December 13th 2002
Eskapo and The Cost
924 Gilman St. $5 7pm
My friends and I decided that we didn`t want to stay for the whole show, the rain was horrible and driving was scary. So we stayed for Eskapo, The Cost, and the spoken word. Also, let me just say, Gilman had a werid feel to it tonight. I don`t know if I have ever seen so many kids under 16 there. One thing I especially like about going there is there aren`t so many teeny bopper kids and an older audience you can mingle with. Tonight was not that at all, in fact it was very noticable the difference in crowd. A couple of my friends and I turned to eachother and said "theres a lot of younger kids here!" But other then that heres the show....
Eskapo
I was very skepticable about this band for the fact that were going to be singing in Tagolog.. I haven`t ever seen a hxc band sing in a different language. But I didn`t let this keep me from watching them with an open mind. They had a lot of kids out there to see them so I figured they couldn`t be half bad. The first few of their songs I wasn`t feelin them too much. I got this feel from them, "play as hard as you can, as fast as you can, and scream a lot while doing it." I don`t know why my opinion changed of them so much toward the end of their set. The first 5 or so of their songs I just felt needed a little bit of work, but thats definetly not to say they weren`t good. Their songs consisted of both Engligh and Tagolog, something which was unique and gave a different feel to their set. One song that stuck out in my mind was "Bataan" it is about the Death March in World War 2. A lot of the bands that play Gilman I find to be hardcore with political views. This was the same forumla only a bit deeper. They closed with a song called Manila, which was clearly a crowd pleaser. Everyone was jumping, dancing, some fans got on the stage and sang along, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. So overall I would say they played good, some of it needed work, but it was enjoyable. I would rate it 3 stars out of 5! Rock!
The Cost
As you can tell from my previous reviews, cd review, and interview, I`m a huge cost fan. I don`t know why but this band just catches me and I love them! So to start off I should mention that it was Friday the 13th and I think this affected the band. About 20 seconds into their set a string was broken. But I guess it`s better to get that all away in the beginning. They opened with Atmospheric Pressure- the first song off their record, "Chimera." I was very suprised by the shortness of their set. They planned on playing 7 songs, which in my opinion is short enough, but since the sting incident in the beginning of the set, I think they ended up only playing 5 songs. Which, in my opinion, is never enough. The Cost delivered such amazing energy and meloric hardcore music, a reason I always love seeing them play. I don`t really have much to say other then I wish they played longer but what we did get of them was awesome enough. I suggest you catch a show sometime... You will thank me later for it. 4 out of 5 stars for this awesome band!
xOxO
Jen aka "xMarilyNx"