HardLore - HardLore's Day in Chicago with HARMS WAY, THE KILLER & HOLD MY OWN

Episode Date: July 31, 2025

It's a momentous day in HardLore history as we finally explored the hometown of half of our show: Chicago, Illinois.We visited a few places around town (hand picked by Bo) where we were joined by very special guests for one on one conversations before finally all converging together at the legendary Fireside Bowl, Chicago's most iconic hardcore venue of the late 90s and early 00s.Featuring Shane Merrill from The Killer, Chris Mills from Harms Way, and Anchit Chhabra from Hold My Own (and many other bands)Thanks to Electric Mud, NADC Burger, Reckless Records and of course the Fireside for having us.Reckless browsing music by Kevin MacLeod._____________________________________________________________Edited by Steven Grise (@iamoneonenineseven) • Title sequence by Nicholas Marzluf (@marzluf)HardLore: A Knotfest SeriesJoin the HARDLORE PATREON to watch every single weekly episode early and ad-free, alongside exclusive monthly episodes: https://patreon.com/hardlorepodJoin the HARDLORE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/jA9rppggef___________________________________________________________Cool links:HardLore Official Website/HardLore Records store: https://hardlorepod.comGet 15% off MADD VINTAGE with code HARDLORE15! https://maddvintage.com/___________________________________________________________FOLLOW HARDLORE:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/hardlorepod/TWITTER | https://twitter.com/hardlorepodSPOTIFY | https://spoti.fi/3J1GIrpAPPLE | https://apple.co/3IKBss2 FOLLOW COLIN:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/colinyovng/TWITTER | https://www.twitter.com/ColinYovng FOLLOW BO:INSTAGRAM | https://www.instagram.com/bosxe/TWITTER | https://www.twitter.com/bosxe______________________________________________________00:00:00 - Start00:00:44 - Shane Merrill/Electric Mud00:01:44 - Evolution of Chicago Hardcore00:04:58 - Breaking Cradle of Filth's Keyboard00:06:01 - Shane Meeting Bo00:10:44 - The Birth of Fest Culture00:14:30 - The Killer00:23:36 - Booking Shows is Gambling00:27:46 - Shane's Four Favorite HC Records00:33:50 - Anchit Chhabra/NADC Burger00:40:30 - Chicago Hardcore Changing During His Time00:41:13 - Shouting Out Local Bands00:43:17 - Reckless Records00:46:40 - Anchit's Four FavoriteHardcore Records00:53:36 - Browsing The Reckless Shelves00:55:30 - Chris Mills/Margie's00:58:29 - Meeting Young Bo01:07:02 - Beginnings of Harms Way01:11:43 - Chris' Four Favorite Hardcore Records01:13:10 - Young Bo and Chris Stories01:19:30 - The Fireside Bowl01:21:38 - Legendary Fireside Gigs01:38:30 - STRIKE(S)  HardLore: A Knotfest Series, Fueled by Monster EnergyEdited by Steven Grise • Title sequence by Nicholas MarzlufJoin the HARDLORE PATREON to watch every single weekly episode early and ad-free, alongside exclusive monthly episodes.Join the HARDLORE DISCORD for community discussions and to participate in our future Q&A episodes.FOLLOW HARDLORE: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, SPOTIFY, APPLEFOLLOW COLIN: INSTAGRAMFOLLOW BO: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER For sponsorship opportunities, email us! [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Only there was some kind of recreational exhibition of sport we could all just feed it. That's right, mother f***. It is the legendary fireside bowl. Can't believe we're finally doing something big in Chicago. In Chicago. I live here, by the way. And what do you feel like doing today? I just want to have a nice day all around Chicago. I want to do what you would do. Hello, welcome. It's Hardlord Time. How you doing, Bo? I'm doing really good. I was thinking maybe we could see if anybody's around and talk to us. and kind of go to some places that we like. That's a great idea.

We're in Chicago. We're going to do a bunch of stuff. I want to see a day in Bo's life in the city that he's from. See if we can run into anybody. Oh my God. Oh, my God. It's Shane Merrill from the killer. Holy shit.

Perfect. Mike's up, ready to go. Hello, sir. How you doing? Good to see you guys. You got a minute? Yeah, absolutely. Wow.

Maybe we grab a cop and let's go get that else. Let's do it. This is an establishment I frequent. It's a damn near every. every day. And they serve dark matter. They got four different kinds of coal brew. Let's try all four. Let's do the flight. Let's go right now. Oh yeah. So Shane, talk to us about how Chicago Harc Bar has evolved from when you first got into it to now. Oh, when I first got into it, there was definitely way more vegan straight-edge

people. Interesting. I came in in like 95-96 when Earth crisis was really peeing. Yeah, there's a great clip that I have of Shane enjoying FireSide for Firestorm. Here it is at the Firestone. The Firestorm Bowl. At the Firestorm Bowl. Where are you from originally? Arlington Knights. Okay, I was born in Orleans,

Nice. Oh, beautiful. See that? I wasn't actually born there, but I lived there since I was like 12 years old. That's where I grew up, high school, all that shit. Is that how you found the Knights of Columbus? Yeah, that was it, basically. I played there.

Did you? Yeah, we played with the killer on my birthday. What band? Twitch and tongues? Was it twitching tongues? Twixing tongues played there? Wow. Yeah, I pitted harder than anybody for the killer.

Man. And I was like, I was offended on your behalf. You know? Yeah, you know, it comes and goes. So it depends on the show. It depends on the vibe. For anybody watching along at home, you often talk about the cobalt. Yeah.

The Knights of Columbus was kind of our cold phone. It was the suburban venue that had shows all the fucking time. Whether they were only hardcore or metalcore or sometimes metal, sometimes pop punk. There was always shit. It's all over the place. Always happening there. It was a great spot.

It was awesome. Good floor, good for dancing. Yeah, yeah, it was a cool spot. I mean, how I first did a show there was like Baxter with Tim Baccarus band Before Rise Against that they were always trying to play and like we were in a show at his mom's basement. And I was like, man, I wish we could put something bigger together. And one of them was like, there's a night in Columbus hall. You should just run it out and do a show.

He had the suggestion, Jay, their bass player. And I did it and I just never looked back. I just kept doing it from that. So thanks to those guys for giving me the idea, you know. When did you start booking shows? Like 97. So just a couple years in. May 97.

Never looked back. I was 18 at the time. Holy hell. Were you vegan straight edge? I was for a little while. Really? Yeah. I can say admittedly that it was more of a peer pressure thing that got me to do it when I was

18 or 19 years old. But I was vegan and straightage for a couple of years and then just straightage for a couple more years after that. So Earth Crisis was so good. You really... That was part of it. These guys... They're on to something.

Interesting. Yeah, it was definitely part of it. Do you recall your first band? The first band I ever played it? Yeah. Yeah, it was a death metal band called Scorch. Very sick. In high school.

What was the vibe? In high school? Yeah, it was like, you know, we... I think we listened to the first six feet under record and we're like, if they can do it, we can do it. It was easy, just caveman riffs kind of thing, you know? And they did it. Had a couple of demos and that was it.

So, yeah. Were you in synchrosis? Yes. You were in Cynchrosis. Yeah, that was me and Luke and Remus and sometimes, Remus kind of floated in and out of the band, but it was always being in. Three, four, three, fifths of the killer? Yeah, that was like the killer precursor.

Like the killer pretty much morphed into the killer from that. Centacrosis was just way more metal. Do you recall a story about Luke fighting a keyboard? Maybe at the House of Blue? Breaking a keyboard. keyboard. Well, actually, I broke the keyboard. And then we were both about to get blamed for it and we got the hell out of there. And then Luke, history has shown that Luke took the fall.

Yeah, apparently. Yeah, we were opening for Cradle of Filth. Sick. Was it their keyboard? Really? They had so much shit backlined on the stage. Like, God forbid was on it too and somebody else. And God forbid in the other band, too, they were like, we don't even know how we're going to fit. Because Cradle of Filth had so much gear on the stage.

and then we had to play in front of everybody. So, like, if I moved, I was going to bump into summer. Yeah, that sucks. And I bumped right into one of their keyboards that fell over in the middle of our set. And I was like, that didn't sound very good. We just kept playing. And then, like, backstage about 10 minutes later, we heard them saying, You broke our keyboard, that's what I was smashed.

And our reward. Pretty much. And me and Luke were just like, let's get the hell out of here. That's what we did. It fell over and went. Yeah. Yeah. So, Shane, you kind of,

you have been the the North Star for my generations coming when did you first meet god I don't early early 2000s yeah it's got to be at least I was going to say at least 20 years can you tell me about your first impressions of of Little Boe oh they were such cute kids all of them were we ever on time were you ever on time yeah oh god I can't remember dude I can't I can't One time at nights of Columbus. You were on time. I was so late that I walked in with my guitar while the entire band was set up

and literally waiting for me to plug in. We were so bad. Me and Chris were so bad. I mean, that sounds like Tim Remus. That's been a lot of killer shows that we've been waiting for Tim Remus and the drums were all set up and he'll walk in right before we play.

We just played a couple weeks ago and Tim said, what time did we go on? I said, we go on around 10. He goes, see you at 9.55. Oh, my God. Can I have. Did you, I don't know how to wear this. Was it intentional that you became like kind of the guy for shows?

I mean, when I first started doing it, I was definitely just doing it for fun. And then I think maybe within the first year of doing it and the first year of going to college, I realized that I could maybe do it for my career. Sure. And that really interested me. So I switched to Columbia College and started doing the arts and entertainment program there in about six. months into it, realized that most of the stuff they were teaching me I already knew. So then I got offered a job at Jam Productions here in Chicago and the rest of history.

Was there a hole to be filled in terms of the booking of Chicago hardcore? Oh, yeah. I mean, not in terms of hardcore because Jim Grimes was doing it. And I just became somebody that was helping him facilitate stuff at first. And I learned a lot from him. And then he kind of gradually lost interest in doing shows. And then I gradually did more and more. But he was definitely, he was definitely the conduit that was getting me to, like, you know, national tours when I was a 19 year old kid and didn't know anybody.

And he would say, hey, you want to do this one king down brother's keeper show at your Knights of Columbus all? Fuck yeah, you know, that's kind of how it started. Was there a specific single show you can remember booking that was kind of the catalyst or were in the turning point of when you knew you were on the right path? I don't know if there was one that I knew I was on the right path. But I feel like I gained a little bit more respect from like the booking agency. and stuff when I did in flames.

