What happens when you give Madball, Terror and Death Before Dishonor too many drinks? Right, touring plans. The three bands managed to influence their booking agency’s touring schedule to do a tour together and add Cruel Hand and The Setup to the line-up as well. The result is the Rebellion Tour 2010!
Opening act of the night was Belgium’s own The Setup. Even though this band has been around for quite a while now and released 3 full length albums already, they still didn’t really break through. The Rebellion tour is a perfect way for them to get a bit more known and even though there wasn’t much crowd in the venue yet, they still gave away a decent show. Their straight forward hardcore with some metalcore elements is far from original but can still pleased a few people from the crowd and the first singalongs of the evening were a fact. Don’t expect anything too exciting, but The Setup was a decent warm-up band! (Brent_)
Opening act of the night was Belgium’s own The Setup. Even though this band has been around for quite a while now and released 3 full length albums already, they still didn’t really break through. The Rebellion tour is a perfect way for them to get a bit more known and even though there wasn’t much crowd in the venue yet, they still gave away a decent show. Their straight forward hardcore with some metalcore elements is far from original but can still pleased a few people from the crowd and the first singalongs of the evening were a fact. Don’t expect anything too exciting, but The Setup was a decent warm-up band! (Brent_)
According to Madball who played later on, the fact that all the bands have been on this first date of the tour was an absolute miracle. The shitty weather condition in the USA at the moment resulted in a lot of delayed flights, but not for these bands! Unfortunately, no delayed flights for Cruel Hand but the airport lost some of their luggage including the guitarist’s left handed guitar. As a solution the guitarist and drummer switched instruments until the guitarist got his guitar back and still managed to give away a very decent show. Cruel Hand already impressed me on their tour with Have Heart and Carpathian a few years ago with their dirty old school hardcore including some metal(lica) riffing and smashing mosh elements. Even though they did not match my expectations I had after that show, they still did the best they could. Their “drummer” was playing too much on the safe mode, which isn’t too strange, but the rest of the band was definitely in good condition. Besides, the steadily growing crowd seemed to enjoy the performance as well, and the first real movement emerged in front of the stage. It felt like a bit of a weird set but they definitely did the best they could and I hope to see them with the right formation at Ieperfest this year! (Brent_)
Still one of my favorite hardcore bands at the moment is Boston’s Death Before Dishonor. I saw them numerous times live already and still they don’t bore me, fortunately. It also helps that they change their setlist on regular basis, so you won’t be forced to see two identical shows on two different tours. During this first gig of the Rebellion Tour they weren’t that tight (probably due to the jetlag), but they compensated it with a lot of energy and a good interaction with the crowd. The three albums these guys released were equally represented, but the accent was still on last year’s release Better Ways To Die with songs like ‘Our Glory Days’, ‘Peace & Quiet’, ‘Remember’ and ‘Coffin Nail’. They closed their set as usual with ‘6.6.6. (Friend Family Forever)’, but unfortunately left out ‘Boston Belongs To Me’. All in all: great band, decent show. (Gilles)
After Death Before Dishonor it was finally time for the band that mattered the most for me: Terror from Los Angeles. They will release a brand new album this summer called Keeping the Faith, but treated us with the same old Terror setlist as we’re used from them. Does it matter? Not at all! A good half an hour or so followed containing almost every song on their latest compilation Forever Crossing the Line including ‘Push it Away’, ‘Overcome’, ‘Always the Hard Way’, ‘Out of My Face’, ‘Spit My Rage’, ‘Last of the Diehards’, ‘Lowest of the Low’ and ‘Better Off Without You’. Its been about a year since I’ve seen Terror for the last time, but its great to see the crowd finally accepted the tracks of their latest 2008 album The Damned the Shamed such as ‘Betrayer’ and ‘Relentless Through and Through’. Even though I’ve seen this band about 7 times by now, they still manage to impress me. The complete chaos from the crowd including a lot of stagedives, singalongs and a big moshpit and the speeches from Scott Vogel reminded me yet again how awesome hardcore can be. I’m very eager to hear the new record and see them again hopefully later this year or next year with a new setlist! (Brent_)
