Internal Affairs/The Change/Path Of No Return

live in Stockholm (2004)

Melvyl

"Who the fuck are these bands?"
"Why is this dude reviewing a local show? YOU SHOULD NEVER REVIEW A LOCAL SHOW"
"No one has ever heard of these bands so why the fuck are you reviewing it?"

With those points made, let me just say:
*Internal Affairs includes ex-members of Carry On (whose other ex members has formed bands such as Terror and The Adored)
*The Change are from Sweden, sure, but they're signed to Fight Fire With Fire, and if that isn't enough then fuck me.
*Path Of No Return are Swedes too, but they recently signed to gangstyle records. That's pretty awesome.

So, now that I'm done with justifying this review, let's get it on. And yeah, before continuing this, I have to say that if you know how I review stuff and don't like my scattered style and havn't heard a single note recorded by any of these bands, just stop reading.

I came in pretty late and only caught the last three songs of Devotion To Trust, which made me kicking myself the whole night since they're now about 503 times better than when I saw them last year. Nothing amazing, but their Hope Conspiracy-styled hardcore really worked that night and served great as the opener of the night. If you like the style, you'll like them even though they're not really special, but if you want to add a decent hardcore band to your namedropping list, you could do much worse. Since this is the most local band on the set I won't bother to tell you any song titles, so..yeah dude! HRDCOR!!!

Next band up was Path Of No Return, whom I already were familiar with and had seen quite a few times. So basically, they just signed to Gangstyle and are being hailed as "Sweden's own Hatebreed," which I always thought were fitting, until this night. I'm not sure if it was the look the guys in the bands had, or just me misunderstanding the whole set, but their "moshcore metal" (or whatever) sound was gone, they struck me more as having a Ferret type sound, which was really unexpected, but it made sense since they didn't really play their biggest song "I Will Rip Your Life Apart" which was a pinpoint for their previous sound. Anyways, the set was good, a few people were into it, including a person I will dedicate an own paragraph to at the end of this review. The majority of their set was made up of songs that are going to be on their full-length album (to be released 03/2005 on Gangstyle). These guys recently put out a split lp with The Change, which is out on Monument/District 19 and if you ever get a chance to buy it you really should since it covers two sides of the hardcore spectrum. Anyways, this band, even though they're very young (at least a few guys in the band) really delivered their songs in a trustful but not totally expected way (what the crap does that mean?). I would give them 7/10, even though it's not exactly my cup o' tea.

Now the band I was there for (all bands kicked ass, but this was the band I was practicing my moves to in front of the mirror with my Nike Air Jam Jordan 96's on all day before the show). This was actually more than just them playing since it was the first time I saw them with their new singer (the former quit in August forcing them to cancel their appearance on Deadfest 3). They started playing, began with a song I didn't really recognize but they received a good response anyways which is very good and pretty rare since the trend in Sweden has been to NOT have fun, NOT sing-along and NOT dance, and just go there and hang out and don't even watch the bands. So the set could've died any minute, but these guys knew about that so they launched into their (in many peoples eyes) greatest song "Up To You" which had fifteen people singing along and throwing fists which totally made me forgot that this band once had another singer. They continued to play with good reception from the crowd going through songs from their self-titled full length CD such as "Don't Look Back," "Worn Out" and including the songs from the split with PONR and even a few new songs. Great set, fourth time I've seen them, first time with the new singer and it was probably the best I've seen them do. They were also really thankful that the crowd interacted and you could really hear the honesty in the guitarist voice when he stated: "this is probably the most awesome thing we've ever been a part of" after playing the aforementioned second song "Up To You" (you got the link to the review up there, and you can download the song there so you really should go and do that right now, all you three people who are still reading). I think they ended their set with their self-titled sing along song (obviously "The Change") and all I could think of was "If the new singer is as good recorded as he was today, they're going to be as big as *insert coolest Boston band right now* if they make it over to the states"). Awesome, just awesome. 9/10.

A lot of people left at this point, and not many of them came back to see INTERNAL AFFAIRS. If you're reading this, you know who this band is, else you wouldn't even care to read this. If not, I got a few keywords for you: L.A. Hardcore, short, fast, blistering songs and really intense vocals. I'm not extremely familiar with them, I've heard a lot of songs, I got a CD, but havn't listened to it enough to actually know the songs by heart. Their set however, changed this. Okay, so it's not first on my "to-do" pile but I'm going to, some day. They played a solid set of hardcore, as expected. No suprises, just a shitload of hardcore right in your face. But now, I'm going to fill you in on one negative thing (the other one being mentioned in the last paragraph) that has no place in a show like this. Some people were heckling the band, some yells of "HARDCORE IS WHITE," "GO HOME YANKEES," "FUCKING MEXICANS" and stuff like that was heard. Seriously, what the fuck are you guys doing at this show? There's no place for racism at a show like this. Internal Affairs, however, while playing a really short set (when will bands understand that this venue has a curfew at 10 PM, and if you go on later than stated, you're going to get to play for 15 minutes, nothing is going to change that). They however played a really good set, but since I'm not really familiar with them I didn't really recognize any songs enough to be able to drop their names for you, they did however, tell a very funny story about a rabbit who got its "toybox" banged in so hard that it died. That was funny. Really. Good set, people who knew the songs seemed to be into it. 7/10.

Now for the best part, sure, this won't be funny if you didn't see it, and chances are you didn't. You know when you go to shows, there's sometimes a guy who keeps moshing at every set, even though no one else does? And that's what the pit is for, but the guy does not understand that and instead walks along the crowd and does his stupid "ninja who've just been out of the hospital with a broken leg and has to rest it so he looks like a penguin when he mosh"-moves and the people standing there always get pissed at him but can't really do anything since his huge and probably on steroids? Now, cross him with the 15 year old punk fan with 2 short Mohawks, one green and one punk, who also is at every show and take away the steroids. I really wished I'd bring my camcorder to this show just to show you guys, it was the funniest and stupidest thing ever, because he constantly got smacked and pushed away by the bystanders but he just kept coming back anways. That guy gets a 10.

And hot girls also gets a 10.

And cheap merch also gets a 10.

Also, a 10 goes out to the fact that Comeback Kid and Champion is playing the same venue in a week.

The show all in all gets a 9.

This review? Fuck this review.