That was like the first big metal. I was only doing hardcore shows. Tim Borr had in flames, and it was their first U.S. tour. And we did that at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Damn. And once I did that, things kind of changed. And you were like, oh, I could just do anything?

Yeah, well, I was always, you know, half hardcore and half metal. I was metal first. And, like, that was like, whoa, in flames. Like, it was a totally different level, you know what I mean? And they definitely were not aware they were playing a VFW. and we're not super stoked about it. I remember the tour manager realizing how green I was and really helping me out that night. Oh, that's huge.

Yeah. We interviewed them really, two of them really briefly. Never aired it at a furnace festival. Yeah, we didn't air it. And they were really cool. Yeah, they weren't dicks at all. They were just like, wow, this is not what we were expecting. We're not in Europe anymore.

Occasionally you would have the stage out at the nights. Did you have the stage for that? Yeah, yeah. It's like a little like a little like a platform. 18 inch type of thing 12 inches 18 inches like we would put it a little bit and like okay you can jump up and barely not hit the ceiling that'll work yeah okay wow the drop ceiling never saw that yeah yeah it was it was rare i want to hear more about um just how you watch the community grow people like bo and james and chris come in and and start start these bands and like a whole second wave of

of Chicago hardcore starting. Yeah, second, you know, third, fourth waves now, you know, like, it's,

it's cool. Like, the older I get, the more I am excited about seeing, like, young kids come around and, like,

I kind of, I'm kind of, like, comfortable, I was talking to, um, Brandon from Big Boy about this at the Rumble.

Like, I'm, I'm comfortable kind of being, like, the old guy that kind of helps foster everything and kind of sticks around and helps everything grow and, like,

I love that role, you know. Yeah, yeah. That's a cool place to be. Yeah, yeah, the best. We're finding that as well. I mean, it's crazy. Like, we're all elder statesmen now, even though like you guys were always the young kids to us. You know what I mean?

I was the youngest person in the room till like a year ago in my mind. Right, right. Right. Let's talk about, so back in the day, it was the heist. It was the great Arlington Heist because it was at the Knights of Columbus. Yeah. Sometimes it was in, one time it was in Hammond. Yes.

One time, or a couple times it was at the Sportsplex and Darien, which I talked about. Darien, which I talked about a couple times. Yes. You had that particular sportsplex year was like, I saw blacklisted for the first time, Internal Affairs. Marauder. Marauder was sob the last time they played here on. When did, because I don't remember the very first, I think the first heist, I had

strep throat and I couldn't go. Chris went, got me the blood and blood out demo. Nice. But he went kind of reported back. like, dude, next year you got to go kind of thing. When did the fest thing start to click? Because the fest are really popular now. But back in the day.

The first fest we did was me, Jim, and a dude named Ed Factorovich who was really tight with the race trader guys and knew tons of Indian emo bands. We put our heads together and did a fest in December 97 that had like all out war, Earthmover, get up kids, braid. Jesus Christ. It was all over the fucking place. Was that what received? It was. It was really cool. Like we did it at a place called the Odom right here in Chicago that's not there anymore.

And the cops shut it down halfway through. And then we fireside saved us and we moved at the fireside for the rest of the weekend. But that was the first one. And I tried to always do something every year. And it, I don't know, it became the heist a few years after that. Just stupid, like, play on words, that joke type thing. Yeah. Yeah, no, I got.

But I think by 98, we were doing it at 19. It's at Columbus and... By 98? Yeah, I think just that the 97, we did it at Odom, and then we had the problems with the cops shutting it down and everything. So we did it. I believe in 98, we started doing it at the Knights of Columbus. So what was American hardcore mental punk fest culture like before that?

Like, what were the ones that you saw that made you think you could do something like that? Oh, gosh. Yeah, well, there are others? I mean, the only, I mean, there wasn't really anything here in the Midwest. I mean, it was definitely before. So how does Word get back about these fests around the country that makes you think I could do that? Or we should do that? Honestly, it's probably because every year in high school, me and my buddies would drive to Milwaukee Metal Fest.

Oh, okay. Probably why. Yeah. You know, and I just probably thought I could do some sort of mini version of that. You know what I mean? That's probably it because this is like before this is hardcore, before posy numbers, before any of that, you know? Which is totally crazy to think of it. It is.

And you're still going with it. has evolved into what the rumble is now. The rumble is, yeah. And we've kept it kind of, you know, purposely kind of niche in boutique, you know? But yeah, this last year was great and it was a great vibe. Beautiful. All reports, by the way,

from everyone, from like our California friends, Detroit people, everything, they had a great time. Yeah, I feel like. This year was really good. You can feel when people are enjoying it and I feel like everybody was just super satisfied and happy. And that's all we can ask

Absolutely. Let's you talk about booking Eetown for the first time that they played here in like- You love E-Town? I love E-Town. So me too. It was a full circle moment to have them at the Rwambo because it had been so long since they'd been here. Yeah. And back in the day, the shows with them here were really rough.

Like they were playing in an era where that style was not really that loved here, you know? Totally. So it was nice to see them get the respect they deserve and have a really great crowd at a show in Chicago, which, I mean, they killed it. They did. It was awesome. I want to get into the killer. Yeah. What does the killer mean to you?

I mean, I say it often, but there's like that meme of the father, son, holy spirit. And I like to think that it's the killer, us and nachos are kind of the bands of my era, my peers, who I see as my generation. The killer were the band that made me realize heavy doesn't equal hard. Like they're not mutually exclusive. There's different things. And The Killer was the band that made me realize that danger is fun. Oh, yeah. And especially when it's like consensual danger.

Mutual danger is the sickest thing else. The killer did a crazy thing. I knew the EP, the Welcome to Chicago. Would you call it an EP or is it the demo? Yeah. Same thing. It was a demo that somebody put out. Okay.

Yeah. So I knew that, but I hadn't, I hadn't, graduated yet into into like jazz by 12 I just had no I hadn't graduated yet into like going to every local oh okay yeah

probably you remember the sportsplex show with standard fight and Steve Cain's old band Adani's old band not really but I remember tons of shows there yeah so that was like my second show and then the A.N every time I die

fireside show suicide file in HopeCon oh yeah that was like my third show and then I was truly hooked and that's when I would have found the killer probably because the organized Those were awesome. Those were, did Clint? Clint doesn't get enough respect and not an appreciation for everything that he's done, not only for Chicago, but just for every everywhere. I ordered from that web store all the time.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's stuff. Clint also, he worked at victory at the time and would like help bands out. He would print stuff. He would take care of people. He did organize crime. He put out, I think every band in Chicago has probably done something on organized crime.

I would think so, yeah. Including both of ours. Both of ours. What's that? Including both of ours. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then there was this con.

And it was before any of my bands were really doing anything, but it was literally like, the killer was on there. Sidewalk was on their, Planet of Attack was on there. All the bands that were, you know. And they did a thing, the killer did a thing where they put out the LP, the first LP. And then you guys went on like a tour. You like went away for a while for like a song. And then came back and they did their record release at the night's.

Columbus and it was the scariest thing. I think you covered Slayer. Oh yeah. We had Jim come up and sing mandatory suicide. It was so... The whole thing? Looks like, hey, buddy, have somebody else like that shit. I ain't going to learn it. It was just so, like, fever pitch.

Everyone was so excited. This was like our band. And yes, the whole thing, but it got shut off in the middle of it because Luke got into it with some more than that. But yes, the intention was the whole thing. Tell me about the early days of the killer from the demo to better judged by 12. Oh, man. It seems like such a long time ago.

But I mean, I think my favorite memory from that era was the one longer than a five, six day thing that we did on the road. We went out with Blood and Bullet Out and Bloody Sunday. We did like a three or so week run and we went to the West Coast. and that was like the only time we really ever did that that stands at the top of my list as far as memories go we just experiences yeah such great shows it'll it'll be fun

such great shows and you know that was like summer of 2003 and that was the only time that was really out on the road was that before was the album 2003 or 2004 uh i think i think better judge was out i think it was did you play in southern in California? We did. We played showcase theater.

With Jason Facedown. Yeah. And like I, like Inla Empire kids are still flying the flag for the killer to this day. That's amazing. And it's amazing. This is not an exaggeration. The first time I went to, well, you live there too.

So to the young house in the valley, there was a killer tape on the counter. like by the sink. Yeah. And I just, I remember washing my hands being like, okay.

You know, you know, just like, okay, they get it. They made it. They made it. Yeah. Also,

dude, there's so many dominoes with the killer. The killer were all, it was also like, oh, I should check out sepeltore. Oh,

because the influence of sepeltore is, is, was there. Yeah. They would play, they would cover songs sometimes. And coming from such a punk

and youth crew, and I didn't, I would have known to check out several. They're really your gateway to all things hard. All things heavy. Yeah, I mean, we came from different backgrounds.

You came from more punk. I came from more metal, but that's where we met is in our career. And there's so many examples of that all over the place, you know what I mean? Can you tell me about writing that first killer record and the memories you have? It was me and the other guitar player, Mark, who's not in the band anymore. Most of those songs was either one of us coming up with most of it, and then the other one adding something, and then Remus has to get so much credit. Oh, my God, Minus.

He's not just the drummer. He's like an arranger. Like there's so many times where he'd be like, that's cool, but do the riff just slightly different to it this way. Instead, he would kind of hum out. And I'd be like, that's perfect. Everybody needs that. He was way more than just a drummer.

He's the only person I would say that the band could not exist without. You know what I mean? The second LP? I mean, now we're established. We all have to be in there. But he's the one that holds everything together. The second LP, you can really tell. It's a drummer.

It's a drummer. It's a drum record. Oh, yeah. And I instantly connected with that record. That record, I think we knew was going to be a little bit tougher sell to people. But that was definitely myself and to a greater extent, Tim, being like, let's just do exactly what we want. Yeah. It's fucking incredible.

If you have not listened to the first killer LP, obviously iconic Chicago hardcore. second one is like nuanced scientifically written it's it's so much more than like heavy hardcore it's so intelligent probably not the best idea for um today's day and ages attention span but for sure i mean there's many five-minute songs it's awesome ask it's like why don't you play more songs from that it's like well we play two and that's our set because like people play 20 that's these days, you know what I mean? But yeah, I'm very proud of that record because it's a little bit different, and we just kind of

did our own thing on it, so. Can you tell me about your experience is having Andrew Morrissey in the band? Oh, man, I miss Andrew. You too. I miss Andrew. Yeah, so many fun experiences with him. For whatever reason, the bass player in the band has always been the one that gets hazed real bad. Probably because it keeps changing. The bass

player is the only thing that hasn't been totally steady. We've had four different bass players. Who is the first one? Tall. Jesse. Jesse from Milwaukee. Jesse Smith from Milwaukee. And then there was Jay from Hugh Crupps and stuff and Suburban Refugee and all those bands. And then Andrew and now Dave. But Andrew, I miss him. I miss him a lot. That's family.

