Penalty Box

5-4 Pains of Being Pure at Heart

2009-07-09T01:07:00.002-04:00

I really hate The Local 506 for no real reason. I like that they don't allow smoking where the bands play, but hate the lighting, think the sound is only mediocre, and the membership thing has always been a bust for me. That being said, I was really excited about seeing The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
It's been 2 months since the show, so I don't remember the opener, but I do remember that I got the first Voxtrot 7" at CD Alley across from the venue before they played. Score on a $100 7" for three bucks.

lot's and LOT'S of fender->holy grail->twin reverb, and it was cute as FUCK.

More Here

LONG HAUL without an update:

2009-07-09T01:01:00.002-04:00

It's been FOR-FUCKING-EVER without an update in here because I moved, had a bunch of funerals to go to, went to a graduation, went to vegas, helped lila move to Boston, and kept it punk...

Pictures that will be up soon:
-Pains of Being Pure at Heart
-Loser Life
-Grids/Meth Mountain Greensboro trip
-Noise shit at Bay Street house
-Polvo/Des_ark

4/25 Hawks/Thank God/Grids

2009-04-28T12:39:00.004-04:00

This show was in Atlanta, and was meant to be a three day jaunt with the three bands playing in each of their hometowns. A mini-tour if you will.
Columbia fell through because Thank God didn't want to play shows too close together, which worked out well for everyone. Thank God got to record in Columbia on Sunday, while Grids recorded in Charlotte, and Hawks hung out in town.

I only really have pictures from Hawks' set, because during the other bands I was either playing, partying, or trying to not have my camera destroyed. Pictures from their set:

Dan Smith got so belligerently drunk throughout the weekend that I can honestly say, I will never drink.

I wish I could take pictures well enough to document exactly what Hawks shows look like. This is as close as I can get. There needs to be people on top of the camera, and everything has to smell like beer for it to be closer.

put your trust in men
Thank God was great. I haven't listened to their new split lp, but this band is just unrelenting. Maybe the loudest band I've ever seen, definitely some of the coolest people I've met.
Also, there is this band called Yardwork, and, by some crazy fate of god, we ended up playing at a house whose back lawn was right next to the venue they were playing that night. With Yardwork and Grids out of town, who the fuck was left in Charlotte? (please understand this is a joke)

so, the trip was eventful as fuck, and I'm not really sure if I want to, but I'm going to put some pictures from the trip because it's hard to really put the show into context without a little help.

Grids+dansmith+stew left for Atlanta from Charlotte at midnight. what the fuck were we thinking.

everyone had sword fights with some swords. swords swords

sword fighting in the street led to this

portraits

look at how happy it makes Helen to hit Bobby and Stew. What a sick fuck

Link to the rest of the photos in this set

Vivian Girls-April 5th

2009-04-06T23:06:00.002-04:00

Everyone at Penalty Box decided to head up to Chapel Hill and Local 506 to see Vivian Girls and Ariel Pink, but none of us really cared about seeing the latter. I really enjoyed the Vivian Girls lp and all the 7"s, but saw them right before the record came out and they sucked. The trip ended up being really fun, we ate cheap burritos, saw some bands, and listened to John Joseph's book again.
The pictures turned out really poorly, but I wasn't really hoping for anything and was excited just to see Vivian Girls play a good show.

Going to see Brian Jonestown Massacre tomorrow in Asheville. Probably no pictures from there. I should spend more time at punk shows and less at nonpunk shows

Thorns of Life "Live at Gilman"

2009-04-02T00:25:00.003-04:00

I'm really excited this exists, and meant to put it online earlier but forgot.
Aaron Cometbus, Black Schwarzenbach, and the girl from The L Word start a band called Thorns of Life, and it turns out, the songs are actually really good.

This is really great and if they don't tour, I very well may fly west for a weekend or something.

Mediafire Link

Masshysteri In Raleigh 3/21/09

2009-03-31T22:46:00.002-04:00

I'm fucking moving to Sweden. Fuck American punk, those guys got it right.
Masshysteri is better than The Vicious, I said it. This is really late, but that's because I'm busy and time is money.

Rest of the Pictures are Here

Big house show saturday at sandbar.

All The Saints at The Milestone

2009-03-23T10:06:00.002-04:00

I didn't take pictures of Grids or These Arms are Snakes and I'm sure everyone knows how great the latter was. Grids played well I guess, opening at the milestone is kind of rough, especially on a show when everything starts on time.
The Coathangers though, well they fucking sucked. If those girls weren't mildly attractive no one would give a shit. The first song they played sounded like the theme to Alvin and the Chipmunks. Complete garbage. I've heard the records and always just kind of thought they were another garagey band that I didn't care about, but fuck were they bad live. And they're on Suicide Squeeze now!?

