Tuesday night was the first official night of SXSW music and due to an early morning flight, I was already feeling tired and a touch misanthropic. It’s fitting then, that Pitchfork took it upon themselves to schedule their Show No Mercy showcase at the Mohawk on this evening. After all, metal’s a good outlet to act out all your aggressions, as evidenced by the two guys trying to start a circle pit during Iron Reagan‘s set.
The Richmond, Virginia quintet, featuring members of Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour, got things off to a fun start with their old school thrash-inspired tunes, and the band themselves certainly had reason to celebrate, with vocalist Tony Foresta announcing that the band had recently signed with Relapse Records.
With songs such as “Eat Shit And Live” and “Your Kid’s An Asshole” (introduced by Foresta with the statement, “I don’t hate kids, but I don’t want to look at pictures of your kids”) along with 5 songs off of the recent flexi disc they recorded for Decibel magazine (which took them all of 2 minutes to perform), the band definitely had an ’80s throwback vibe, and they’re a bit derivative, sure, but when everyone’s having a good time, does it really matter that much if a band’s doing something entirely original?