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...

Hoods live @ Danville Grange Hall videos

I was pretty stoked when I stumbled across these videos the other night, and I figured that I had to post them on the blog. This Hoods set was filmed by Eric Fortner (Downshift) at the Danville Grange Hall back in January of 1997. Big thanks to Eric for always being cool about sharing his music and video footage. This very early Hoods line-up featured Mikey on guitar, Mario playing Bass, Billy (someone please correct me if I’m wrong) on drums and Mike Miranda (aka Mike Spaulding) on vocals. Mike Hodson (Lockjaw .44, Strength By Strength, Through It All) also makes a guest vocal appearance somewhere around the end of the first video that continues onto the second video.

Despite the fact that this video is chopped into three parts, this is still is a pretty good quality set, especially when considering the time frame. The band plays mostly earlier stuff here (first ep, demo tracks, new blood, etc.) and closes with a pair of Agnostic Front covers (“Last Warning” and “Friend or Foe”) which was definitely a Hoods-staple for years. Videos like this definitely make me miss the Grange Hall. On a related note, be on the lookout for more Hoods-related posts very soon, and if you haven’t done so already, be sure to download any records of theirs that I’ve already posted.

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):