STZ @ thee parkside

alright, i know i said i would post this last week, im trying not to slip back into lagging at posting reviews so this hopefully wont happen again.

last wednesday i was at thee parkside, to see hardcore/metal/punk band sabertooth zombie. before hand there were three other openers. first up was grace alley, a bay area punk rock five piece, who wasted no time getting things rowdy. the front man spent most of the set pushing in & out of the crowd, while the band rocked out on stage. these guys were fast, aggressive, & in your face, literally. at the end of the set, the front man got lost within the crowd, wrapping the mic cable around a large pillar in the middle of the room. lastly they invited stz guitarist jay (whose birthday was being celebrated) up to sing vocals for a cover of late nineties power violence pioneers, pantera’s, walk. during which the entire crowd went completely berserk, resulting in one girl getting bashed in the head & bleeding profusely.

the next band on stage was southern california based, latino sludgecore xibalba. these guys were one of those bands that could just as easily been playing gansta rap, but prefer the incoherent fuzz of deathcore to preprogrammed beats. good in their own right, i was  not very interested in this band. they werent particularly original, or impressive, other than one of the guitarist’s tattoos, which completely covered any visible patch of skin aside from his face. another thing that i found interesting about this band’s set ( & all the others’ for that matter) was the unexpected amount of hardcore dancers on the floor. i was unaware that was still “cool”, but there were punches, karate kicks, & even a guy doing cartwheels all over the place. it was like street fighter 99 deluxe edition.

after that came tacoma, washington metal band, owen hart. these guys were actually very impressive, but i think the best part of their set was when the front man (who also spent their whole set on the floor among the crowd) commented how he likes to stay up to date with current events & tries to be among the first to respond. so he then explained a recent phenomenon involving sun chips, those supposed all natural, crispy, chrunchy chips. apparently people had recently begun complaining about the VOLUME of their bag of chips, that their chips were too LOUD, so sun chips employees entered numerous stores, recalling their high volume product. they then played a brand new song entitled, my bag of chips is too f**king loud! angry, loud, abrasive, fast; these guys went straight for the throat. a relatively short set, it was like a punch in the face, just how metal should be.

it then came time for the much anticipated sabertooth zombie to take the stage. a humorous note, their lead singer was wearing a specials t-shirt. now these north bay guys really embody the obnoxious attitude of true punk rock. spitting on the kids in the front row singing along, kicking some of them in the chest, & constantly flipping the bird, & the kids loved every minute of it. they blasted through four songs before they took a break & then jumped right back into it. the lead singer also tore a large hole in the crotch of his pants, & was thoroughly embarrassed for the rest of the set. kids were getting pretty crazy, diving onto the small group of folks at the front, crowding as close as the barriers around the stage would allow, & then moshing just behind them. the band kept feeding the same amount of frenzied energy right back into the crowd & you could see the exchange of emotion & excitement as it bounced back & forth from stage to floor & back again. to say that the night ended too early would be an understatement, but no one left unsatisfied.

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Tags: bay area punk, grace alley, hardcore dancing, owen hart, sabertooth zombie, thee parkside, xibalba