The best thing about a live hardcore show is that even if you don’t know anything about the bands, if there’s a halfway decent crowd you can still have a great time. The pushing, shoving, slamming of sweaty bodies against one another along with the jolting, crashing, throaty screaming of the music…you know what I’m talking about. It’s a rush. This live, double billed recording attempts to capture that feeling for you to replay in the car or at home.
The corollary to the above statement is that often the bands aren’t nearly as good recorded as they are live. I can’t speak for Discipline, not being familiar with their previous stuff, but as a longtime fan of Agnostic Front, recorded and live. Something’s Gotta Give has long been my soundtrack to a really angry day. I thrill to the added edge gained by a live recording, the sound of the crowd and the familiar Noo Yawk accent of singer Roger Miret calling for a circle pit.
This album was recorded at a concert in 2001, hardly early in the band’s history but long enough ago to make me nostalgic. It’s mostly songs you know from the aforementioned release and Riot Riot Upstart, with some older stuff thrown in and the obligatory closer, the cover of “Crucified.” One of my favorites is the song “Police State,” which begs to be used in the upcoming Presidential election. It features Miret coaching his audience in a chorus of “Giuliani, Giuliani, Giuliani, f*&k you.”
Discipline, from Holland, sound as though they’d be right at home on the streets of Boston or New York or any hardcore or street punk heavy scene. More melodic than AF but with the same steel-toed kick to their music, they occasionally remind me of one of my favorite Boston bands, the Bruisers. They throw in “Cocksparrer” and “The Last Resort” covers, which fit the mood perfectly.
At 29 songs and a little over an hour, there’s plenty of music here to let you jump around your bedroom and pretend there are other people around to bounce off of. If you’re like me and find most recent music often too concerned with its haircut and skinny jeans, and are disappointed with the kids at shows today who don’t seem to have taken enough geometry to understand a circle pit, this album will take you back—it’s only six years, but it will surprise you.
I Scream Records
