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First round of Chaos in Tejas bands announced; Amebix rules Emo’s
Timmy Hefner, the founder of Austin’s Chaos in Tejas festival of hardcore punk, has announced the first wave of bands playing the 2009 fest, which is May 21-24.
The biggest names thusfar are veteran proto-streetpunk/Oi! band Cock Sparrer and Japanese hardcore supergroup Judgement,
Here’s the list:
Cock Sparrer (U.K., only U.S. show)
Judgement (Japan, only U.S. show)
AI (Japan)
Crude (Japan)
Pierced Arrows (ex-Dead Moon)
_UK
Annihilation Time
Brutal Knights (Canada)
Midnight
Destino Final (Spain)
Young Offenders
Nodzzz
Obliteration (first show, ex-Knife Fight and Mind Eraser)
No Tolerance (ex-Mind Eraser)
the Hex Dispensers
Unit 21
Hefner’s most recent triumph was the Amebix show Saturday night at Emo’s. The bitter cold probably got everyone sick the next day (OK, maybe just me), but man alive, was it worth it.
Locals Mammoth Grinder and Diskonocidos opened the show with solid sets, especially the former.
Severed Head of State was up next, an ad hoc crew, half based in Austin, half in Portland. Guitarist Todd Burdette (Tragedy, Deathreat, Warcry) and bassist Kelly Halliburton (Pierced Arrows) joined Austin singer Jack Control (World Burns To Death) and drummer Chris Pfeffer (the Altars) for a ripping display of recombinant hardcore - a little d-beat, a little hideous thrash, a little rage at humanity. Nicely executed.
Then again, it’s easy to assume that everyone was bringing their A-game in honor of the headliners.
Mercifully, singer/bassist Rob “the Baron” Miller and guitarist Stig didn’t look the least bit punk - just two skinny, older, well-preserved British guys with long hair, dudes you might see poking around the sci-fi section of a used book store or teaching high school physics.
But they delivered utterly, playing deceptively simple songs about the apocalypse and what comes next, powered with precision tooled fury by drummer Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour). Mayorga made everything pulse, roll and move while the Baron was still doing his best Lemmy vocal impression.
It reminded you that Amebix wasn’t just a punk band, but was strongly in the tradition of such heavy British psychedelic rockers as Hawkwind and could match Joy Division mopey vision for mopey vision.
Punks wandered in from as far away as Denver and Minneapolis for this show; locals who usually look angry at everything that moves were sporting massive smiles. The sound of the end times will do that.
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