Dirty Dungarees’ show started off with a bang on Saturday as Columbus hardcore trio True American Grit tore into their set. TAG, without question a dancer’s hardcore band, delivers meaty bass tones and drum beats that simply beg the audience to two-step. Despite their profuse output of dance-worthy hardcore hits, TAG manages to sound fresh and creative from song to song. With the rhythm section driving the low end, guitarist and vocalist Nick Ferda fires on all cylinders, delivering quintessentially mean hardcore riffs. He barks with all the fury of a punk who has had their crust pants washed against their will. Their fifteen-minute set was brief, but even briefer was their closer “Centrifuge” which lasted all of 1 second.
Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, killusonline made up the filling of the hardcore sandwich during their first visit to Columbus. Much in the style of Rage Against the Machine, killusonline features tasty metal/hardcore riffs with an MC rapping over them. Killusonline does more than plagiarize, however. At times their uber-distorted bass tones almost behave like a synthesizer in the mix. When their guitarist frantically switches between beefy chords and shrill accents, all-the-while throwing in some extra panic chords for good measure, you have to wonder if they’re trying to show off. And, of course, they play this all over furious two-step drum beats. The highlight of the set was easily their performance of their new single “KEEP IT BLUNT,” featuring a gnarly breakdown that gradually accelerated into a dance beat. Kickass. No other word for it, really.
While they might appear unoriginal on the surface, killusonline never even comes close to the tried-and-true. They sound like a true evolution of the sound that Rage Against the Machine pioneered over 30 years ago.
Toledo outfit Southover did not disappoint as the replacement headliners for the 614 hardcore unit Tailspin, who unfortunately had to drop the show. Southover was intense. That sounds pretty standard for a hardcore band, but I mean it. These dudes were intense. They cranked every aspect of their performance to 11. The vocals were so gnarly that I thought the PA might blow. The drummer hit his snare so hard you’d think that it murdered his entire family. The breakdowns were so brutal you could feel your face melting. The riffs were so heavy you’d think they were coated with lead – but they still managed to bring loads of energy. Everything about this set was just more. Even the pit was unusually violent – I almost broke my nose while taking notes.
Despite this onslaught of passion, their DJ provided lush, undeniably beautiful interludes by way of synthesizer. This was certainly not a set to miss. They signed off their set with one simple phrase: “Dirty Dungarees is f*ckin’ awesome.” Truer words were never spoken.
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