Yeah. He's family to me too. You know, I haven't talked to him in a lot of years now. But he is one of the, he's busy. He's kicking out. He's one of those people you just pick right. Oh, yeah. Right up where you left up.

Are there any wild show stories? that come to mind from the first killer LP era that you can legally talk about maybe yeah there's there i that tour that tour there was a couple things okay there was a show in Dallas um where uh didn't do very well and the guy wasn't going to be able to pay us and um i just remember uh luke walking off with the guy, having a seem like calm conversation with the guy for about a minute, watched Luke walk back, watch the guy walk right to the phone. There was, this is still payphone era.

He's using the phone. And I was like, hey, Luke, what did you tell the guy? He's like, I told him, you better find the money. And he said, I'm going to go call my dad. So he's on the phone calling his dad five minutes later. His dad rolls up to the front of the show, rolls down his window, gives the kid a bunch of cash. and that's how we got paid. We were talking a lot of money.

You were talking like $600 for three bands. Yeah, right, right, right. But still, many such cases in that time, you know? That's one of, like, the chill ones I can. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. The kid understood. He understood.

Many walks, the walk to the ATM was kind of commonplace for a long time. Oh, I did a lot of walks in the ATM. A lot of walks. You done a few of those yourself? Oh, yeah. Would you say, are you a gambler? Oh, yeah. Would you say, you can't be.

a professional concert promoter unless you like to gamble. It is gambling, isn't it? It is absolutely gambling. It is like sports betting. This team's coming through. This team's coming through. I wish I had odds before I booked a show, though. I could find out if it was an underdog or not, you know what I mean?

You ever book underdog? Did you book that underdog show at the Fireside? I think didn't, the only time, they were on Burning Fight, weren't they? They were on Burning Fight. I don't know if they played my era other than that in Chicago. There is a video of them playing Fireside, but it's weird. They seem either brand-ne-ne-ne. or they're playing a show that no one gives a shit about?

It could have been either. Could have been either. Yeah. Could have been both. Could have been pulled at the same. I vaguely think they might have played, but I can't. The only thing I really remember is that Burning Fight Show, which you look back on that lineup now.

It's like, how the fuck did that even happen? That was such a legendary weekend. How do you, how do you look at Chicago hardcore now? What are your thoughts and feelings on what it has become? I think it's great. I think I've never seen so many young, excited kids. and, you know, there's so many good young bands. There's a, like, the Hispanic car course scene in Chicago has really taken over lately, and it's fucking great.

But it's like CDOs, Kere and Augment and Exit Service, there's so many of them. And these kids come to every fucking show. Unbelievable. And, I mean, CDOs played at the first band on Friday, the first band of the festival. And there was, like, you know, 80 kids pitting for them already. Yeah. It was cool. Fuck, yeah.

There were people, because they would play samples and stuff in between, whether it was a speech or like music, you know, sampled music play. There were people walking around. Corporal, like, stopping and like just filming. It was like, what is? Yeah, what's going on here? But yeah, I think hardcore is in really good hands because I think the, you know, the people that these young kids are learning from all really care. And the kids really care too. So it's a good mix.

It is weird to... I walk into a show now. I go to the Rumble, and I know 20 people. Oh, yeah, me too. It's the same thing. That number is getting lesser and lesser as we get older and lesser. I decided at this last one, particularly... You knew more people Thursday night, though, when the killer plays.

That's very true. Yeah, it's funny. It's like, the killer plays are like, okay, I'm going to be in a room full of people I know that night. And then the next day, like a current hardcore show, I know nobody. Yeah. But I decided that's a good thing. That's a great thing. That's like an important thing.

It means the scene is thriving without those of us that used to be around all the time. And it's up to us to not look at that as, I don't know anybody, so I'm not going to talk to anybody. It's our responsibility to nurture all these people. And you guys do a great job of that. But the young people come and are what, this is ultimately for you, you know? This is a young person's game. We want you here. We want you to thrive.

We want you to enjoy yourselves. So it's up to us to keep them coming. Be nice. What's your all-time favorite venue here? Oh, man. We'll say to work with and to play. They can be two different answers. Okay, to work with is definitely Regis.

Regis. You've been booking there for a while, yeah. Yeah, and the owner, Robbie is, like, family to me. We've known each other since I was working at his record store in the suburbs when I was a teenager all the way up until he decided. Algonquin score? Record breakers. That's where I bought South of Heaven.

Oh, not my first. Wow. Hell yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I've played Regis? I don't think so. I don't think so. Maybe.

I don't know Reggie. Maybe. I don't think so. Yeah. Played Coborange. I played the Doubledore. I played the Sub T. I've played the Metro.

Damn, I'm playing one. That's my favorite place to work with. Play the Nice for Columbus. Firecite, probably, though. As far as shows go. Yeah. It's got to be. It was such a shithole, but it's got to be fireside.

There's too many great memories there. I never got to go in there. Yeah, there was some great things. Maybe we could do something about that. I don't know. Could you tell me, Shane, before we wrap this up, could you tell me your top four hardcore records of all time?

I'm going to go to Damnation, Miseracordia for sure. Damnation. Dark Horse Pick record. But the reason I pick that instead of No More Dreams is because you've got good live versions of most of the songs on No More Dreams that aren't on Music. Sure.

As long as I have Hang Man and No More Dreams with Good Live, then I'm going to go miscarriage. Wow. They were over in Chicago. Damnation and Earthmover are two bands that I don't really hear about elsewhere that were so

over, over in Chicago. Best wishes. Great pick. So the one, you, I have to keep interrupting because he's reminding me. You booked one of my all-time favorite shows ever. At the sub-T.

J.J. Kromag's Marauder, death threat, the killer left-hand path, and then our band convicted's last show and the sub team. Yeah, I got hurt at that show. I accidentally mashed into some kid that was in a wheelchair in the pit.

Oh, no. The chair got you? Like the chair got me. Yeah. Well, that's what Carmic Retribution. I didn't know he was in there. I felt terrible, but... I remember seeing Shane Pitt first time in my life. Probably known him over 10 years at that time.

And as he's walking out, I heard him say, only for Best Wishes Songs. Yeah. Yeah, Krust of the Moniac. I was up in the balcony and I heard Krust of Demonic. I heard that, I was like, fuck, I got to get down there. Okay, so sorry.

Master Killer. Master Killer number three. Great, thanks, Shane. Her usual. Stellar one. And a fourth. Yeah. You can take your time.

It'll be. Fuck. The fourth one's always the trick. Yeah, it is. There's so many I could pick. There are. some people can make a career out of I guess I'll go

I think there's about 30 records I could say but the first one of the 30 that's coming off my head so I'll take it born to Landhart Unbelievable pick per usual Sam Shane Merrill Anything you want to tell people at home Probably probably get a good amount of people from Chicago watching Probably not a ton of people from Chicago watching

meaning lots of people who are from Chicago. So is there anything you want to tell people about coming here, playing here, rumble in here? Well, I don't know, just apologies for our weather in the summer. That's brutal. But don't let that stop me from coming here. I don't know. Shows are you come here any night.

You probably have two or three options. So you have lots of stuff going on to keep you busy. I don't know. I feel as though... I'm drawing a blank. No, no, you're fine. Let me riff out of that. I feel as though there's less excuse or less reason than ever to skip Chicago because all tides

are pretty high right now. Yeah. All scenes around us are pretty high. It's always been harder for the coast bands to get here. Right. You know, it's, I think that kids here, at least I like to think that they appreciate that it's, it's more of a struggle for bands to get here. so I think kids appreciate it more when they come, I think.

I also just listed six different venues I've played in Chicago. So there's no real excuse. Well, no excuse. And only one of them is closed now. So come on out. You're going to have one of the best shows of your life. Yeah. I think we kind of embrace that like, you know, second city.

You know, we embrace that underdog role. Like, you know, we're going up against L.A. and New York. But we hold our own, you know. That's kind of the Chicago men. He probably got more Michelin stars than LA and New York. So that's no doubt about that. You're fine. Yeah, no doubt about that.

Yeah. Where do you like to eat, Cheat? Lately, we've been into this Middle Eastern place called Crave Kabbal. Where's that? It's in the loop, but they'll grub up here. Nice. Crave Kabat. I've been known to Crave Kabat.

There's a couple around here that, like, falafel grill over on. That place is awesome. That's pretty good. But this Crave Kavit. Bob knocks it out of the park. So that's your shit. You love Middle Eastern food? Right now.

You got to go to Europe. That's the phase right now. It's a falafel sandwich and Jerusalem salad and all that. That's the phase right now. Do you eat meat? I do, but very rarely with Middle Eastern food, I like the vegetarian stuff. Awesome. Very nice.

Very nice. Well, boys, I think we, I think it's time for stop number two. Yeah, we'll take a walk, huh? Yeah. Shane, thank you so much for joining. Hey, good to see you guys. Have been incredible. Fancy bumping into you guys.

Maybe we'll run into you again later on me. That sounds nice. Where are we right now, Beau? This is Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park, which has been my neighborhood for the last 12, 13 years. And pretty much where every show I've ever played in Chicago is, save for one or two spots. And where you're even staying right now. Yeah, I love... This is like my home base in Chicago every time I'm here.

For those of you who might not know, it's kind of Williamsburg, Echo Park, Silver Lake. You know, it's our Brooklyn. It's a cool spot. The cool place, you know. And it is cool. Come on through, sir. Thank you, sir. You know, it's a bustling, buzzing city. There's lots of stuff, but there's lots of stores, lots of food, lots of coffee.

Yeah. Lots of history. And you can get some good jeans down at over at mid-blende. Mid-Bend, yeah. You can get good coffee here, a wormhole. Pretty nice. But we want to eat a nice meal. Yeah.

What do you recommend somebody walking around Wicker Park? I want to eat something kind of quick, but yummy. And I want to be satiated for many, many hours. You know, there's a new burger place that opened up that I have not shut up about in about three months. I can go for a burger. It's called Not a Damn Chance. Okay. How's that sound? I think there's a damn chance that I will eat that.

