10 for $10 Hardcore Summer Tour
by Joe Toeben
10 bands for 10 hard earned bucks? You betcha. This summer Poison The Well teamed up with hardcore acts such as Bane, Terror, and Madball to bring a tour around the world that would cost only 10 dollars. While the bill changed from city to city you were always guaranteed 10 bands for your 10 dollars. The headliners featured Poison The Well, Bane, Terror, Madball, Death Before Dishonor, The Ghost Inside, War of Ages, Trapped Under Ice along with some local favorites from your given city. While the genres differed from band to band, the idea pretty much stayed the same. Normally a show like this could cost anywhere from 25 to 40 dollars for the amount of performers but in this case and most likely because of the economy the tour decided to charge only 10 dollars. There were hardcore legends such as Bane, Terror and Madball, along with some other guys. Poison The Well and War of Ages helped to bring the metalcore genre up front as well.
My personal favorite was a young band from Los Angeles called The Ghost Inside. They don’t play straight hardcore or metalcore. Their sound could be sufficiently described as metalcore influenced hardcore if that makes sense. They use more screams and breakdowns more than hardcore yells. They use more chugging guitar than the normal speed playing you’d see from Madball or Terror. They use decent drum fills instead of having their drummer just play inconsistent rapid speed fills. I have to say though, for a band that hasn’t been in existence for very long they have quite the following. Of the 5 bands I seen perform they had the most fans at the front of the stage. There was about 10 kids fighting and jumping on each other for the chance to sing the lyrics in the mic when Jonathan put it down towards them in the pit.
War of Ages was the only strictly metalcore band on the bill. When they came to St. Paul they had just announced they were dropping off the tour for about 5 dates due to a death of a personal friend. When I interviewed the lead singer he explained that their band brought a lot of different sounds into the band but ultimately the product was their current sound. They were also the only Christian band on the tour. Now could some of the other bands be religious of the Christian faith? Sure they could, but War of Ages was the only one to be open about it. They played some generic metalcore tunes with screaming and buzz guitars, nothing special though. Death Before Dishonor was one of the better bands as well. They are a hardcore band straight out of Boston and you could tell it. They have everything right about the hardcore punk style of music. You can tell they are from Boston when Bryan sings. They sound like a hardcore version of Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys.
I regret to inform you readers that I missed Terror, Bane, Poison The Well and Madball but I assure you due to a reliable source that the rest of the show was great. A fight broke out with Bane having 2 songs left to play so that would have been entertaining to see too. The Ghost Inside was great, Death Before Dishonor was brutal but This Is Hell was honestly nothing special. There were just another bland hardcore band and one that was probably on the top end of the bill if it weren’t for their age. Was it worth 10 dollars? Yes to the concert go-er that was able to see Poison the Well and Bane most likely. The Ghost Inside was worth it for me alone. It was only 10 dollars for 10 bands. Do yourself a favor and if this tour hasn’t come to your city yet, go see it when it does for a good time. Just make sure to stand back from the idiotic slam dancers.
