Words/Photo by: Katy Burnell
With United Blood 2010 almost a month away, punk and hardcore aficionados from across the country are taking off of work, booking flights , or planning “un-ticketed” train trips to the River City.
Hundreds of tattooed, pierced twenty and thirty-somethings will descend on Richmond for the 4th annual music showcase during the last weekend in March. Fortunately for the planners of this year’s prestigious French Film Festival, all moshing will be taking place a few miles east of the Byrd Theatre.
Those of us lucky enough to call Alley Katz our home venue understand why Richmond’s lesser-known nickname is Fist City. The propensity towards violence at shows is not strictly a “Richmond thing”, but some fans say that the potential for broken bones and bloody noses isn’t worth the ticket price. Anyone who understands the “scene” also understands that its better for a band if the crowd goes crazy during a set. The least-anticipated acts face the humiliation of screaming their lyrics out into a sea of blank faces over crossed arms.
No one wants a quiet set, least of all George Hirsch, Blacklisted front-man and the brains behind the band’s latest 12″ release: No One Deserves to Be Here More Than Me. Blacklisted is one of the darlings of the modern hardcore scene, or at least is has been-until now. Their recent effort has enervated an element of their fan base that will be out in numbers at Alley Katz next month.
Review
If you hold Blacklisted’s latest full-length album up to the light at the perfect angle and squint, flip it over and squint again, you’ll find the tags “by Blacklisted”, “for Blacklisted” etched into the vinyl. The Philadelphia hardcore heavyweights weren’t worried about the expectations of their fan base when they teamed up with Will Yip and Studio 4 to record an analog excursion into the self-loathing of front-man George Hirsch.
No One Deserves to Be Here More Than Me is a polarizing departure from the sound that launched Blacklisted’s career, but true fans would be disappointed by anything less from a band that pushed the boundaries with their previous full length, the critically acclaimed Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God. Hirsch may have communicated the eventuality of this Bleach-esque release by paying tribute to Nirvana’s first European tour with the naming of 2008’s Heavier Than Heaven LP.
Cryptic etchings and allusions to influences are the most that any member of Blacklisted is willing to say about their latest project. No interviews were given in anticipation of the unannounced November 30th release, and the Deathwish/Malfunction post ends the credits with a telling quote: “Let the music speak for itself.”
Hirsch’s trademark stylings center on familiar issues of alienation and depression, but this time around his venomous lyrics fade into a slow burn. Instead of ping-ponging between dirges ringing out over repetitive bass punctuated by ranting and blast beats, the vocals yield to instrumental intros and outros. The band may have gone too far with the album’s only acoustic number, The Problem is G, but ten bucks says that Hirsch couldn’t give a damn whether his pared-down vocals struck a chord with past fans.
For everyone who thought they graduated from hardcore when they graduated from high school, welcome back into the fold. For the rest of you, stay tuned. There’s no telling what to expect from the next release of a band that goes its own way.
Hopefully its fan base will have the maturity to grow with them.
Great photo!