Who is more worthy to headline this mighty hardcore event than the kings of New York, Madball? I guess no one is. With ‘Demonstrating My Style’, dedicated to the recently deceased wife of bassist Hoya, they opened furiously, followed by ‘We The People’ from their latest album Infiltrate The System. After that they immediately continued with older ones like ‘Look My Way’, ‘Hold It Down’ and ‘Set If Off’. This perfectly reproduces the whole Madball show: many oldies with some newer ones in between. With the introduction “this one is from our city to yours” it also became pretty clear that ‘New York City’ had won the internet poll “which song should we bring back to the set”. Furthermore there were no real surprises in the set list. The biggest surprise was the man behind the drums. Jay Weinberg was asked to tour through Europe with Madball and this guy did an amazing job! At the end of a show with significant less stagedives than during the Terror show, but one that was enjoyed more intense the guys, together with DB4D’s singer Bryan, ended the gig with the mighty ‘Pride’. (Gilles)
Still one of my favorite hardcore bands at the moment is Boston’s Death Before Dishonor. I saw them numerous times live already and still they don’t bore me, fortunately. It also helps that they change their setlist on regular basis, so you won’t be forced to see two identical shows on two different tours. During this first gig of the Rebellion Tour they weren’t that tight (probably due to the jetlag), but they compensated it with a lot of energy and a good interaction with the crowd. The three albums these guys released were equally represented, but the accent was still on last year’s release Better Ways To Die with songs like ‘Our Glory Days’, ‘Peace & Quiet’, ‘Remember’ and ‘Coffin Nail’. They closed their set as usual with ‘6.6.6. (Friend Family Forever)’, but unfortunately left out ‘Boston Belongs To Me’. All in all: great band, decent show. (Gilles)
After Death Before Dishonor it was finally time for the band that mattered the most for me: Terror from Los Angeles. They will release a brand new album this summer called Keeping the Faith, but treated us with the same old Terror setlist as we’re used from them. Does it matter? Not at all! A good half an hour or so followed containing almost every song on their latest compilation Forever Crossing the Line including ‘Push it Away’, ‘Overcome’, ‘Always the Hard Way’, ‘Out of My Face’, ‘Spit My Rage’, ‘Last of the Diehards’, ‘Lowest of the Low’ and ‘Better Off Without You’. Its been about a year since I’ve seen Terror for the last time, but its great to see the crowd finally accepted the tracks of their latest 2008 album The Damned the Shamed such as ‘Betrayer’ and ‘Relentless Through and Through’. Even though I’ve seen this band about 7 times by now, they still manage to impress me. The complete chaos from the crowd including a lot of stagedives, singalongs and a big moshpit and the speeches from Scott Vogel reminded me yet again how awesome hardcore can be. I’m very eager to hear the new record and see them again hopefully later this year or next year with a new setlist! (Brent_)
Who is more worthy to headline this mighty hardcore event than the kings of New York, Madball? I guess no one is. With ‘Demonstrating My Style’, dedicated to the recently deceased wife of bassist Hoya, they opened furiously, followed by ‘We The People’ from their latest album Infiltrate The System. After that they immediately continued with older ones like ‘Look My Way’, ‘Hold It Down’ and ‘Set If Off’. This perfectly reproduces the whole Madball show: many oldies with some newer ones in between. With the introduction “this one is from our city to yours” it also became pretty clear that ‘New York City’ had won the internet poll “which song should we bring back to the set”. Furthermore there were no real surprises in the set list. The biggest surprise was the man behind the drums. Jay Weinberg was asked to tour through Europe with Madball and this guy did an amazing job! At the end of a show with significant less stagedives than during the Terror show, but one that was enjoyed more intense the guys, together with DB4D’s singer Bryan, ended the gig with the mighty ‘Pride’. (Gilles)
Try to catch these five bands somewhere on the road in Europe while it still is possible! This tour is definitely a must-see!