Reign Supreme / Neverender - 7.10.08

Deep Sleep
8PM

After a long day filled with record shopping, babe-watching in Rittenhouse, and pizza eating, Mike and I made our way to Deep Sleep pretty damn early, but we figured we'd just hang out for a bit. We entertained ourselves people watching in Old City, and generally acted like assholes, but had fun until some people finally started to show up. Neverender was the first band to play, and I was pretty curious to see them. Despite sharing their name with a Hot Water Music record, they didn't sound anything like Hot Water. They had a melodic hardcore sound, and had some pretty cool parts. Their singer seemed like the weak link in the band, but he said he wasn't feeling well and was a bit off. I picked up a demo, so we'll see how that sounds. They only played five songs, but they were tight (even with a fill-in bassist) and had enough tempo and rhythm changes to keep things interesting. Their singer talked a lot between songs, and kinda had the typical "this is for my friends" and "this is about holding things close to your heart" thing going on, so I'm not sure how I'll feel about the lyrics, but as live bands go, this band was a nice start.

Reign Supreme plays a style of hardcore that's never really been my thing. Super heavy, metallic mosh styled hardcore has never been my thing. Personally I'd rather my hardcore come from a punk background than a metal one, but that's just where I come from growin up. Either way, this was my second time seeing Reign Supreme, and the first since some major lineup changes. They played a short set, but were tight and heavy as hell the whole time. They sounded really good, are energetic to watch, and Jay is a great frontman. Kids were really excited, and I was amazed to see some mosh in the tiny Deep Sleep basement, as well as a dive off the stairs which went about as well as it could consider the low ceilings. I'm not familiar with any songs, but I do know that they played a few off of their forthcoming LP, and what I can assume are a good bit from American Violence. Reign Supreme definitely seems primed for a stretch out on the road, and will probably be pullin in new fans and plenty of mosh each night if they play sets like this one.