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Fun Fun Fun review: Black Congress and Hatred Surge
There is nothing quite as bracing as starting your day off with some hideous noise. It is the double espresso shot of music festivals and Fun Fun Fun was ready to get you wired.
Houston’s Black Congress was more or less set to kick off music on the Black Stage at 12:15 Saturday afternoon, but the sound system wasn’t quite ready. The day eventually sold out, but only the hardest core punk faithful showed up first thing to check these dudes out. It was a wise decision. After everyone tuned, Black Congress delivered massive shards of noise rock, Roy Mata and Bret Shirley’s brutal riffs bouncing off each other, Shirley occasionally putting down the guitar to send rubbery samples and shuddering digital wheezes across the stage. Bryan Jacksons’ scream was reverbed within an inch of its life — he can bellow just fine, but with the echo all the way up, he sounded like an angry demi-god wondering why he was awake so early. A bracing set I could have watched for another hour.
Austin grindcore ruffians Hatred Surge followed Black Congress’s set immediately on stage left (the audience’s right). I have seen these guys play their brutally fast mix of metal and hardcre maybe a dozen times over the years, I think I’ve seen them with the same lineup maybe two or three times in a row. Basisst Alex Hughes is the sole constant member; this particular lineup included guitar, drums and a male lead vocalist wearing an excellent “Baby Got Back” t-shirt and bellowing like he was stuck in Hell Hughes’ vocals were coming from a slightly higher level of the same region — I’m not sure Dante covered the locations of various grindcore singers in “The Divine Comedy,” but he should have.
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