As soon as I had heard that the Youth Attack winter tour was gonna be coming through Charlotte, I almost hit the roof. I was stoked beyond belief. For anyone not familiar with the Youth Attack winter tour, it consisted of Failures, Aerosols, and Salvation. If for some reason you're not familiar with these bands, you may be familiar with the clusterfuck of "ex/current-members of" list that comprise these bands. Members of Charles Bronson, Orchid, Ampere, Das Oath, Wasteland, Cancer Kids, and Vaccine, among tons of others were all in tow. As I got there around 8:30 for the 8:00 show, I was immediately told that Aerosols had gotten lost, and the show wouldn't start until about 10:00. Undeterred by the hold up, I thumbed through records for a while, and then walked down to Common Market for a drink. Upon my return around 9:30ish, local openers Young & In The Way were almost done setting up. They started a few minutes before 10, and played their brand of heavy hardcore to a pretty thick crowd. After they finished, the first Youth Attack band of the night; Salvation from Pennsylvania took the floor. Salvation fucking ripped through about 12 minutes of some of the most intense hardcore I've seen in a long while. The dichotomy of the band's appearance made me laugh, as the singer, guitarist, and bassist all had skinned heads, and looked mean as fuck, while their drummer seemed to be some kind of Bohemian dude with long hair, with a "Boston's More than a Feelin" mustache, rocking some kind of aboriginal necklace; they fucking ripped though. Failures was up next. This was the band I think everyone (or at least myself) was most fixated on, as it features Charles Bronson's vocalist Mark McCoy. They were one of the absolute tightest breakneck outfits I think I've ever seen. They were fucking flawless, which is almost unseen with a band as fast as they are. You can usually expect some sloppy moments, but not with Failures. They didn't say shit in between songs, it was just violent burst after violent burst of awesome hardcore.
Right after Failures packed their shit, Aerosols took the stage. This band has the lead singer from Ampere playing guitar, and the dude who sang in Wasteland handling vocals, so you knew from the start that it was gonna be good. They had a new bassist in tow, and the night before, the singer had sliced his arm open on a lightbulb while playing in a basement, so the odds weren't necessarily in their favor. They seemed to somewhat struggle through the set a little, but it was still fun to watch, and sounded really good. The band is fucking flawless on record, and if you don't have their albums, then get a hold of them. I'm sure they're hard to find since everything Youth Attack seems to turn to gold, but I know tons of blogs have posted them for download. After the show, I spent wayyy too much money on some records, but don't regret it all, because they may have been the best records I bought all year. If you decided to sleep on this show, then at least check out all of the bands, and punch yourself in the bag for missing one the best shows on 2009. (West Hastey)
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