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Only Crime / Crime in Stereo / No Trigger

live in New York
2007
live show

Review by: Brian
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Only Crime (link)

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Published on May 1st 2007

For the style of music dominating the night, After the Fall was incredibly appropriate to open the show. True, their album is a bit of a clusterfuck, but playing noodly melodic hardcore/punk just prior to No Trigger and Crime in Stereo made perfect sense. However, with their live show there definitely lay some criticisms, first and foremost being how sloppy they were. It wasn't atrocious, but far too many portions sounded blatantly messy; that can likely be attributed to the relatively complex song structures they attempt, Bigwig-style soloing included. They were also victims of an initially overwhelming sound mix, with everything turned up entirely too much. They shut down things with an efficient cover of the Descendents' "Coffee Mug" -- pretty ballsy considering present company. Oh, and the one of the guys checked their cell phone in the middle of one of the songs -- top serious lolz.

Some of you might find it surprising I haven't yet seen No Trigger on tour supporting LP1, Canyoneer, so it was pleasant to finally see New Bedford, Mass.'s sons playing the familiar tunes from it. "The Kids" seemed to have their push-mosh fun up front, but an even greater number exhibited some rather aggressive finger-pointing; it was good to see the band had built a bit of a following after the apparent low turnout from a Knitting Factory appearance a year prior. They had a good dozen passionately singing along along the stage and another few dozen scattered about the room. Incredibly tight and loud, the set was expectedly enjoyable; I got to hear over half of Canyoneer and its standout tracks, at that. Cheesy but appropriate, frontdude Tom Rheault was sure to stick the mic in the face of any girl who happened to be near the stage for my favorite off the album and set closer, "More to Offer." Solid.

Set list (7:50-8:19):

Owner Operator
The Honshu Underground
Neon National Park
You Said It
Fish Eye Lens
The (Not So) Noble Purveyors of the Third or Fourth Coming
What We Became
My Woods
More to Offer

Any time one sees Crime in Stereo on Long Island, you can expect to be lost and drowning in an endless sea of 16-to-23-year-olds, so to rock the confines of a considerably smaller crowd here at the Knitting Factory's Tap Bar was refreshing. The audience was still a good few raucous dozen but comparably loosely packed. The band, for the most part, played blocks of songs from their discography (as you can see below) and it provided an interesting twist on the set list. Nonetheless, I've seen at least a baker's dozen of their sets and I'd easily say this was in the upper echelon of that; the sound mix was perfect for once and there was only a single technical difficulty, that being a broken string just prior to their last two. "Everything Changes / Nothing Is Truly Ever Lost" has become the consummate yet predictable set opener; naturally it kicked things off perfectly here. From there we were treated to a fluid, smoothly flowing set. One thing I've noticed about the band is how they never seem to preview new material live when they have it, strictly limiting the set to familiar tunes. I suppose that will only build the anticipation for their new full-length expected in September on Bridge 9 -- apparently the band, for each of the five days they were doing this tour, were driving back home to Long Island to record and work their own individual jobs. Here's to hoping that ridiculous fatigue and stress provides some positive results on the album (likely to be in the form of more incredibly well-written social consciousness).

Set list (8:33-9:02):

Everything Changes / Nothing Is Truly Ever Lost
Bicycles for Afghanistan
Slow Math
New Harlem Shuffle
Long Song Titles Aren't Cool Anymore Because the Rest of You Fuckers Are No Good at It
Sudan
Gravity/Grace
Play It Loud, Fuckers
Amsterdamned!

I would've been at least a tad upset with Only Crime if I considered myself a legit fan -- they only played 34 minutes! Granted this was a melodic hardcore show, so it's not like I was expecting 90-minute sets and full-on encores from the headliners, but playing a mere three minutes more than both of your support bands just struck me as a little odd. Nonetheless, they sounded solid, and that's probably a good adjective considering I find To the Nines a pretty good debut and Virulence decent but far too similar to the last few Good Riddance albums. They do have a ton of ambitious, angular moments and I have to give them credit for injecting a creative flair like that into a usually straightforward genre, but it doesn't seem to always work. Additionally, their choruses tend to sometimes sound really poppy -- like, really poppy, and after much more aggressive verses the juxtaposition is just a little unsettling. If nothing else, they were the most energetic band of the night, jumping and thrashing around like they probably did ten years ago with their other band(s). Russ Rankin gazed at the crowd a little demonically with every word and it was an interesting sight to see Bill Stevenson in person, my admiration for him having grown quite a bit since last seeing Only Crime. To close the set, the band left the stage one member at a time, playing their instrument until their departure and eventually leaving Stevenson alone to pound the skins until he had enough. Their response wasn't quite as intense or numerous as Crime in Stereo's but they definitely had a bit of a following present.

