Last night: Nebukadnezza, Awoken, First Blood and Agnostic Front.
1. I'm getting old. I was scared by the violence in the mosh pit (is it just me or did the standard slam-dancing technique morph into a terrifying routine of madly punching and kicking the air and everyone in your proximity?). Moreover, I was annoyed by the excessive heat, offended by the fact that two of my three pints were warm bordering on boiled, and I felt I was pretty alienated from the crowd.
2. Everyone plays thrash metal in the HC scene these days, no matter how they choose to label themselves. Nebukadnezza were okay, if you like these kind of things; Awoken were seriously better, mainly because the singer and all the rest of the band show so much enthusiasm and dedication onstage that even if the songs don't move you then the atmosphere will. First Blood, although hugely popular, are run-of-the-mill fake tough-guy hardcore from California, and even if they have a couple of good songs here and there they didn't impress me.
3. Believe it or not, I did not stay for AF. Partly that's because I had already seen them, and I managed to get a glimpse at the unappealing setlist before they started. But the real reason is really to be found sub (1): having concluded that I've become a proper wimp when it comes to hardcore pits, and being fairly worried about being on time for today's lectures, I concluded that I wouldn't have had any real fun and just went home.
I'm giving a try at some all-dayer of new local bands on Saturday, but I am almost inclined to think that my gig-going days are over, in a sense. I would of course happily make exceptions for some favorites that I've never seen live, and Manowar is the first in the category; but really, it's just frustrating to get into an excessively crowded club only to discover that 5 years ago I didn't notice it was excessively crowded.
