No Way Fest 3

For those on the west coast or elsewhere who were unfortunate enough to miss it, or those who went and were often too partied-out to catch it all, June’s No Way Fest 3 in Richmond, VA was quite the time to be had. Like frat boys on a passed out sorority girl, nationwide punk and hardcore kids flocked to the once capital of the confederacy for a three day weekend of music, mayhem and memory loss. With No Way’s own roster of bands, a sampling of other domestic offerings, some international flair and a two-night stint by the reunited Zero Boys, the fest was at least on par with its two predecessors.

Hailing from the ‘burbs of Connecticut, I was unable find a group of people interested in going. Though the nutmeg state isn’t without its scene, it appears everyone collectively forgot to take off work or spent their last dollars just in time to not buy tickets or pay for gas. Regardless, I was able to clear my schedule of work/drunken misanthropy enough to catch a Greyhound down and now have and waste the weekend of the 19th-21st living it up.

Day 1:

The fest began on Friday with a show at Gallery 5, considerably smaller than the larger Alley Katz venue that had hosted the two previous fests and would do the same for the next two days. The night was a showcase of bands on Grave Mistake records, also from Richmond and run by Alex of Government Warning. Tony Bitch, infamous singer of The Ladies and Bad Advice who each played, showed up sporting a recent black eye covered by sunglasses. During both sets, the crowd came to a head with mostly locals losing their shit as the bands raged through short sets. Though different bands, The Ladies and Bad Advice share their singer and several members and both play fast and stripped down punkish hardcore that comes off like a mix between “Nervous Breakdown” era Black Flag and “Blood, Guts and Pussy” era Dwarves. Whether it’s your thing or not, both bands probably don’t care and will fuck up a room in 8 minutes of debauchery the way most bands can’t with half an hour or more. Another noteworthy band of the evening were Psyched to Die. Psyched to Die are New Jersey’s answer to someone asking how bad life in your mid-twenties sucks. Featuring members of The Ergs, Hunchback, The Measure and other NJ bands associated with the vast scene in New Brunswick, Psyched to Die are a great amalgam of melodic punk and hardcore speed/rhythm, with lyrics spewing about the hopelessness of life and the escape of suicide. The music and lyrics are catchy beyond belief and considering they already have two 7”s out (“Sterile Walls” on Grave Mistake and “Scatter Brained” on Dirtnap”) there’s no excuse to not catch them and get songs like “Permanent Solution” stuck in your head.

I may seem like I’m glossing over things a bit here, and maybe I am, but I wasn’t too focused on much of the other bands, short of Direct Control. I was chumming around with people I hadn’t seen, having to piss about every ten minutes and wasting what seemed like an endless budget for the weekend on beers and merch and didn’t really catch a few sets. Deep Sleep came up and played what seems to me like a good try at a faster, more hardcore Descendents style. They’re good in their own way, but certainly heavily influenced by the Descendents, as their own CD release of their 3 EPs is a parody of Two Things At Once, the Descendents collection of Milo and Bonus Fat.

Anyway, the most raging part of Friday’s show, short of the partying to follow the bands, was Direct Control’s set. It stands to reason that being the precursor of the wave of 80’s-hardcore bands, DC would be on point, and they were. Also, Direct Control being a local didn’t hurt and throughout their set people were going ape shit while they tore through their growing catalog of thrashers. Here’s where things get a bit hazy, or hazier anyway. There was an after party as I recall, and there was beer, and I think I got a bunch of Adderoll or Concerta. Anyway, everyone was up for a while, the party shifted from one place to another, and I think we found a friend sleeping in the bed of his pickup truck at some point. Needless to say it was a pretty good first day/night.

Day 2:

Well, if you thought I did a bad job covering what happened on Day 1, get ready to stop reading ‘cause Day 2 I barely watched a single band. The venue, Alley Katz, has three floors. The first has a bar and is where the stage is located as well as some merch and bathrooms and tons of sweaty people. The second floor is a balcony around all sides of floor one, replete with more merch, more sweat, and more bathrooms. Floor the third was I guess the ‘backstage’, but really it was the ‘upstage’. I hung out in the upstage a lot because I wasn’t digging much of the music below. Sue me. Dry Spell and Total Wreck, one or both of whose demos I did in fact buy, only made my head feel more dizzy in a way I wouldn’t have minded if I’d only taken time to drink my water the night before. Oh well, they were both short, fast and angry hardcore of the early mid-west variety perhaps.

  

Next were Southside Stranglers. This is Kenny from Government Warning’s new project that covers CCR and plays rocked out hardcore. I was into it. I saw them a few times before and I think they played more originals and more covers. It’s pretty fun, and still hardcore enough for the hardcores. Again, the fast forward button must be hit. I forget what the fuck I did most of this day. I think this was when my brother called to tell me he was getting divorced after like ten years of marriage, so I was doing that for a while. Anyway, his problems aside, I caught some of the Omegas who are from Canada. They are pretty awesome and uncharacteristic of many No Way Fest bands in that they play a style dated past the early eighties. Specifically, the mid-eighties and specifically New York. Omegas have some harsh breakdowns and without getting too “bro” sounding really get shit moving. I wish my stupid brother could have waited to tell me his bad news so I could have seen their whole set. Oh well.

