Grudge 13 were the metal in tonight's festivities, and to be honest, although it wasn't bad, I've forgotten anything about them to be able to write much.
Bombshell Rocks played here under a week ago with the Dropkick Murphys in a gig I couldn't get into as it was sold out. And it looks like they must've made some friends, because there's a highly impressive turnout. Musically it's punk, which for the most part kinda passed me by. There was the occasional highlight such as Underground Radio and the Spirit, but I couldn't help but think it was all competant but uninspiring to me. Which seemed to put me into the minority.
I've never seen 59X before, and I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. Much more melodic than I anticipated. But not as insipiring. The standard gesture to get people to move closer then leads into a set which was disappointing at the start but warmed up towards the end. Second track is "Me Against The World" written after waking up and feeling like shit. Sheeesh, wonder how many of those songs there must be lying around. If I was a musician, I'd have a massive supply every year. The Ramones Blitzkreig Bop perhaps indicates partially where they're coming from. Like I said, towards the end it improved in terms of the quality of the songs, but was let down by a hamfisted song that seemed to contain the refrain "Keep it hardcore with 59", which is cheesy to say the least. Start the song highlights the better material, and it all ends with a song that is introduced by something about being hardcore, before being followed by "we love you alllll, as Ozzy used to say." Used to and still does. And is a metal icon not hardcore. But ho-hum, you know my rants about that already. Metal / hardcore. Same base, different clothing.