Fall Line Fest’s Saturday at Strange matter gave the stage to punkers of all shapes for a night of punk rock, featuring local rising stars Sundials, noodly screamy two-piece Dads, and more.
Fall Line Fest’s Saturday at Strange matter gave the stage to punkers of all shapes for a night of punk rock, featuring local rising stars Sundials, noodly screamy two-piece Dads, and more. Per usual, the crowd at Strange Matter was a mix of Strange Matter regulars, and Fall Line Fest attendees. Also per usual, the turnout was good from the start.
Fall Line Fest brought few but distinct abnormalities to a show that could theoretically be your average Strange Matter Saturday banger. To start, the place was half-packed by the time doors open. Which is odd, considering most know of the infamous “punk time” rule, which states that one should arrive roughly 45 minutes late in order not to miss anything. However, the folks at Fall Line Fest executed timing at more post-punk precision, and the opening band started (drumroll please ) on time. Luckily I was early, or I would have missed it. The other thing that set it apart was the festival atmosphere the coming and going of visitors to a place that feels like home to Richmonders.
Better Off, a pop punk outfit with heavy power-chorded Jimmy Eat World tendencies and seriously crooned vocals opened with an excellent short set. It was the best energy for an opening band at Strange Matter I can remember, and I gotta give some credit to the crowd for that, who was generally excited about Fall Line Fest and were ready to go by the beginning.
Between bands, whilst cutting through the now totally packed Strange Matter, I tried a Hardywood Fall Line Fest beer, a delicious spiced brew by the local brewery. It may have been in my head, but the beer tasted punk rock.
Making my way back to the stage, Richmond punkers Hold Tight! started as fast as they played, and it was what I would say was the word of the evening- refreshing. Tight riffage and relentless (in a good way) vocal harmonies brought me back to an even-better 2002. New Found Glory on (just a little bit) of crack is one way to describe it. It’s the type of music perfectly conducive to the jump-kick and drumstick spin so common back then. Again, it was refreshing.
Richmond’s own Springtime brought a different ruckus, as more people arrived. Pop punk with an emphasis on the punk is a rare thing, but scenes in Richmond and elsewhere are doing it hard. They played a medium set of many shorter jams, but played tight. The mix suited them well, and their driving volume finally got people dancing. The best picture I got of Springtime was taken mid-collision with a particularly exuberant mosher, but it turned out well, which is punk I guess, so no hard feelings.
Some people began to file out, but it was no means a mass exodus. Fall Line Fest obviously had quite the array of awesome shows to catch that night, from Big Freedia to Pity Sex, and Strange Matter went from totally packed, to still very packed.
Dads, a two piece outfit that noodles hard and wails harder, did exactly that for a decent while. Breaking 3 guitar strings in roughly 5 minutes, the duo played almost a call-and-response style of screamo, but not with the vocals. Rather, it seemed like the layered guitar riffs and yells from the guitarist were in a melodic fist fight with the drummers pounding, and then the music would form a truce between the two, going into really passionate melodic breaks. They illustrate well how pop punk isn’t just popular with people who only listen to pop punk. Dads can hardly be described as pop punk, in fact, but up against the evening’s backdrop it was celebrated as such.
Sundials has seen a meteoric rise in the past year, and for many a good reason. Another refreshing band, they absolutely drove melodies through the crowds heads and out the back of the room. Take Weezer, add hot sauce, enjoy.This was my second time seeing them and I don’t plan on missing them the next time around. Not in any way a slight to Diamond Youth, but Sundials local popularity mixed with the accessibility of their sound represented Fall Line Fest so well they could have easily headlined this show.
Diamond Youth did however close with a bang, headlining in style. Self-described as a Baltimore-Richmond-Chicago Rock Band, they created quite a buzz before hitting the stage. Having never checked them out, I was impressed how they mixed concision with raw energy. I actually saw fists in the air. This is the third and most deserving time I will use this word- it was extremely refreshing. I hadn’t been to a show quite as spirited as this one in the past 10 years. Hard to say, but at least this scene cares so much less what you think of them then the commercially successful pop punk acts of the early 2000’s, whose message was often about that kind of apathy, but the scene surrounding it turned that message into an irony.
Pop punk evening at Strange Matter had organizers and sponsors but it still felt as DIY as anything else. The sense of community in Strange Matter is always tangible, but on Saturday you could breathe it in.