Bands like Brutal Knights, Chronic Seizure and Wasted Time have all been around and toured enough that you probably know them. If not, uh, too bad. Zero Boys have been around even longer but have not played much since almost anyone at the fest was born (save for them and the guys in Double Negative). So anyway, they came out and played their old songs flawlessly. Not just like “oh, it’s like listening to the LP” more like “Oh, so this is what they sounded like live twenty five years ago?”. It was pretty good and for four old men they were going at it pretty ferociously. Saturday night happened. People got drunk and people probably had sex and other people were sober and maybe didn’t have sex and maybe someone punched someone and maybe someone else taped it on their phone. It was all pretty cool.

Day 3:

The final day of the fest was marked by a departure altogether from bands. Well, for me anyway. After a couple bands I didn’t watch, my friends James and Matt were in the “upstage” and began throwing water balloons at people. Quickly things escalated and more balloons were bought and filled and more people joined in. The good part about the upstage is it has windows facing the alley where all the show-goers hang out. This made them prime targets for the soaking of a lifetime. There were even a few inter-level attempts with balloons passing from the second floor to the third, third to second, third to patio, etc.

Eventually, we ran out of water balloons. With only a few beers left, the grim fate of having to go watch bands we paid to see was beginning to set in until a brilliant idea was hatched. Though the store around the corner was out of water balloons, they had plenty of sandwich bags. Not only were there more bags per box, the bags didn’t even have to be tied before throwing them! I will say that things may have gotten out of hand at this point. Either when a merch table got soaked during a botched attempt by someone to hit a person through the second story window or when someone dropped a bread bag full of water two stories onto a few people. Either way, it was pretty harmless fun and nobody even had to stage dive or touch a guitar. Like all good things though, the bouncers eventually had enough and we had to go back downstairs.

 

No System played a reunion of sorts with Al Quint, the singer, backed by all new members. It was pretty cool to see him do his thing but musically it probably wasn’t the second coming or anything.  Social Circkle finally played at some point and were awesome. They even had limited copies of their new LP. I didn’t get one because I suck and am an ignorant drunken buffoon. They played quite well, doing their own quirky mix of crisp punk riffs that could be culled from some ’77 groups and then a small dash of some proto-hardcore thrown in the mix. I think I now like their LP most having finally gotten it, but a novice listener could check out either of their 7”s to get a good idea of what I mean. They don’t have a myspace either so just go buy a fucking record and shut up. Next were The Carbonas. The Carbonas are a garage/punk band from Atlanta who sound a bit like Rip Off records groups, a bit like the Real Kids perhaps, and mostly like themselves since they’ve been around for a while and honed their own sound. That being said I like their sound quite a bit. They were pretty wild as it was their last show and though some people probably didn’t get into it, a lot did and I think the singer was wearing a leather jacket / no shirt combo at some point. That’s a pretty bold move.

To remind us all we were in fact at No Way Fest, Government Warning came up next. Eric, the former guitar player, was not playing with them, which was weird to me. I’ve seen them so many times, but seeing the new lineup, and coincidentally hanging out with Eric during their set, I was thrown for a curve. It’s the same songs, well, plus the new ones from the newer LP and 7”, but yeah, like I said before about Wasted Time and the others, you’ve probably heard or seen them and if not, I’m not gonna paint any better a picture than you can find on YouTube. They are great, energetic hardcore that draws from so many classic bands and will have you moving and grooving.

So lastly, we had the treat of the second helping of Zero Boys. It was pretty much on par with the night before, and either because I was really stoked on them as a whole or possibly because I knew I had better appreciate what I was seeing since I wouldn’t probably ever see it again, I was stoked on their set. Oh, also, I think myself and 9/10 of the rest of the audience were pretty lit.

Everyone was singing along and going nuts and Paul from the Zero Boys was telling stories, cracking jokes and going off for every song. It was totally memorable and pushed away a lot of memories of bad experiences with band reunions I’ve seen in the past. It was also a welcome close to the fest. They played for a while, doing a few “encores” I guess, and maybe they did that Pink Floyd shit again but it was still awesome. Following the show I had to scramble to find Matt to give him a ride up the East Coast. My phone was dead and he chose to stay on the outskirts of town so it took fucking forever. Probably longer than three sets I missed while water ballooning. Ah well, we got home eventually and yet I still remember all this! Good times.

-Tommy H. Perkins
Big Wheel Staff Writer 
 

Gallery of photos from No Way Fest Day 1: HERE

Gallery of photos from No Way Fest Day 2: HERE

Gallery of photos from No Way Fest Day 3: HERE