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Empire Street was loaded with crusty punks, most of them drinking in the street and all eager to see Dropdeal play for the first time in about a year (longer for me, since I didn't know about that show until it already passed). the voices were loud and excited, the clothes were mostly black and faded, and studs and patches were everywhere. I also noticed that jean cut off shorts were on their way to becoming a new trend in the crust punk scene.
Dr. Fuck Year, a great name that is pretty damn fun to say, kicked off the show playing in the middle floor towards the side. A relatively new band (this was the first time I've heard of them), they said that they played one show and had one or two practices after that, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. I was very surprised by their style, which was an all over the place old school punk band. They sounded like a mixture between the Circle Jerks, The Minutemen and The Weirdos, with some surf and hardcore thrown in there as well. They were odd, but that eccentric nature was what made them interesting and enjoyable.
Saint Jude is a super fast crusty hardcore band. They reminded me of Dropdead, and I was a big fan of their choice of chord progressions. Other people seemed to be liking them too (they've played a few shows and feature members of popular RI punk bands), as they had a pit going for a good amount of the time.
I was sitting maybe a hundred feet away from AS220 writing this review waiting for Dropdead to go on. I figured that I would notice everyone rush into the club once they started. I somehow didn't (even though there were still a lot of people talking outside), and missed at least a song of their set before I heard the faint noise of their music. I hurried into the club and enjoyed the rest of their roughly half hour set. With their songs being so short, they were able to get a lot of material in, and the crowd was loving every second of it.
I was impressed with how tight Dropdead were. I've seen them a bunch of times, but this was the first time that I really took notice. Their songs are so damn fast, and they have a lot of starts and stops, and they pulled everything off flawlessly. Bob's angered scream was in top form, and he switched things up once in a while by talking through some parts. He is a very entertaining, yet scary, frontman, as there are times when he just gives the crowd an evil, angry stare, looking like a bomb about to go off. I was very glad that I decided to go to this show. I was debating it throughout the day (even though seeing Dropdead should be a no brainer), but I definitely made the right decision in the end.