When they announced this tour over a month before, I almost died. A chance to see Give Up The Ghost/Nightmare/Nothing plus a few other great bands. We never get hardcore shows around here, although our local promoter has been great as of late, getting Bane, Most Precious Blood, Terror and Throwdown among others.

The show started promptly with local act Slugworth. They play a metal/hardcore style and are pretty good for a local band. After seeing them so many times around here, the set was forgettable, but I could see them touring.

Black Cross was supposed to be up next, but they had an accident involving their trailer losing its struts and so would be late. The Hope Conspiracy took the stage instead. They played a pretty straightforward but fairly short set of their fast hardcore. Most songs were off of the newest record, Endnote with a few more favorites from Cold Blue. The pit started intensifying during this set as Dan Zimmerman screamed his way to the end.

As the Hope Conspiracy broke down their gear, the promoter asked if anyone in the room went to the recent Thursday show there, where the singer passed out on stage. No one raised their hands and so he said "you're all just too afraid to admit you like that fag shit". He then went on to ramble about scene unity and going to his shows before introducing Black Cross as "The Red Cross".

I had heard a lot about Black Cross before the show and they didn't disappoint. They had a great stage presence, with the singer constantly in the crowd and the rest moving around wildly. It was hard to judge their style by the chaotic live performance, but I think they're worth checking out. The guitarist then made a smart comeback to earlier comments saying something along the lines of "We may play fag shit, but we do this for ourselves and this is who we are." Very nicely put.

Next up was Every Time I Die, a personal favorite. The whole crowd seemed to be in to them as they ripped through a fairly equal set of songs from their Ferret debut "Last Night In Town" as well as upcoming release "Hot Damn!" For those who aren't familiar, they play a melodic hardcore/metalcore mostly free of the Poison the Well type singing. The pit reached its peak during this set, and as they left the stage, many left the venue.

Next up was Give Up The Ghost. Wes, the singer, and the promoter talked for a few minutes about the history of GUTG, the local scene and some other stuff. They wasted no more time in blasting through many songs from Background Music, (I believe) an older song and a new song from their upcoming 7-Inch, "Love American". I was far too involved in going nuts to them to remember an entire set list, but I know they played We Are, There's A Black Hole..., AM/PM, Shoplifting In A Ghost Town, I Saved Latin and Postmark My Compass, not in that order of course. The set was over far too soon and they played one encore song.

All in all, it was a great show, with all the bands playing great and a rare great crowd. Check out Give Up The Ghost whenever you can, because you never know when they'll break up or change their name again.