H2O by Jay Frost

Wednesday, February 27^th: H20, Terror and the Code Orange Kids at Bogies.

            Unfortunately, my evening job prevents me from arriving at weekday shows in time for doors, so I wasn’t able to catch the openers on this one. Also, Backtrack from Buffalo, NY, who were scheduled to play couldn’t make it to the show because of transportation issues. But this show was excellent, and very well attended, I might add; if Bogies wasn’t at maximum capacity, it was close. The stage area was densely packed well beyond the barrier of the sound booth. Tonight was an important one for a very specific reason: Bogies was a stop on Los Angeles Hardcore band Terror’s current U.S. tour, along with H20 and the Kids.

            I arrived just in time to check out the entirety of Code Orange Kids’ set, an experimental hardcore/metal band from Pittsburgh, PA. Aside from their guitarist’s brilliant use of noise and effects processors, the Code Orange Kids had three vocalists – both guitarists and the drummer. The chaos unfolding before me in the pit made it difficult to tell who was singing lead at times: one moment, the guitarist who ran effects was; the next, the other guitarist. When I looked up and saw the drummer singing, I was confused. If I had to describe the Code Orange Kid’s sound by comparison with their peers, bands like Starkweather, Isis, Poison the Well and Converge come to mind. Despite their experimentation and tendencies towards the more progressive and extreme, their songs kept to a basic hardcore framework (ie. Lots of heavy mosh parts). I was impressed, and it would be great to see Code Orange Kids play Albany again.

            After a quick cigarette break, I ran inside just as Terror hit the stage. Wow. For years, Terror was that super popular band in the scene that I never paid much attention to (as was H20, but we’ll get to that in it’s appropriate place and time); that is, until a friend gave me a copy of their third album Always The Hard Way. Then my computer crashed and I couldn’t recover the file. It got a handful of spins prior to that, and I still believe it to be one of the heaviest albums to be released in the hardcore genre since the turn of the millennium, but I never really kept up with their career. Tonight was a refresher course.

            I hate coming in late on bands for nights like this. It’s impossible to get a good spot in the crowd. Wading through the 300 plus people in attendance, I eventually made it to the beginning of the pit, but dared to venture no further for fear of my face. Though the crowd showed mad love for the Code Orange Kids, they went completely berserk for Terror. There were old-school pile-ons, sing-alongs, over-the-top pit antics and stage dives as lead vocalist Scot Vogel of Buried Alive and Slugfest fame encouraged their already-frenzied fans to “jump on [each other’s] heads” – a quality characteristic of his stage presence. At one point, I saw a kid hanging from the stage lights. Oh my god…..THIS was hardcore! Maximum stage-dives, maximum fun!

If you ever get a chance to see Terror live, don’t pass it up. These guys are pros. Terror’s sound is also proof that hardcore transcends regional barriers. They may hail from Los Angeles, but NYHC purists would still claim Terror as one of their own, any day of the week. Their sound defies comparison – I could list a thousand bands you all know and it still wouldn’t do them justice. Let me put it like this: I know hardcore when I see it, and Terror is it! What impressed me the most was Vogel’s respect and sincerity as he thanked us all for welcoming him to our home, and then sent shout-outs to Stigmata, Dying Breed, Section 8 and any other old-school local core band you could possibly think of. For a night dedicated to celebrating positivity and unity, I could think of no better band to help promote it.

I got in early for H20 so I could grab a spot at the front of the stage. There was no way I was going to be stuck behind the barrier again. I wanted to be front and center. I will admit this now: not only had I never listened to H20, but until that evening, I’d never even heard them. I know, this sounds ridiculous, coming from a fifteen-year (on and off) veteran of the scene, but unfortunately it was true. All I knew of them before they began their set was that they were a heavily punk-influenced hardcore band, which would account for my longstanding ignorance of H20. Though they came out of the same late 90’s New York City scene that spawned the likes of Inhuman, my tastes always leaned more toward the heavier side. Chalk it up to “youthful angst”, if you must.

After a short delay for set-up and sound check, H20 ripped into their brand of aggressive punk-core, laced with sing-alongs and plenty of fast drum beats to skank to. I realized very quickly what my ignorance had cost me: H20 was absolutely amazing!The sing-along parts are so simple to learn that even the un-initiated listener can participate. In fact, that is one of the biggest parts of their live show; during the sing-along parts, vocalist Toby Morse thrust the microphone into the sweaty pile in front of the stage, allowing their collective chant to become one voice.

H20 performed songs that spanned their entire career, including fan favorites like “What Happened?” and “Nothing to Prove”. Their message, in keeping with the spirit of positivity and unity, is a simple one: “Don’t sell out. Don’t forget your roots. Be yourself and keep the scene alive”. Though most bands in the scene preach this, to some it is merely rhetoric. H20 practices what they preach. Center stage was a good spot; I managed to get a few photos with my cell phone, but Morse’s bustling stage activity made it difficult to get anything smooth.

Between songs I sauntered back to the bar for a soda, caught my breath and then made my way to the front again – this time to the pit. H20 was one of those rare shows for me where, between dancing and singing I could barely catch my breath. Of the three acts I saw that evening, H20 stole the show. They won a new fan in me, and had I had the cash at the time, I likely would’ve bought one of everything at their merch table. For a moment, I felt like I was a teenager all over again. I hope to see them back at Bogies again, and soon! For nearly twelve hours after that show, I was on a natural endorphin high that no substance could ever possibly top. It’s for that very reason that hardcore is relevant, and necessary. This music could save lives.