December 28, 2000: Gamewinner, Standfast, The Disaster, The Gacy Project @ the Mosh Mansion, Laurel, MD

This will be the last flyer for the year 2000. Pat Martin booked this show at the Mosh Mansion, where he was living at the time. Not sure who made the flyer. Here's another show that I know I have pictures from that I'll have to dig up and post. I've mentioned all these bands on the blog before, so I won't go into any of that. I'll just say that this show was four bands that were great friends with each other, had a lot of fun playing together, and many of us are still friends to this day. That's what hardcore is all about. Playing some new town you've never been to and meeting people you instantly connect with and being able to call them friends 12 years later. Good stuff.

Here's a little where are they now...

Gamewinner: Pat (bartends at the Ottobar and Metro Gallery), Alex (runs Grave Mistake Records, played bass in Government Warning), Duff (is married and works for BGE), Nik (is a dad, an author and teaches English to college kids), Ryan (is a family man).

Standfast: Rory (sings for Soul Control), Brian VE (is a fancy chef), Licky (no idea), Nate (plays guitar in Polar Bear Club).

The Disaster: John (sings for Not Sorry), Pieces (moved to NYC to pursue acting), Brian VE (see above), Jeff (played in Bad Business, currently co-owns his own graphic design business).

The Gacy Project: John (does IT work for government contractors), Mike B (no idea), Mike R (writes this blog), Nik (see above), Duff (see above).

December 27, 2000: Hatebreed, Bane, One King Down, Stretch Armstrong, E-Town Concrete, Merauder, Voice of Reason, Age of Ruin @ St. Andrew's Church, College Park, MD

This show was, as the kids say, "off the chain". Hatebreed weren't playing Ozzfest yet, but they were headlining huge clubs at this time, so seeing them at a hall with a good sized stage and no barrier was pretty awesome. Speaker dives galore. Some would say the rest of the bill was pretty stacked but Bane was the only other band I cared about. Jamie Arthurs booked the show. Carl Caracia made the flyer.

December 20th, 2000: Strike Anywhere, The Hope Conspiracy, Kill Your Idols, American Nightmare, Rebel Scum @ The Bug Jar, Rochester, NY

Gus Bowman and I were just talking about this show a few days ago. He and I took a roadtrip with Pat Martin and Nik Korpon to this show and the one the next day in Ithaca. For some reason I don't have much of a memory of this particular show but I remember the one in Ithaca being surprisingly poorly attended. As Gus has a much better memory than I do, I'll share his recollections of this trip...

- Raeph, who drummed for KYI at the time, rode with us from Rochester and Ithaca and told some of the sketchiest stories any of us have ever heard. No, I will not repeat them.

- Jesse Standhard was giving out CD-r copies of the not-yet-released Right Bridge LP coming out on Revelation Records. Probably out of spite for all the drama surrounding the record. Read about that here.

- Andy KYI getting back to John 25's house from the spank shack next door, proclaiming "I just spanked it. Gotta freshen up."

- My car got towed and Paul KYI took me to get it. I have no recollection of this.

- Nik Korpon's tics going apeshit on the drive home, late at night, on a snowy ride, and those of us that were awake fearing for our lives.

Great roadtrip! Great bands!

John 25 made the flyer and I'd assume that Josh Lyons booked the show.