DS Show Review & Photo Gallery: C.O.I. in Chicago with Society’s Waste, Missile Strategy, Urban Guerrilla, and Cueball
The underground scene hardcore scene in Chicago is alive and thriving. New DIY venues seem to pop up constantly and old established venues have a constant lineup of shows. The shows at these venues are usually minimally promoted through Instagram fliers and word of mouth and unless you know who to talk to or where to look you’ll never find them. These spaces are whatever people can throw together, whether it’s an empty apartment where rowdy crowds pull the HVAC ducts out of the walls or the back room of a restaurant with moshers pushing up against stacked tables and chairs.
The DIY scene is a breath of fresh air and an incredible testament to the resilience of the punk rock community to falling prey to the corporate greed and focus group-think that has taken over a lot of modern music especially as hardcore is probably as mainstream as it has ever been. They are and always have been a key part of the culture and many provide the younger generation an opportunity create and perform their music and tap into the community. To quote Ceremony the community is “sick of Black Flag, sick of Cro-Mags” and it’s time to pass the torch to a new group of hardcore artists to step up and decide the trajectory of the genre. Most of the bands discussed below have played few shows, with one being their first live performance. Regardless, they packed the space.
This particular show was headlined by C.O.I. (Conflict of Interest), out of Bloomington, Indiana. Until now they have mostly played local shows, getting on the line up of Bloomington’s Sound and Substance festival that put together up and coming bands from the area.
Society’s Waste (seen in the cover photo) also out of Bloomington went on before C.O.I. with a mix of original songs and covers. C.O.I. and them have played a lot together and have gotten on some bigger name lineups opening for Destiny Bond last September when they came through.
Missile Strategy out of Northwest Indiana was on before them.
Urban Gorilla, out of Chicago, showed up to play their first gig ever and it came with some first gig bumps. Cycling through three heads and two different guitars they finally got going before the guitar strap broke and they had to play from their knees.
Cueball, out of Kankakee, got things going. They were also playing one of their first shows but you wouldn’t have known. They brought the intensity that set the tone for the rest of the night. Starting out as a “what-if” scenario between two friends eventually turned into the band organizing and setting an example for small-town suburban Chicago bands inspiring other local groups to get together. Since this show they’ve been hitting Chicago opening for Lead Spirit and Matter of Fact coming up later this month.