I think so. Let's do it. Well, this looks sublime. I'm so hungry. I can't wait to dig in. Yeah. I mean, if only we had somebody here to join us for this. It does.

Two is a little, a little light. Two is a little light. Two. What? What's going on, guys? Anshit Chabro from Hold My Own. How are you? Sit out.

Bo? You eat here? I do. This is actually my first time here. But it's so crazy to see you guys. Thanks for joining us. Yeah. So what we have here.

And you're miced up. That's unbelievable. What the hell? Slated, ready to go. Yeah, tell me about Miss, Bo. We have a double smash burger. They have a proprietary sauce. They have Beast Mode fries, which are

Kind of animal style, you know. Now, what the burger has on it is pickles, tamed jalapinos, which are less spicy jalapinos. So you get more of a flavor and a crunch and less of overall heat. But the heat's still there. The burger sauce, two patties and some cheese. A really tasty bumper. May I? Yeah.

I have forced to get mine without the sauce on it. I get it on the side. I like to dip. I like to control my sauce. You do. I do. I control it. You do eat it.

Sometimes. I have to be in the mood. I'm going to today. I think you should really. Dig in. All right. Isn't that nice? The tame jalapinos, I think, are kind of the highlight.

That is amazing, honestly. Get it in here tight. Do you like that? Stephen. It's good. It was good. I'm going to eat some napkins. I'll get you.

I got you. On shit. When did you get into Harcorn Windsor? I would say, I don't know how many years exactly ago. I think I now 15 years ago. Maybe I was in eighth grade of middle school. 7th grade, 8th grade. My brother got me in hardcore.

Also in hold my arms. Yeah. We playing a band together now after all these years for the first time, which is, you know, a great full circle moment. And, yeah, man, like he's shown me so many fucking bands from the get-go. Madball, Terror you know a lot of

niche like beat down bands like tyrant so a bunch of like random shit like that built upon frustration you know before that you know I got into skateboarding

was like a huge fucking thing in my life and I always told my friends I would never I would never quit skateboarding and start in a band and I did I ended up fucking doing it after a few years. And I still skate sometimes, but, you know, being a band, you know, for some reason at that time when I was young, you know, seemed more appealing to me.

So I always say skateboarding. Have you been a Chicagoland guy the whole time? Yeah. I have never lived anywhere else in my time of being into music. Do you want to? Honestly, I've thought about it, but no. Like, I, you know, I've grown my whole life here in Chicago. And it's just like I could never imagine leaving it.

So no, I think I would stay here forever. Yeah, I feel the same way. So where we're eating, speaking of skateboardings, was actually co-founded by Neen Williams. Fucking Austin. Pro Skater. Wow. And a Michelin Star Chef.

Oh. Yeah. So the lore behind this place I want to, I did want to tell us. There's a place called sushi by scratch, which started, I think, in Austin. Oh, that's a lot of old guy. And, and, yeah. He was in Alphan Omega. Oh, no shit.

Yeah. So they have a location here. It's in the basement of the first Not a Damn chance. The whole thing about Not a Damn chance is they don't have hours, a phone number. Is this where Sparky works? You know Parking? Oh, Brian. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is where he works? He works with Sushi by Scratch. Yeah, yeah. He was also an Alpommerga. I know him, and he never even brought that up. He's in New York now. We picked the right place. Yeah?

Fucking Hartford. When you go to the sushi by Scratch, it's an Omicasse. It's eight seats, 10 seats. Yeah. When you leave, you go through this burger bar. You have to, like, put it in a code. It's like a speakeasy its whole thing. When you leave, they tell you, get some burgers.

They're pretty fucking good. That was the place. It was impossible to get into. This exists now on Milwaukee. You can come in any time and get some delicious beast fry. How are we doing? Pretty good, right? I mean this with utmost respect.

You know the Denny's seasoned fry? Mm-hmm. This is kind of like an elevated Denny's season fry, mixed with the in and out animal style. I love. the Denny's season fry. This is the best thing they got. These fries are also cooked in leaf towels.

So maybe Jenny's is on to something. I don't know anything about that. I don't know anything that is doing. I don't want to know anything that he's doing. But beef tall is all right, I guess. Tell me about some early Chicago hardcore members for you. I would say weekend nachos at Albion House. Uh, Parms Way at Beat Kitchen.

Mm-hmm. I'll play this too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you did with code. Yes. one of my earlier bands played that show with you guys twitching tongues which man bitter thoughts a bit of thought yeah yeah I remember that's that's that was awesome how many bands are you in right now I guess like eight seven six

but not all of them not all in do things yeah I know I know so I you know I would say home my own is one of the main ones I you know I would say I'm an unofficial member of End It. I'm definitely playing with them a lot. And just wanting to say the fucking new record, I heard it. And it's absolutely incredible. I know he's been talked about. I've been saying. It's fucking awesome. LP's going to change the world. The riffs are fucked up. I've been spending the last three weeks learning them and my brain is mush right now. He's kind of our martin. Yeah. As like you pick up, you seem to be able to pick up songs really quickly. Yeah, I think I would like to say so. I think I have this knack of playing for bands that

I've literally never practiced with. I've never practiced with End It once in my life. I mean, that's an incredible skill. I've played like 50 shows with them, which is awesome. I really? Yeah. I always liked you, I'm sure. This is not your first time on our show, by the way. No. Yes. No, no. No, it's not. I think LDB? F.A. Was it up fire? Yeah. Hell yeah.

So welcome back. Thank you. I'm fucking hyped to be here. Thank you guys. How has Chicago hardcore changed from when you first got into now being a guy who's a mainstay and a bunch of bands? It is so much exponentially better than when I got here. At the time that I was getting into it, there was not many people coming to shows. Granted, people were moshing very hard.

And I fucking almost sometimes missed that in some. some instances, and it'll happen still. But now there's like so many new bands, like every fucking day. Like, I turn a corner and there's a new band of new kids starting. Like, every show is pretty much sold out. On a

Monday, a show will get sold out with just local bands. Which is insane. What are some new local bands? You want to put people on. Let's shout out. Let's shout some bands out. Let's shout some bands out. Please. My favorite younger ones right now are these bands called

Exit Service, August. man, absence soul and fate's hand. I mean, some of these bands are bands that don't even have demos out yet. That's awesome. But they're just like kids who fucking love this shit. How old do you think they are? They all range from, I would say, probably like 19, 24 or some shit like that. It's beautiful.

You know? It's what we need. So, like, that's fucking awesome. I feel like when I was getting into it, like, there was just like not as many of that, not much of that happening. Yeah. You know? I think. between like 2010 and maybe COVID, like that 2018, like kind of that period, it's kind of the doldrums.

We've talked about this before. Overall, everything was kind of low. Tide was out, you know. It's that was the point in time where a lot of people maybe were here for college, they moved away. Sure. Or grew up and moved away. Absolutely, whatever it is. And now the youth are getting back. Things are happening. I'll just say there's always going to be touring. bands you know the scene main overall mainstays will always exist your scene is only as strong as your

local only shows you know so if you're packing out rooms on a Monday night with only local bands you've done so Chicago an incredible place right now yeah you like records yeah yeah definitely you would collect records I'm on and off about it yeah it's you've made a few I made a few so that I feel like that makes me like them, I guess. Where can we check some out? There's a local spot around here. It's kind of our immediate. It's called Reckless Records.

Right across the street. Let's go. Should we go? Here we are our reckless records. Tell me about this place, guys. How long have you been coming here? This was kind of, it was crazy. They moved the entire record story.

It used to be further down Milwaukee. It was the only place I knew in the city when I first moved here to go stuff. There are others now. Such as. Such as. Meteor gem such as record breakers Signal, which is my personal favorite. There's two locations of Signal, both good.

We're just putting over the classic. We're putting over the classic. It would be like going to LA and not stopping at amoeba or something like that or tower back in the day or over. You've been coming here for a while? Yeah, since middle school. My friends and I would take the train from Aurora, the Metro train, and we spent a day out here and then there's a This was definitely a spot that we'd come to. And yeah.

It's definitely a place that's going to have all the current records. We got turn style out on the posters and stuff. They're going to have the wall. I love the wall. Lots of crazy stuff on the wall. We talk about the wall. And the wall is like a general record store thing where they're not going to put the gold, the gold mine, the first pressings, the test presses, the tour pressings in the racks.

They're going to have a nice little wall somewhere in the. the store. This is like universal worldwide kind of. Yeah. Where the more expensive, rare shit will be there waiting for you. And we also, what's cool is like, discogs, I got a shout out discogs for a quick. For better or worse, you can look up any record store stock. That's right. We're just talking about this. And see what they have and either plan to pick it up or just order it online. Yeah. Dirty little secret is most record stores, their inventory system is just their discog store. So you can check it from home right now. What do they got?

What are they got? Try to think of some stuff that I've gotten here. Yeah, anything you remember getting from reckless that is pivotal to you? Yes. A maximum penalty. Fuck, I'm forgetting the CD. CD? Yes.

What's on it? Is it two teenage girls? Could you love me? Brother. Super life. Super life. Super life. Right.

That's a legit, like, in terms of hardcore songs, hardcore songs and bands with melody that's a like i don't listen to that song one time that's a five to ten repeat listens in a row type song masterpiece absolutely unbelievable i don't you got super life here yes or man um about topic but end it i don't know if i should say this maybe not i don't know no you should you should and if we have to cut it we will but go ahead no it's already out there i think or the information's out there oh it okay it's Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe it is.

They're doing a Could You Love Me cover on the- On the record. It's amazing. That's pretty- That's a full circle right now. It's pretty cool. Perfect song for them. And like, that song's not on streaming.

Aha. So it'll be the best version on streaming. Absolutely. Other reasons I like Reckless. There's movies, there's tapes, there's vinyl, there's CDs, there's magazines, there's soundtracks and jazz. It's not all metal hardcore and stuff. of hardcore and stuff. Very interesting. Very well-rounded. There's a corn first pressing that's

been on the wall for like two years now that I think is really funny. Nobody wants that. Nobody won't that. I think the most recent thing that I got, I got all of the Bjork re-issues from here. Very cool. They got some stuff. I got a question for me. Yeah. And you could take your time with this. Yeah. It's really important. Could you tell me your top four hardcore records of all time? Of all time. Ever. Oh. 25 to life. Keeping a real EP. incredible answer Yo, I mean, the guitar tones You will, dude, keep in real strength of unity

Undeniable hardcore. Absolutely. I would say that's one of my favorite records and hardcore of all time because, you know, the guitar work is fucking insane. There's like crazy dive bombs and guitar scratches. All the tones are fucking awesome. You know. Colin's been a champion. Hell yeah. You know.

