Black N Blue Bowl 2013

The D.C. Sniper Team decided to take a road trip to NYC to see the Black N Blue Bowl this year. In case you didn't already know, Judge was getting back together for a couple of shows this past weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of the show because of traffic getting into the city. Stupid parades...

We arrive and Black Train Jack is up on stage and one word came to mind, BORING! We took that opportunity to browse the merch tables and let me just say this. BTJ may have cost some bands money. I mean who wants to shop for clothes with shitty music in the background?

After a few more bands go up, Judge is on stage setting up and it was a little hard to see at first, but the line up consisted of Mike (not seen) Porcelly, Sammy, Matt and Charlie from Civ. Why Charlie? No beef with Charlie, but he wasn't in the band?

Anyway, the band is ready to go and the next thing I hear is the Imperial March from Star Wars. That was an odd choice, but whatever. The song ends and they start playing "Take Me Away" and the place goes ape shit. Mike Judge steps onto the stage with "YO" as his greeting and starts singing. Dude hasn't missed a beat. He sounded as good as he ever did. I had no reservations for the rest of the band since they're still active in music, but Judge was the wild card here. I've seen people say that there was some issues with a guitar being out of tune for a couple of songs, but I didn't hear it.

The place was going crazy with dives and sing alongs through out the set. All the straight edge kids lost their minds and flooded the stage during "Fed Up." This old timer wasn't going anywhere near the front of the stage for that stuff. The band belted out the hits and ended the show with NY Crew and having Richie Underdog and Civ doing back ups. I can safely say that I enjoyed the whole thing and can only assume that every one else did too. Check out the video to see for yourself.

D.C.S.

Guilty pleasure...Pissed Jeans

We all have guilty pleasures and this is becoming one of mine. The D.C. Sniper Team was invited to see this band by a mutual friend of ours and we went for the sole purpose of hanging out with said friend. Little did we know that we were walking into a place full of HIPSTERS! The opening bands were forgettable, but Pissed Jeans came onstage and had our attention. Their front man was pretty animated and engaged the crowd with some banter between songs, which is a plus in my book. We weren't feeling the music that night, but I decided to look them up on YouTube recently and found a song I really liked called "False Jessi part 2."  I am totally into this song and I found some other tunes like "Bathroom Laughter" and "Health Plan" that are growing on me too. Maybe all those hipsters know some good music? Just this once...

Here is a funny quote from the other half of the D.C. Sniper team, sent to me via text, since I was running late.

"I'm pretty sure 90% of the people here work at Trader Joes, Whole Foods or the vegan co-op. Don't have to worry about skinheads and the wall of death tonight." Touche my friend.

D.C.S.

R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman

Jeff Hanneman of Slayer passed away yesterday and it's a damn shame. I was introduced to Reign In Blood by a die hard Kiss fan and a mutual friend of ours, who was a straight edge kid, lent me South Of Heaven. Both guys loved the band and both guys had completely different tastes in music. That is part of the greatness of Slayer. Their music was appreciated by all kinds of people. Jeff Hanneman and the rest of the band put together some of the greatest music I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. He will be missed. Here's a couple of videos to enjoy.

D.C.S. 

Black Flag reunite! Sort of...

There's now two Black Flag's out there playing the hits. This particular one is going as Flag and consists of Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena, Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton of Descendents/All fame.   They played this past weekend at the Moose Lodge in Redondo Beach, California. Apparently this was the same venue of their first show ever. Whoop dee doo! Why the band thought that this was such a special idea is beyond me, but I digress.

The show was invite only and I wonder how anyone got to be on that invite list? It looks to me like they invited a few clowns to it because there were one too many people holding up their cell phones to record the show. How about dancing, diving and/or singing along? Seriously people. It's obnoxious. It's almost as bad as being in a movie theater and seeing someone's phone light up. It's a distraction. In any case, the band sounded pretty good. They put together close to 40 minutes of hits and at one point had Dez take over vocal duties for a few songs towards the end.

D.C.S.

Damaged City Fest 4-13-13

Unfortunately, I only got to go on Saturday to this two day event. Smart move to buy a two day pass and not even go on Friday. To make matters worse, on Saturday, I got to the show late because it was such a nice day outside, that every tourist in the world was clogging up the streets of D.C. and causing traffic. By the time I got to the venue, I had already missed the first four bands. Way to go. To my dismay, the Night Birds were one of those bands. My day is getting better and better.

Anyway, Coke Bust is setting up and I'm a happy camper. They came out and kicked ass. I love this band and they never disappoint. They got a great reaction from the crowd and I thoroughly enjoyed their set. Nick Tape tells a story about running into John Stabb at the metro and then calls him up to a do a couple of songs. Stabb goes up and does a Pentagram cover and Teenager In A Box. Good stuff.

Next up was No Tolerance and they were pretty damn good. Lots of energy and the mosh was in full effect. If you haven't gotten your hands on their 7" No Remorse, No Regret, then go get it. It's pretty bad ass. I think these guys have a bright future ahead of them and i'm looking forward to more shows and records.