So, I really like All The Saints. I'm glad I got a copy of their record, I'm glad I got to see them, and I'm glad it fucking ruled. I wish the pictures turned out better, but I'm not going to waste time photoshoping anything, so this is what they looked like to me through a viewfinder.

Dude destroyed a perfectly good Univox. Triple humbuckers and everything...

The Milestone is my favorite venue in the world. I will never get tired of Andy, Jonathan, Neal, Philip and everyone else there.

Link to the rest of the pictures

Chronic Youth at Yau Haus March 20th

2009-03-22T23:18:00.003-04:00

On April 12th last year Grids was supposed to play Yau Haus with Church of the Snake and Calabi Yau but Rick went on tour with this giant tour and we had to cancel our first show. It sucked, but it meant that the first Grids show was at a huge party for bobby graduating college and was one of the best nights of my life. So, after almost a year of procrastination, we finally played at Yau Haus.
The place has been a staple in Charlotte's music scene for a few years and honestly, between Bo, Neal, Scott, Chris (both of them) and Josh, Charlotte wouldn't be as fun as it is right now. Those 6 people have done more for Charlotte than I'll ever be able to thank them for.
So this show was kind of a big deal to me. I've seen a bunch of rad bands at the haus. I've been to more than one "last yau haus" shows. I saw vivian girls play the shittiest set ever. I missed a lot of cool stuff too. Whatever, the haus rules and I was excited to play this show.
Reverser played first, but I don't have any pictures. They were much better than the first time I saw them. I think they're finally settling into playing live and starting to loosen up. Scott is relentless on the drums and the guitar player is tight as fuck.
Chronic Youth were a band that I had built up to people without properly hearing. I just knew that they brought a wall of complete and utter noise, and since people had been really into The New Flesh and Drunkdriver that they would go over pretty well. It was 8 minutes of fucking unrelenting, ear-blasting noise. Someone described it as powerviolence without the bullshit and with more noise. Lila said she couldn't tell what was going on. It was awesome.

For some reason this really shows what the set was like in my mind. A fucking blur of sound and sight.

Link to the rest of the pictures

New Grids Practice Space

2009-03-22T22:40:00.001-04:00

Drunkdriver 7"

2009-03-06T10:33:00.002-05:00

So, I promise I won't do this too often, and I'll stick to pictures, but this record is great.
for fans of rock'n'roll that is noisy, and people that are into lo-fi recordings but understand that there has to be good music under all the bullshit.

you can buy it here:
Fan Death Records

or read a better review, and download it here:
Icoulddietomorrow

listen to it, buy it, it's great.

Rosemont Apartment Show

2009-02-24T15:35:00.002-05:00

This was the first show for Meth Mountain and the first punk show for the rosemont apartments. The place holds insane parties every year for 4th of July and New Years. They're pretty infamous for their slip'n'slides, volcanoes, and colorful alcoholic beverages, so I was pumped to see what a show would be like at the place.
It ended up being really fun, after Meth Mountain and Grids played, Logic Problem "set up", which really consisted of changing out cymbals and cables. The place was so fucking packed and tiny that changing out stuff just wasn't practical, and Grids' somewhat big cabinets ended up looking like a wall of amps.

Logic Problem played really fast, and WAY better than they have the last two times in charlotte. I didn't know that bands from Raleigh ever took their time to come down to our struggling little city, but they've put on a fantastic show every time, and every time people have partied out for them.

Lowbrow just keeps getting better. The intro was a little too long for me, but that was probably because I found 2 sunkist in my bag right before they played, and was way wired on orange soda caffeine.

Show ruled, new place rules, Brandon rules for setting this up, Zach, Steven, and everyone else that live there rule for not caring about their crazy apartment parties, and everyone there ruled for coming out.
Charlotte has shows...

Hawks, Grids, Reverser

2009-02-24T13:16:00.005-05:00

I was super excited about this show, then was a little bummed that there weren't infinity people there, but the turnout was decent and Hawks got paid.
Reverser played first, and given it was only their second show I was really impressed, but then remembered they'd been practicing for like, a year, and was still mildly impressed. I would say there was too much 90's worship, except that they are all over 30 so it's less worship and more rekindling.

