Set it Straight, In the Crosshairs, Lose None & Gruk

I figured I wouldn’t follow the Chico show reviewer tradition of showing up late and missing the first band’s entire set, but due to some miscommunication, I ended up having to wait about two hours for the show to even start. Even the flyers for the show had the wrong time; I couldn’t understand why a Fulcrum show would start before 9PM. Like most local punk rock/hardcore shows, no more than 20 or 30 people were in attendance, while about 10 more people stood outside and just listened.

First up, local punk rockers Gruk took the stage with their ever-so spastic sound. Only because I watched the band playing did I know that it was a girl singing; her screeches really are not tied in with her gender. To add some flavor to their set, they played a nice rendition of a 7Seconds song. Each one of their songs sped by like a bullet, but in the end, the set seemed to last a while.

Next up was Bay Area’s Lose None, a heavy metallic hardcore band. Showing off heavy, low-tuned guitars and bass strings hanging way off the neck, the group’s sound was a brutal mix of fast-paced choruses and weighty breakdowns. Unfortunately, the band didn’t seem to know how to control their volume and turned most of their instruments up way too high, making the distorted sounds even worse. All in all, the band put on a good performance, getting the crowd prepared for the next two bands. Their set seemed about half the time of the Gruk set, even though there seemed to not be as many songs.

Coming all the way from Denver to play a show to 20 or so people was In the Crosshairs, a speedy hardcore band with the classic chug-chug riffage that interrupted the circle pit full of basketball shorts and camo cut-offs. ITC really were a tightly formed band, each song posing a good progression, not to mention you could hear every instrument, even inside the tiny venue. Between songs, the singer promoted his own record label, Blood Money Records, which both Lose None and ITC are featured on.

Coming down from Redding, traditional hardcore band Set it Straight had some trouble making it to the show. The hour that it should have taken to make it from Redding took them roughly three hours. Playing songs off both their full-length album and their new split with Arizona rockers Where Eagles Dare, Set it Straight topped off the night with a great set. Playing quite a few covers, they even took in the aid of Hoods guitar player Mike Hood on bass for a song. Every person at the show seemed to know the lyrics to each song and bombarded the vocalist, Harry, while stealing the mic from him (the way a good hardcore show should be).

– Seth Singletary
– Photo By Zach Fernandez

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