Two old-time bands with a lot of hard time put on the road are doing both a matinée and a sold out evening show at St. Vitus (1120 Manhattan Ave) this Sunday (8/27) as part of their Left to Starve summer tour.
Of course calling either band old-time is just asking for a beating, because it’s generally not too safe to antagonize a hardcore punk band (Cro-Mags) nor a metal/hardcore/southern sludge band out of New Orleans (EyeHateGod, or just “EHG” for you texters).
I’m sure both these bands have been jumped by a pack of chin-less white supremacists more than once in the past with the band coming out ahead.
And it’s not right to consider their sound old-time, when that’s changed quite a lot for both bands, and in all the right directions.
When the Cro-Mags put out their first album in 1986, The Age of Quarrel, they probably didn’t anticipate the current devolving political environment. And to think they thought things were bad then . . . not that Reagan was a picnic. You can’t blame Cro-Mags for moving to more of a less-serious metal sound in the ’90s as popular culture sort of de-pressurized from the Cold War and moved into Real World fake drama.
But Cro-Mags came back now to its hardcore roots, and it’s new and improved, having benefited from the lessons that pop punk bands like Blink-182 have taught us in the interim that you can still create a cheerful anthem that still bites like a hot Hamlin.
Here’s some of their hardcore renaissance, taped last summer in the East Village.
About EyeHateGod, what is there to say? Another sludge metal band, right? But if one thing we’ve learned from the owners of St. Vitus, they don’t only surprise with new bands playing off of a familiar genre like sludge metal, they remember that one of the bands that helped invent it, EHG, was its own pioneer. Check out the following video to see how EHG was doing new things through sludge metal that later bands just forgot.
I leave you with this notion. If you like me are not heading to Burning Man this weekend because you can’t afford it and more importantly, haven’t had friends who find you interesting enough to fly with you to frankly any gathering on the planet since maybe the ’90s, just take that anger and channel it at this show at St. Vitus. Remember, if anyone can show they used to be cool—and somehow still are—it’s these acts you used to catch as a teenager.
EyeHateGod / Cro-Mags
Sunday August 27 | 2pm ($30-35 tickets), 8pm (sold out)
@ St. Vitus (1120 Manhattan Ave)