One of the reasons why I blew off going to the Night Birds show in Boston on Friday was because I was already figuring on seeing Brain Killer at Whitney House on Sunday, except that Brain Killer ended up dropping off just a few days before the show. It still turned out to be a pretty good show, with Napoleon Complex filling in last-minute, and Bloodkrow Butcher still coming down from Massachusetts... Bloodkrow Butcher were awesome, though I don't really have enough reference points to convey what they sound like-- they probably sound like a bunch of Swedish bands that I've never heard of. There weren't a lot of lyrics to their songs, either; it was more like, play for half a minute, then the bass player barks out a couple of lines, then play for another half a minute. The best I can say is that they seemed like a cross between "Boston Not L.A."-era Gang Green and Discharge (imagine "Kill a Commie" with d-beats). I can also say that standing in front of their drummer while they played was like a million punches to the face. I might've gotten a better idea had I been able to buy a tape from them, which I tried to get by following them out to their van, but they chased me away, saying "uh, we don't have any... we've never made one... well, we've made three, but they don't really exist... we don't really give them out to anyone". In other words, leave us alone you twerp.
Napoleon Complex had a tape, a hand-numbered demo called "Flesh Control" that includes a sleeve that folds out to a neat 8" x 11" full-color glossy poster, but there's no song titles listed so I couldn't make heads or tails out of it. One of the songs has a part that sounds EXACTLY like "Ready To Fight", I don't know if they've just never heard it before. There also seems to be a straightedge slant to their lyrics-- either that, or they just really hate drunk people... Napoleon Complex aren't the hardest-looking hardcore band in the world, but they were still pretty great. About halfway through their set, I was looking around behind me, trying to find someone to say "why didn't someone tell me they were this good?" to. I really liked their stuff-- fast, thrashy hardcore (I guess it's called "fastcore" now) with some cool chugga-chugga mosh parts, like one or two of the songs on "Pick Your King" or maybe like that Genders 7".... my camera wouldn't stay in focus the whole night, probably because I pressed the wrong button at some point, so pretty much none of my Iron Hand photos came out right. Iron Hand were a steamroller, as usual. There's a new Iron Hand record due out on Redscroll anytime this week, but I haven't heard it yet. Stefan was wearing three buttons on his jacket; I figured it had to be funny, so I checked and I was right: The Stalin, Urban Waste, and Tyvek. No mp3's this time-- I don't really have any new ones to add.
