After hearing a whole lot about the Hoax show that was at Strange Matter last week, I was extremely excited to see Zero Boys and Night Birds Monday night.
After hearing a whole lot about the Hoax show that was at Strange Matter last week, I was extremely excited to see Zero Boys and Night Birds Monday night.
For those who didn’t hear about the Hoax show, it was completely crazy. It was a packed house and from what I heard from friends and what I could see from the plethora of pictures on Twitter and Instagram, it seemed buck wild. I had heard a rumor about a bunch of VCU cops pouring out from the VCU police station across the street having to break up some fight at the end of the show too.
While Zero Boys and Night Birds don’t have that same aesthetic of deranged violence that Hoax does, I had a feeling that the show would still be equally as wild. I wasn’t disappointed in that thinking at all.
The show opened with new Richmond locals, Cretins. I only caught the last two songs of their set, but it was real heavy. It’s looking like they’ll be playing Strange Matter and the local house show circuit quite a bit in the near future, having just put out their first demo on Bandcamp earlier this month. I’m stoked to see them again soon. They’re playing punk rock that’s real fast and heavy, sounding a lot like the newer bands coming out of the city, much like Barge and Hard Stripes.
The local and elusive Cloak/Dagger also played, who I finally caught for the first time. Despite almost never really playing, their set was really solid. It seemed there were plenty in the crowd who were stoked to be seeing them. While their set got tired at moments and some people didn’t seem all that interested, there were several songs that everyone seemed to know and had everyone singing along. Hearing Walk the Block live for the first time was a lot of fun, It’s kind of hard not to enjoy shouting back, “stay wasted! stay wasted!” during it’s chorus.
I really dig Night Birds. Everything they put out this summer, the EP, Maimed for the Masses and the LP, Born to Die In Suburbia is fucking sweet. While I love all the really heavy and pissed off hardcore and punk rock that’s coming out of Richmond right now, it just doesn’t seem like anyone is playing that old school, surfy kind of punk rock around here. Their set opened pretty poorly, but not at their fault.
The surge strip on the side of the Bass equipment went out about three of four times within the first five minutes. The band actually stopped in the middle of their first song to address the problem. Despite those problem, they sounded killer and everyone seemed to enjoy their set, despite getting jeered and bottled by several people in the crowd at the beginning of their set.
Zero Boys really brought the insanity I thought Strange Matter was going to have after last week’s show. During their set, the stairs from the left of the stage got moved so it was pointed at the crowd. This led to a bunch of dudes using it to jump straight into the crowd. The set was filled with classics from the incredibly long career the band has had. While having been around for nearly 30 years, the band’s discography isn’t as deep as other bands as prolific.
Most punk bands who are that old and do these reunions tours/shows seem to have their sets last so long, and my easily distracted and attention-deficit self typically gets bored after having a bunch of old punks playing their songs for more than 45 minutes. While Zero Boys probably had a set that ran about that long, I was still thoroughly entertained.
Although, there was one song at the end of their set that their drummer and vocalist switches spots for and had some drunk people show some disdain for.Their songs have aged pretty well and they didn’t drag on for all too long. I believe it was reflected in the turnout and the crowds reaction to their set.
As Summer is coming to a close, I think this show and last week’s Hoax show were some real bangers that have got me real excited for everything else that’s coming up at Strange Matter. While there probably weren’t a whole bunch of VCU freshmen or people new-in-town at Monday night’s show, I think both shows give a great taste of what someone can expect at a show in Strange Matter.
My roommate, who just started classes at VCU, spoke to some freshman in one of his classes the other day and they were talking about music. My buddy said this kid, who admitted to not really being into punk rock, had asked him, “Do you ever go to shows at Strange Matter? I went and saw this band Hoax the other night and it seems that place does some really crazy ass shows.” I think he got the right impression.
