Scene Report: AV at the hardcore/punk (and secretly Christian) festival
Scene Report: AV at the hardcore/punk (and secretly Christian) festival
feedback & photos from Furnace Fest + a few bonus Instax snaps
I never moshed, really. A few half-hearted attempts 1991-1993.
But a few weeks back, I went to a hardcore & punk festival for the aged. The lineup at Furnace Fest in Birmingham leaned more hardcore, metal, and un-pop punk than most of my formative underground faves, but if this was your core shit, the bill had a lot to offer.
I’ve known of a bunch of these bands, many of them for decades, but couldn’t name a single song: Sick of it All, Poison the Well, Agnostic Front, etc. I’ve definitely heard some of these, and might know a weird fact or two about an act’s history or scene, but I didn’t care about seeing any them live when they/we were kids, and don’t care about seeing them live now.
However, since this festival is secretly 25% Christian Rock, they’d booked Roadside Monument for a rare reunion show, which is why I went, and they had Norma Jean, which is why my oldest friend Cole came with me. Otherwise, neither of us woulda been there. And since we were going, I was excited for a small handful of things: Integrity, Quicksand, Sunny Day Real Estate. I’m Fiddlehead curious, so thought I might check them out, too.
The fact that these Christian-ass bands can now be on the same bill as Integrity actually makes me mad. If you were a cheesy Christian Rock band or fan in the ‘90s, you were not allowed to be around cool, evil shit! I bet a bunch of these Christian bands smoke weed now, too. Total bullshit. I had to hide out in the cornfield at Cornerstone Festival to huff joints!
Other than Roadside Monument and Norma Jean, these are the bands on the show I know as straight-up Christian Rockers, whether they would object to the tag or not: Stretch Arm Strong, Sunny Day Real Estate, Pedro the Lion, The Appleseed Cast, Blindside, Demon Hunter, Squad 5-0, Five Iron Frenzy.
These are just the acts that stand out from my 10 years serving time. There are, without a doubt, several other Christian Rockers tucked in here who came after I’d finally wiggled my way out of that world. A few minutes googling and cross-referencing Fans Also Like listings with the festival poster, and I can add Idol Threat, The Ghost Inside, Advent, Watashi WA, Alexisonfire, and others to the list.
For the record, Roadside Monument would object to the Christian Rock classification, but I think Norma Jean are cool with it. When I was talking to Johnathon Ford, who plays bass in Roadside, he thought back. “Dude, it was embarrassing,” he said. “It’s still embarrassing.”
Integrity’s lead singer and only permanent member, Dwid Hellion, was a midwestern legend among 10-20 people in my non-Christian Dork orbit in the ‘90s, but I only liked one of their songs. “Kingdom of Heaven” is from a random split 7” they released with a band called Mayday.
I never saw Integrity live, never got into other songs or records, and was stunned when I looked back at the artwork for the single. This is dark and VERY OCCULTY for 18-year-old Adam! I’m both confused as to how I allowed it, and impressed that I let it into my little world. I was getting good at straddling Christian Rock and the punk and hardcore scenes, but there were limits, and you’d think this Integrity shit would have set off alarms. Certainly, if my mom had found this in my room, there would’ve been trouble.
By the time we got into Birmingham, checked into our hotel, and got our slow-asses over to the festival grounds, we did a quick walkthrough to get our bearings. We found the food court and merch booths, swung by each of the three stages, and saw a little E.Town Concrete and Anti-Flag on accident in passing. When it was time to go see Integrity on the second stage, Cole was unreasonably anxious about getting in position for Norma Jean on the mainstage, so we just skipped them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Having taken a lap around the grounds, seeing the crowd size in front of the stages, and noting the lack of lines for food, beer, toilets, and merch, it was obvious the event was decidedly Not Sold Out! For old-guy fans, lumbering around this site, that’s a massive perk. For the promoters, it’s a drag.
That said, the crowd was big for Norma Jean, the healthiest I saw across the weekend. The booking agent in me says they were under-billed for the number of heads they had out, and I bet they were underpaid.
Norma Jean arrived on the Christian Rock scene just as I was leaving, but I was aware that they were playing toe-to-toe with their secular counterparts. They legitimately crossed over; there were glowing reviews in proper heavy music magazines and websites!
