We were moving from the aughts to the twenty-teens, finally getting comfortable with the fact that we were out of the ’90s and that we had emerged from the first decade of a new century that some folks thought we’d never see….and we had emerged mostly unscathed. I had just moved back to California a couple of years earlier, I was active in three more or less functional bands, and there was hope – at least for a present if not a future. It feels like yesterday, and it seems like a lifetime ago. It was 2010 – and this is what DIY North American hardcore sounded like. Adult but still young. Still pissed. Still optimistic because of how shitty the world is because it means you’re still connected with the Forces Of Good trying to help. Not mysterious (that was a different trend), but also not confident. Very very fukkn real.
