Redding (invades)

When the third-graders I teach grow up, I want them to be just like the high school girls in Social Concern—outspoken, individual thinkers more likely to bust up an electric guitar than to bust out a Wet Seal gift certificate. Social Concern is no novelty, however, but instead a motivated group of impassioned kids smashing their heads on the punk rock.

It takes conviction and an infinitely deep pool of inspiration to possibly account for the slingshot shit-storm of dance punk done right by History (invades), the second band on this all-Redding bill. The comparisons to NYC’s The Rapture and D.C.'s Q and Not U are noted, yet suspect. History (invades) accomplishes a near impossible feat by instilling belief in its audience that the noise it brings just may be something entirely new. Its songs exist on an exhausting platform of repetitive rhythm; the drumkit trounced, as plunging, thick bass chords were striken against tactically administered guitar effects chosen for texture and not necessarily definition, and choral shouts punctuated by the guitarist singing through his guitar’s pickups. History (invades) will be releasing a full-length album in the fall on Makebreak Records of Seattle.

The wildly popular The Red Robot closed the evening, drawing every last person from the street, and rendering the tiny Fulcrum Records a crowded greenhouse. Every warm breath of oxygen drawn had the sour taste of having just been expelled by the person stacked against you. The Red Robot mines the furious and focused strains of the greatest of the great Dischord Records acts, but importantly leaves its own imprint.