Never thought I’d see them. I was 15 when their last EP came out, and I read about it on Pitchfork. It only got a 4.5, which is kind of hilarious in retrospect, because the review still got me to check the band out. Pitchfork gave terrible reviews to a lot of great albums back then. They’ve always been arbiters of garbage taste.
Botch was one of several bands from the early waves of what I suppose we would now call metalcore and screamo that broke up mere moments before I was really old enough to go see them play. I went and saw all their followup bands instead.
I once heckled Botch guitarist Dave Knudson’s post-Botch band Minus the Bear at a gig (I think it was the Knitting Factory), yelling “Play a Botch Song!” every time they stopped playing. I didn’t really understand why that might annoy him or anyone else at the time, I just really liked his old band.
I don’t feel too bad in retrospect because the crude humor and party-boy vibe of Minus the Bear hasn’t aged very well (although I guess it could fit in nicely with the so-called Indie Sleaze revival, if there was any substance to it).
It’s funny to see the Knudson back onstage with singer Dave Verellen, who took every opportunity in this particular set to talking about looking after each other in the pit, setting a good example for young people, etc. It’s a far cry from the “let’s meet strangers on tour to take pills and have sex with” vibe that permeated Minus the Bear. At any rate, These Arms Are Snakes was the better post-Botch band, in my opinion, and they haven’t really gotten their due, even though they recently staged a minor comeback.
Back to this gig at Starland. The crowd wasn’t quite as old as I expected. Probably owed to the perennial youth of hardcore audiences. Which is why I don’t usually go to hardcore shows anymore. It’s for kids. This makes Converge’s role as supporting act all the more intriguing.
First, they played so well they almost upstaged the headliners. It’s almost unfair to have a well-oiled touring machine like Converge open for the recently reformed legacy act. But plenty of other 30-year veterans still don’t approach Converge’s level of proficiency. I’m not even a huge fan these days, and I didn’t care for the setlist, but I was still really impressed.
I tuned out from Converge in the mid 2000s. The “No Heroes” and “Axe To Fall” LPs never stood a chance at measuring up to the tightly wound brilliance of “Jane Doe” (2001) or the more surprising novelty of high points in their earlier material- like their 7 minute long “The Saddest Day” or legitimately creepy “Color Me Blood Red.”
So I expected that they would still be playing that material, dutifully, like most touring legacy acts who know nobody cares about their new stuff. But they weren’t. Nothing older than “Jane Doe,” and only one or two songs from that record. I was looking over my shoulder to see if people reacted well. I couldn’t quite tell. But it’s entirely possible that there’s a whole younger fan base who primarily know and love Converge’s more recent material. Either way, the band made a pretty clear statement: we’re still legitimately active. Don’t mistake us for a legacy act. And they have the chops to back it up.
When Botch was wrapping up they mentioned that they played at the Melody Bar in New Brunswick on their last time touring through New Jersey. I never went, but it seems like capacity there was 100-200 at the absolute maximum. Now they sold out Starland, a venue that fits 2,500. Metalcore has gotten pretty big since Botch called it quits in the early 00’s, but it isn’t usually the sort of math-rock- and noise-rock-influenced stuff that Botch was playing. That substyle probably still isn’t the most popular strain of heavy rock, but it’s never gone away either, and it pleases me to know that the longevity of a band I don’t follow anymore– Converge– can help funnel newer listeners and bigger crowds into more esoteric or forgotten stuff.
On that note, I’ve been listening to a lot of Today is the Day lately, who almost sound like a mathy metalcore band, but make pretty much no concessions to the kind of mosh-inducer riffs that lesser bands rely on, and even many good bands dabble in occasionally. Getting ready for this gig prompted me to dig back through some of the old math/metal/noise/hardcore material from the early 00’s to see if any of it stands up to more ‘grown-up’ sensibilities.
