One.

Hello.

I’ve been writing show reports with the fine folks at NoEcho over the last year as a means to have something more substantial to do with my photos instead of an Instagram post accompanied by a snarky caption. The articles have been a combination of my personal experiences at these gigs and my journey to get there with photos unrelated to music included. I’m deciding now to utilize the blog section of this website that I actually pay for and focus less on music and more on other aspects of photography that I used to enjoy but have let fall by the wayside.

I decided this about 20 minutes ago, so I don’t really have anything to say right now, but I will start this venture off with exactly what I wanted to avoid - a show report that went unpublished. Probably because it’s boring and not my best work, probably because I just wrote it without pitching first, probably because I was self-deprecating toward my own work in it, probably something else, or probably nothing! We’re a big fan of overthinking here at Allix HQ.

Let’s go.

4.13.22 - Drug Church

I’ve begun writing this two weeks later, and to be totally honest I don’t remember much of this day. This is probably an issue as I’m in the middle of writing a memoir based off recollections from a year-long manic episode. Expect a short read off a long pier.

I saw Patrick from Drug Church walking to his van right as I got to the venue. I realized running up on someone from behind is not the wisest decision, especially when you don’t know them. So, I yelled.

“…uhh Patrick!”

*slowly turns around, taking airpods out*

I don’t know what to say, “Hi, you don’t know me!”

“…are you going to shoot me?”

“Not today!” I begin to explain my deal with free or cheap rooms I’ve been giving to bands, “Much like yourself, I’ve sustained a gambling problem over the last year.”

He laughs and confirms our mutual affliction. I listen to all of his podcasts. He’s fallen into the crypto hole in the last year or so. I got out after becoming a Dogecoin billionaire. I explain my free or inexpensive room deal I’ve been offering bands in exchange for contributing a face to my portrait project. He’s enticed, but I should have gotten to him earlier because all the bands got rooms at The Strat. [SIDE NOTE: A few weeks later, this interaction was mentioned on an episode of Axe To Grind at minute 32]

I make my way in, and thank the lord in heaven this venue allows re-entry because I brought a slew of different camera set ups to try something new. I hated all of them and eventually settled on my usual kit for Drug Church’s set. This means I don’t have many photos of the opening bands that I’m willing to share, but I also don’t think many people actually read my articles, so whO CAARRESSS!!!

Local nu-gazers Morosis opened. My first camera set up didn’t work to my satisfaction, and I am under the personal philosophy that nobody should know what Shoegaze bands look like anyway. Like, how much better was your life before Kiss took their make-up off? I wasn’t alive, but I didn’t know what they looked like until Gene Simmons Family Jewels aired and that’s around the point in time when everything went south.

Lurk are up, as is my time to confess that I don’t know any of these bands outside of Drug Church. Lurk are awesome right from jump though. Such an interesting sound, almost like if Damian Abraham played a synth and was as vocally aggressive as Jello Biafra. Handsome band to boot.

My camera set up had me shooting this zoomed in almost blind and didn’t make sense at all. So, I just collaged the photos together to make it look sort of cool. Like when you get a bad tattoo, you either black it out or get more tattoos around it as a distraction.

Soul Blind reminded me of like if Floral Green era Title Fight slept with Alice in Chains but heavier? If there’s a grunge revival in hardcore coming up, I’m here for it.

I stepped outside after taking bad photos with a different camera that didn’t work for the situation and ended up listening to One Step Closer from the front patio while chatting with a friend. They sounded like 2000s melodic hardcore and I don’t really have anything to say about them specifically, but there’s an old tumblr that that had songs mixed to sound like it was being played from another room at a party and that’s all I could think of during their set. It all felt reminiscent of questionably better days.

Here’s a link to a playlist with all of the songs on that tumblr.

https://robinpx.github.io/boombox/?username=fromanotherroom-revived

Drug Church. Drug Church? Drug Church!

I switched over to my normal camera set up and I’m never leaving her again.

I’ve seen Patrick’s other band, Self Defense Family, countless times over the years, but hadn’t heard about Drug Church until the year before Covid hit. Fun riffs, witty lyrics, and more tremolo than you could shake a stick at. The crowd was more of the bouncy persuasion than of the mosh type, but that did not stop Patrick from endlessly calling for it.

I wish there was video of the set so I could rehash all of the mosh calls. The best one that sticks out in my mind is toward the end of their set in the middle of Weed Pin. He parts the crowd as Moses did the red sea, eyes wide and menacing as if to display the pain you would endure if you were to disobey him, and shouts, “UGLY PUSH MOSH, NOW!”

And the crowd dare not protest.

After their set we talked about our favorite gambling problems and the things people do that get them into prison. I hung out with a friend in the parking lot while waiting for them to pack up but then I turned around and it seems I had waited too long because they were about to drive off. So, I forced my way into the back of the van and snapped this portrait of them and the couple friends they had along for the ride.