Raw Blow / Laughing Stock / In/shreds / Flag Worship / Zool / Limo
The Hive, Gloucester, MA 1/25/14
The Hive is a small community arts center in Gloucester. Periodically it’s home to the only all ages shows in Gloucester thanks to Joey Unis and Riley Knispel, two dudes who love good local music and want to share that love with everyone who walks in the door. It is impossible to enter a Hive show, whether in a band or the crowd, without at least one of Gloucester’s dynamic duo knowing you and every word to every song your band has ever released. They are fucking awesome dudes, the “restore your faith in humanity” kind of awesome dudes.
The first band was Zool, a two person stoner-doom band from Gloucester. They combined horror movie sound bites, heavy guitar riffs, hard drumming, vocals screamed, almost unmic’ed, from behind the drumset to great effect. Their harsh sound and brutal energy helped build up to the later punk bands despite the genres being so different.
In/shreds took the stage next. A post punk band from Salem, they were characterized by standard punk song structure and riffs. They utilized group vocals to great effect, switching the lead singer depending on the style of the song and having the other vocalists on backup vocals, singing a classic woh ooh ooh, in between lines, giving the band the vibe of a more upbeat post-punk Misfits.
Next came Limo, which was a band, I think. They took the stage and their singer launched into a long rambling monologue about cooking crack. He then stopped the monologue and held his iPhone to the mic playing the sound for leaving voice mail at which point the band launched into two three chord punk songs. During one tune the guitarist dropped his guitar halfway through and never picked it back up. After two songs, the singer went into the same monologue and then the band played the same two songs again… yeah, your guess is good as mine.
Laughing Stock is a fairly standard hardcore punk band from Boston. Obviously they were more accustomed to basement shows in Allston, as they had too much energy for such a small venue with such a casual crowd. Their riot inducing songs were obviously meant to go completely mental to and their crowd talk consisted of mostly self deprecating inside jokes. They played hard. They played fast. They formed a pit on the stage, well, the area designated as the stage.
Raw Blow despite not being the last band, was probably the most famous band there, judging solely on the fact that they have and brought merch, unlike most bands at the Hive who sometimes don’t even have a facebook page. They were a talented hardcore band with a strong punk influence, especially when it came to their vocals. Instrumentally, The Refused, comes to mind with their style of being almost Post-hardcore but not quite there yet. Their last song utilized higher sung vocals to add a more mournful tone showing they aren’t afraid to experiment with a more modern post-hardcore style.
Although I had to miss the last band, Riley’s band Flag Worship (fuck early weekend trains, or a as Jim told me to say, Flaming Giraffes) it was an awesome, mostly punk, show at a great venue filled with even better people.
(Sam Malabre)
I want to clarify that at no point did I suggest to Sam to fuck flaming giraffes as I feel it would be animal cruelty and also very dangerous to do. I merely suggested that in lieu of actually seeing the performance he could say it was stopped because of a stampede of flaming giraffes, a more plausible and understandable explanation.