Years. What can you do? I mean, say what you will about Rick, you know, he sucks. And he will, you know, shit-talk me actively on Instagram to this day. Even though one time I bailed his ass out in Chicago, he came here with no members and I played and learned all the songs and found members. So, fuck you. Number two.

I will say the killer, not all who are lost wants to be family. Oh, no, who are lost. Great thing, dude. Dude, that has... Fucking horn. Fucked up. Dude, that's like the only one of that that I think they play. Yeah, typically.

They played God Forgot for me. Uh-huh. I was pitting my little ass off. Strange part. Insane. Tell me about this record. It's just got crazy mosh parts to me, and it's just like dark. It's like...

It's weird. It's very weird. It's very musical record, very drum-driven. The drums are fucking insane. Insane, dude. All the, yeah. Remus is an insane drummer. Yeah.

Not to take away from better just by, 12 because it's obviously a classic. Yeah, of course. But I would say, you know, I've spent more time in my life, probably listening to that record. Yeah. Me too. Fuck it.

Yeah, that's my, that's my killer. That's your killer. That's awesome. Hell. What I hope some of the takeaway is, for those of you, is like, how important. It's not just me who loves the killer. Chicago. Yeah.

Needs the killer. They're a very important band. Who's your number three? Absolutely. I'll go with, uh, me. Mad ball, hold it down. Oh, 2000. You know.

Was that 2000? Defined the next 25 years of Parkwell movie. Absolutely, man. It's just a lot of fucking amazing songs on there. Beto, who played in 25 to life, track guitars on this record. Matt Henderson's last record? Was that? I think so.

Sounds about right. His New York Hark Core EP was next and he wasn't on it. Shout out, Matt, in front of the show. Yeah, man. Like, that two combination right there, you're unstoppable. I don't know what could be better than that. The record is relentless.

Oh, yeah. You say the first two songs? That combo? Or the two guitars. Oh, the two guitar. Sorry, sorry, sorry, yes. It's insane. It's a perfect hardcore record.

So I've said many times that Can't Stop, it won't Stop is a perfect hardcore song. It's perfect, start to finish. I love when there are songs. A lot like we got to know into World Peace, you can't hear, the one end without a hold it down starting after it can't stop one stop. I love that because it just becomes like in the silence is like what are they going to play next? Yeah. And it's perfect.

So I love that. Great answer. Great answer. Hell yeah. Um, one more. I think right now, you know, this answer is always changing. So I think right now I'm really into death threat, peace and security. You know, that will. You know, it's just, uh, it's one of those records. I know every fucking lyric too. And it's just the best vocal performance in hardcore, I think. And it's a... He enunciates every single word.

He means everything he's saying, and you know that. The riffs are unique. You got Jamie Push Button on the kit. Yep. Timeless, iconic performance. He still hits every single one of them notes live. It's beautiful.

What a band. Oh, absolutely. Great answer. Fuck yeah, dude. they're the and like I can picture moments in my life when I was younger and I was listening to that getting hardcore like I don't know people that were older than me were like yo death threats the band you know like they played one of the rumbles like earlier on and when I went and yeah I just fucking love that band man great answer great answer unbelievable strong oh yeah what do you hope for

the young people in Chicago hardcore now to take away from what's happening now or to move forward with what do you want hardcore to be? You know, just like having fun and being yourself and putting in your effort, whatever it is, you know, everyone has that special thing that they're good at and there's so much to, you know, contribute to the scene.

And I think just like doing it in a positive manner, I think, best way. You know, there's a lot of bullshit, hardcore, you know, a lot of, you know, whatever. But like, at the end of the day, we're all here for the same reason. There's no reason why, you know, everyone should be, you know, friends and hanging out and just doing a heart, loving hardcore, you know. So I want to see less fucking bullshit, just fucking one scene, fucking, I know it's corny, but like, you know, when it's happening in Chicago, you know, punk bands are playing with hardcore bands, death metal bands are playing with hardcore bands. So what can, what more

can you ask for you? one thing. Take off the costumes. Yeah, well yeah. Start a zine. Book shows, start a band. This is a... For the love of God, play drums. This is a really important topic. Back in the day, people were writing songs for other people, writing lyrics for other people, designing stuff for other people.

You might not be able to write riffs. You can't contribute in other ways. You know what I mean? And you absolutely can. And you absolutely can. I promise you can. If you're cool enough and you have a... And if you're just a good person and you stick around long enough, it'll pay off. You can, but the point is everyone can contribute if they want to. You have something you can do, no matter what.

Dude, the biggest contribution you can make in hardcore is showing up and participating. Participation. Because God knows that when people say this band's set was so crazy at this, or their set was so amazing, it's because of the participation a lot of the time. Yeah, they're not. performance is secondary. They're not Dillinger. You know, it's like no band is blowing fire. Yeah, we don't need fireballs. We don't we need the crowd. You don't need to climb the rafters to have the best set ever. You can. You absolutely can and you will. Probably should, yeah. But the, the participation of the reaction is what makes something special and that's all you. So please keep doing it.

Beautiful. Fuck it. The shop. Yeah, let's look around. Let's do it. Three inches of blood. Skateboarding. Got me in this bed. So these are all the seven inches. I love. I love a seven inch. Yeah. You know. They have three of shoes and stuff. But they also have a seven inch walls. Oh.

And they have stuff. This is where I got all the misfits bootlets. Yeah. That's sick. Because I'm never going to get a real one. Sure. Like all of them at least. Got all the bootlets.

Hellie. Yeah. Together is one. The homie in, my in. Yeah. Yeah. He got here, I do you see steak.

He got pool. Oh no. What's that? Yeah. Okay. All right, that ends our time with Anshin. Anche, thank you so much for your- Thank you.

Well, unless... We might see you later. I mean, you're free today, right? Yeah. Okay, maybe we'll run in. I don't know. We'll see. You can see Ancha on tour tomorrow. Wherever you are, he'll be there. Just look them up.

Putting on for the Chicago land, as always. Oh, yeah, brother. Congrats on the baby, by the way. Oh, yeah. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you. Papa. All right.

Thank you, guys. Beautiful. Yeah, well, you guys. Somewhere else. All right. Do you know what I want? What? A little sweet treat, I think.

Yeah. Pardon this interruption. This episode is brought to you by Mad Vintage. Boy, is it ever? That's M-A-D-Vintage.com. Every band we talk about on this show, damn near every week. You can find 20, 30, 40 years old

sitting waiting for you on MADDVintage.com. He's got everything from punk, hardcore, metal, hip-hop, wrestling, movie stuff. That's right. He's got it all. And listen, some of these shirts have survived for so long in single-owner households. If you let us buy them, we're going to cut them up and do God-knows-what to him.

Look at this. So you need to save these shirts. They're sitting waiting for you to be saved on MADDVintage.com. Madball, Agnostic Front, anything else that people from Madball and Agnostic Front were in, you can find on madVenture.com. So please act fast. But if you use code Hardlaw 15, you're going to get 15% off. And that might not sound like a lot. Go on that site.

That's going to add up for you. It's going to add up. Okay. So quit dicking around. And also keep in mind that if you catch Luke, Mr. Mad Vintage at any fest that are happening. He was at Tidedown. He was at the Rumble. He was at that Hellferia Fest just now. That's just happened. He'll fire. He's looking to buy. He's looking to sell. He's looking to trade. Talk to him. Reach out to him through

the Instagram. You never know. Just send him a message. He's a very nice guy. He's got good stuff. So what are we doing here? This is Margie's candy. It's a old-ass ice cream shop that I go to all the time. Oh my God. What's up guys? Chris Mills from harm's way. This is my guy. This is my guy. This is my best friend my drummer. Yeah, so good. You're at your usual four, four o'clock. Yeah, this is about the time I roll up.

Well, let's go in and get something sweet. Sounds great. Check it out. So this is like a Chicago mainstay? This is an ice creamery that has been open since 1921. You don't see things like that in America a lot. It's a little crazy. You can tell by a thing happens when a place is like old where it's like that booth

and then a new booth is added and they're different styles, it doesn't matter. That's kind of the vibe in here. That makes sense. It's old. You come here a lot? Got a few times. Okay. You know?

I feel like when we were younger, yeah. This was like the spot, you know. I mean, this is like, I see from the dishes alone that it's like an iconic kids place. Very much. Yeah, it was just like an iconic place. At in general. After like five, six, there's going to be a line. I'm straight up.

Down the street. It's all summer. Really? It's crazy. They're open all year long, but for obvious reasons, the summers. Because it is, it's been blazing hot. Why, you don't want to touch my leg like that? It's all tight.

It's all tight in here. I was comfortable. Chris, tell me about finding powerful music in Chicago as a young child. Well, I had, I had an older brother who introduced me to punk and hardcore, like a pretty young age. I remember, you know, kind of getting into like Green Day and like Blink and kind of like the entry point bands, you know? And I think the minute he saw me vibing with that stuff, he was kind of like, oh, hey, like

here's a, here's here's, here's, here's, here's, like, girl of it. So was Shane, like, friends with your brother and stuff? No, no. It was, uh, my brother wasn't like as involved with like the scene, so to speak, you know. And he was probably a little bit older than Shane. He was more of like a punk head. Mohawk. No.

One time he dyed his hair, bleach blonde. I remember he shaved his head a lot. He shaved his head a lot, yeah. Didn't he take you to your first show? He did. Which was? Which was just down the street from here at the Congress Theater, Fugazi and Shalak. That's a sick first show.

Pretty crazy. 12, 13, I think I was going into eighth grade. That's awesome. So for those of you who don't know, I have talked about him many times before, but Chris is my old head. He's only a couple months older. But he is how I found this music. And I would say we very much kind of got involved locally together. Absolutely.

You've been in bands together the whole time. You've been going to church together. You went to school together? Yes. What's that like? Yeah. Well, I mean, we really didn't become homies until high school, probably. Right?

Tell me about that. Yeah, Shane. What was Young Bo like? Tell me as much as you can about the, but both of you, you know? Well, I mean, there's some pretty funny, like, stories of us prior to actually becoming Yeah. Oh, beef, right? In like the middle school.

