Sick of It All / Snapcase

live in New York (2011)

Brian Shultz

Merauder was well into the swing of things when I'd finally arrived at Webster Hall–and I do mean the swing of things. Puns aside, the band was blasting through their notoriously hard, heavily metal-influenced hardcore that had burly dudes moving in every direction. Their vocalist's shout sounds even more demonic and bellowed than most of their studio recordings, and it makes the band's overall sound come off even more like an aural threat. Maybe I'm just too frail for Merauder, but I did catch myself bobbing my head at times. And the on-stage moshing by their crew/friends/etc. was certainly entertaining, but it was kind of a "yikes" moment when some shirtless, longhair fellow dove over the first row of people standing on the floor against the stage and belly-flopped down onto the floor, carried out by concerned witnesses.

I'm still paying reparations on not being into Snapcase during the later years of their tenure; this was when I was finally discovering what this punk rock and hardcore thing was about. By then, the band had already ventured into the progressive restraint of 2002's End Transmission, and I was still clamoring for pop-punk. I wouldn't come to appreciate the band for years, and would finally get my chance to see them play a reunion show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in November 2007. Three years and change later, I was still grateful for the opportunity, and it seemed the band was, too; thanks for inviting them, Sick of It All! Snapcase killed it through a 50-minute set of smart and furious hardcore that ranged from the moshy chug of older crowd-movers like "Drain Me" and "Incarnation" to the more melodic, spacier expanse of "Ten a.m." and "New Kata" (which, admittedly, dulled the audience momentum some). They were pretty on no matter what stage of their evolution they were representing, though. It sounded sharp and calculated, but the crowd below provided all the spontaneity needed, stage diving, singing and pointing along, and moving from side to side. All ages.

Set list (8:04-8:54):