A Wilhelm Scream, Single Mothers, This Is Your Life, Springtime
Tuesday, November 19 at The Camel
Last Tuesday, a back-to-back bevy of melodic hardcore acts took the stage of The Camel in a high energy show that was reminiscent of the late 80s post-hardcore characterized by the era’s releases on Dischord, Alternative Tentacles, and the like.
A Wilhelm Scream, Single Mothers, This Is Your Life, Springtime
Tuesday, November 19 at The Camel
Last Tuesday, a back-to-back bevy of melodic hardcore acts took the stage of The Camel in a high energy show that was reminiscent of the late 80s post-hardcore characterized by the era’s releases on Dischord, Alternative Tentacles, and the like. The crowd had ostensibly gathered to see A Wilhelm Scream, 15-year vets of the New England punk scene who packed plenty of spunk and about a dozen and a half songs into a brisk 45 minutes onstage. But the night was opened by two local acts, Springtime and This Is Your Life, both self-styled melodic hardcore outfits keeping the genre alive and well here in RVA.
Photo by Jake Cunningham
Show opener Springtime–a fresh-faced five-piece comprising former members of Richmond acts Tiger Tail, Family Cat, and Cheyenne–employ a sound nestled comfortably between the fast-paced hardcore of DC scenes gone by and the studied melodies of 90s emo groups like Texas Is the Reason or (early) Promise Ring. While Springtime’s songwriting is strong, the relatively new group (their first proper 7” was released in August) feels as though they’re still getting their sea legs, performance-wise. Fans of the groups mentioned above (comparisons to other acts will be suspended until further notice) will be gratified to catch these guys out around town–they seem the type of act that will only continue to hone their sound and live show as time goes by.
Next-ups This Is Your Life offered a sharper, more aggressive take on similar themes, musically and otherwise. The surgical precision and terse delivery of their songs was balanced by a breezy stage presence that evinced their years of opening shows for folks like The Bouncing Souls and After the Fall. It should probably be noted here that both openers managed to kick in their bass drum, proving once again that Richmond acts rock just that much harder than other bands.
Photo by Justine Jones Photography
Things took a turn when Single Mothers (London, Ontario) came on, switching the mood from post-hardcore nostalgia to a catchier, slicker sound akin to the skate punk greats of the mid 90s and early 2000s. Despite an irritating tendency to announce the thematic points of the upcoming song (“This one’s called ‘Marbles,’ it’s about pretentious people”) and a few lousy jokes (“What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back? My girlfriend. Yeah, I don’t get it either.”), the group comported themselves with far greater warm-up acumen than earlier acts. Tight song structure and an exuberant delivery kept things moving at a solid clip for the band’s half hour of stage time.
Photo by David A. Neitz
A Wilhelm Scream topped the bill, playing with energy and deftness, plus the greatest technical ability of the night. Pulling songs equally from their newest album, Partycrasher, released earlier this month, as well as old favorites (“The Kids Can Eat a Bag of Dicks” off 2005’s Ruiner), the band got the somewhat tepid and largely stationary crowd as involved as they were going to get, culminating with a circle pit that lasted all of half a verse, in which your correspondent got knocked down real hard, and during which your correspondent had a regular blast all around.
Photo by David A. Neitz
Some audience members at the front of the room shared the band’s enthusiasm, singing along with frontman Nuno Pereira and generally getting amiably rambunctious, which the singer was only too glad to oblige. Despite delivering a pretty killer set, the band’s ebullience failed to spread to the crowd, with the end result being a pretty skewed seesaw of a room–all the energy concentrated onstage and very little of it among the audience.
