8PM
Last Thursday night was easily one of the best night's Philadelphia punk/hardcore has seen in a long time. When I read a few months ago that Paint it Black would be playing out front of Sailor Jerry's, I didn't quite know what to expect. Other shows that happened out there had smaller crowds, but the prospect of stage diving out of trees was pretty damn awesome. As the show got closer, news started coming out... the street was being shut down entirely.
When we got to the show after a crucial Lazaro's/Rita's pre-show hang out, I had one of those "holy shit" moments. Hundreds of kids had 13th street completely full, and Paint it Black had their gear set up on the sidewalk, facing out towards the street. After about an hour of bullshitting and running into friends, I made my way towards stage right, almost directly behind a PA speaker.
As PIB came out, people started getting real excited, and climbing trees, street signs, and parking meters. As the first song got started, 13th street exploded. The first outlandish thing was Jeff Ziga hurtling from atop parking meter, leap-frogging the PA speaker, and falling out into the crowd, cracking a clip on the PA stand, and sending the speaker to the ground. From there on, total chaos erupted. Kids were throwing themselves all over the street, flipping out of trees, crashing into the band and their gear, and swallowing Yemin whole. I managed to sneak my way up to end up leaning on Andy's bass amp, and things were completely wild. Halfway through the set, Yemin proclaimed Philadelphia the best city in the country, and Andy and Josh started a "Fuck El Vez" chant, weirding out everyone at the upscale restaurant across the street. Everyone was excited, and the energy didn't really stop.
As far as the actual set was concerned, a solid mix of songs from all three full lengths was played, similar to what they played at the record release shows. I was really glad to hear "Goliath," as the more I listen to it, the more I'm bummed it was left off New Lexicon. About halfway through, Andy's bass input got demolished by something/someone, and the set was almost cut short. Luckily, Mike McKee physically held the chord in until some duct taped was procured, and the input was "fixed." They ended strong as expected, with all the big sing alongs ("Shell Game Redux," "Memorial Day"), and left kids screaming for an encore, which never came.
Overall, this was one of the most surreal sets I've ever seen. It's up there with the Paint it Black house show, and in terms of insanity, probably surpasses it. The set was great, the crowd was out of their mind, and the setting was something that will probably never be seen again by the city of Philadelphia. Hundreds of kids destroying a downtown street, while one of the best bands in hardcore rages, and cops stand by AND SUPPORT IT. Unreal.
Below are some exclusive pics that Robby Redcheeks sent me and some from Paint it Black's Myspace. For more, see his site, linked at the bottom.
For the completists, here is a link to a .divx file of the entire set!
For other wild pics and videos, check out these links:
Robby Redcheeks
Mike Brennan
Fun Vampires
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