Vile Creations, Lynch the Landlord, City of Crooks, and Illuminate at The Epicentre on 9/27/14

A few weeks ago, I attended a hardcore/punk show at The Epicentre in San Diego. One of the few all-ages venues in San Diego, the night’s audience, and even most of the performers, was comprised largely of teenagers and parents of the performers. While not necessarily the largest of crowds, they were energetic enough to make up for it at times.

First up for the night was Vile Creations, a group of kids playing their first gig as a band. For better or worse, it showed. While they do deserve some credit for adding leads and solos to hardcore, a genre not known for either, they were generally sloppy and out of key in a way that was simply unpleasant, instead of intentionally dissonant like a diminished key. With that said, it takes a good deal of courage to get up in front of a crowd for the first time and bare your soul the way musicians do; if Vile Creations continues to practice and refine their songs & sound, and get their leads into the right keys, they could create a solid place for themselves in the local scene.

Lynch the Landlord was the second band to perform. A four-piece with a more traditional punk styling, LtL added some Misfits and Black Flag covers into their set, along with a rendition of a tune from the Legend of Zelda video game series. True to their influences, they captured the sound and energy of the bands they covered with their fast tempos and chaotic guitar solos. There were even times when the singer jumped into the mosh pit to rile it up, leaving vocals to the guitarist, who pulled both off without missing a beat.

City of Crooks was the third act to perform. The only band not composed of high schoolers, CoC easily had the best gear, and was the only band to bring a banner and advertise their songs on iTunes. Like Vile Creations, their songs included several lead melody lines, though they fitted the songs much better; the only real issue was that the amount of low end typical of hardcore guitar tone makes pretty much any actual melody sound muddy. While CoC was arguably the best band of the night on stage, some members were over an hour late past load-in, and the band hadn’t even brought their gear into the venue by the time the show started. While City of Crooks may be well on their way to making a career out of music otherwise, that level of unprofessionalism is a surefire way to make others leery of dealing with them as professionals.

The headliner of the night was Illuminate, a band that toed the line between hardcore and metalcore. As such, their songs were more melodic on the whole, which they supplemented with solos that generally seemed well practiced and thought out. Once they equip themselves with better equipment, they could easily contend with City of Crooks on a musical level. Like CoC, however, members of Illuminate likewise showed up incredibly late to their own show and had to load-in after the show had started. As stated previously, behavior like that is a great way to preemptively ruin a career as a working musician, as it is not behavior many of the larger venues will tolerate.

All in all, this show was a night of breakdowns and circle pits. Of kids getting on stage with what gear they have, throwing way too much low end into the mix (as a bassist, this is a rather frustrating aspect of more “-core” subgenres), while the audience runs and flails along to the music. Given time and practice, the night’s performers could well make a name for themselves at least locally, if not regionally, and may even have the opportunity to tour with their idols.

By: Chris Hicke