Text by Thiago Vidal
The sudden announcement that two bands from the American hardcore scene would be coming to Brazil for a few dates caught me completely off guard.
Angel Du$t recently released the excellent, unique, and unlabeled Brand New Soul. The album, which is itself a tribute to hardcore, shows how inventive the genre can still be, taking advantage of the liberation the scene is experiencing and showcasing a well-balanced sound between pop and the very aggressive type of music from which the band's roots come.
No Warning , a pioneering band in Toronto with a classic hardcore punk sound and influences close to NYHC, experienced a meteoric rise and disbandment in the early 2000s, only to reunite at the end of the last decade. This was an opportunity to see two shows, which, let's face it, besides the difficulty of setting foot on Brazilian soil, making the return trip very complicated, considering the fragmented concert market in our country and the increasing extinction of smaller production companies that value diversity over profit.
The night at Jai Club in São Paulo started with a 30-minute delay, but it was a positive setback; the wait meant more people were there to check out Joker . São Paulo hardcore, no-nonsense, with riffs that bring a more old-school that blends well the influences of crossover thrash and New York hardcore, all with a Brazilian mix, the swagger, the violence, and the flavor of the third world; the quintet delivered a heavy show.
While the mosh pit was still a bit small but arms were already spinning, the two-step routines were underway, and the heat wasn't yet too intense, the band was able to showcase their first recently recorded live tracks. The Jokers still have a lot to contribute to this new wave of bands that are making hardcore what it is in São Paulo.
Stomp took on the responsibility of keeping everything under control, and at times the jumping from the stage was causing people to crash into the walls of the venue; I think that comes close to what the band's live show was like. Lucas José Vinicius 's extremely crisp bass set the tone for the show, which, besides being fast-paced, was very well executed.
In "Explanations," a track from Tropichaos , the band poured their hearts into the audience on stage, raising their fists with pen-marked Xs in the air. The shows are also marked by lower audience attendance, with some preferring to arrive for the "main acts." Hardcore is a niche scene in Brazil, entirely based on DIY (do it yourself) , and in a third-world country that marginalizes anything it refuses to accept, perhaps a packed house would be the minimum to appreciate the bands that do the work of keeping the scene alive and active on our soil.
One of the first things Ben Cook , the vocalist of No Warning, said when he took the stage was that he wanted everyone to come forward. He wanted to see faces, feel the presence of the crowd, and the response was jumping off the stage, headbutting, collisions with the speaker attached to the ceiling, and complete surrender from the first to the last song. The band took a journey through all their releases, highlighting the impeccable I'll Blood , their 2002 album, with a classic sound that only accentuates their power live. The final minute of "Short Fuse" was chaos inside the venue, with arms waving, verses shouted, and fists in the air.
As the time for the highly anticipated final act approached, Angel Du$t prepared to take the stage while “Muck Motors,” from his latest studio album, served as an intro to what would be the most chaotic and intense show of the night. One of the night's main characters, the heat, already had an almost psychotropic effect on the cramped and melting space of the dance floor – perhaps this contributed to the fact that nobody stood still for a single instant during the entire hour.
Opening the show with the frantic riffs of “Toxic Boombox,” transforming the entire space into a giant mosh pit, followed by the trio of “Brand New Soul,” “Love Slam,” and “Space Jam,” showcasing just how fast and raw the tracks from Brand New Soul are live—an album released at the end of last year and one of the best and most authentic of 2023.
Sharing the mic with anyone who dared to stand in front of the stage, Justice Tripp , vocalist and frontman of Angel, divided his time between singing, dancing, and saying that at a hardcore show some things get out of place, while the crew replaced a microphone that had just been destroyed by a fan stage diving.
The night still held a memorable ending: during "Set Me Up," the closing track of the set , several girls went up on stage to shout the verses "When I needed you, you were nowhere around/ You set me up to knock me down/ Fuck you, you were nowhere around ." Angel Du$t ended his first visit to Brazil by leaving the stage with a few quick thank yous.
This is a brilliant moment, one of renewal and acceptance. In a single night, it was possible to see that there is a much wider creative space compared to the beginning of the movement; these bands coexist and complement each other. Jai Club witnessed the meeting of generations, of different styles but using the same language, maintaining the same ethos and the same convictions. This shows what hardcore really is, and why it's so exciting.
Our photographer, Marcela Lorenzetti, also went to the show and captured the evening. Check out our photo gallery below:
