6-22 Appalachian Terror Unit, Menstrual Parasite, Spontaneous Noize Combustion, Bitrot, Pittsburgh @Babyland

I had high hopes that a place called Babyland might go on to become a great drunk lawless punk rock venue. Somehow exactly that happened. The space is in the basement of a building. It's a sprawling space with at least one section of it being a woodworking facility. The show was there, it was awesome.

Bitrot - Good set, good energy. They're the only local band on the bill. Fast raw echo-chamber punk rock by 2 hot ladies and a dude. Energy was good. The set was good. The crowd was into it.

Spontaneous Noize Combustion - From VA. Self described scumbags trying to create noise. They succeeded. A song into the set the guitar player had to change a guitar string. They kind of lost momentum there. Ok set, loud and fast and noisy.

Menstrual Parasite - Great band name, good band. Hardcore punk crust metal thrash noise. I enjoyed the set. Probably the best band on the set not named ATU.

Appalachian Terror Unit - Really good set. Everyone was into it, it was a rager. Punk rock in the vein of Behind Enemy Lines. Best two vocalist punk band around. Good set.

High's - Babyland, all the bands
Low's - Nothing.

6-12 KRS-One, Abstract Theory, Pretty Krissy, Dude the Hawk, CPX3, Pittsburgh @Karma

I had high hopes for this show, but in the back of my mind I knew it could end up being whack too. My fears were that with KRS-One having like 20 albums and songs from the 80's to this year, there was no telling if he would even sniff some of my favorite songs. Now, turns out he didn't play a lot of my favorites, but in the end that didn't matter. A all time dope MC is an all time dope MC.

Karma was a pretty good place for the show. I liked everything about it except they need to make a second opening to the stage room if they're going to have big shows like this there. CPX3, Dude the Hawk, Pretty Krissy - So I know which one Pretty Krissy is. I'm pretty sure Dude the Hawk was the dude with no shirt pretty must hosting the first part of the night. And CPx3 may be the name of a crew of like 6 different rappers who really had no common traits between all of them. CPx3, if I'm right about them being a group, came out and did different songs of their own. Some compiling with other artists. Some were good, some were meh, none of them were good enough for me to want to know who they were. The one high point of the first part of the night was when Pretty Krissy and the guy I'm thinking is Dude the Hawk did their last song about 'give me your password ni**a' follow by 'bitch you can't have it.' Great song, good performance. Afterthought, Pretty Krissy looked tall on stage, but she's really a short lady. Good rapper too.

Abstract Theory - I thought they were by far the best rappers from the opening sets. Two dudes, probably both white, one definitely white, lol. Come on, he was wearing a vintage Star Trek shirt. I don't know the name of any of their songs, nor had I heard them before, but I'm going to check them out in the future.

KRS-One - It was probably about an hour, or close to that, after the last group before KRS took stage. It was well worth the wait. Dude rocks the mic like no rapper I've ever seen. The freestyles were on point. The songs were on point. The life lessons were great. Dude is inspiring. He played at least portions of some real bangers like Sound of the Police, P is Free, The MC, among others. We all had a great time, and KRS destroyed shit. Best hip hop artist ever.

I'm sure I've said it before, but I got to air out my rap show grievance. I hate how many rap groups have the lyrics playing over the speakers with the beat. Is it because they don't have recordings of just the beat and the music? Is it the case that removing the words from the recorded song is extremely difficult or expensive? I really have no idea why this happens. In my eyes it makes their live set cheap as fuck. But you can tell when real MCs are on stage like KRS. Aside from the chorus of a few songs (completely acceptable and understandable), he didn't have the lyrics coming out the speaker. Because... obviously... a real MC.

Hi's - KRS-One all fucking day the dopest MC in the galaxy until I see one better, cheap drinks at Karma.

Low's - Nothing.

6-1 Code Orange, Harms Way, King Nine, Too Pure to Die, Eternal Sleep, Pittsburgh @Mr. Smalls

This show will probably go down as the best pure hardcore show in Pittsburgh this year. Killer lineup. For Pittsburgh Hardcore, this was a must go.

Eternal Sleep - We were walking in as they started playing. Killer set. They played Keep Moving and Dead Like Me and all the bangers. Heavy hardcore, Pittsburgh proud, and a great live set. Eternal Sleep is boss as fuck.

Too Pure to Die - Well, I know and really like some of their songs like X The Fuck Up and Calloused. They played the good songs. The new songs are ok. Most of the old songs are ok. I don't particularly like it when frontmen start calling the crowd weak and pussies, but that's obviously his thing. When it's your second show back after a decade hiatus, and you were never really more than a regional band in the first place, you pretty must have to take what you can get. Especially if you get to play on a bill this epic.

King Nine - Their first time in Pittsburgh, but we'd seen them before in Philly. I enjoyed the set. Nothing amazing in my opinion. They have some particularly good songs and good stage presence. I'll see them again at TIHC.

Harms Way - They killed it. On most nights they are easily the best band of the night. The songs off the new album were rippers, and they played the songs from the old that you really wanted to hear. Loved it. Humans have no value.

Code Orange - Well they pretty much pulled out all the stops on this one. The lighting was top notch, though soooo bright it burned out your retinas. I seriously had to look at the floor sometimes. But the live show was on point, the song selection was there even though I'm not a huge fan of the slow songs. But that's my opinion of many slow songs. Great set, great energy. At the end of the set they let the drone sounds play out for like 5 minutes. It was pretty much a tease of an encore. But the whole time I was thinking, what songs would they play? They already played the bangers. No dice for the encore.

Hi's - All the bands
Low's - It was all dope as fuck.

5-20 Punk in Drublic Music and Beer fest, NOFX, Bad Religion, The Interrupters, Mad Caddies, Bad Cop Bad Cop, more, Pittsburgh @Highmark Stadium

Originally when I got the tickets for this I was under the impression that this would end up with a bunch of bands and be an all day thing. Ended up with the 5 advertised bands and at least one local who we didn't see much of. That's all ok, though. Because the bands were all good. I was worried about the freeness of the beer. Lines were long for the free beer, but it wasn't so bad because there were tons of breweries and the lines went pretty quick. I think the free beer in the tiny glass thing went really well. Too bad they cut everyone off right at 4.

Something I loved. So at the footstep of everyone's tent was a bucket where people could dump their beer if they didn't like it. At the end of the night they poured all those buckets into maybe 10 total buckets to make big nasty 20 gallon pales of mixed swill. Then they set those out in the field so you could fill your cup for free if you really wanted to. I didn't see anyone partake, but it's a novel idea and I loved it.

Local - No idea. We were really just getting in there and getting our bearings.

Bad Cop Bad Cop - I hadn't listened to them before, and they were playing while we were getting cup after cup of free beer. Lady punk rock on the easy side. Nothing funny or too hard or fast. They were good to listen to.

Mad Caddies - Killed it. They covered Anti Manifesto by Propagandhi and it was sick. My dude Raf used to love this band back in the day, and this band still kills it. Good pick Raf. Easy going ska band with some killer tunes. I especially enjoyed the stage presence of the trombone player. Best band of the day.

Interrupters - They were really good too. Punk band with dudes in suits who were all brothers and a chic singer. It was good, not great though I wouldn't say. Punk rock, not too hard not too slow.

Bad Religion - The reason I went. They were super good. Greg Graffin has the best voice in punk rock maybe. They're all old dudes by now, but they put on a super good show. It was a treat and a curse at the same time because they played their entire 1988 release Suffer. There are 2 really good songs on Suffer by my count. Opening with You Are the Government was killer, then of course playing Do What You Want any time is killer, but to me the album is a bit of filler. But when it's 30 years old you gotta play that shit. It was awesome to see a set that they'll likely not perform ever again, because of said filler songs on Suffer. They played a few other songs too that were not on Suffer. In the end I loved the set, but wish I had made the setlist myself.

NOFX - They played a short set because evidently someone from the band fell off the stage and cut his hand and had to get stitches. Sucks. I wanted to hear Murder the Government.

Highs - Bad Religion, Mad Caddies, swill buckets
Low's - Stadium beer prices after the free was gone

4-25 Sanction, Settle the Score, Facewreck more, Pittsburgh @Mr. Roboto Project

A free show. Kinda free. I put $5 in the bucket raising money for someone. Worth it.

We got to the show a touch late and missed a band or two I think.

Facewreck - Good heavy tunes. The Crutch song was killer. Hate the band name, but really liked the music.

Settle the Score - A heavy local band that has been playing for a while now and is pretty good.

Sanction - I saw them at Altoona Fest for the first time. They killed it there, and they killed it at Roboto. Up and coming hardcore from Long Island. They bring the heat kinda like Incendiary, similar style. Good time.

Highs - I'm torn on the Roboto floor show, as opposed to setting up on the one foot stage.
Lows - Nothin'

4-20 Russian Circles, King Woman, Pittsburgh @Spirit Hall

The pizza at Spirit really hit the spot. So much in face that we ate pizza through all of King Woman. I'm not entirely upset about that. I didn't listen to them at all beforehand so I don't even know anything about them. Oh well, we were there for Russian Circles anyway.

Russian Circles - Really good set. Pretty much every song is really good. They have the pace down pat. Their first half of the set was pretty drum heavy and it was really good. The second half of the set was really guitar heavy, and that was good also. All in all great set. I like that they don't have any lyrics. The one thing about this band is it's a really stationary show. No crowd movement or sing alongs and such.

Highs - Spirit, pizza, Russian Circles
Low's - The just too cold to be nice weather

4-8 Integrity, Ringworm, Midnight, In Cold Blood, Lakewood OH @The Foundry

I figured this show was going to be pretty awesome. It was. We'd never been to the Foundry before. The show was sold out, 300 people, so you can imagine the size of the venue is a bit small. That's pretty ok by me. The venue was long and narrow. That's a good thing for tall people, bad for short people or those who don't push to the front. I didn't have a problem.

We especially liked the police officer at the door telling everyone to smoke weed in between bands and not to bring it in. Thanks.

In Cold Blood - Very good band. Reminds me of Steel Nation a bit. Heavy dual singer metal hardcore. Good shit. I'll see this band again I hope.

Midnight - Honestly if Midnight wasn't on the show, I'm not sure I'd have gone. They were awesome. Motorhead sounding metal in the especially fun and evil variety. Sick band, I love them. The hardcore crowd wasn't especially into it, but I was.

Ringworm - A completely underappreciated band all around. This was probably the best I've ever heard them or seen them. Somehow songs other than Justice Replaced by Revenge got the biggest mosh. Great set, Human Furnace is great.

Integrity - They played a ripper of a set. Played pretty much everything you wanted to hear, and only two new songs. Heavy as fuck and super good. Good venue to choose for this hometown back to back.

Highs - All the bands, the matinee with a 3 hour drive.

Lows - Nothing at all.