Gnarmageddon Fest 2011 at The Glasshouse – Pomona, CA

The first annual Gnarmageddon Fest made its way into Pomona's Glasshouse Saturday for a celebration of both Hardcore and Punk rock. Originated through the collaboration of Media Blitz's Jason Schwartz and Concussion's Danny Lyerla, Gnarmageddon was an event that many fans of Punk took an interest in upon seeing flyers handed out at past shows, and most especially, through social networks like Facebook. The event arrived, with doors opening at 3 pm and the first band up by 3:30 pm, and the all day event was fortunately able to provide ins and outs until 7 p.m. The line-up consisted of Hooded Justice, Static Thought, Concussion, Dogends, Media Blitz, Circle One, Rotting Out, Resist and Exist, JFA, Sabertooth Zombie, Ill Repute, DOA, and Agent Orange.




Hooded Justice commenced the festival with an extremely short set for a small amount of people. The Orange County locals performed their power violence style of music vivaciously, and pleased the crowd with two covers- Napalm Death's "You Suffer" and "Mindless" by Infest. When their fifteen minutes of fame were up, they thanked the crowd and quickly left the stage.

Static Thought came up promptly after, and to the dismay of many, did not perform to the best of their ability. They seemed to lack motivation and didn't seem to have any interest in performing their set. Many left to go socialize and drink outside the venue, while others courteously stayed throughout their entire set.

Concussion, which features Gnarmageddon co-founder Danny Lyerla, held down the ground for hardcore punk as they unraveled fast and aggressive styles during their set. Concussion performed with extreme energy and showcased an act that was nowhere near tedious or redundant. The band's music sounded like a mix between Toxic Narcotic and Killing Time, with subtle Minor Threat subtleties. Concussion ultimately fit the bill and did it justice.

Ventura natives Dogends performed after Concussion and played a 20 minute set that further led the crowd down the hardcore road, though a large portion of the band's set also maintained a strong punk influence. It was during Dogends' set that the Glasshouse contained more people in at last, allowing the venue to become a little more crowded and full. Following Gnarmageddon, there was a slight chance Dogends would play Zoey's Cafe shortly after, but to the fans at Glasshouse that evening, the latter event was of no importance because their presence at Gnarmageddon further augmented the line-up and experience.

Recently releasing a new 7" titled "A Voice of Our Own," Media Blitz has been on the go over the last few weeks touring and playing shows throughout both Socal and NorCal. Media Blitz, who are heavy contenders for the hardcore Punk scene in Orange County, performed with a massive presence made most prominently by vocalist and Gnarmageddon co-founder Jason Schwartz. The band played a longer set than the earlier bands, and had enough time to play both older and newer songs.



Circle One, which is one of the older bands in the line-up, played to a crowd riddled with anxiety, and which began to increase the rowdy level upon the band's lead ins. The old school hardcore band that originated in Pico Rivera currently maintains newer members from the original line-up, including Nick Manning (Vice Squad, The Voids) on drums, and Omar Ervin on vocals. Circle One upheld old school traditional hardcore, meaning they carried out music resembling the styles of Black Flag and Minor Threat. Although the band's music is considered to be on the hardcore level, the band's old school nature slightly classified it more into the Punk side of Gnarmageddon.

By the time Rotting Out took the stage, the floor had become overrun with hardcore kids, who were anxiously awaiting the group. The San Pedro hardcore band opened up with the first track from their latest album "Street Prowl", which has the same title as the album. They primarily played most of the material off "Street Prowl" for this performance; Rotting Out also threw in songs off their 2008 demo "This is Just a Life", which was recorded with their old vocalist. It seemed that Rotting Out seemed to fulfill the goal of Gnarmageddon, which was to unite the hardcore and Punk crowds. Rotting Out gave the best performance of the night thus far, putting maximum energy, aggression, and passion into their set, and the audience gave the same back by stage diving and fighting over the microphone to angrily chant all the lyrics.

Political Punk band Resist and Exist humbly emerged onto the stage next, with the members of the band speaking on the behalf of the rights of animals as an intro. Resist and Exist maintained their Anarcho Punk style, similar to that of Crass and Icons of Filth, for a lively following. They threw in a bit of poetry and spoken word into their set, along with their songs that had themes of animal rights, war, and women's rights. Resist and Exist proved to educate and entertain the crowd at the same time, and left the stage as modestly as they came on.