Kind of, yeah. So, Chris and I lived a kind of, we were separated by this pond in our town in Roselle. He was a grade older than me. So I became friends with all my friends in like fifth and sixth grade, so he's in middle school. in middle school he's older than us obviously me and this me and these two guys one also named chris we were walking behind he and chris had some beef over something i don't remember what it was you and chris remembers what i have no i don't remember why man i have no idea but we were actually we're across this pond on a path and we know chris's house in like the his back patio

faces this pond yeah and the other chris who i'm with was like i'm gonna moon him and move and move Chris's house. Chris Mills, my beloved. There we go. Perfect, perfect time. Thank you so much. Those are big scoops.

Oh. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect timing. Chris Mills, my beloved. Happened to be on his computer, looked out because he saw three kids walking by this pond,

and it's like a football field probably of distance. Like, it's a... But that's your pond in your mind. My pond. Goose Lake Park. Goose Lake Park. Runs outside and starts like, I'm gonna kick your fucking ass across the pile. Wow.

And what's funny is like, you know that the meme of like the dogs barking and the gate closes and they just chill. Yeah. They need that game. Was it like that? Like nobody, nobody wanted a fight. He wasn't fighting anybody. And also. I turned around and I went back in and started playing StarCrap.

Well, you just didn't want to see his ass in that moment. Well, yeah, it was, there was disrespect. Yeah. Smells won't be disgraced. He disgraced. He would be disgraced. Basically, and also, the other Chris was like huge. Oh, yeah. Much bigger than me. Chris Menzaro was big. Bigger than I am right now. Is it really? Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. This looks fantastic. So then, ironically, me and the other guy,

me and the other guy who I was with at the pond, we made a song making fun of this guy. And that was the first. Oh, there's Chris? Yeah. Now, why? It was just like... Why'd you fall out with Chris, man? He might be watching them. Because this Chris was into punk. And Brian and I were into skating. We wanted to be into punk. So other Chris was just out there basically assaulting people.

With his ass. You knew that all the time, to be honest. You assault people with your ass. Hourly. Hourly. Damn near hourly. That's a different sense, though. Different sense being offended.

Okay. Yeah, so we wrote like a funny song and somehow he heard it. It was like... I don't even know how that happens in 1999. Yeah, it was like a, you know, like a late night sleepover, like 3 a.m. Got the giggles. Dude, you had delirious. Pee-ee-ha-ha's making a song.

That was it. What's better than that? So the kids, I don't know if we should say his last name, but his name is Manzara. And the song was called Manzara God. It was like one of us drumming on like a magazine and then someone playing shitty guitarist. And Chris, man, Zara God is back to Cal! And like that was the song. It was.

That was YouTube today. That was youth today. That was our literal project. What are the bands and shows that kept you coming back early? Well, you know, it was interesting as like we grew up in, like a suburb, right? And it was, you know, kind of isolated from the city, you know. But we were playing like, we're in punk bands,

playing not punk shows, essentially, right? Like, in our suburb, it's like, if you just played in a band, you played shows together. Sure, sort of thing, you know. So honestly, like, you know, fast forward to probably sophomore year. Well, I mean, actually, you know, we were going to shows in the city freshman year

and stuff like that, but like, We weren't really like involved in like the Chicago hardcore scene or like the DuPage County hardcore scene and so probably like midway through high school. Did you want to be? Dude. Oh yeah, absolutely dude. I mean it was it was finding the Chicago hardcore.net message board. That essentially opened up the doors for us to connect with other people, connect with other like

hardcore bands, you know. So in addition to Chris and I being bandmates and lifelong lovers, we also work together in many places. including subway, same subway. Talk about... My first job. Talk about Ashuk today, actually. Remember how he used to park at the back of the parking lot and watch you?

Oh, yeah. Isn't that crazy? Because Anshut's last name is the same as Chabra. Anyway, we'll clap. No relation. No relation. Thank God. Chris and I worked at the daycare, the park district,

together as well. Chris set up a show, and this show is actually insane because every single band that played had more than one member in it of people who would go on to be like our bandmates and close friends. Wow. It was nuts. It was plan of attack, sidewalk, our band double crossed.

Too sweet. Too sweet. Gozarian. Sick name. No, no, no, gozarin. Then to play, Winter kills all. Winter kills all. So it was like.

Drew played drums. So, like, everyone in nachos played in a band. James was there. Wow. We played. It was, it's actually like a crazy first dominoes moment. yeah you know so did you did you all know each other at this time or is this kind of where you all we were the new kids we were the new kids and basically like i'd become friends with john caution

on the chicago hardcore dot net message boys we'll see a little fucker back then too oh yeah the biggest little fucker but amazing too just like so welcoming like at that point you know he was just like i love john yeah just you know wanting to get people involved and like i something I'm like hey like I work at this I work at this park district and you know one Friday a month they allow us to throw shows like I'm thinking about I mean that's fucking incredible dude some of the happiest times of my life yeah what we're at we're working there yeah literally our entire band work there so imagine that watching kids like we're responsible for children that's pretty we're barely 16 17

yeah so it's still around yeah so it's the Bloomingdale Park District we know project and like we would do shows in literally in the gymnasium and sounded like shit sounded terrible and so i said i said i said i asked john i was like hey would you guys want to like he was in a band called sidewalk and i can't remember if he was still playing drums and plan of attack at that point or if he had quit i know he wasn't because he was heckling bill while they were playing funny yeah yeah right because sidewalk was kind of his band directly after playing of attack yeah so i think hofacker was playing drums for plan of attack at that point and essentially he helped me like get bands to together to play and helped me put the show together and it was it was crazy like

there was legitimately a couple hundred people in in Roselle which is like and it was yeah dude I remember it was they had the gymnasium split in half and like one half gymnasium was the show right and the other half they just had the basketball courts open and on the other side you know James played yeah James played basketball Rick playing basketball yep Luke playing basketball Charlie like just all our later friends and scary friends. So the killer shows up to this show?

Yeah. Wow. Dude, rolls up. 100%. And you want to know the most beautiful thing about this? Imagine, it was the first day I had my license. I got my license that day. Borrowed my dad's Toyota Selaica that day. Drove to the show.

We played the show. It was snowy out. Where else do you eat after this phenomenal show? But the Lake Street Portillo's. The entire show. The entire show is there. into this portillings. That's really walking.

You never forget. Foreman. Yeah. Truly a corpsman. Yeah. So how long after this until Hung's Way starts? Six or seven years? No.

Two or three? Probably two years. Yeah. 2006 is when technically the first, the demo came out. Yeah. This is probably 04. Yeah. It was 03.

Beginning of 0.3. Yeah. So probably few in the proud started shortly thereafter. And then Holmesway kind of came out of that, out of necessity. But we, like back in the day, I would have put money down that few in the proud was going to be the band. Really? Oh.

It's always how it works. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And then we started doing everybody switch but me on instruments because Chris was playing guitar if you're proud. Chris is one of those guitar players, one of those drummers who can also play guitar. Yeah. Who can just like, because you're thinking of the drum part, you could write.

Might as well. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And so when we switched and we just started writing stuff for harm's way because we wanted James to sing, we thought that would be kind of a novelty. Yeah. And that was it. Wow.

Yeah. No intention of really doing anything more than writing the demo and laughing at James, you know. What's better than that? The first show was at DePaul University, which is a venue. I don't talk about that much on the show, but it's a literal university and in these two classrooms they would have shows it was like some student for four years with did shows and those were probably my favorite shows in your life ever or for as a young person there was just some historical shows that happened there like and it was just fun did you book many other shows other than

that was like my one and only show wow i mean so you went out on top i went on top truly so yeah oh where was it going with the depal thing well he's he's first show harmsway's first show So first note, James crushed a microphone. He broke it into pieces. And I'm not making that up. Everyone saw it. And we just like started and it just went into pieces. Crumpled. A 58.

Wow. I was it right? Was there a true 58? I don't remember. Might have been more of a 48. He's doing all that. Wow. Yeah.

You've sucked that down. What do you mean? Pretty good, right? Yeah, I like it. That's, I mean. It's a classic. I would come here knowing them. Aw.

Tell me about how Chicago hardcore has changed since you've gotten into it. Yeah, I think it was interesting. When I first started going to shows, there was, I won't say like division, but there was like a lot of different scenes, I would say. You know, like, there was like shows happening in the suburbs in DuPage and shows happen in the city. And then there was like shows happening in like the far south side, like the more of the thrash core, South core stuff, you know, and, you know, and I would say like over time, there's been

a lot more of... It's one united thing. Yeah. I've noticed that. It seems that way, at least. Like, you know, I think there's still like a... There's obviously still more DIY spaces that are in existence and stuff like that, but like, it felt way more divided at one point where like now you see a lot more, I'd say, mixed-bill stuff.

Totally. Kind of happening and whatnot, you know? You think it's in a better place now? It seems so. I mean, like, I can't believe how big shows are now. Have Heart played here to seven people. Yeah. Yeah.

You know. So it's just like... Chicago can't, I mean, it can be tough. Absolutely. It can be tough for us. It's tough to get over. There was, yeah, there was like a while there. When I played that Have Heart show with this other band I was in called Expired Youth at that time.

And there was like a, there was a time when, like, there was a time when, like, bands that were blowing up on the coasts that were super high just would come through Chicago and it would be a dud right and like Chicago felt really kind of insular at that time too and prideful in that sense yeah and there was like this Midwest chip on your shoulder kind of mentality right but you know now it's just like I don't know everything's good everything is good everybody's having fun there's a lot of great local band yeah we were we were talking earlier about how when you and I walk into a show now, we don't know. We know five people.

It's pretty crazy, but it's a good, crazy. I think that's an important, a healthy thing for any community is that you and I are somehow now some of the oldest people in the room. Yeah, it's kind of, it's crazy. It's for the best. It is for the best. Yeah, absolutely.

For them. Can you tell me, Chris, and you can think about this, take your tongue. Take that bite. You're going to want that bite. Dude, the marshmallow was really good. Oh, good. It's like a fluff.

Yeah. Speaking of fluff, can you tell me your top four hardcore records of all time? Okay, I'll probably go Marauder Master Killer. Pretty good. Chrome Ags Age of Quarrel. Pretty good. Use it today. We're not in this alone.

