What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

There's a club on the corner of 7th Street and Avenue A in New York City called, of course, A7. This is where most of the local hardcore bands play and this is where we went on Friday night. Unfortunately for our feet, the show had been moved to a larger warehouse on Second Avenue called 2+2, so we trekked over there at about midnight and ended up sitting outside talking and eating chocolate until 1:30. Then the doors opened and the show started. There were seven bands set to play and the cover was only $5.00 so lots of people showed up. The show finally ended at 6:00 in the morning with us staggering outside saying "Christ, it's morning!" and things like that. In the end, only six bands played 'cause by the time the last band, ANOREXIA SURFBOARD, was to come on, lots of people had crawled home to die. And anyway, the drummer was sick.

Now for a rundown of the six bands we did see:

YOUNG AND USELESS -- All around fourteen years old. Some original stuff like their theme "Young and Useless" and some covers (a toughed up version of "Summer Lovin'" from Grease, etc.) -- Fairly loose, need work to get tight -- tons of energy.

D.Y.s (Department of Youth Services) From Boston -- ended with a GREAT surf tune -- a bit pretentious (the singer was vaguely reminiscent of Mugger) -- very tight -- a couple of lousy songs.

F.U.s -- A good time for skins wanting to draw blood -- sounded sort of like a Circle Jerks/Flipper cross -- Kathy thought they were great -- very energetic.

CRUCIAL TRUTH - "Rocks da house" - Best band to go on up to that point, probably the best we saw -- about to put out vinyl -- Loud and fast

*Skinhead joke-telling intermission outside (e.g. "mommy, mommy" jokes)*

NO DEMOCRACY -- These guys were really good and different, not anything like the rest of the bands -- unfortunately a lot of people got stuck on their appearance (mid to late 20s, long hair, fat singer) and didn't even come in from the joke-telling contest (still in full swing) to give them a chance.

ANTI WARFARE -- Female singer who's also black and it's great to see the integration of races -- she really knows how to belt out lyrics -- one thing that bugs me is that a lot of the New York crowd don't like long hairs or un-butch girls (especially the singer for this band) -- on the whole they're pretty together but aren't as tight as they could be -- all of their songs are heavy, raw and very energetic -- six months of practice and they'll be vinyl material (Eliza thought they were boring noise).