Boys well into their 20’s still acting out their 16-yr old, teenage rage and rebellion through bad music, “unique” mismatched homeless guy style, and forged egos. And somehow they’re multiplying and expanding in packs despite the amount of two-faced, back stabbing, and shit talk that seems to explode from their crooked mouths.

When did the desire to represent oneself as an over-the-top fan of redundant music and brotherly allegiance turn into this CRAP? The hardcore scene, the scene-scene – really, it is all the same. It’s a bullshit attempt by a bunch of kids to go run as far away from normality and a similar America. But on their endeavor to a new, helicopter-kicking, air-punching, and almost ostentatiously unique fad, they’ve crawled their grungy ass’s into another extremist “group” called hardcore. There is nothing distinctive or special about their so-called way of life. Their alleged loyalty can be defined as who’s the cooler “gang” (and yes, they CALL THEMSELVES GANGS HERE IN RICHMOND) with the ability to turn the newer, younger, fresh out of high-school with their strong ethics and recently healing straightedge tattoos into their bitches. A bunch of short-man syndrome, daddy didn’t love me enough, my only chance to have a family assholes. And no, this isn’t hate, it’s simply an opinion. And, of course, we all know we can have an opinion. Hell, if we didn’t, we all know you’d have no crappy scene to call your own. =)

The incident at Deep while so unfortunate, was something that was honestly bound to happen. I wasn’t at the show at Club Deep mentioned in the Rolling Stone article, so I don’t know what exactly happened. But the fact is, someone who was at the show died at the hands of someone in that club.

Its no wonder that touring bands in the scene routinely skip coming to New Jersey now, because of all the bullshit that comes with playing here. They’d rather play the Church in Philly or somewhere in NYC now. Gone are the days of shows at the Princeton Arts Council, Middlesex County College(A few shows still happen here and there), Manville Elks Lodge, The Pipeline and City Gardens. Halls won’t rent out their space for shows anymore, because of the nonsense that has comes with doing a hardcore show. Kids wanting to act tough in front of their friends is more important than keeping venues open. While Jersey still has a ton of hardworking bands putting out awesome music, there are few venues to see them in. And we can only blame ourselves, we let it get to this point. Its no wonder that people become so jaded with hardcore music and the scene. It has become everything it spoke out against.

Its also been no secret that Hardcore has cycles that it goes through. I feel this might be another cycle of it going downhill. Who the hell knows what will make it really fun and good again. I’m waiting, and so are a bunch of other people. The amount of shows I go to now has dwindled to next to nothing. And i’m not really losing any sleep over it.