What was your first show/ what got you into hardcore/punk?

[Davidjednat]

Curious to hear about everyone’s first experience.

I had been listening to mostly metal and a couple kids in my school got their hands on some Snapcase and Earth Crisis cds. Then I heard about a show up in Lockport in 94 or 95. I can’t remember. I do remember that the lineup was incredible. It was Severed, Pillar, Union, Despair, Turmoil, and Vision of Disorder. Boy did that open my eyes. There were information tables with flyer for Animal Liberation Front, Food, Not Bombs, etc… There were so many people. It was upstairs and in the winter, but it was so hot in there that the ceiling was dripping with moisture from sweat and the floors were wet. I had never been to a concert that had so much energy and heart. It was a formative moment in my life and one of the best things that ever happened to me despite having long hair and being called a hippie.

[castlehawkthorn]

My first show wasn't nearly as cool as VOD/Turmoil. Just a mashup of higschool kids local punk/ska/hardcore bands at a YMCA in like 2003 or something. My little middle schooler brain never saw anyone play guitars or drums that fast, or saw a crowd react like that to live music before. Seeing it at a DIY spot like that made me think that I could do it too someday. Eventually, my terrible highschool punk band was playing shows at that same YMCA.

[Davidjednat]

My first show wasn't nearly as cool as VOD/Turmoil. Just a mashup of higschool kids local punk/ska/hardcore bands at a YMCA in like 2003 or something. My little middle schooler brain never saw anyone play guitars or drums that fast, or saw a crowd react like that to live music before. Seeing it at a DIY spot like that made me think that I could do it too someday. Eventually, my terrible highschool punk band was playing shows at that same YMCA.

It was totally by chance. Who even knows what I’d have gotten into if my first show was something else entirely. I shudder to think if I had gone to a Dave Matthews Band concert and fell in love with that.

[MANSHOVEL]

Slush Fund, Counter Clockwise, The Creepers, and Wrong Direction at the Shark Club in Niagara Falls in September '96. I was 14 and went into my first push mosh pit with a traffic cone on my head.

Second show was at the Shark Club again in December with Slush Fund, Shitfaced, Suburban White Terrorist, and Soiled. Soiled bummed out a bunch of spikey punx, but my friend Chris and I were totally into it and moshing the whole set.

There's video of the Soiled set up on YouTube and Malachi let me grab the mic a few times. Look for the kid with the undercut and the 3' long wallet chain. That's me.

[Handerbee]

I was at the big mall and I encountered a gentleman named Patrick who played in a music band called "Lockjaw". He told me all I needed to know about Super Fly James Snuka and extreme metal! We remain great friends to this day.