To paraphrase Norman Brannon, bridging generation gaps within hardcore will only strengthen the entire community, and it’s hard to think of many bands that have done this as consistently as Gorilla Biscuits. They’ve been gradually playing shows all year with an amazing cast of openers varying from show to show with bands plucked from multiple generations of hardcore, with an especially strong emphasis on the new generation. They finally played their NYC hometown–for the first time since lockdown–on Friday (9/8) and Saturday (9/9) at the recently-renovated Brooklyn Monarch, which looks and feels bigger and better than ever. Both shows were loaded with great, multi-generational lineups: H2O, Crime In Stereo, End it, and Stand Still on Friday and Cold World, Fucked Up, Bib, Restraining Order, and Combust on Saturday. At Saturday’s show, CIV talked about how excited they were that Cold World and Fucked Up–who are definitely a lot newer than GB but veterans themselves at this point–both agreed to play, but that really it’s the new generation’s turn to steer the ship and make things their own, and that was reinforced by the younger bands that played earlier that night and all throughout this run of shows. I did regrettably miss Combust (but very recently caught them at the same venue with Drain) and Restraining Order, but got there for Bib whose hardcore-infused psych/garage punk sounded pretty great and got people moving.
Then it was Fucked Up. I’ve seen the genre-crossing band play with a ton of different bands over the years (including Dinosaur Jr, whose shirt Damian Abraham was wearing on Saturday until going bare-chested for the second half of the set), but I’m pretty sure this was my first time seeing them on a top-to-bottom hardcore show. Fucked Up have made moves over the years that have confused the hardcore community and the indie rock community that they later broke into, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from this crowd. It didn’t seem like an instant hit, even though the band sounded great from the first note, but when they broke into their 2003 classic “Police” as their third song, the place erupted and it never let up once from there. It seemed like FU were tailoring their set a bit to fit this particular bill, with just a few of their more far-out moments worked in ’cause it wouldn’t be Fucked Up without them, and it really felt like something special to see them in this context, in the year 2023.
For Cold World, this show was even rarer than it was for Gorilla Biscuits. Their shows are few and far between these days, but when they do play, they’re exactly the larger-than-life force you expect them to be. They opened with “Boom Bye Bye” and had the crowd swarming the stage and yelling every word from the moment they kicked into it, and they kept that chemistry with the crowd going all night. Any time people hopped on stage to mob singer Dan Mills, he was all smiles. The band is loud, crisp, and impossibly tight, and they cover so much ground–from hardcore to metal to hip hop to Alex Russin and Arthur Rizk’s howling clean vocals–without ever missing a beat. To mark the NYHC occasion, Cold World covered Warzone’s “It’s Your Choice” (with CIV singing along from side stage). Dan said they’d never done it before, which you never would’ve guessed from the way they nailed it. They seemed like they could’ve headlined the place themselves, and after their set, they headed to TV Eye for another sold-out show with The Wrong Side.
Gorilla Biscuits opened with the bugle calls of “New Direction” and went on to do what they do best, delivering a set with almost every GB song you could think of and a few covers, including usual suspects like Minor Threat’s eponymous anthem and Warzone’s “As One” as well as one that they don’t usually do: “Together” by their friends Youth of Today (which Walter Schreifels is also a member of and who CIV also roadied for on their 1987 tour, which is the subject of his new book). (At night one, they brought out Mike Judge for “New York Crew.”) GB always fosters such a positive, welcoming environment, and that was evident both on and off stage all night. Walter and Arthur Smilios are clearly having a blast as they bounce around the stage and bust out their iconic parts. CIV spreads the band’s positive message between songs, and he seemed just as happy shouting GB’s time-tested slogans as he did handing off the mic to a younger crowd member. He preached anti-bigotry, he encouraged young people to hold their ground, he shouted out the band’s children and other family members watching from side stage, and he gave a tribute on stage to “Hardcore Attorney” Dave Stein, who very recently passed away. Drummer Luke Abbey remains a powerhouse, and GB currently have Charlie Garriga (also of CIV and Judge) on second guitar, following the 2019 death of Alex Brown. GB’s classic material needs no introduction, but seeing the band for the first time in a few years reminded me how truly special and unique these songs still sound after 30+ years. They really just have it all–the super fast stuff, the wide variety of mosh parts, the melodies, the shouted hooks, the purpose, the ability to never go out of style. They’re a band I’ll never get tired of seeing, and they’re a band the modern world can still learn something from.
Watch some videos of GB (from night one) and Cold World below…