

I used to listen (in my early high school days) to Christian “death metal,” which amounts to very dark and poignantly-themed Australian-or-Norwegian heavy metal. In fact, I came into the art of apologetics in arguing the benefits of different genres of Christian music, and that our sensibilities do not baptize or anathemize any given genre of music. I’m glad for this concert; I have enjoyed Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s—well, everything—and now here’s some hard music I can really sink my teeth into.

Thanks, PJ, for broadening my horizons.

More later.