(Announcement) "We've got a guy here with a dislocated knee. It's popped out of the socket." This was announced while the next band was setting up. Never heard that one before. Clearly, somebody was trying to pull off their best R.G. III impression. (That's Robert Griffin the 3rd, for those of you not into sports, or just living under a rock.)

Anyway, the next band up was Culo. Now let me get this out of the way. The singer is a bit of an attention whore. He was walking around back and forth on the floor before getting up on stage and wearing sun glasses. IN DOORS... Who does that? That's stupid and just screams "look at me!"

Musically, they were ok, but I couldn't get into Corey Hart's vocals. His vocals were bad. Like Brother's Keeper bad. It just didn't work for me and I love grind core and death metal. Despite my opinion about them, people seemed to be really into their sound, so what do I know?

After that set I decided to go get some eats. By the time I got back 86 Mentality were on stage. As it turns out they were the surprise guest of the night. Yippie... This is one band that I just don't get? I've seen them a few times over the years and never been impressed. But people were losing their shit to them.

Finally, Negative Approach! They sounded pretty damn good, BUT, John Brannon should either learn to sing his songs again or hang it up because he sounded lame. You wanna know what he sounds like? Think of the song Hypocrite where he screams "When. Will. It. Ever. Ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd?" The way he says "End" is the way he sounds like through every song they played that night. I would venture to say that 95% of the words he needed to say sounded like one long growl. Other than that, they sounded good. People were definitely going off for them. Sing alongs drowning him out made it a more enjoyable experience. Not much banter from John, but I guess he was saving his voice for another long growl. Chalk up another legendary band who's front man is the weak link. If you want to hear Negative Approach live, just listen to Total Recall. Brannon actually sang his songs back then.

Lastly, the guys that put this show together should be commended for a job well done. Props to Nick Tape and Chris Moore and anybody else that helped them put this show together. I am bummed that I missed most of this two day event. Hope they do this again in the future.

D.C.S.

Gotta love the Onion...

http://www.theonion.com/articles/90s-punk-decries-punks-of-today,1486/?ref=auto

D.C.S.

Pump Me Up Exhibit, show and book.

There has been an exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C. for the last month or so and I finally got around to seeing it. It's called "Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980's. It gives you some snapshots of what was going on during that era within the punk and go-go scenes and D.C. in general. Everything from Minor Threat to Junkyard Band to Mayor Barry to Cool Disco Dan. It's a pretty interesting exhibit, but in regards to the punk stuff, it wasn't anything you haven't seen before. Unless you've been such a lazy ass to pass up buying the Banned In DC and Salad Days books. Seeing the original lyrics to "Straight Edge" was cool though. It had some subtle changes, but they changed them for the better.


This exhibit goes along with the show of the same name that happened back in February and a book. I was at the show and I was bored. Rollins was there to host it, which was cool, but I'm just not a fan of go-go music. It's a bit redundant if you ask me. But there was an H.R. sighting! But no ridiculous wig this time. Bummer. Youth Brigade, Scream, Black Market Baby and Worlds Collide played and all of them got some decent reactions. But holy shit, I've never seen so many photographers at a show before. It was like the paparazzi taking pictures. There was more movement from the photographers than people in the crowd. That's just sad, but whatever.

The book was for sale at the show, but I forgot to pick one up. I will definitely try to get one in the near future. Anyway, here's a few pictures of what they had on display at the Corcoran.

D.C.S.

Original lyrics to "Straight Edge" 

"Out Of Step" LP and artwork

Washington Post article on Cool Disco Dan

Banned In DC artwork 

Flyer for the show, duh. 

Margaret Thatcher dead...

Another punk rock punching bag has died today. I can't think of Margaret Thatcher without thinking of The Exploited. I immediately thought of "Maggie, You Cunt!" HA! Anyway, I came across this video that seems to have been uploaded today and I burst out laughing. Enjoy.

D.C.S. 

Album art appreciation

We here at D.C. Sniper would like to take this time to give kudos to those bands that put some work into having killer artwork on their records. There's nothing wrong with live shots, but let's face it, it's not very creative. Especially when it's on every one of your records! Live shots are cool, but they can be very misleading. And boring.

Anyway, here's a few that stand out to us that have come out over the last few years. Check them out and maybe you'll be inspired to do something different and cool with your future releases. Not a sermon, just a thought.

D.C.S.

Coke Bust - Fuck Bar Culture 7"

Knife Fight - Isolated 7"

Night Birds - Midnight Movies 7"

No Tolerance - No Remorse, No Tolerance 7"

The Rival Mob - Mob Justice 12"

Killer Of Sheep - Out Of Time 7" (Yes, this is a rip-off cover, but it's cool.) 

Punk Rock Is Bullshit? Please enlighten me.

If you want to read something kind of funny/stupid, then read this load of crap by John Roderick. I feel just a little bit dumber after reading this article, but read it for yourself and make your own judgement. This guy couldn't know less about what punk rock is about.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2013-03-06/music/punk-rock-is-bullshit/

D.C.S.