- Aug 5, 2019

PURE NOISE TOUR: A Parent's Perspective

Pittsburgh has always been home for me. Each venue has a special piece of history etched in heart of the steel city as well as my own. From the stadiums to clubs none holds more or just as many memories as East Carson Street's The Rex Theatre. In the 20 years I've been going to concerts, The Rex has been home to many shows in my concert ticket collection with everyone from the likes of rock band Angels and Airwaves to hardcore punks The Casualties to even my own band playing on the stage years back. Enters the Pure Noise Tour 2019.

The Pure Noise Tour by Pure Noise Records has featured some of the label's most promising up-and-coming acts since its inaugural run in 2012 featuring The Story So Far. Since then, the tour has presented bands like State Champs, Seaway and Boston Manor, among others, even venturing overseas in 2015 for a 10-date UK stint featuring Four Year Strong.

With the tour already underway, having set out in LA on 7/18, it's undoubtedly one of the most hard-hitting shows this year with Stick To Your Guns, Counterparts, Terror, Year of the Knife and Sanction joining forces for the 30+ date run. "Our last Pure Noise tour was 3 years ago and we're excited that this next installment is such a strong one," Pure Noise founder Jake Round explains. "Every band on this tour brings something special to the bill."

The show was set to kick off at 6:30PM with Hamilton, ON Counterparts, but upon arriving fans were greeted with a rescheduled time for 7:00PM start due to unforeseen events of Counterparts van breaking down traveling to the show.

After a brief intermission of 80's pop songs over the pa, Long Island, NY's own Sanction was up next. The New York quintet blasted through a 35 minute set of non-stop hardcore barely stopping in between tracks with songs like Fixed Upon A Figure, Radical Lacerations and Paralysis all of which fans were insane about. There was only one point where the band stopped which was mid-song as a fan was knocked unconscious flying off the stage. The band remained quiet and let staff tend to the fan who gave a thumbs up as he staggered to his feet. Sanction's professionalism was incredibly impressive, showing care to the hurt while also not losing a beat, picking up right were they left off in the song.Year of the Knife promptly kicked off the show at 7 blasting through tunes off of their fairly new April 2019 album ULTIMATE AGGRAVATION with tunes like Untitled and their latest single FATAL.

After another brief intermission of more 80's pop songs from Cyndi Lauper to AhHa, a band that has been around for nearly 20 years was ready to hit the stage, Los Angeles California's TERROR, a band who has almost as much history etched into them as the walls of The Rex Theatre. The crowd was insane, moshing and throwing down even before the first chord was struck in anticipation for the Cali hardcore quintet. The band hit the stage, and the crowd exploded. 20 years of hardcore music rushing to fans ears with songs from 2 decades of albums from The 25th Hour to Total Retaliation to Live by the Code and Always the Hard Way. The band made haste between songs blasting through nearly an hour of hardcore and metal tunes.

As another small intermission of 80's pop rock and love ballads posing as a pallet cleanser of non-stop hardcore music for the evening, I stepped outside onto the busy Friday night streets of Pittsburgh to watch the fan from Sanction's set get loaded into an ambulance. From what onlookers had said, he wasn't severely hurt, just getting checked out for a concussion, he was dropped on his head after all. I looked around at the diversity of fans as everyone headed back in for the night's closing band Stick To Your Guns. From 63 years of age, to 7 years old fans from all walks of life awaited for the lights to dim and the show to begin.

For an hour the Pure Noise 2019 headliners ripped through dozens of tunes from their single We Still Believe from their 2012 album Diamond to their newly released single 56, just dropping weeks ago from their album True View, the band pleased fans with a variety of tunes all throughout their nearly two decades as a band, the whole time to an ecstatic, energetic crowd. Watching a 64-year-old man run laps around 19 year old kids in a mosh pit is who I aspire to be one day.

As I left The Rex, ears ringing, drenched in other people's sweat, it closes another chapter in the history this city holds for me, as I await the next show.