UGLY AMERICANS
\n\u201cThe Eastpak Resistance Tour, Volume II\u201d (DVD) From I SCREAM Records<\/p>\n
Review by Kent Manthie<\/p>\n
The metal of today is different than, say, the stuff from the 1970s and quite removed from the excessive glam\/hair of the 1980s. Some call it \u201cNu-metal\u201d, I guess that\u2019s as good a label as anything else. But, when I say \u2018different\u2019, I mean that, for one, most of these dudes in these bands look clean-cut, squeaky clean and not dirty and long-haired or wearing skin-tight jeans or Spandex. Most of these guys could be the proverbial \u201cboy next door\u201d, the others look more like punk-rockers than metalheads, but that is somewhat from the blurring of musical \u201cclasses\u201d, whereby cliquishness used to delineate these differences neatly and methodically. Nowadays you can\u2019t tell what music one is a fan of by looking at them anymore; not precisely anyway. Of course, neither an old white lady, a Mari Tribesman nor a Chinese peasant farmer are going to be listening to this stuff, nor hip-hop or jazz or punk, but I\u2019m really only comparing people of the same age-range and demographic.
\n One indie label, I Scream Records, has been nurturing a new cadre of up-and-coming metal bands and in November of 2003, put together a tour of some of their roster and, at the Ancienne Belgique, in Brussels, Belgium, one stop on the \u201cEastpak Resistance Tour (volume II)\u201d, where they filmed it. It was done well, I\u2019ll say that. It has a feature-film quality to it, not a cheap, hand-held Handy-Cam job and with the technology available these days, it\u2019s quite easy to achieve this quality with a minimum of hassle, thanks to digital processing and whatnot. The club that they film in, the Ancienne Belgique, looks like a prison cell block, with these tiers that go up and up-about 3 or 4 high, with steel mesh barriers around each. I guess that gives it a rowdy feel, then again, it\u2019s also a great way to maximize space.
\n The eight bands on here are as follows: Madball, Ignite, Death by Stereo, Sworn Enemy, Length of Time, Backfire, Knuckledust and Convict. This all went down in one night: it was recorded live at the aforementioned arena in Brussels on November 30, 2003. So it was an honest to goodness, as it happened live show, not a fake one, where there are a bunch of re-takes and such. The editing process came later, but it has a cinema verite quality to it; albeit a slick one. My favorite spots were Convict\u2019s set and a couple cuts by Death by Stereo (\u201cWasted Words\u201d, \u201cHigh School was like Boot Camp for a Desk Job\u201d). But, all in all, everyone rocked; it was a loud and fast, cathartic fun-fest for thousands of kids that want to have a good time thrashing to some bitchin\u2019 tunes. To find out more info about the crazy cats on the tour, go to http:\/\/www.resistancetour.com, or you can check out http:\/\/www.iscreamrecords.com \u2013KM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UGLY AMERICANS \u201cThe Eastpak Resistance Tour, Volume II\u201d (DVD) From I SCREAM Records Review by Kent Manthie The metal of today is different than, say, the stuff from the 1970s and quite removed from the excessive glam\/hair of the 1980s. Some call it \u201cNu-metal\u201d, I guess that\u2019s as good a label as anything else. But, when I say \u2018different\u2019, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[523],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-ugly-americans-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":357,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2007\/09\/06\/the-first-hurt-book-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":654,"position":0},"title":"The First Hurt book review","author":"admin","date":"September 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[book review] The First Hurt Stories by Rachel Sherman 10 stories; 148 pages; average story length: 14 pages Published in 2006 by Open City Books $13.00 Reviewed by Brittany Siler The First Hurt is stark, frank, and smart. 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