Glassjaw celebrates 30 years of post-hardcore ardour at Echoplex

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Glassjaw vocalist Daryl Palumbo nonetheless has a tough time utilizing the phrase “legacy” to explain his band’s contribution to the post-hardcore scene.

“There’s a lot pomposity in saying ‘legacy’ after I have already got a tough sufficient time accepting any kind of compliments or listening to that my band did something vital,” he stated.

”I get that all of us have a legacy — like if you happen to’re a legal who dies in jail, that’s your legacy — however I by no means drank the Kool-Support.”

And but, 30 years after forming the band as youngsters in Lengthy Island, N.Y., in 1993, Palumbo and co-founding guitarist Justin Beck proceed to see their impression play out in packed mosh pits internationally at any time when they determine to puck again up and take the stage.

This week, Glassjaw returns to a sold-out crowd on the Echoplex on Dec. 21 (with an extra present the evening earlier than on the Observatory in Santa Ana) to kick off a brief tour celebrating its three-decade milestone.

The band’s first two full-length releases — 2000’s “Every part You Ever Wished to Know About Silence” and 2002’s “Worship and Tribute” — formed the early 2000s New York post-hardcore scene alongside bands like Quicksand and Thursday.

Palumbo’s emotionally uncooked but skillful vocals, mixed with Beck’s unconventional rhythms and guitar licks, created a heavy and visceral sound that added musical exploration and lyrical allegories to the trend and vitriol of arduous rock.

Whereas others caught with energy chords, easy rhymes and customary time signatures, Glassjaw has all the time been extra of an artwork challenge for the duo relatively than a industrial success.

“Glassjaw was only a very younger, fairly suburban model of a variety of [New York hardcore bands], but it surely’s an honor at any time when anybody tells us they’re a fan,” Palumbo says. “I like music, and I’m a fan of the whole lot from rap to metallic, and I like the modifications that I’ve heard in hardcore. I don’t sustain as a lot on fashionable bands as I ought to,Palumbo says, although he stated he’s proud to see bands like Turnstile that proceed to push eclectic, hardcore-infused jams.

They’re very a lot thought-about hardcore, they usually play to 1000’s of individuals at big festivals with out sacrificing any of their integrity,Palumbo stated. “That didn’t exist once we had been younger, so it’s an honor that I couldn’t probably put into phrases to even be informed that Glassjaw left a tiny dent on the face of this huge ‘various’ universe we reside in.”

Daryl Palumbo.

Daryl Palumbo.

(Eran Ryan)

With the resurgence of hardcore and post-hardcore reaching an even bigger (and youthful) viewers than ever earlier than, members of Gen Z and past are discovering the genres’ influential bands and elevating them to new heights. For Glassjaw, which hasn’t been a full-time focus for any of its members since 2003, it means an increasing fan base even when Beck and Palumbo’s consideration is elsewhere.

However it additionally means there are extra distractions for Glassjaw to take care of than ever earlier than. Beck spends his days working his band merchandise big MerchDirect because it approaches its twenty fifth 12 months (and in addition taking a look at new enterprise ventures), whereas Palumbo left New York for Florida and continues to work as an artist. He relaunched his poppier challenge, Head Automatica, earlier this 12 months.

Though Glassjaw’s thirtieth anniversary tour is just 5 dates throughout three cities, that shortage can also be a number of the attraction for the band’s fervent following. Regardless of their lasting impression (they spent a lot of 2022 on a sold-out tour celebrating the twentieth anniversaries of their first two albums), Palumbo and Beck haven’t tarnished their legacy by watering down their discography with halfhearted money grabs or inflated releases.

Since reaching the MTV2 viewers within the early 2000s, Glassjaw has launched solely a trio of EPs (one in all which is an iTunes-exclusive trio of B-sides from “Worship and Tribute”) and 2017’s “Materials Management.”

Even with out frequent new releases, Palumbo and Beck have all the time been insistent that Glassjaw isn’t going away. Since their transient hiatus for Palumbo to assist handle his Crohn’s illness and give attention to Head Automatica’s 2004 debut, “Decadence,” the 2 collaborators have carried out at the very least just a few exhibits (typically one-off festivals) each nonpandemic 12 months. Even their rotating forged of a rhythm part has stabilized a bit lately, with Chad Hasty not solely performing with Glassjaw since 2015 but additionally sitting behind the equipment for the Head Automatica reunion tour.

Whereas it might appear to these on the skin like the way forward for Glassjaw is all the time in flux, Palumbo and Beck have been creatively “married” for lengthy sufficient that it looks like solely one in all their deaths would stop the band from hitting the stage every now and then.

“For Justin and I to have been as shut as we’re since we had been actually kids, it’s fairly loopy to see the issues that we’ve carried out collectively,” Palumbo says. “We’re simply a few dudes from New York who by no means took any of this too critically. Glassjaw has existed for us method longer than it hasn’t, and it’s been 30 years of inside jokes and anticipating issues to all go mistaken. I could possibly be consuming dinner with my household, however if you happen to inform me I’ve to leap in and play a Glassjaw present, I may do it.”

Regardless of greater than 20 years and a variety of feelings passing for the reason that duo wrote the overwhelming majority of Glassjaw’s reside present catalog, some issues haven’t modified. Beck continues to be the wise businessman of the group, Palumbo continues to be the electrifying wild card, and each nonetheless carry the signature New York pessimism, humorousness and keenness that rings true no matter technology.

“I nonetheless just like the venom and keenness that was in a variety of the previous songs, however there’s a degree of disrespect and lack of couth that typically I don’t dig,” Palumbo says. “We don’t play sure songs reside, as a result of I don’t actually have to be as venomous as I was. Lately, I understand how to harness my interior voice and use it as a device. I can play with that anger and that venom with out being absolutely led by my feelings. However Glassjaw will all the time stay ugly and edgy and irreverent. It’s heavy music. There’s by no means something completely satisfied.”

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