December 14, 2000: The Hope Conspiracy, Commin' Correct, Gamewinner, Looks Like Rain, The Gacy Project @ The Sidebar, Baltimore, MD

Here's two versions of the same flyer for a fun show at The Sidebar. I got to play two sets here: one on bass with The Gacy Project and one on the mic for Looks Like Rain. Jamie Arthurs booked the show. I made the flyer on top. Not sure who made the other one. Maybe Alex D. I like how they both say "Fuck shit up." I have no idea what's up with that. The Hope Conspiracy were great at this time. "Cold Blue" and that next EP before "Endnote" are great. I can't say for sure that I watched Commin' Correct. Just not my thing. 

December 9, 2000: Mouthpiece, Count Me Out, Darkest Hour, No Justice, Shark Attack, Dead Serious @ St. Stephen's Church, Washington, DC

Here's a couple versions of the flyer for one of the greatest hardcore shows in DC history. Sounds like some hyperbole, but this show was legit. Tru and Eric booked the show. Linas made the flyer. The bottom one was the actual line-up. Not sure why Damage had to drop. I did sound for this show and took video from the back of the room. Gotta get that uploaded (Mark Anthony?). Every band was great but most people remember two insane quotes from this night, Gene M (No Justice drummer) being the target of both. To the best of my memory...

1) "If I don't get an apology, not only is it gonna be No Justice's last show, it's gonna be his, too." - Matt Summers, Shark Attack

2) "Fuck this motherfuckers drums up!" - Timmy, No Justice, during their set

There's a few videos of the No Justice set on YouTube. Here's the first one. I know everyone is gonna have a million memories from this show. Please share.

December 8, 2000: New Found Glory, Midtown, River City High, Hot Rod Circuit, the Stryder, and Dashboard Confessional @ St. Andrew's Church, College Park, MD

I didn't go to this show but I'm sure it was huge. This show represented all that was wrong with "punk" bands going the corporate route. Jamie Arthurs booked it. Carl Caracia made the flyer.

December 6th, 2000: Kill Your Idols, For the Living, Brace, Standard Issue @ the Sidebar, Baltimore, MD

Here's a flyer for a tight little hardcore show at the Sidebar. I was probably at this show since I can't imagine I would miss a chance to see and hang out with the Kill Your Idols guys, but I don't remember it specifically. Jamie Arthurs booked the show and Carl Caracia made the flyer.

December 5, 2000: Anti-Flag, Flogging Molly, Bigwig @ the Sidebar, Baltimore, MD

Funny to think this show was small enough to fit in the Sidebar 12 years ago. I don't think I actually attended this show. No recollection of it. Jamie Arthurs booked it and Carl Caracia made the flyer.

November 26, 2000: Torn Apart, Brother's Keeper, Nora, Poison the Well, the Gacy Project @ WMUC, College Park, MD

Here are a couple different flyers for basically the same show that Jamie Arthurs booked. I made the one on top and Carl Caracia made the other one. The top one is more recent because Bane canceled and Jamie wrangled Torn Apart into playing a final show. The show was also originally supposed to be at St. Andrew's Church, but got moved to WMUC, the radio station at UMD, College Park. I can't remember if Bane canceling was the reason Jamie moved it to the radio station, as he assumed it would be a much smaller show, or if there was some other reason. Either way the show was packed. As I believe this is the first flyer on this blog for a show at WMUC, I'll explain it a bit. The campus radio station had a small (maybe 15' x 15') studio where (usually 1 - 3) bands would perform for live on-air sessions, for a show called Third Rail Radio. Somehow one of the hardcore/punk kids involved with the station (I can't remember who at the time) convinced the powers that be at the station to let them hold full-on shows with attendees and everything that they could record for later play on the air. This was far from the first of those shows, but there was a good 4 - 6 year period, with some short interruptions,  where WMUC became a regular venue for shows in the area. I saw and booked some great bands there. More of that to come in future blog entries. This show was one of the first for The Gacy Project, which was a local straight edge tech-metal band, kind of in the vein of Burnt By the Sun meets Harvest, featuring John Frank, Nik Korpon (Gamewinner), Andrew Duffy (Gamewinner), Mike Bast (The Wishing Sickness), and myself (first time playing bass in a band). We did a demo. I'll have to  dig it out and post it on here. It was fun but didn't last too long. It's also interesting to see Poison the Well so low on the bill considering the status they would go on to achieve in the metalcore scene. Oh, and if you've paid attention you would know that this was in fact not the last show Torn Apart would ever play.

November 21, 2000: The Jazz June, Ampersand, Breaking Pangaea, Starcrossed @ the Sidebar, Baltiomore, MD

This is a fitting post for today because I was wandering around the Fine Arts building of my previous, and current, school today and found an Ampersand sticker on a locker that's been there for at least 12 years. I've mentioned them in the blog before and posted their recordings a few months ago. Click their label below to find them if you missed them. Solid band. I've posted about the Jazz June before as well. I was more of an Atari guy. They were decent though. Not sure what any of them are doing these days. Breaking Pangaea were a great indie rock band from southern Pennsylvania. If you liked Cross My Heart, you'd totally dig them. I pulled out an old mixtape from this time recently and it had one of their songs on it and it definitely stands the test of time. The singer, Fred, went on to much bigger things a few years later when he joined Taking Back Sunday. Now he's doing something called The Color Fred. Awful name. He was also in Brody in the mid-90s who were pretty great for the time. The drummer went on to play in another terrible band, Straylight Run. Disregard their later gigs, but definitely check out "Take Apart the Words" on Undecided Records. Great EP. I didn't like their follow up as much so I never bothered with the record they did on Equal Vision. I have no idea who Starcrossed were.