Despise You, Magrudergrind, Cannabis Corpse, Suppression, Street Pizza
Tuesday, September 13 at Strange Matter
One of the great things about getting older, I've found, is that all of the bands I loved back in the day but never got to see are reforming and going on tour. In the case of classic 90s-era Los Angeles hardcore band Despise You, nobody else ever got to see them either--during their original period of activity, they never played a show, not even in their hometown. Therefore, anticipation was high for their Richmond appearance. Not only was it their first time performing in Richmond, the tour they were on was their first tour of the United States. Pretty surprising for a band that put out their first record nearly two decades ago, but hey, better late than never, right?
In honor of Despise You's legendary status in the hardcore/metal/grind scene, the audience was treated to an excellent bill of similar-sounding bands, which kicked off with local grindcore ragers Street Pizza. This trio, in which all three members sing, aren't necessarily breaking any new ground with their power violence sound, but they do a great job of exemplifying the style, quickly switching from blasting speed to neck-snapping mosh riffs and back, while screaming and yowling about things like beer and basement shows. Street Pizza's set was a fun way to start the evening, and let everyone who wasn't previously aware know that this was going to be a loud, heavy show.
Suppression played next, which was fitting in light of the fact that they'd released a split EP with Despise You back in the mid-90s. While only bassist Jason Hodges remains from the lineup that recorded that EP, Suppression's current lineup re-learned several songs from it, and opened their set with a brief three-song blast from that EP. As performed by Suppression's current two-piece lineup, the songs sounded quite stripped-down, but went over well and fit relatively seamlessly into a set that mostly consisted of much more recent material. While Suppression have changed a lot in the past 15 years, one thing is for sure--they're still a weird band. Their newer material made this clear, as drummer Ryan Parrish's intricate rhythms propelled Jason's complex, distorted basslines through loud, angry songs full of quick change-ups. If anything, Suppression's newer material indicates a way forward for the power-violence sound. They've evolved quite significantly as a band, but have never moved away from the fast, heavy, extreme music that gave their sound its original foundation. And by debuting a few new songs, all of which were notably complex, they proved that they have no intention of ceasing to evolve now. Keep an eye on these guys.
Next up were Cannabis Corpse, fresh off the release of their excellent new album, Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise. They played their raging set of weed-soaked death metal surrounded by fog-machine clouds and totally rocked the place. However, while I enjoyed the set on a musical level, the pit was way too violent for me. There was a significant audience contingent of the sort of people who've seen mosh pits on TV and think that all that happens in them is that people stand around shoving each other. It's a problem that has a way of compounding itself. When hundreds of people who think mosh pits are just gatherings of people pushing each other all end up at the same show, it leads them to think that their initial impressions were correct--this is just what moshing is. And it's not really that big a problem at a big enough venue--if 100 people start a push-pit in a 1500 person crowd, there's plenty of room to stand away from them and still watch the band. But when 20 people start a push-pit at a 150-capacity venue like Strange Matter, there's really nowhere to go except the back of the room. And so, while Cannabis Corpse played, there was a huge open space at the front of the room that the majority of the crowd didn't want to venture into, for fear of being shoved or slammed into by flying bodies. Meanwhile, back by the bar, so many people were huddled together that it was hard to walk. Though none of this was in any way Cannabis Corpse's fault, and though the music still sounded really good, this kind of put a damper on their entire set for me (and probably for a bunch of other people too).
DC's Magrudergrind, who were touring with Despise You, were up next. And while the pit was still pretty violent, it seemed more bearable during their set, due to an increased ratio of people who were actually dancing instead of just shoving each other. Magrudergrind's music is probably a bit less accessible than that of Cannabis Corpse, too; rather than brutally catchy, fast-paced death metal, Magrudergrind plays stripped-down, blindingly fast grindcore. They don't even have a bassist, going instead with the Discordance Axis-style trio lineup--vocals, guitar, and drums. The guitarist's use of effects pedals and multiple amps helps alleviate the need for bass, but so does the impenetrable wall-of-sound riffage that Magrudergrind spew out. They hardly ever stopped during their set, either--within a second of a song ending, either the guitarist or drummer would start the next one, leaving the audience barely any time to catch their breath. The singer did some amazing jump-kicks during the instrumental bits, but most of what made Magrudergrind so entertaining to watch was the speed and agility with which their guitarist and drummer played. Their songs are so fast that it's hard to believe that actual humans can even play them, so seeing living proof to the contrary is a mindblowing sight. They blasted through their 18-song set so quickly that the end came as a surprise, but it arrived in dramatic fashion. At the end of the last verse, the singer threw his mic down and dove into the crowd. Then the guitarist stepped to the edge of the stage--right in front of me, in fact--and as the song ended, shoved his guitar into the front row, scraping his strings across my right shoulder and then onto the heads and arms of people standing near me. It was an excellent end to an excellent set.
Finally, we got what we'd all been waiting for; Despise You took the stage. Their current lineup is somewhat different from that of their classic era--originally, the vocals were handled by their male rhythm guitarist and female bassist. However, the original rhythm guitarist now only sings, and the female bassist/singer has been replaced by Cynthia Nishi, formerly of Gasp, who also only sings. Bass duties have been taken over by former Spazz bassist Chris Dodge. And so, what was originally a four-piece band with two guitars, bass, and drums is now a five-piece band with one guitar, bass, drums, and two singers. Whatever--this version of Despise You still features three of the four original members, and they also play live and go on tour, so you won't hear me complaining. Especially since they pretty much knocked me on my ass from the second they started playing. Clearly, this is not a half-assed reunion--as is probably proven by the fact that they've released a split LP of new material since reforming. Their setlist featured an unbelievable 31 songs, which they got through in significantly fewer minutes, mixing new material and longtime favorites into an onslaught of super-pissed brutality. Despise You are often thought of as power-violence, but even though they were part of that scene, their more straightforward attack always led me to think of them simply as really fast hardcore. While they do occasionally indulge in the heavy, slowed-down mosh riffing and on-a-dime tempo changes that distinguish power-violence from regular hardcore, the primary characteristics of their sound to my ears are just an extreme amount of heavy, angry velocity. They had that sound in spades during their set, even during their cover of Fear's "I Don't Care About You," which was three times as long and one third the speed of anything else they played. One thing that did kind of bum me out about their live performance was the relatively small role that Cynthia's vocals played. It seems that on their newer material, they generally don't write many lyrics for her to sing, so on a lot of the newer songs, she was left standing around with nothing to do. This kind of thing has always bothered me when I've seen it happen. However, that was my only complaint about their set, so ultimately, it lived up to expectations in a big way.
I must admit, though, I did feel kind of bad when, after frantic audience demands, they did an encore of D.R.I.'s classic tune "Couch Slouch." Their version of the song was excellent, but no one sang along, despite the band's requests for crowd help. I was ashamed that, as much as I love that song, I couldn't remember any of the words, but in my defense I've never been the sort of person who studies lyric sheets--and if you want to learn the lyrics of D.R.I.'s notably motormouthed frontman, Kurt Brecht, that's what you've got to do. So I guess if anything, it was the Richmond crowd who let Despise You down. Hopefully this won't prevent them from coming back to Richmond again in the future. Even if they never return, though, the memory of their legendary and long-awaited performance at Strange Matter will stay with me forever--or at least until the Alzheimer's kicks in.
Words by Andrew Necci
Images by Tony Lynch