Hawks is fucking phenomenal. I don't think I'll ever get enough of this band. Band rules, record rules, live rules, dudes rule(s). Grids is playing three dates with them and Thank God in April and I"m getting excited about it already.
It was hard to get good pictures of them because we turned out all the store lights, but whatever. you get the point.

levi has a glow stick mustache

as for the Grids set, we played probably the sloppiest set we've ever played, my amp was sounding like farts and shorting out, the new bass cabinet sounded awesome, and because bobby likes Hawks as much as I do, he was completely obliterated, as is obvious here:

more pictures from this show can be found here:
Penalty Box Flickr

also, the house now has this:

Awesome show THIS TUESDAY!

2009-02-16T23:51:00.001-05:00

tuesday night at the lunchbox recordz.

GRIDS
HAWKS
REVERSER

just a reminder, I know everyone will be there....

Insurgence Fest

2009-02-13T01:59:00.002-05:00

I'm going to try to stay away from using this as a personal blog, but this is almost bordering on it...
So Grids and Obstruction headed up to Conover to play Insurgence Fest. Luke from Gut Fux decided to do an all day thing with all of the bands Robby liked in memorial of his death a few weeks ago.
The show was kind of a bust, but we showed up super late when everyone was already passed out or off in the woods fucking. Planet Piss had an outrageous set, but other than that I didn't really see any bands, we were busy exploring.

Really the only reason I'm making this post is because after the show everyone ate at waffle house and got way sick. It started when Joe said "if you throw up, I'm going to throw up" to josh, which instigated him to throw up. Then Joe threw up all over the side of the van going 70:

which caused Rick to throw up all over the side of the van going 70:

Then we pulled over and everyone just threw up everywhere. puke fest '09

It was a stupid night.

Also, Hawks is playing here next week and they put out, hands down, the most impressive record I've heard this year.

UNCC Show and the afterparty

2009-02-01T21:43:00.003-05:00

Charlotte's local punk and hardcore scene is fun right now. Lowbrow is getting better and better, lots of shitty bands seem to have disappeared, Planet Piss is finally starting to make people smile, every band I'm in is either burning out or playing too many shows, and Nick from Logic Problem finally convinced his band to play here (3 times in the same year!).
The UNCC 318 shows are always weird, and always super hit-or-miss, so I was kind of worried about this, but even if it's super shitty it doesn't really matter to anyone because the shows are always free and there is always free food.
The food this time kind of sucked, but I showed up with a burrito, so it wasn't a big deal to me.

Lowbrow played a little earlier than I think most people thought it would start (because lots of posters said 8, and lots said 7) but they still are awesome. The sound at the place was weird and kind of shitty when you were playing, but this kind of added to their songs. Just sloppy enough to sound good.

Logic Problem is still phenomenal. They played a lot better at UNCC than they did at Lunchbox with Bukake Boys, except seth who I think might have been dying. Pretty sure he threw up everywhere.

Planet Piss was great again. I really think if they recorded into a boombox or through a shit-filter and sent it to Hozac or In the Red they could be hot shit. Maybe bloggers will get ahold of their demo recorded on a mac-laptop-mic and flip their shit...

hey look it's that elitist douche-rod

So the show went well enough, the party afterwards was just absurd. I don't know how it happened, but a cat ended up wandering into our house, eating our food, and tried to drink someone's beer. Hey, he was just like all the other assholes that show up every night except much cuter. we dubbed him party cat, and he went home with some of our friends.

Joe got seriously bummed when I said we couldn't keep party cat. Then we argued about how I could be vegan and not really be an animal person.

then this happened

When it got to this point, I decided it was time to go to bed.

Lunchbox Records Party: Part 2. Fucked Up

2009-02-01T21:19:00.002-05:00

This is like, a whole week late, but here are the pictures from the Fucked Up show at the Milestone.
I showed up just in time to see Planet Piss play, which is always a nice surprise, because I feel like flipper will never play Charlotte even though they said they would...
Steven wrapped himself in toilet paper, which lasted for about half a song, when he was dressed in just his underwear, like normal.

Grids played, but it's hard to take pictures while you're playing guitar (no matter how poorly you play) so I don't have any pictures of that. Steven took some, and if you dig I'm sure you can find them.
Double Negative is THE BEST band in North Carolina. There is no question in my mind that they will never put out something bad, or play a show that I don't enjoy. They played flawlessly, every guitar solo was insane, the drums and bass were driving, and the crowd went nuts.

Gregg Ginn eat your heart out

I didn't take many pictures, but the most out of control I've seen The Milestone get was during Fucked Up. I'm pretty sure I'll never see that many people crawling on top of each other at the ghetto fortress ever again. This was the best Fucked Up set I've ever seen. The set at The Old Blue Last in London was pretty great, but the song choices were perfect, the three guitar thing actually worked, and the sound was perfect.

as always, more pictures are HERE and I have a bunch more on my computer if you really are in dire need of some picture of you moshing or something.