And then I'm going to throw like an oddball one. The fourth one always is. In there, but this is like a record that's very sentimental to me. And kind of going back to my first show and like what kind of got me into this in a lot of ways. And probably Fugazi's repeater. Wow. You know? And, you know, some might argue like, hey, like, is that a hardcore record?

Is it not? I would argue 100% is because the ethos of that band is 100% punk. The most cool. Yeah, the most punk. Yeah. Yeah. And that was just like an entry point for me to just like think about punk and hardcore. in like not a very one-dimensional way, you know, and just, you know, made this music feel so much

bigger than me than just the sound. Beautiful. Right. So I have to go with those four. Great answers. Yeah. I mean, three out of four, is this my friend or what? Yeah, honestly.

Can you tell me before we wrap this up, maybe a couple good, young Bo stories, young Chris stories? Feel free. Just guys at shows growing together. Because like I truly, while you think, let me explain. I truly mean that like spoons flying. All of the stories you guys that I've told on the show are mostly. The fireside thing when I was like punishing Wes, Chris was there. Yeah. You and I remember you and I borrowed Jared Alexander's phone.

Yeah, dude, I just I was just with Naraj yesterday and I mentioned that story. Because I was like, you know, like, I don't really know Jared, but Jared's one of my favorite drummers of all time and actually he is responsible for us getting home from the fireside when we saw suicide in america nightmarry garage played in suzotify hall and didn't you call him jason i did i said oh like like like like like george and chris was like it's cheered embarrassing him in front of his favorite drummer but i was also i literally was 15 yeah and i used his phone to call my dad and he came and picked us up yeah that's hc dude thank you jerry yeah give me some other ones give me give me a young fucker bow

Young fucker both. And Chris. And Chris. I mean, do we, we got into a lot of trouble. I was thinking about like the stupid shit we did like, specifically me like getting tattooed at family and losing your car keys. Oh dude. So Chris got, was it your first tattoo or your second tattoo?

First or second. Chris and I have matching butt tattoos. Because our first band double cross, we all got DC on our butts. When Chris is getting his second tattoo at Family Tattoo, Friends of the Show, shout out Lee. He was done. I started getting tattooed. I think I got the FeenSpo. Wow.

And he borrowed my car keys to go to my car and to get something. He came back. I said, hey, can I have my keys? And he was like, lost him. Just gone. Gone. Never recovered. Never found.

So we had to call James. James drove from Naperville to pick us up to go to my dad's in Streamwood to then come back to the city. Which was like 35 miles from the city? Each drive is like round trip James probably was like three hours for him. And he just did it because he's the man. But that was crazy. Trying to think of dude, do you remember like, okay, we played the Kingston show on the first arm's way tour. We played, we showed up, Kingston, New York.

Ah. We, well, actually, first, K-80, K-80. The homie, haunted house. Colin stayed at K-80's house in Nashville. First tour. This is the haunted story, right? The haunted house. Oh, yeah, dude.

We were gonna stay, we were gonna stay with her in Brooklyn one time. Don't shoot it. She fell asleep on us. We all slept in a parking garage in the van. Nice. Then we drove, we played the show where these kids like, thought they had something set up. They didn't, it ended up being an open mic.

We played three short songs and got the fuck out of there. Spark. And I drove, we're supposed to be going to Syracuse, and I drove basically to Canada. Yep. First tour. Yep. First real tour.

Yep, ended up near Montreal. Near Montreal, because I started seeing signs that says, American money accepted, and I was like, wait. What do you mean? How many hours from that were Syracuse, like five? Like, I think, I think from the way it was like three. I drove three hours out of it. This is three GPS, three, we were on map lists.

Yeah. Printed? Yeah. Oh, yeah. The first, I think our first three tours were all printed. Dude, our, we had a binder. We had a binder. Played, our first two tours played the Lions then in Brockton.

Nice. Met young COA. Wow. We stayed at. Stayed at that house. That was. The animal house. Yeah. Our singer slept on a like a bench press.

Like a weight like a weight. It's convicted? This was Fewn the Proud. Which convicted came from. Okay. Who was in Feing Proud? Feehan Proud was us too. James on base. James first band. He was a great bass player actually. I believe that. He's a great writer.

Perfect stop. Yeah. You can jump with that. Yeah. Um, caution played drums and then this guy Bernie. Hosson plays drums? Caution's a great drum. Really? Very good drummer. What an interesting guy. Great drummer. Very talented. Big, big influence on my early drumming. Oh yeah. Who were your biggest drumming influences? Good question. I know Remus is a big one. I love Remus. I love Remus. Jared Alexander, just to bring them, bring them back, you know?

We talked about our friend Drew. Like if we're talking local guys, like our friend, our friend Drew who played, we later played with you in the proud and we can nachos. Those three great drummers in Nassas. Yeah? Yes. Two, well, at least two. Oh, he said. You're dissing your brother on drone? My brother will be fine. He's still Byron Looter's on stuff. Yeah, on everything.

That's so crazy. On Facebook. Really? Yes. That, okay. That's not even a bit anymore. That's, uh, Dysphoria.

It's been like 12 years. Named dysphoria. This was fantastic. Yeah, I'm trying to think there was one more. Oh, a fun tidbit about that. Jared Alexander Fireside's story. We were just literally just talking to him and mentioned

that we liked the road up. He was like, new records really good. I just finished drumming on it. You guys are going to like it. Was it Haymaker? Hey, May. Heymaker, yeah. So it was that, were that early on. Yeah. Good job, Jared. Very good job. He remember him being in the music video. That's right. The X flashes. Yeah.

Damn. Yeah. A couple of people we know in the music video. For Haymaker? Yeah. In the... Is it never back down video or something? No, it's for myself. Oh, my friend's... I think Dre's in it for sure, but there's a lot of...

That makes sense. He was pitting. Wow, beautiful stuff. This was incredible. Tasty, right? Yeah. Now I think we gotta work off all these calories. Yeah, if only there was some kind of recreational exhibition of sport, we could all...

It just made in... As a full group. Let out. See what everybody else is doing. That's right motherfuckers. It is the legendary fireside bowl. We figured what better way to cap off a perfect day than chuck a couple balls down the lanes, huh? And I'm, this is maybe the most iconic Chicago hardcore venue of all time. Of all, bar none. And I've never been here. Never been inside. Never been inside. Let's check it out. Let's check it out. After you.

Oh. Now keep in mind, this is old. This is classic. This is a Eric, huh? I wonder if anybody's here. Yeah, there's always somebody hanging out. You know, I can't really predict this. Are you kidding me? Is that Chris, Shane and on to it? Who just bowled seven?

What four? God, that. Boys. Again? Again. What the hell, man? What an incredible day. Wow.

This is crazy. Where you are currently standing and where you are currently watching us from your point, of you is the point of view of of every artist that ever played the fireside bowl because you are currently on the very stage where every single band played there is, true. Tell me about...

Yeah, Shane, come here. Yeah. Tell me about the fireside bowl. Tell me about looking stuff here, seeing shows here. How... How was this the most iconic venue in the first year or two, there was no stage. And you just were on the floor

right here. Then things started to get a little. crazy so they they built this stage which still stands here and now it's like where they house all the bowling balls but this is still the exact so davy havoc yeah bully balls well there was no bowling balls in the stage in there right but yeah but now yeah baby havoc yeah a lot of times a fi um a lot of those yeah what are some legendary gigs you booked here or went to oh one of my favorites i always talk about is entombed hatred and bloodlet that it's that it's and they played here and tomb was on to ride truth, Shady to speak the truth and hate free to come out with satisfaction and bloodlet opened that yeah that was a

cool show and this is the stage so if you back up this is the POV yep was this the same floor yeah oh yeah yep so this is the pit oh yeah this is it but it would be so packed you know depending on the show was this open? Yeah, but they would explain it. They would put like a gate almost. It's like that orange construction fence that you see at like festivals and stuff. That was all right where the wood could get damaged. That's where it started. What would technically the capacity be? Craig this. Legal or what we actually fit in here? Well, they don't do it anymore. So I think the statute's up. Legal capacity was 179. Holy hell. We had some shows L7, Melvin,

slap stick where there was 800 people 800 people so you're talking people all the way way back and in some cases even on the lanes that happened a couple times early on and then the owner's like no more of that yeah that's fair but it did happen a couple times why this place is still open it's still an active bowling alley why can't shows happen here because the owner just got tired of it he's not really a music guy and it's the same owner to the same owner yes I think if he was maybe 10 or 15 years older. I might have had a chance to work something out with him, but he's not ready to retire yet.

Ah, yeah. Chris and I played our first band double cross, played here, one of our crowning achievements. I remember double cross playing here. Right when the door was closed and we got in. Yeah, I remember. I think it was the last hardcore show here. Who else played?

Comeback kid? Champion and Allegiance. Allegiance. And double cross open. But somebody didn't play. That's gotta be one of the last ones, too. I want to say maybe champion had to draw for some reason or another or maybe just come back to the other no come back could definitely play I think it was champion I think

I think you're right yeah maybe one one more okay yeah that's it but like it was our best show the pictures were sick you know it made it on a couple shirts Earth Crisis any any Earth crisis show like on the Gamora's tour there was a couple of gear those were awesome Strife here was amazing. There's a lot of good ones. A lot of good ones. Underdog.

I saw the killer here with blood and blood out. How many times did the killer play here? We didn't play her that often because when we started, it was like winding down. Really? Really? Maybe a couple times. 2005 show stuff, would you say? 04 or 05, but we were only a couple years old at the time.

Wow. I mean we did play a few shows here for a few shows here. I want to say I saw you guys with All Out War and Gunwara. and Gung Wara here maybe. I think that's not a right. Yeah, and 25, Delitz played that show. How many times did Ringworm play it? That is a good question.

Dang, I missed that. You'll see it. First pit wipeout since 2004. In 20 fire cycle. Ringworm played here a bunch before I was in the picture, I think. Oh, okay. Ninety-four, 95, and then they went away

for a while and came back, but definitely like on, Bruce is faint and stuff. They play do a lot, yeah. How many bands showed up thinking this was, the bull was maybe a euphemism? Napal death. Oh.

The rest of the band walks in first. I was at the dorm. It's the fucking bowling out of it. That's pretty much exactly what he said. They were all witnessing it as they walked in, but most of the band was like, I can tell on their face they weren't stilt. Barney walks in,

And he just goes, oh, it's a fucking bowen addict, fucking I right. All right. He was totally into it. The king, man. Few corrupts open that show. And I'll never forget. He's like, this is for my new friends. Hey, who corrupts.