When it was finally JFA's turn to hit the stage, there was a shared feeling of gratitude for the band's presence as a result of the long wait to finally see one of the bigger bands performing the event. JFA witnessed a pretty brutal pit, which was likely a result of both hardcore kids and punks coming together and merging "dance" styles to the beat of JFA. The pit was packed, heavy, and nonstop. JFA performed the usual from "We Know You Suck," consisting of "Jody Foster's Army," "Beach Blanket Bongout," "Out of School," "I Don't Like You," and more. Closer to the end of the band's set, they did their renowned covers of both the Charlie Brown theme song, and War's "Lowrider." The band played for almost 40 minutes, and were not able to give an encore due to scheduled set times.

After JFA, the last hardcore group was up next: Sabertooth Zombie. Because they were the last hardcore band, many of the hardcore kids would be leaving and made it their mission to leave Gnarmageddon with a bang. The Bay Area natives opened with "Decayed Decayed" and continued with a good mixture of old and new material. STZ graced fans with a glimpse of their newest stuff by playing a song off their upcoming EP titled "Human Performance". During Sabertooth, people were dancing and stagediving with a ton of rage, with one girl even stepping on security's head as a base to jump into the crowd. After the vocalist Cody riled up and pissed off most of the crowd by bashing on Los Angeles and the baseball team the Dodgers, they performed a few more songs and concluded their set with "Curly Locks".

Most of the modern hardcore kids left by this point, which gave the Punks more room for Nardcore legends Ill Repute. During their time, it was almost impossible to be on the floor without moving, whether you were in the pit or getting knocked over from people in pit. The hardcore Punk group fulfilled every great expectation that the crowd had, performing hits like "Sleepwalking", "Clean Cut American Kid", "Cherokee Nation", and the infamous song about their hometown, "Oxnard". Ill Repute's set left many injured, sweaty, tired, but mostly excited and revamped for the rest of the night.



D.O.A, probably the most anticipated acts of the night, came out to a full floor and high energy. Once the infamous Canadian group began performing, chaos erupted and a combative pit seemed to overwhelm the entire crowd and freak out security. Tons of Punks were crowd surfing to D.O.A's loved and signature hardcore Punk style and chanting along to their primarily political lyrics. Their set consisted of many favorites, including "2+2", "Police Brutality", "War", "Woke Up Screaming", and "Fuck You". Although many cheered and screamed for more D.O.A. ended their set; though this meant Gnarmageddon would soon be coming to an end, too many were too excited for Agent Orange to notice or care.

The last band of the night was the biggest alumni for the Punk division of the event, and once it was time for Agent Orange to play, most of the hardcore kids had exited the venue, leaving the Glasshouse all to the punks for their enjoyment. Agent Orange offered Gnarmageddon some surf Punk for a change, and performed the most upbeat and melodic music of the day. The band performed their instrumental surf covers like "Pipeline" and "Miserlou," meanwhile fans danced and illustrated strange hippie-like moves in the pit.

Agent Orange at one point took the time to tell the audience about Randy "Macho Man" Savage, and then told the audience, "This next song goes out to Randy Savage who was... too young to die!" The audience cheered and Agent Orange proceeded to play "Too Young to Die." Among the band's usual songs from album "Living in Darkness," the band performed a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love," though it was a Punk edition. Agent Orange performed their 45 minute set, and at the end of it, thanked fans and left the stage. Once the band finished, Gnarmageddon co-founder Jason Schwartz approached the stage, took the microphone, and began to thank the Glasshouse, supporters, and fans for their participation in Gnarmageddon. Scattered applause and cheers were returned, and Schwartz reiterated his gratitude before leaving the stage as well.

(Editor's note: This show is proof that no matter who you are or where you are, YOU too can put on a show like this. The only deciding factor if YOU will put on a show like this is if you are will to put in the hard work to make it happen. Everyone at Big Wheel Magazine would like to congratulate Jason Schwartz and Danny Lyerla for their hard work in putting on such a successful show -many people dream, WAY too many people talk and very few do, these two guys are do'ers.)

 

 

Reporting:
-Stephanie M.-
Big Wheel senior staff reporter

-Sarak K.-
Big Wheel staff reporter

 

 

 

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