Lunchbox Anniversary Part: 1.5

2009-01-26T22:46:00.003-05:00

The Fucked Up in-store could not have ended up any better. Everything got moved super duper early, so when the band got there we were already moving stuff and we didn't look like douche bags. While everyone else ate lunch, Damian hung out at the store and bought every Antiseen related record we had, and then bought a bunch of stuff that was way out of left field.
A ton of people ended up coming, though not too many, which I was kind of worried about. The show went off without a problem, the band played for a long time, and did a few covers, and then they played a KBD song really poorly with damian playing drums and the drummer playing guitar. It was awesome.
Dan Smith moshed and I wanted to punch him except it was the most happy I've seen him in ages, and one of the only times I've seen him really get into a band in a long time.

I'd never really paid attention to the drumming on the records, but holy shit is he good in person

They had a bunch of stuff with them, and ended up parking their giant ass van on the grass in front of the store. Josh also did a long-ass interview with a few of the guys in the band that included questions about axle rose, who they voted for, slumberland records, and minor threat.

Lunchbox Party: Part 1

2009-01-26T22:27:00.004-05:00

The Graf Orlock, Lewd Acts, Lowbrow show on Friday went really really well. over 100 people ended up showing up, and so many people payed that we ended up being able to give the local band some money (normally 100% of the door money is given to people on tour, the store and locals never take a cut).

Lowbrow played the best set I've seen them play. A bunch of the songs I didn't like were cut out, and the new songs are way longer and more intense. Brandon is getting better and better as a front man every show. I didn't get any pcitures of them because I was too busy explaining that gas isn't free to kids trying to sneak in behind other people.

Graf Orlock was super duper fast and the samples were just as over the top as I hoped they would be. They played a pretty great set, and played the only song that I really wanted to hear (the jurassic park one) and people seemed to be really into them

mosh

Apparently Levi really likes this band

Lewd Acts were the band most people were there to se (I guess?). I've never been to crazy about this band, and the crowd I've seen them attract aren't the people that I share a lot in common with, but this band put on an awesome show. the singer is just relentless and the bass player is great to watch, plus he plays really really well.

I liked Lewd Acts enough that I bought their new 7", which isn't nearly as good as their live show, or the socialcide lp I got the same day. The first day of the Lunchbox Records 3 year anniversary ended really well, except that we spent so fucking long moving the shelves that the show ended up starting a little late, but it was no big deal.

More Pictures from Day One

Fucked Up in-store and other anniversary stuff

2009-01-23T01:58:00.000-05:00

FREE IN-STORE THIS SATURDAY PLUS AWESOME SHOWS THIS WEEKEND!

Des_Ark at Lunchbox

2009-01-19T01:11:00.002-05:00

Show was booked super duper last minute, and not promoted at all, but there were still more than 50 people there, and the two out of town bands got paid well, which rules.
Honestly, I spent almost the whole night on the stool because my leg was all fucked from surgery, so I just took pictures of people

Des_Ark

Bukake Boys/Logic Problem

2009-01-19T00:54:00.002-05:00

Let's just start this out by saying I was really excited to see American Cheeseburger, and when they cancelled I was kind of bummed on the show. Not because I didn't want to see Logic Problem or Bukake Boys, but because this whole thing was put together because American Cheeseburger asked to come up and I was super pumped to see them. Shit happens.
Logic Problem opened, and was brutal.

Seth got fucked up playing drums. He played the best set I've seen him play; I think it might also be the first set I've seen him play on his drums

Bukake Boys were wayyy better than I thought they were going to be. Probably the best all around hardcore band that I've seen since the end of year show.

dan is a super punk because he came straight from work and took food from there to eat while seeing bukake boys

Upcoming Charlotte Shows

2009-01-15T21:41:00.004-05:00

There's so much rad stuff coming up in Charlotte.

TOMORROW!!!!!

Bukkake Boys
American Cheeseburger
Logic Problem
At the record store. As always, make sure you bring money. Logic Problem's 7" is one of the best things to come out of north carolina in a long time, and I'm sure they'll be loud again, like always. American Cheeseburger is great and fast and their split with candian rifle is a keeper. Bukkake Boys I've heard more about than actually seen evidence of, but they're supposed to be phenomenal, and atlanta hardcore bands hardly ever play here, it's also a great warm up for:

LUNCHBOX RECORDS 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY
part 1:

Graf Orlock
Lowbrow
Lewd Acts
An eclectic show to kick off the weekend. Graf Olock is one of those bands that even if you hate recorded, you should see live at least once. They're just phenomenal, and I think their whole schtick is pretty awesome. Lowbrow is one of the only hardcore bands in charlotte really trying to do something right now, and that rules. I don't really like lewd acts, but everyone else does, so I'm sure they'll at least be cool live

part 2:

Fucked Up
Double Negative
Grids
Planet Piss
Friday February 24th, at the Milestone. I probably don't really have to explain much for this. You're either going to come see an awesome show that's going to sell out, or you're going to sit at home and then in a few months get so tired of hearing how awesome this show was that you just off yourself right there in front of everyone. Also, stay tuned and pay attention for some pretty radical info about other stuff happening the weekend of this.

