Friday November 4th @ Pub 340


Two Friday’s past ‘Lexis and I hopped the #8 heading due north on Main into the heart of the DTES.
Our destination: Pub 340 for some rock-your-socks-off Vancouver hardcore. Now we’ve all been to Pub 340 and know it ain’t gonna win any accolades for sound, décor, smell, etc… but they do contribute to keeping the scene alive, if nothing but for the torrents of cheap booze that fuels the punk/metal/core/whatever crowds that swarm the bar nightly. Somewhere near the corner of Cracktown and Bumville we said farewell to the meth-head on the bus, penetrated the sodden beer soaked depths of the bar and sat down scanning the crowd. The usual band of rowdies, punks, skids, goths, straight-edgers, and confused alcoholics roamed about; most pounding dirt cheap booze, while the airy refrains of Far Beyond Driven echoed high overhead.

Lifting my arms from the filthy table top we had commandeered I leaned over, “There’s something about Hardcore Kids… I though it was just a Vancouver thing but having been to shows in Seattle and NYC I keep witnessing the same phenomenon. If you look closely at an average audience at a hardcore show, you’ll find a large part of the crowd is huge high-school ex-jocks who used to beat up the thin wimpy guys who listened to Metallica. The other half is guys who used to listen to Metallica and get beat up by jocks. Now they both go to shows, drink and do too much blow readying themselves to fling their bodies together in a sweaty display of aggression while the band on stage pounds out high decibel music at 240 BPM.”
Out of breath I fled to the bar to grab a few pints. 2 pints of Pacific. 6 bucks. Fuck yeah.

By 10:45 when Sound of the Swarm took to the stage the bar had filled to a high capacity with many in attendance there to see the first performance of Last Plague, SOTS kicked it off with a relentless attempt to get the crowd going. Feature the former members of Angel Grinder the boys quickly kicked it into high gear with a drum-heavy mix of punk rock riffs sped up to amphetamine levels overlaid with vocals normally found in Swedish Death Metal bands. Sound of the Swarm isn’t looking to re-write any books here and by the fourth song they failed to hold my attention. Although skilled the performance suffered under the weight of its homogeneity and the melodic emo-synth breaks that just seemed unnecessary. Overall though the set was tight fast and hard, just how the kids seem to like it these days.

Having remained seated for most of the first band I felt it was time to stand and stretch my legs… that and get a pitcher refill. I battled through the drunken hordes dodging roadies loading gear the din rising to the point where all sound became a constant stream of white noise. Last Plague took to the stage for their first performance and yet managed to look like they’d been playing together for years. The lead singer looks like a suburban weekend singer but while lacking in range he made up for it in sheer overwhelming loudness... The band strutted about guitars raised high and they whipped through a 25 minute set of hardcore rock and or roll. The floor in front of the stage was crowded to capacity and the audience seemed to like what they were hearing. The sound is hard to describe but it involves some standard rock rhythms sped up and mixed with the throaty outbursts of a schizophrenic tourettes sufferer with a dash of cock rockin’ guitar. In other words, not your standard Vancouver rock music. I predict we will be seeing more of Last Plague and hopefully soon.

By the time the headlining band, The Golers, came on I was heavily inebriated and couldn’t bother to pay much attention to what was happening on the stage. They were loud, people seemed to like them, ‘nuff said. We continued to pound Pacifics all the while knowing the pain they would bring come the light of morning. Partially deaf and completely drunk we stumbled out of the Pub around 1am amidst a still rocking crowd. No blood, no vomit and therefore good times had by all.

-Christopher Neil