REVIEW: Sunbloc, Take Steps, & Spiritkiller Take Over the Albany Skyway
08/30 @ The Albany Skyway
Photos by Pete Perry
“The weather was perfect, the sun set beautifully casting halos around each of the performers, and the crowd went wild after every song. I truly cannot imagine a better use for all that concrete.”
When a lot of people think of Albany, they think of crumbling concrete brutalist architecture, freshly built concrete brutalist architecture, and the system of exits off 787 that would make a rat king jealous. So the lads in Sunbloc decided to get a generator, bring a few bands up to the Albany Skyway, and rock it for an afternoon to put all that concrete to good use. Flanked by the setting sun and the soon to be destroyed Central Warehouse, Take Steps, Sunbloc, & Spiritkiller put on a show that reminded a bunch of us that it ain't so bad in Albany.
Take Steps started off the afternoon with their unique version of hardcore with a clever, y2k twist. What Deftones are to Metallica, Take Steps is to Terror, and I mean that as a massive compliment (if you still don't like nu-metal, check your watch grandad, you're due back at the home). It's refreshing to see younger bands take a genre as keen to repetition as hardcore and mold it into their own image. It also made me feel a little old, which was a pill I swallowed with a heavy dose of hits from the band. Huge riffs, math rock speed, catchy hooks, and Marshall heads. Take Steps has it all.
Next up was Sunbloc, the Capital Region's kings of alt rock. Their self-described "Evan Dando Hardcore" sent me running like a Hannah Barbera character to google what that meant. Turns out it's like Oasis on 94 octane. Fast, catchy and aggressive, but so fun that it probably won't scare your cousin away... until they hit the Enemies At All Times part of the set. Enemies At All Times is an EP-sized effort by the band (or maybe it's a band within a band? Either way, I keep playing the cassette) to stick to the stricter bounds of hardcore and turn their sound to 10. Tight and fast riffs, barked vocals, and drums that could push a train got the crowd moving and the vocalist showing off his acrobatics. Sunbloc left it all on the stage like they always do.
Spiritkiller brought things back to a classic style of hardcore performed with the kind of precision that might get them a free ride to med school. Intense vocals, tight changes, and a frontman that wasn't afraid to interact with the crowd, even calling his buddies up to share the mic. They're stalwarts of the scene for obvious reasons. They're really, really, really good at playing in-your-face hits and have developed into a fine tuned machine to do it. I even caught a picture of myself from another photographer making the dirtiest stink face I've ever seen captured (the highest compliment one can give to an absolutely nasty riff). Seriously, just go see them.
The weather was perfect, the sun set beautifully casting halos around each of the performers, and the crowd went wild after every song. I truly cannot imagine a better afternoon of music or a better use for all that concrete.
