July 24th, 1999: Grade, Cross My Heart, Radar Mercury, Allied War Effort @ Phantasmagoria, Wheaton, MD

Here we have a silk-screened 8.5" x 11" flyer done by David Hardy. I know I went to this show but I don't remember much about it. Grade's Under the Radar album wasn't out yet but I'm pretty sure they mostly played songs off of that album. I think by this point Kyle had cut off the dreads and was sporting the rockin' 'do and chinstrap that so many people found so humorous at the time, especially coming from someone who was known for being somewhat grubby. I was never big into Grade, but there are definitely a few pretty good songs on Under the Radar. Cross My Heart were always great to see, especially in this era of their self-titled record. Their later records definitely had a lot of good songs on them, but every song on that first one was great. I don't think I realized that Radar Mercury played this area as much as they did until doing this blog. Fun, catchy band. Allied War Effort was made up of a bunch of "older" Baltimore and DC punks having some fun and making a racket with very loosely structured songs. I remember Mike Wolf and Mike D being in the band. Maybe Jim Ventosa was as well. I can't remember who else.