Stillborn Fest 2010
The Chance Theater
Poughkeepsie, NY
by Morgan Y. Evans
Photos by Whitney Luedtke

Hatebreed’s Stillborn Fest is one of my favorite ways to end the year, whenever I can swing it. Attending the annual Hatebreed sponsored showcase of bands from Jamey Jasta’s record label and like-minded friendly artists is always a way to get out the aggression accumulated during the “season of giving”, when long shopping lines, impatient people and low income can dampen holiday spirits. 2010 was such a crazy year for me anyway, including such events in my life as almost getting shot at a gas station in Mississippi with some newlyweds, having crack dealers call the cops on ME and a good friend for drunkenly brawling in front of a ghetto ass Sunoco station and traveling more than I ever had in my life to places like Dallas (big ups to the band Stew!) and Chicago and New Orleans. I knew I had to ring it out with a big, gory ass concert. I chose the right show, because people were going off! Not that I condone violence but at this show I saw a broken nose bleeding everywhere (which happened to me once at The Chance during Shadow’s Fall, arghh), a fat, drunk girl get tackled by a fat mosh guy during Thy Will Be Done (who’s singer J. Costa then looked at the crowd, like, “Really?”) plus a huge guy crying with his foot bent at a very unpleasant angle.

This years Stillborn couldn’t rival last years’ for me due to the absence of Crowbar and Wrench In The Works (R.I.P.), but it was nonetheless a blast and featured performances from bands like Four Year Strong (the new Blink-182 equivalent for a lot of kids but with better songwriting), the thuggish Suicidal Tendencies influenced sounds of Trapped Under Ice (who’s amped up but menacing vocalist seems genuinely dangerous on stage) and numerous others. A lot of kids at the show are all about “brootal”, which I have long since grown out of. Listen to “Desperation” by A Place Of Skulls from AS A DOG RETURNS. It is soulful and deep. The song is pretty bluesy but still heavy in an emotional way that connects on a profound level, though I also love when a band just brings the onslaught (like Terror, for example). Still, I wish more younger fans of the underground could appreciate the distinction.

My photographer Whitney and I spoke with Hatebreed’s Frank Novinec pre-show on a tour bus about this year’s line up and the Stillborn tradition. “We don’t want to be taking the same bands every year. A lot of bands are home for the holidays and don’t want to be out in the bad weather and come home New Year’s Day. One of the Stillborn Fests we played on New Year’s Eve. A lot of bands opt out, but we see who wants to do it and Jamey has a big part in the say of who he wants to play,” said an amiable Novinec. “I was really psyched to have Trapped Under Ice on this year, ‘cuz they are a great up and coming hardcore band. Last night we had H20 and tonight we have Fireworks. It’s different than in the past where Stillborn Fest was the same bands every night at every date.”

I wedged inside The Chance Theater in time for A Life Once Lost, the band on the bill that I was the most psyched to see. They have been around earning their stripes for a good while now but I had never managed to catch them live despite always going to shows. I loved the “Detest” track from IRON GAG that they did with Devin Townsend and was very impressed by the claustrophobic form their propulsive, omnipressive riffs took in a live setting. Justin Graves bedrock supportive presence behind the kit gave the songs a firm backbone as Robert Meadows stalked the stage amidst epilepsy inducing lights. People were getting into it but there were also newbies in the crowd who were too daft to react to the onslaught and were too busy texting, undeserving of the punishment that was being handed out so professionally on stage. ALOL is one of the most underrated bands in the underground and it is sad that Graves has recently been announced as leaving the group. Hopefully the band will stay strong and keep soldiering on regardless. News is they have inked a new deal with Season of Mist, who have been on fire lately with signings like Morbid Angel, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Kylesa and continued great work from the truly uncompromising and profound Ava Inferi (Can’t wait to hear ONYX). A Life Once Lost will be a great addition to a label that really supports original artists. If Swedish Melodeath groover/goofballs Darkane are the most underrated European thrash band (I have been blasting DEMONIC ART incessantly lately-“Execution 44”!), than A Life Once Lost is certainly the Stateside equivalent for a criminally underrated “metal-core” djent act.

