First Blood live @ Gilman St. video

I stumbled across this First Blood video on youtube a little while back and figured that I should definitely share it on the blog. This set was filmed by John Jenkins a.k.a. John Eightclip (Eightclip Media, Allegiance, Right On) on November 30th 2002 at 924 Gilman Street. Hopefully John doesn’t object to me posting this video… The other bands on the bill that night included: Terror, In Control, All Bets Off & Animosity. This was definitely a highly anticipated show; I can vividly remember a lot of people traveling from all over the West Coast (specifically LA, San Diego, Reno, Seattle, etc.) to see it. I can spot a lot of old friends and familiar faces in the crowd here, some that I haven’t seen in years… this was undeniably an amazing time for Hardcore in the Bay Area and anyone who was there will attest.

First Blood’s line-up at the time was: Carl, Doug, Kyle, Dave & “Albany” Mike. This is definitely one of the band’s earlier shows (I think they opened) but at this point they were already receiving crazy crowd reactions (as you can plainly see). Armed with just a 5-song CDR demo, First Blood was quickly gaining a tremendous amount of attention from both fans and labels alike, but ultimately FB would have to take the backseat for a while as Doug toured full-time with his other band; Terror. Carl would also eventually join Terror and for the next couple years, First Blood would only play shows on very rare occasions (Carl eventually quit Terror sometime during 2006 and quickly reformed First Blood with a new line-up).

I plan on posting some of First Blood’s recordings eventually, but in the meantime enjoy this video. The show’s flyer is posted below...

Redemption 87 live @ Gilman St. photos

These photos of Redemption 87 were taken at Gilman Street by Elizabeth Reilly. I’m not sure of the exact year but I am guessing it was somewhere between 1995 and 1996 (note the Black Fork tag). Especially given the time frame, these are definitely some of the best pictures that I’ve seen, both of the band and from that era.

Seeing Redemption 87 live was always an experience, Eric was a total madman on stage and the crowd reactions were usually equally insane. Their shows had a major impact on me as a kid, and that band was probably a big reason as to why I kept coming back for more. In my opinion, Redemption 87 was hands down, one of the best bands to ever come out of Northern California (Hardcore or otherwise). I plan on doing more Redemption-related posts in the very near future, but until then enjoy these amazing photos. Special thanks to Elizabeth Reilly for taking these pictures, hopefully she doesn’t mind my posting them.

Sworn Vengeance live @ Gilman St. video

SWORN VENGEANCE 4 14 2000 GILMAN ST. from Eric 31 on Vimeo.

This set was filmed back in April of 2000 at Gilman St. by Eric Fortner, formerly of Downshift (pre-Sworn Vengeance to those unaware). I remember that this show was a few months prior to the release of “Domination” and in my opinion Sworn Vengeance were probably at their heaviest, and for lack of a better term, most brutal at this point. This was also one of their famous “weapons shows”, for those wondering what Ryan is throwing out into the crowd (cheap plastic swords, haha…). The band’s line-up at the time consisted of Ryan, Marc, Brian, Dan and Carl, probably their best line-up in my opinion.

Following some member changes and a drastic change in their style, Sworn Vengeance disbanded in early 2002. To those who don’t know, Dan now plays guitar in Set Your Goals and Carl Sings for First Blood. Special thanks to Eric for filming this all those years ago, hopefully he doesn’t mind me posting this video. The rest of the show looked something like this (although I think CFTC cancelled and was replaced by Second Coming):