Life In A Bungalo

Throwdown/Most Precious Blood/Walls of Jericho/25 Ta Life @ Krome, NJ: January 4, 2004

It seems as if every January and every July, Trustkill Records has a little string of shows to showcase their bands. I arrived a bit late, so I missed some of the local openers on the side and main stages, but got there with my friend just in time to see the return of the Detroit band Walls of Jericho.

The band disbanded around 2000 or 2001 and decided in the past year, they want to come back and play the music they love. After a few older songs, they decided to showcase some tunes off of their upcoming full length, “All Hail the Dead” and the songs were brutal.

Frontwoman Candace is passionate about the music she sings about and is a maniac on stage. She seemed pretty pumped to be back playing shows again. And during their set, Candace does something you don’t see much of anymore: Some kid dancing got knocked out or knocked silly, I wasn’t too sure. And she decided to stop the song to make sure the kid was alright. To many people this is just a band wasting time, but to me it’s a welcomed scene. The band ended their set with the only song by them I know and can sing along to, “Playing Soldier Again.” The band was a lot better than the last time I saw them in the summer of 2000. Their new material just shreds and is definitely gonna be considered one of the better hardcore/metal albums of this upcoming year.

Next up in the small room at Club Krome was hardcore legends 25 Ta Life. It had been years since I have seen this band. So lets just say curiosity peeked my interest. For a band that has been around forever, they really are awful. I am all for positive lyrics and being one for the scene that we are apart of. But it’s time for Rick ta Life to take his Hardcore Flea Market and just chill out and not be apart of it anymore. They played a wide range of material, going back to their first album to their most recent albums. And I was also pleasantly surprised that 25 Ta Life has released two albums in the past year. Near the end of the set, Rick Ta Life decided they would do a cover for some old school people. And to my surprise, they decided to butcher the Warzone Song, “As One” and I was so disappointed, they destroyed a good song. At that point, I was just waiting for Most Precious Blood to hit the stage.

25 Ta Life finally ends and Most Precious Blood is up. This was my first time seeing them with Rob Fusco as the singer. From the start, you could see the band have a new found love for performing. The band members seemed energetic and happy to be there. They opened up with “The Great Red Shift” off of their latest and ripped through a decent amount of material from both of their full length releases. It was interesting to hear Fusco sing the songs that former singer Tom Sheenan used to sing on. They played my favorite track, “In Effigy” and just tore up the place with their performance. The only disappointing thing about their set is, for the first time seeing Most Precious Blood, they didn’t play any songs from their Indecision days. But as the band has changed members, maybe it was time to finally retire the Indecision songs and focus on their own material now. MPB was the reason I went to this show and they showed they still have what it takes, by putting on one of the most intense live shows in some time.

Finally, Throwdown hit the stage. I’ve been seeing these guys for years now. And it hit me right before they went on, as I looked around the room, I saw it was almost packed. My question is, When the hell did Throwdown get so big? I remember seeing them and having 60+ kids Max. Singing along to their songs. Now they can fill the entire main room in Krome. It’s kinda crazy. The band played a good mixture of new and old material. Starting their set with material from their Trustkill debut, “Haymaker.” While I’m not a fan of the new material, it got people dancing and moving. And to me, that is the only thing that should matter. The absolute highlight of the show came to me when the singer of Throwdown decided to do a cover. At that point I was just hoping they wouldn’t butcher a Warzone cover like 25 Ta Life did. To my shocking surprise, Throwdown decided to cover Pantera’s “New Level” which just rocked. Rob from Most Precious Blood helped out on the chorus and made the flow a bit better. And to my surprise, a lot of kids knew it, because in today’s age, it seems as if some people only know “Walk” by Pantera and nothing else. After that Throwdown went into some of their older material and with that ended their set.

Overall it was a quality show. It would have been a great show minus 25 Ta Life. But beggars can’t be choosers here. That’s gonna happen on some shows. Walls of Jericho was a pleasant surprise to me and I can’t wait to hear the new album. Most Precious Blood rocks again and Throwdown is now one of the heaviest bands around. All in all a great night in hardcore.