Orwellian Truthspeak

Show: Intifada, 30/30, Condenada, Cinder, Hit Me Back, Sin Orden
Where: Bridgeport basement
Cost: $6
Things I missed to be there: Lumpen party at Heaven
Reason I went: Be-all-and-end-all cure for depression

I've been depressed lately, one of those black cloud-on-my-ass, bad roommate-girlfriend-school trouble kind of things. In an attempt to self-medicate, I've upped my poison intake. It's fun to see what new, surreal color I can cough up in the morning but it's otherwise not helping, but I had a plan, and Saturday gave me an opportunity to see it to fruition. Maintain my strict regiment of cheap whiskey and expensive cigarettes, and drag my ass to a hardcore show. It was guaranteed to work.

In my opinion, the best punk comes from outside the country. It's not meant to be some elitist, namedroppy music geek thing; it's just that I love punk rock and I can't stand most punk lyrics. With the exception of a handful of clever bands and a few essential punk anthems, the lyrics are pointless. More often than not they're too preachy, too whiny, or screamed just short of unrecognizable.

That's why I like the Pilsen scene. I can't understand shit. The words could've all been crafted by Leonard Cohen but I don't have to know, and I don't have to be disappointed when they're not.

Tonight's show was in a shoddy house in Bridgeport. It was a typical hardcore crowd, all backpatches and balaclavas. There were a few studded-jacket 77 Kids, a few hawks and a few skins, but not many. Unlike the Northside, there aren't a lot of scenemakers or people looking to hit big. It just is what it is; it's a working class crow and a laid-back scene.

When I got there, 30/30 was just starting. Thrash en espanol. They're a fairly new band, built up of dudes who've been on the scene for a while. The last time I saw them, Junior from Reaccion was filling in on drums. He was a fine punk drummer but wasn't fast enough for what the band was doing. The new guy played like he had extra hands. Swave, their singer is a fucking mountain of a man. He could've taken the basement down on his own if he started swinging. The place seemed too small to support a pit, which meant the pit was fucking incredible.

Everybody was playing that game where they refrained from moving as long as they could, waiting for a catalyst, which came in the form of a short guy in a hoodie who bulldozed headfirst through the crowd room. The room exploded.

The beerspitbloodarmtopus.

The rest of the set was pretty hard, but it didn't hold many surprises (except for the Cubs hat on the bass player - what the fuck was up with that?). I understood maybe two words, barrio and policia, which I used to make my own song, "Policeman in the barrio."

Holeeee SHIT!

That's Mariam. If you go to a lot of shows, you've probably heard her, high pitched and completely at random. She used to be in Human Order and now plays in Condenada and my heart goes aflutter whenever she walks by.

Condenada is one of the best bands in the city. It's definitely the best girl-band. It's four women who play really fast thrash with vocals in English and Spanish. I almost like them as much for what they aren't as for what they are. They're not the Manhandlers, they don't coordinate their otfits, they don't cute it up, they just fucking rock.

As good as 30/30's frummer was, Trish blew him out of the water. Someone busted a pipe on the last song, and the half of the room that could see it froze, waiting to see if steam or refuse would start shooting out through the cracks. It didn't, and they finished the song.

I'd never heard Cinder before, but they should've headlined. They're a skatepunk band from Spain and their set had a fair amount of pogo and thrash thrown in. I bought the 7" split they did with Hit Me Back, the band they were touring with from California (I think). I couldn't tell if it was that I'd just seen three thrash bands in a row or that I subconsciously discriminate against everyone from California, or if they really just weren't as good as the bands that preceded them, but I didn't dig it.

Fat on punk and poison, I left to try and test my luck and ease my pain with a party far too far away. I'm a little down about the bands I missed, Intifada and Sin Orden, the youngest and oldest bands at the show. Intifada opened the show and they're some yound angry dudes, which is, of course what it's all about. Sin Orden have been around for years, but just re-formed this year after a long hiatus and blew me away. They're older and a bit more willing to experiment with things time signatures, slower songs, and hiphop.

The party was too far away. I fell off a deck, and pissed some people off but I managed to kill off a night's worth of memories and buy a new record, so I guess it was worth it.

Double-pluss good.