Many bands played Stillborn this year, but I’m gonna discuss only the ones that made the strongest impression on me (for example, while they were good, I thought Strength For A Reason were a bit by the books as a retro-sounding Hardcore band, which is fine but not what I was looking for). Four Year Strong are great and melodic with hoarse vocals (and super popular), but I only briefly caught some of their (energetic) set. Personally, I prefer Off With Their Heads for the current crop of melodic but gritty anthemic punk rock in my life, though I plan to check out more Four Year.

Hatebreed’s hit laden close out set notwithstanding, the rowdiest madness of the night was happening upstairs in The Chance Complex at The Loft, a much smaller additional room of the theater with a low ceiling and elevated stage. I’m upset I didn’t get to see H20 and Wisdom In Chains play that stage recently (and am probably going to miss attending the Most Precious Blood reunion show, to my great chagrin). Thy Will Be Done and The World We Knew delivered the two most aggressive sets of the night, giving their all and pummeling the crowd with metal as fully lived lifestyle. Chris Drapeau of Thy Will Be Done was so worked up he punted his guitar monitor into the crowd and dove into the mosh pit swinging his riff-axe headstock point first! Big points also to Frank Fanelli from The World We Knew for truly amping up the crowd with enthusiasm and brutal screams! The material from TO THE WOLVES was pure adrenachrome injection. His band have put a lot of work into making their live show kill and raised the bar significantly from last year’s performance (which wasn’t bad in the first place).

"Playing Stillborn Fest for the second year in a row was a complete honor,” Fanelli tells Crusher. “I couldn't have asked for a better way to end 2010 for TWWK. Looking forward to hitting the studio in early February for our 3rd full length CD. We promise not to let you down! It's going to crush you!"

This Is Hell had the funniest moment of the night when they antagonized moshers at length and told them that girls thought their windmill kicks looked stupid/gay and that circle pits are the superior mosh-form (I completely agree). The band was tight as hell and completely rock n’ roll, embodying the best of real hardcore punk aesthetics.

Hatebreed had people head walking and charged up from the get go, opening strong with “In Ashes They Shall Reap” and never looking back. “Last Breath” from SATISFACTION IS THE DEATH OF DESIRE still holds up with that rolling thunder of drums in the intro and lyrics etched in the pain of loss. Sometimes simplicity is all that you need, and the message of the song is a perfect example of “less is more”. You don’t need to be poetic all the time when discussing death, and this songs straightforward message hits home to this day. At the same time, it is kind of funny to watch people kill each other to a song about being sad about people dying. “Destroy Everything” was incredibly loud, like a truck running into a brick wall. The band was in high spirits and celebrating a banner year.

“We were really busy in 2010,” mused Novinec. “Now is the time for us to take some time off. We have a few random shows and are looking to book some festival dates in the summer, but we’re looking forward to having time to write our next record. Our last one came out in 2009, so without us putting one out in 2010, it is time to do that again. That will lead to touring. You know how it goes. 2010 was cool. We got to go to The Philippines and the South Pacific. We played Taiwan and Indonesia. We played Singapore. This late in our career…we’ve been a band sixteen years. Sometimes we do 300 shows a year! There aren’t too many places in the world we haven’t been before, so it stood out to go someplace new. The shows were great. Some were small and some were a couple thousand people.”

I asked Frank (who by the way was attired in a dope ass TRON: LEGACY jacket) what else stood out for him.

“2010, we did a lot of great stuff. We were direct support for Kiss at Grasspop Festival, which is about 60,000,” he exclaimed. “We played and then they closed out the show. I mean, Kiss was my favorite band growing up so to be able to be in a band ourselves and get to the level where we were able to support them…we got pictures with them and got to meet them. They had their costumes on and all that, so it was really cool. But yeah, we’ve been working really hard. It’s time to write some stuff. We always have stuff in our vault but the majority of the stuff each record is newer every time. Hatebreed is Hatebreed at the end of the day but we like to keep our ear to the streets. We threw some different things in on the last album than we have done in the past. I think it has to do with our original guitar player Wayne (Lozinak) coming back into the band. He’s a hell of a player. We showcased some of his talent on the record. He’s far more talented than what we need him to be for Hatebreed. We could have him go crazy but we don’t need to. It’s pretty meat and potatoes, but there was some things on the last record that people might not have expected. Guitar solos. A track with piano on it. An instrumental for the first time. At the end of the day it still sounded like a Hatebreed record. We’ll see what we come up with next.”