By Andrew Bansal
November 23rd 2015, The Viper Room, West Hollywood CA: Hardcore veterans from opposite sides of the United States, New York City’s Madball and Los Angeles’ Strife came together for a week’s worth of US West Coast tour dates, the run aptly titled ‘East Meets West’. On the penultimate day of the tour, the two bands arrived in Los Angeles for a gig at the Viper Room in West Hollywood last Monday November 23rd, along with local openers Countime and Bad Samaritans. West Hollywood/Sunset Strip hasn’t had a reputation for hardcore shows of late, so the choice of venue came as a surprise, but as it turned out, it resulted in an evening of unbridled insanity, the kind perhaps never witnessed at the Viper Room before.
Doors opened at 8, and the show started at 8:30 with San Fernando Valley hardcore punk quartet Bad Samaritans taking the stage, in front of what was a light turnout at this point in the evening, but played an entertaining fast-paced set filled with humorous monologues between songs, and even though the jokes were mostly met with awkward silence from the crowd, the applause for the songs got louder as the set progressed. The dudes are great at laughing at themselves, and just as good at playing their instruments. They served to be quite an apt opening act for this show.
Next, Countime upped the ante with a solid dosage of Los Angeles hardcore, warming up the crowd for fellow LAHC band Strife. Countime succeeded in instigating some violent mosh pits, including dudes dancing with arms and legs flailing about, which the security staff didn’t like and tried to stop, but to little avail. Born and raised in North East Los Angeles and having been a band since 2003, these guys are as LAHC as it gets, and they showed it in plenty. The response they got from the crowd, which was much larger in number than for the opening band, was already insane by Viper Room standards, but only a little taste of what was to follow.
By the time the main support act was ready to begin their set, this place was completely packed, so much so that it was an ordeal to enter/re-enter the room. This was by far the most packed the Viper Room has been on a Monday night, and most likely on any given night of the week ever. The venue has probably had shows with as many or more people in attendance, but the constant mosh pits opened up the floor near the stage and made the rest of the room seem smaller and more packed as a result.
Strife took the stage at 10:30 for an unabatedly vicious onslaught that sent this crowd into a frenzy and turned this place into a mad house. The band has been around since the early ’90s, and as strange as it was for me to realize that this was my first time seeing them, I’m glad to have done so, as they put on a performance well worthy of their legendary status in local circles, giving first-timers a taste of what they’ve been missing out on all these years. Aside from the brutal hardcore pits, stage diving and crowd surfing was also prevalent during Strife’s set, at a venue that’s most definitely not conducive for these activities. But such was the impact of the band’s performance and the energy level of the crowd that nothing was going to stop them. Strife were quintessentially hardcore, and threw down the gauntlet for their East Coast colleagues.
And lastly at 11:30, Madball hit the stage to bring a grand conclusion to this incredible event. I remember interviewing one of their members at least five years ago but never had a chance to see the band live until this show, so it was another first for me. The crowd continued with their mosh pits and dives, but one particular stage diver was stopped by the vocalist for going overboard and almost damaging the band’s gear on stage. With the clear message of “have fun, but don’t damage our gear”, Madball moved forward with the set, and handled the challenge of following up to a fantastic Strife set with a great one of their own. The band has stuck to their guns and marched on with consistency since the late ’80s, and with their latest full-length release ‘Hardcore Lives’ (2014) they came up with a successful attempt to keep the genre alive. Witnessing old-school NYHC is quite rare in Los Angeles, not least on the Sunset Strip, and it was an experience-and-a-half to be in attendance for this Madball gig.
Overall, an exhilerating event from start to finish, and the craziest ever seen at the Viper Room. Hardcore still lives.
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