I've been looking forward to this show ever since it was announced. I think it could have been a one night affair with Youth brigade, Government Issue, Scream and Dag Nasty, because I couldn't care less about the other two bands. But I digress... Day one's line up consisted of Kingface (WHO?!), Dag Nasty (woohoo) and Black Market Baby (meh) and it was being held at the Black Cat in Washington, DC. It's a cool place to see a show...you just gotta look past the "No stage diving, No crowd surfing" signs that littered the place. It didn't take long to overhear people complaining about it, but what can ya do?
First band up was Kingface and I don't know why they were on the bill. They sound like a rock band with a singer that can totally sound like H.R. sometimes. The bass player even made a mention of the similarity towards the end of their set. They weren't my cup of tea, but they definitely had fans there. As I am putting this thought down, I still know nothing about this band. I can, however, tell you that they could open up for Van Halen and probably get a good response.
Second band of the night was Dag Nasty and this is who I really wanted to see. In all my years of hardcore, I somehow missed these guys playing shows around me. First of all...WOW. The line up consisted of Shawn Brown, Brian Baker, Roger Marbury and Colin Sears. They sounded like they've been playing together for the last 20 plus years. Shawn's vocals are just awesome and the rest of the guys sounded tight. They got a good response despite those pesky "No Stage Diving, No Crowd Surfing" signs. Because after a couple of songs, people just said fuck it and let loose.
Funny observation from their set was seeing H.R. before and during their set waving at the crowd and throwing up the "peace" sign from behind the stage. I was disappointed in his outfit since he didn't have the astronaut helmet, nor a bird in a cage to sing to. He looked as normal as H.R. could possibly look.
Back to Dag Nasty, they played about 11 songs, one of which was a cover of Red C's "Pressure's On" from the Flex Your head comp. If you didn't know that, smack yourself a couple of times cause that song is great and it's from a great comp. They played an all around great set and I would love to see these guys play out again in the future.
Last band of the night was Black Market Baby and I was never a big fan of their brand of punk. Just not my thing. Some people cleared out after Dag Nasty, but I will say that they sounded good to me. I've heard of them playing a couple of shows here and there over the last few years and people were digging them. The highlight of their set was H.R. coming out and playing Right Brigade with them. He was playing guitar and sounded as lame as you would expect. They should've had the Kingface singer come out and sing the song for him because it just didn't sound right to me.
This show was also promoting a documentary called Salad Days by Scott Crawford and it looks really good. They showed some footage and interviews that I wanted to see more of. There's a funny clip of Ian Mackaye talking about getting crank calls from people in regards to straight edge. Crazy rascals...This documentary can't come out soon enough. It looks fucking sweet! Keep your eyes peeled.
Show ended pretty late and this guy went out for some late night eats before calling it a night.
Stay tuned for Day 2...Until then, check these videos out of the Day 1.
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