"Awesome Party Fest" gets underway tonight at the American Czech Center.
St. Louis' Cross Examination
With any luck, the twelve-band hardcore, metal and punk fest will go off without a hitch and blog reviews of the show Saturday will have this headline: ''It was the Totally Awesome Party Fest.'' (Or maybe not.)
When: Friday, July 11, 2008 Where:American Czech Center, 4690 Lansdowne Avenue, St. Louis Time: 7 p.m. Cost: $10
Headlining the show is Cross Examination, whose upcoming Menace II Sobriety CD/LP comes out July 29. The North St. Louis County-based band originally scheduled Friday's show for another venue (the now-closed Building R) -- and only booked In Defence (Minnesota) and ANS (Texas) to play.
Unsurprisingly, the line-up was later bolstered with a slew of local acts, and the Friday night show mushroomed into Awesome Party Fest. Admittedly, Cross Exam singer Devil Dan says he didn't come up with the name "Awesome Party Fest." Did Cross Exam create a monster when it jokingly started the Awesome Party Squad? (A group of "totally sweet dudes / dudettes that have dedicated their lives to being awesome and righteously kicking ass at all times.") Probably.
Cross Exam also had plans to shoot a music video for Chicago's Organized Crime Records when the show was set for Building R, but it looks like those plans have been scrapped.
Bummer.
UPDATE: Friday, 2:30 p.m. Sex/Vid canceled.
However, the sleeper band on the line-up below has to be Olympia, Washington's Sex/Vid. Hailed and hyped as a great new band in hardcore for its urgent, angry songs, Midwesterners who haven't seen them can gauge whether they live up to the hype. Sex/Vid was added to the bill just last week, after its Memphis, Tennessee, show fell through.
RFT sister paper SF Weekly profiled Sex/Vid's show in the Bay Area last week. Read that write-up here.
Here are the other bands on the bill:
Terra Caput Mundi (St. Louis): 7:30 p.m.
M.C.F. (St. Charles): 7:50 p.m.
Infinite Missiles (Joliet, Illinois): 8:10 p.m.
Dude Nukem (St. Louis): 8:30 p.m.
Big Fucking Missile Crisis (Kansas City): 8:50 p.m.
Imminent Death (Kansas City): 9:20 p.m.
Suburban Smash (St. Louis): 9:40
Cardiac Arrest (St. Louis): 10 p.m.
Sex/Vid (Olympia, Washington): 10:20 p.m.
In Defence (St. Paul, Minnesota): 10:40 p.m.
A.N.S. (Denton, Texas): 11 p.m.
Cross Examination - "Until lights go out."
The open bar and comforting confines of the American Czech Center allow for plenty of room to lounge and talk while bands in the other room tear through their set. There also may be dual P.A. systems at the show, ensuring one band begins immediately after another finishes. Even the most A.D.D.-addled punk won't get bored at this show.
