Gorilla Biscuits / Black Train Jack - live in New York (Cover Artwork)

Gorilla Biscuits / Black Train Jack

live in New York (2005)

live show

About halfway through the Gorilla Biscuits set, Civ told the packed CBGBs crowd they were going to be playing everything...everything. So if you want a set list, look at the back of their albums because they pretty much played it all. It was nearly an hour and a half of pure bliss.

Now don't get me wrong; GB broke up before I'd ever heard of them. From what I understand, Start Today came out when I was in 8th grade. I'm 30 now. A lot of the screamo kids with bad haircuts who went to the Warped Tour this year weren't even alive in 1989. So I'm proud to say later that night as I walked out of the club, I got my diploma. I graduated from middle school to old school.

I've seen a lot of punk and hardcore bands over the past 13 years or so. This was one of the shows you realize you made the right choice when you decided to listen to this genre of music in the first place.

When the horns came over the speakers, heads got stepped on. Then Walter played the familiar opening chord of "New Direction" and Civ ran out saying "New York Hardcore, this is for you." I don't think I've ever seen a more passionate crowd. All the glorious trademarks of a NYHC show were there...the finger pointing, the stage diving, the singalongs, pile-ons...it was beautiful.

Amazingly, after not playing together for all those years, the Biscuits sounded pretty tight. They tore through the classics with all the inspiration and fury you'd expect, barely missing a note. Civ may have had it easiest. The crowd sang just about all the songs for him.

Towards the end of the show, respect was paid to friends of the band and the scene who have since passed on, including Raybeez. From there, GB played an amazing version of Warzone's "As One." Absolutely sick. The crowd sang 95 percent of it. Of course, the closer was "Start Today" with Walter on the harmonica.

You should be jealous if you didn't see this show in person or on the Internet. It was something to behold and cherish. I'm forever grateful to Walter for allowing me to be a part of it and to the rest of the band for getting it together one last time to save the cathedral that housed it all.

A few other bands played that I didn't see due to a scheduling conflict, but I did catch some of Black Train Jack's set. I wasn't really too big on them back in the day, but they had a good amount of fans there and sounded pretty tight as well.