Roll Call, Eightfold Path, and more at S27 Alehouse

It’s been a long month since the hardcore community was able to play in San Jose since the Orifice hosted their last show in early September. This was a show that brought our community together, hang out with friends, and have fun to live music. 

S27 Alehouse hosted the San Jose show with their parking lot for ~300 attendees. I was talking with Drain frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro, and he was amazed to see lots of new faces in our scene. He said that this reminded him of “a mini RBS show,” a callback to the 2021 outdoor show that had Sunami, Scowl, Drain, and Gulch all in the same lineup.

RBS 2021 show courtesy of 197Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDPGQ8T7XwI 

Lockjaw opened up the show with the crowd going nuts, as complemented by their vocals and pinch harmonics. I was a little intimidated since I had a flight two days after the show. These guys are young and have potential, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Barbary is another band that has young kids with similar potential. I remember people were still going crazy with traditional hardcore dances like the two-step, collecting change, and spin-kicks. I think they really got the crowd all riled up because I counted six bloody noses after their set. Usually I would see two or 3 after the headliner, so I was surprised. 

Live Barbary Set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGdDH_PWahU 

Arbitrary was one of the sets I was excited for because of my friends in the band. They dedicated their set to Chris Oropeza, a friend of the community who passed away last month. The song that defined their set was when they played “Six Feet Deep” by Swear to God. They said that they would “never play this song again”, but this was a way to honor Chris.

Live Arbitrary Set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNRt5BMtrhw 

Eightfold Path was up next, and they were one of the bands that got me into hardcore. They started with an unreleased song, and I can’t wait for its release. The crowd was quiet (assuming they were tired from the other bands) but picked up as their set progressed. I had the chance to catch up with friends in the band and they said they had a blast playing, but wished they played more throughout the year. 

Roll Call from New York was the headliner, and they had a very thrash/punky style compared to the SJ-based bands. They were lots of fun and still had a lot of energy for attendees running in a circle pit. I was pretty tired after doing cartwheels and karate kicks during 8Fold and Arbitrary, so I took a breather and watched from afar.

The show was a lot of fun, seeing friendly faces, meeting new ones, and just having much-needed time to wind down and let loose. On to the next hardcore show!