Benefit show for Dr. Know in Tompkins Square Park w/ Breakdown, Token Entry, Cro-Mags, Antidote, Maximum Penalty.

 Tompkins Square Park and the area around it has a lot of history for NYC punk. It was my first experience and introduction to NYC (punk) in the early 90's. I remember it as a punk park, where a nearby beeper store sold weed. I was scared of that place at night.  There were riots, and for a period of time, it was fenced off. Breakdown, Reagan Youth, Missing Foundation, Leftover Crack and tons more, too many to list, played this park, all to rally and protest for squatters rights in the LES. Gentrifier Guilliani booted everyone eventually... Anyway, flash forward to now, everybody's old or dead, and the park reeks of it.

The benefit was to help Dr. Know, guitarist of the legendary American punk band the Bad Brains, pay for medical bills from a recent hospitalization. Bad Brains were one of the godfathers of the NYHC scene. Recently, Dr. Know suffered cardiac arrest, which led to organ failures, he survived, yet, he is faced a mountain of medical bills. Several old school NYHC bands got together for this benefit.
  I got there late, due to traffic on the damn Tappan Zee from a bad crane accident had cars bottlenecked, and fuckers rubberneckin the broken crane that fell, I snapped a shot, too what the hell, when in Rome traffic I guess...

  I missed the two openers,  I got there just as Cro-Mags hit the stage. 15 years ago, I saw Harley's War at CBGB with Daryl on bass, this Cro-Mags lineup is without Harley, in 2000, I also saw the Cro-Mags open for the Bad Brains when Harley and John were both in the reunited stage, and Bad Brains were called the Soul Brains, anyway, Here's some shots...

I finally got to one on my bucket list, seeing Token Entry live, and I was glad I did. The song Antidote is my radio show theme song since 96, due to it's Friday night reference, and overall badass jammin.

THE PIT! 

 MOSH! SLAM! CIRCLE PIT! WALL OF DEATH!

CHUNX

MORE CHUNX

BREAKDOWN ! 

They ended the night with clobbering breakdowns (of all things) and plenty o' sing alongs with lyrics like "all you are is a fucking dick" 

MOSH! NY SLAM!

Slam and jam in100 degrees to support a great cause, the foundation, NYHC and believe it, NYHC RULES.

And last but not least, I got to hang with Munsey of Skateboard Marketing, this guy has been supplying me with metal, punk, and hardcore music for 20 years at WSPN radio, and I am grateful to know such a great guy. He's an old school mf'er that used work at fukkin Combat Core, in like, '86 which fuckin rules. Cheers Munsey! 

Life & Death Tour 2016 Clifton Park, NY

I went and checked out the hardcore/metal tour of the summer, Life & Death Tour, when they stopped by upstate NY last week, it was a lot of newer bands I needed to check out, and I'm glad I did.
 I didn't stay for headliners, Terror,  I've seen them before, I really don't listen to them, and also heard their vocalist wasn't there to sing anyway. I was able to get my hardcore and metal on, and my tired old ass home at a decent hour, considering after all, it was a Tuesday night.
 6 bands for 25 bucks, it started at 6:30, with Red Death, the only band of the six, where I can say that I actually purchased my own copy of their music (imagine that, people) prior to the show. Red Death combine the perfect storm of metal and hardcore, sometimes coming off with a Scratch The Surface era Sick Of it All sound, that totally kicks ass. They opened with a short set, I think these dudes have a great combination of metal and hardcore that will attract a lot of listeners, look for these dudes, Red Death! 

Next I have a bunch of photos from a California hardcore band called Fury, from Orange County, (singer specified that they were Cali's OC not NY's) These guys play a old school style straight edge mosh, and are really a lot of fun, and excellent live.

The vocalist was a hardcore frontman spazz as you could imagine, during one song, you had the obligatory dogpile the mic, and he just handed it over to the dogpile, then leapfrogged over them into the pit, and started moshin and slammin crazy, good times.

One guitarist was playing a Jackson, the other guy, some Buddy Holly looking thing. 

Up next was Angel Du$t, which features members of other hardcore bands Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile. It seems to me that these guys were sick of meeting 18 year old boys at hardcore shows, so they decided to write music to attract the girls. Shout outs to the females in the audience, the subject matter of the songs all point to this, to me. They do a Fat Mike sorta punk, All, H2O, Bouncing Souls sorta vibe, I snapped some photos, check it out! 

Harm's Way played, I've seen them before, beatdown hardcore, not really my thing, photos are on this blog, (archive on right side), BUT, up next after them was Power Trip.
These guys are from Texas, and like Houston's DRI, they play a mosh heavy style of metal, making the crowd go bananas. They kinda remind me of Exodus, tasty thrash. Go see Power Trip and this tour package they are on, it's one of the best tours of summer 2016! I bought music from each band, except Red Death, because I already own Permanent Exile, which you should too! 

all photos by George DeMers