Then the following weekend, all the local bands previously mentioned are coming together for a FREE show at UNCC! It's like the endless month of partying. I'm sure penalty box will be having an after party for this:

Grids
Logic Problem
Lowbrow
Obstruction
Planet Piss
and there is FREE FOOD at this show. It's like they opened joe's mind, pulled out everything he was thinking about, and dumped it into a show, except there aren't any naked boobs next to the chicken wings. if only...

Also, I went to Austin, and it ruled. I destroyed a rental car, but paid 15 bucks for insurance and don't owe a dime!

then I saw a field filled with giant pieces of art

then made facon

New Years Eve "08 at the Penalty Box

2009-01-01T17:15:00.002-05:00

Being that it was my three year anniversary with lila, we spent the night NOT at the penalty box, but before the party began I took a few pictures of housemates getting dresssed

I didn't get back to the house until around 1am, and pulled up to a street that was littered with broken glass, champagne bottles, streamers, and a few people literally digging through the garbage. I don't fucking know what they were looking for, but it was a hell of a way to start a party. This is pretty much what I walked into my house to see

this picture blows my mind because will butler is in it, which is strange to begin with, and joe is so completely fucked up that he's actually drinking something that isn't beer, AND he's wearing my shirt

indoor sparklers make sense at 2am

even my sister showed up

And this is how it ended, with a swamp in our living room, and joe completely passed out on the floor

End of Year Bash Recap

2008-12-31T12:24:00.011-05:00

The show at lunchbox last night was fun as hell, the bands started on time, and we didn't all end up there till 1am (which was my fear with having a five band show).
I Hate This started right on time at 7:30 which made the whole thing work out really well. I don't think I ever said anything to anyone in the band, and they left without talking to me or josh, so hopefully they talked to someone to let them know they were going to leave before anyone else played
obstruction played alright. I still can't stand up correctly, so I was balancing on one leg, propped behind the pa monitor, praying that no one moshed me over. yes, moshed me over.
One of the best shows all summer at lunchbox was the Mammoth Grinder show, so when they got added to the lineup for last night I was pretty excited. The fact that the only comparison anyone seemed to be able to pull up all night was coliseum was kind of disappointing, but I thought they played harder and faster than anyone else.

After Mammoth Grinder played Seasick threw their stuff up and played a set that was way too short, with guitar solos that were way too good to be jammed into such a short set. I've spent a bunch of time trying to convince people to go see seasick, because frankly, I don't think the recorded stuff is that great; but they just blew the door open last night. They seemed to be just as good as a 4 piece as they were as a 5 piece and they managed to be my favorite band of the night. oops.

this picture is only in here because of wes's face:

dan smith being a super hero and saving a guitar strap:

The end of bash thing started last year when coke bust needed a show on their way back from this is for you fest, and it snowballed into this giant show with too many people and too many bands and was kind of a successful disaster. This year when coke bust asked for a show again on the same date, we said yes and booked the show around them.

Show ended up being a blast, now I'm going to go try to sleep some more because it's new years eve and mammoth grinder were here until way late keeping us all up waiting for the cable channels to disappear.

Fucked Up

2008-12-30T12:07:00.003-05:00

Tickets are on sale at Lunchbox Records or online at the milestone's website. Come buy tickets tonight before they're sold out.

TUESDAY! END OF YEAR BASH!

2008-12-30T00:10:00.004-05:00

except land of savage isn't playing, and whatever band you're in still can't play.

Last Ritter House Show

2008-12-29T23:54:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Penalty Box.

Ritter House show the other night (and by night I mean mid-day through the early evening when we decided to go get food instead)

Lowbrow

Hawks
played better than any band has in a long time. Last time they played in charlotte, everything they had broke and they got way too drunk. That night ended with people crawling through the street in front of the record store. At ritter house, they pretty much just played way better than the other bands and then hung out.

Because everyone was there, Grids ended up playing. I ended up standing against a wall to play guitar, which was whatever. I think it was probably the worst show Grids has ever played, but I was ok with it, because the worst grids show is still better than the best of something else.