THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Gillian Carter, For Your Health, Shin Guard and Throwin Up, Will’s Pub, June 20
Without question, screamo isn’t for everyone. Most of the time, I’m not even sure it’s for me. But this recent Bad Balloon showcase featured an onslaught of acts who come from the respectable skramz side of the checkered screamo street, resolutely opposite all the abominable bands that the so-called scene kids listen to.
Unlike those other screeching affronts to taste, the intensity of this night’s bands has a more direct lineage to the true roots of hardcore, which makes all the difference in the world. Hardcore punk is all about catharsis of some kind. And these are bands that leverage the full force of the form to explore a fuller spectrum of emotion.
Featured at the center of the bill were a couple bands – For Your Health and Shin Guard – who are on an Eastern U.S. tour together promoting a split album, Death of Spring, released just last month.
For Your Health are an emotional hardcore group from Columbus, Ohio. Yes, their well-constructed rock does dare to occasionally venture into melodic moments of crystal instrumental clarity. But their power is never in dispute with a raging live delivery that knows how to live on the edge.
As if to certify the affiliation between the two touring bands, members of Shin Guard joined in on parts of For Your Health’s set.
As for Shin Guard, this Pittsburgh crew is anything but your basic hardcore band. What they are is an incredibly dynamic storm that pulls from all kinds of intensity and orchestrates it into an ambitious display of artistry.
Vocally, they’ve got a three-singer arsenal that can flex a sonic wingspan that goes from card-carrying screams to blackened hydra shrieks to purging death-metal growls.
Instrumentally, their palette is expansive, technical and progressive. And with the whole maelstrom guided by deeply expressive intent, the result is layered emotional rock that, though ferocious, is a thing of meticulous craft.
Bookending the touring acts were a couple Florida bands. Palm Bay’s Gillian Carter, as usual, represented especially hard. Flagbearers of heavy music that’s as progressive as it is extreme, the sonically acrobatic trio continue to earn their spot on the Florida heavy vanguard.
Few bands today can deliver emotion and power with such equal measure as Gillian Carter. At this point in their craft and expression, their widescreen vision of post-hardcore is on a master level when it comes to pushing the possibilities of heavy music.
Opening were Orlando’s Throwin Up. Befitting their name, this raw hardcore crew comes on in a violent fit. With ever-shifting tempo and bearing, they never stay long enough in one space to let you get comfortable. They go from menacing groove to hovering dread to full avalanche, often in the stretch of a single punk blast. And it equals a restless fury.
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Email Bao: baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com
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This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2019.