Because they’re 10-albums deep and Cole loves every single song, Norma Jean are Cole’s favorite by band by sheer numbers. He’s picky, and a fickle little bitch, turning his back on artists all the time, but he’s never done anything but rep hard for Norma Jean.
He was fully satisfied with the gig. As a bystander, so was I. After a few songs, the singer gave a full-throated WE ARE THE ALMIGHTY NORMA JEAN! into the mic over the building intro of the next tune, and I have to tell you: The dude meant it, and it ruled to see.
After Norma Jean, we hooked up with the Roadside guys, grabbed drinks in the sparsely populated VIP area, then watched Quicksand together. They were… fine? I love the debut 7” and first LP to death, and even dig a few songs from the second album, but the later output hasn’t grabbed me. The band felt super duper heavy to me in the mid-90s, and is now a looser and softer affair. They appeared to be having a blast, for what it’s worth. That’s okay. I saw a perfect Quicksand show, at the Metro in Chicago in 1994, and got my fill.
We didn’t make it to Fiddlehead (this was a theme). We half-watched Alexisonfire with another round of drinks. We shopped at the fantastic PM Press booth, buying a bunch of books on the way out, then grabbed burgers at the brewery across the street from the grounds.
Roadside Monument was the first band I toured with, and it was great to be with the guys again. They were short-lived as a full-time concern. On the road and making records from 1996 to 1998, the band were trying desperately, like I was at the time, to get the fuck out of the Christian Rock ghetto.
They’ve done a few reunion shows over the past 25 years, and I’d missed a few of those, so made it a priority to catch them this time. We made a plan to hook up again in the morning at a Waffle House on the edge of town, out by their cheap hotel, before the festival started up again on Saturday when Roadside were scheduled to play.
Some funny shit went down when we tried to eat at Waffle House the next morning, but that’s for another story. Literally, I’ve taken the Waffle House visit and stuffed it into the novel I’m writing about a fake Roadside Monument tour in 1997. It’s notable that the band and I can regroup after decades and do something which felt exactly the same as it would have then.
When the Waffle House failed, we landed at a place called Hamburger Heaven, eating burgers and fries at 11am, when we’d just done the same thing late the night before. Just like old times.
Later, Roadside played on the tiny stage by the pond at the back of the festival site. A handful of fans were there, but not many. Just like old times.
After they finished and started loading their shit into the van, Cole and I wandered over to the second stage. We thought it might be fun to see what 40-something Earth Crisis was up to. The stage was running behind, and Bleeding Through was just getting ready to go on 30 minutes late. Neither Cole nor I knew anything about Bleeding Through, a metalcore band with some Cookie Monster vocal vibes, but they gave it hell up there whatever they were doing. And as for Earth Crisis, goddamn, both the band and their fans are still devout.
We putzed around the rest of the night, seeing snippets of a few acts before watching Sunny Day Real Estate, who sounded fucking great, close out the night. They gave me two tunes each from the first and second LPs, enough to satiate. While I would have liked to see Avail on Sunday, we were on the road back home by the time the gates opened on day three.
In the car on the way home, I searched for a song Earth Crisis had played. “Gomorrah’s Season Ends” starts with a mission statement: From the core of my being comes this promise to myself that I won't break my honor before all. A one-way mission through life, I won't change my course. The crowd went haywire bonkers out of hand when they band got to the tough guy chant at the end: I AM STRAIGHT EDGE! I AM STRAGHT EDGE! I AM STRAIGHT EDGE! No doubt most of that crowd had broken edge long ago, giving up on adolescent rules. Like me, just different wacky beliefs.
Thanks for reading. Please share with readers who may be into it!
There are a few bonus Instax pics and captions below.
You should be reading Mike Nagel's column “The Unintentionalist” over at Little Engines.
I love you all. Ok, most of you.
Adam
Indianapolis Baio. This summer, at the debut of WonderRoad festival. Against all odds, my old hometown is a crucial stop for Vampire Weekend.
Hoosier Pride ‘22. Earlier, the same day Vampire Weekend played. A good one-two in the Hoosier state.