Wow. All the best moments. I have, we have seen AFI and he shouts out the fires. Every time. Oh, that's amazing. That's pretty cool. He had some legendary shows here for sure. Yeah, one of the.

The first time I saw AI on the Arbor Drowning Tour at the Metro, before they play Dave's of the Phoenix, Davey shouts out the fireside there. Yeah, that's awesome. This is their feet. This is it, yeah. It's a beautiful thing. This is your thing.

One time. Right, yeah. I got to go on Madball played here once, and Freddy goes, y'all try to front like this as a club. This is a pole again. I was like, he's not wrong. You know, Palin, it's your frame, buddy. Oh, is it?

Let's see. Throw a real clean one, the last one. See, oh, a real clean one? Real clean one. All eyes. Yeah. Uh-oh. Last ever. He's done that in places you wouldn't need.

Don't do it. Excellent. Well done. I've never done that before. I've gotten a gutter ball with bumpers. So Shane, do you think there's ever a possibility of a show happening here again? happening here again? I wouldn't count on it. I mean, I think if Jimmy wants to retire one day and sell the place, that's your best chance. As long as he's around, probably not. He's just not,

he's a good friend of mine. I still hang out with him. I go to football game with him once a year. Good dude, but it's not into this. Gotcha. Is he aware of the significance? Oh, he's aware. Yeah, he's aware. It's just not really his thing. Got it. He, he, the only reason he let me do that fundraiser last year is because he gets along with me you know he's like you're the only person I would do this for I'm like okay thank you yeah venues come and go yeah you know it's it's the people and the community that makes hardcore what it is it's the friendships you make in middle school and high school that you carry on with you forever or on a grueling door in Europe where you're threatening yeah threatened by some crusty's afflestone

That's right. That'll happen. You got Mills. I always got Mills. Are you kidding me? Harkour's the best thing in the world. And, you know, it's great that some people got to enjoy it in a bowling alley. I wish I could have done that. Yeah.

But we can't have everything. Just like Bo can't bowl. He can do, he has plenty of skills. Bowling isn't one of them. Is it your friend? No. Shane's. Oh, let me see if I can.

Shane, throw me a winner, would you? I'll try. Watch him. Get this split real quick. Clean this up. Ah, that'll happen. That was the worst gutter ball ever. Why were the bathrooms so bad back in the day?

Do you remember that? Yeah, they were really bad. They were disgusting. Yeah, but every iconic bathroom, that's a right of passage. You need to have an unpupable bathroom. I think it was a combination of the fact that it's right there, right in the middle of the sweaty floor. so like I think a lot of that nastiness just so close it makes sense yeah it was nasty

what would you say your fire side was the cobalt 100% which we've also played which is cool I think most people think showcases the like is the California hardcore venue that's gone where was the showcase for Corona hours from me yeah what is that like Orange County that's IE Inland Empire that's where Stevens from past Pomona

It's far. That's butt fuck Egypt. From me, incredible venue, iconic, timeless shows there. But mine was the cobalt and most shows were bad. Right. But I didn't know that. Right. Because I was having the time of my life. Bad is relative.

You saw us there, right? Oh, yeah. With nachos. That was our first time. And our first West Coast tour. We didn't get paid. That's awesome. And that tracks.

Not get paid. The crows. Custies from my high school, who like, I did not, I barely knew, you know. Like, we were basically different walks of life. Loved Farmswell. Really? Yeah. You guys were over.

We're over with the crusty's. It's interesting the change we had, because none of us were that. Caution, kind of. But in prison was over. Yeah, we liked crust, but we definitely weren't crust. And then reality approaches was, there's, there's kickback parts. was the sea change. Yeah.

And then No Gods was the real... No Gods was the... That was when it was just me, Chris and James. Dude, I will never forget. What was the first single of No Gods? On No Gods? Yeah. Fantasy?

Fantasy. I could not believe it. With the sample. And then I probably discovered the killer from there. Of like, what... Like, okay, they're from Chicago. Who else is from Chicago? And then my ass was splitting two.

And it never recovers. As you've seen. Speaking of splitting, too, Chris. All right. What would Zuma say? I want to see some crazy shit. Oh, look at that. Oh, come on.

I will say, we were here recently for your thing. Being back here for the first time after a while is really weird. It is. Does it feel unnatural? I mean, I think I went to four, including the one we played, I think I went to five shows here. Oh, ever. Ever.

But they were pivotal moments in your life. Yeah, that A.N. One that we were talking about was really something. Yeah. You went to a couple shows here without me, I know. Yes. But, I mean, I actually, like, played here with. Oh, with Eli?

With Eli. Chris was in kind of a metal core band. What was it called? It's called Eli. I remember that. Everlasting impression. Oh, that's cool. Eli, we somehow got a show offer here.

Now watch this drive. Won't get fooled again. Ah. You want to try to hit the middle, but kind of, oh, I'm sorry. My bad. That won't be necessary. Did you ever come in any shows here? I did it.

Just just missed it. He's 31, so he's just, yeah. But you were like really young when you started coming to shows. You're like 14, 13? Yeah, like that. Yeah, that I want to put you just a couple years away from it, yeah. Strives, strike, strike, did bands ever try to, like, bowl? Yeah, there was an occasional show where the lanes would be open.

If it was like an indie rock show or something, and they were only expecting, like, 50 or so people, they'd have the lanes open. Can other people get in or just, All right, mother, would you have to- No. See, that sounds like a difficult arrangement to make with a bowling in. Well, they could get in if it was one of those shows. Okay.

Yeah. But usually if it was a show, there was just somebody at the door and you paid or you wouldn't get in. How much were shows here? Average show. Five to seven dollars usually. If it was a real of 80-2-80 show, it might be 10 or 12 bucks. Oh!

Napalm death was... That was probably... That was an all-day thing. That was probably 15. Oh. Big money. Yeah, that was like napalm death and Soiling Green or you can't You're fucking kidding me.

That's crazy. You kidding me. Did you say when in tune play here, it was when Wolverine Blues was on? Ride shoot straight. The death and roll record. Yeah. And that was when satisfaction had been out for a little bit, and it was like fucking fire then. Yeah.

The hate free pit at that show was scary. And same. Back to the back wall at all lanes. No lane is safe. We're a community of bowlers. Uh, merch would be back there. There's not a single hint in here of hardcore venue. It is crazy that the stage is still here.

Yeah, because why? That just means they're holding out for something, you know? There we go. There we go. Something. Almost there. Old is the owner of this place now. He's only about 55 maybe.

So, you know, he was a young guy when this was all going on. You know, this place has been in his family. His father opened it, like in the 50s or something like that. Do you know who the first person to book a show here was? Yeah, how did that start? Yes, Brian Peterson. Okay. Brian Peterson was the architect of this place.

He still is around as a company called MP shows and still does shows here in Chicago. But he was the one that started it. He basically just walked in here and said, you know, I do shows here. I want to rent the room out and do shows. And Jim was like, I could use the money. Sure. Do you remember what it costs to use? Yeah.

It's like 150 bucks maybe, I think. Which like even today, if that's four or 500, it's like. Yeah. And if I'm, what was his name, Brian? Brian, yeah. If I'm Brian, I'm like, deal, let's go. Yeah. Give me the room.

I'll do it for a year. Come on. That's what it was. And I mean, there would be some days where there was like three shows. There'd be like a 2 p.m. show, a 6 p.m. show, and then a 10 p.m. show. And it would be like a hardcore show, a pop-pump show, and then some weird indie rock, like, dismemberment plant type thing late, you know? It was all over the place.

Uh-oh. Rob, again. Who would you say was the biggest act at the time that played here? Like when they actually played it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, man. I mean, from a Chicago perspective, when that slapstick. Last show happened that was that happened here. Yeah, that was ridiculous My Chemical Romance played here, right? They played here. They did play here. They were on this

A.N tour that we're always talking about. They were big at the time. They didn't play that show. So our show was Hope Khan, Suicide File, E Tid, and... L7 was insane, too. That was really insane. Like there were so many people on the street that couldn't get in. It was, that was crazy. That had to be up there too. We must stop. These terrorists Killer. Now watch this drive. Dub ya. Oh, wait a minute. There it is. Alright, if this chorus doesn't make you hit a strike,

it ain't happening. Fuck! You know what the crazy thing is? I really tried. I was really like, here we go. Keep on this straight? I'm doing physical geometry every time thinking like, maybe now I'll get it. This whole bowling thing.

I can't believe how difficult to this. It's crazy. I've never been good. I only seen this happen one time, but there was one time at a show where the singer of a band jumped off the stage and ran and dove head first into the pins. You want to make a guess as to who that was? Seth bought him for me. Really?

First he set a 311 shirt on fire on stage and then just dropped it and let it burn. it burn and they're like dude oh my god he jumps off the stage and just runs and dives that's first of the dude the owner was not happy yeah that's fair dillinger did flame fire breathing in here right oh dillinger hurt somebody really bad during that show they like they were doing all the fire and shit and then is ben that is that the guitar player i'm not sure he fucking whipped his guitar around and it like the neck caught some shit in the face and like she was all bloody oh no yeah did people watch from like right here yeah yes so this is a good stage potato so spot? Yeah, people want to watch from there. Yeah. So the total length of time the shows happened here

was like 12 years. 1112 years. I think I want to say he did the first show at 94. So yeah, about that. Most places are kind of before my time, but I think even the people that are little older than you would say fireside too. Was crowbar one of them too or? Do you get that, Stephen? You're talking about pro bar the club or pro bar the band? The club. It said Colin X, X, X. Yes. I don't think they did shows there. Maybe at one point.

Please go to ball. Please go to ball. Yes. Yes. Yo! I'm done. This is our Lord at the Fireside Bowl. Chicago, Illinois.

Thank you all so much. Thank you guys so much for today. Thank you for being here. Shane, if you don't sink this, the pressure is on right now. If you get this turkey. Oh, my God. No way. No way.

That's all the time we have here today. Thank you all for watching. Thank you guys for joining us today. Chicago hardcore. It's a second home to me. It's the first home to Bo. We love it so much. Thank you all for having us.

Thank you all for watching. Chicago Land, if you're watching, keep it up forever. Any last words? I love it here. It's the best city on earth, the best city in the entire world, and I'm so happy to call it home.

Thank you guys. Thanks for coming. Chris, get up in here. Get up in here. You guys are the best. Thank you for taking times out of your days to meet with us. Yeah, thank you. Bye.