Set list (9:20-9:54):

R.J.R.
Eyes of the World
Take Me
Shotgun
There's a Moment
Virus
In Your Eyes
To the Nines
Framed Then Failed
Real Enemy
On Time
Xanthology

It would likely take another pair of spectacular supporting acts like this to get me an hour and change away to see Only Crime, but it's hard to completely dismiss a band who plays efficient, occasionally ambitious melodic hardcore as they do.

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Posted by randomhero323 on 2007-05-03 21:17:38

this show was amazing.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 at 1:31 PM (EDT)
My Score:

Great show.

Was it just me or was the sound kinda fucked up for the first 2 or 2 and half sets? I'm not sure, it may have been where I was standing, I moved places later and it also happened to get better later. But it's not like punk shows and CDs usually make you used to great sound quality, so it didn't interfere with my enjoyment, the energy was great and the show was fun.

"Cheesy but appropriate, frontdude Tom Rheault was sure to stick the mic in the face of any girl who happened to be near the stage for my favorite off the album and set closer, "More to Offer." Solid."
Haha, not cheesy, totally appropriate. Kudos for kind of acting on the idea of the song.

Score for NT.

Posted by onegirlarmy on 2007-05-01 21:46:41
My Score:

This show was great. After The Fall sounded alright on their Myspace page but their live show bored the crap out of me, sans Descendents cover, which ruled.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 2:23 PM (EDT)
My Score:

The show was pretty exciting. Crime In Stereo was originally suppose to come on third but switched places with No Trigger. NT's set was a great opener (didn't see After The Fall). They are drastically improving their musicianship and fanbase. It was definitely an improvement since the last time I saw them (fanbase, that is). Crime In Stereo brought some of the home crowd to enjoy their set. I thought it was decent, not as enjoyable as the last time I saw them. Still it's always good to see CIS. Only Crime was ferocious and they really played a short set. Still it was worth it to see Russ and Bill doing their thing. I hope I will see more OC since Russ' other band is kaput (R.I.P.)

Ramo
(Didn't see the Lauper either)

Posted by etwiels88 on 2007-05-01 14:01:51

Wow, CIS switched up their set list for the first time in like a year

Posted by inagreendase on 2007-05-01 13:17:09

brian can i have a copy of your bands cd? i wanna bring it to my lab and scope it out.

Would your final analysis be something like "I'm butthurt over criticism levied at my band and would rather receive no publicity whatsoever"?

Oh, wait, that's right, I don't play in a band, because I'm too busy telling a couple hundred people about the existence of yours.

Posted by yasir on 2007-05-01 12:26:14

brian can i have a copy of your bands cd? i wanna bring it to my lab and scope it out.

Posted by mustard on 2007-05-01 12:26:14

Im pissed that i didnt get to meet Cindi Lauper

Posted by baseball on 2007-05-01 10:26:47

pretty similar to when i saw this tour

i was a little disappointed by Crime In Stereo (mostly their set list), but No Trigger exceeded my expectations

and Only Crime's set also seemed really short, i mean it was a weekday so i wasn't upset the show ended early...but 10:40 end time! now that's a quick show

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 7:15 AM (EDT)

Total bummer that I couldn't go, especially after I wrote that first review.

Posted by usversusthem on 2007-05-01 06:01:31

Only Crime in Extinction in Stereo?

C'mon it's like these bands did this on purpose. What the hell.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 1:54 AM (EDT)
My Score:

I saw No Trigger with Left Alone and The Phenomenauts several months ago... there were hardly any people at the show and even less when No Trigger was opening. Even though they were playing to a crowd of 10 Phenomenauts fans, the lead singer was still walking down into the crowd giving people mic feeds. Score is for lead singers trying to get people to sing along to songs they've never heard.

Posted by WainscottRockCity on 2007-05-01 01:07:36

lots of cops at this show i heard...rumors the FBI would arrive

Posted by lostandclowned on 2007-05-01 01:03:03

haha, i was one of "the kids." no trigger were great. i thought after the fall were good too. didnt notice any checking of their cell phones.

Posted by Torgo on 2007-05-01 00:51:00

Punkjews review unwritten law #1: Every show has to have one Fat band.