show write-up for this anemic forum-
Went out to the local Richmond VA punk house The Green Room on 2/26 to see four bands including touring band Sperm from Buffalo. All the bands were cool but I was highly impressed by Sperm, they are a so-called 'weirdo' hardcore band but were definitely more than that, a power trio playing some odd psychedelic jams with a punk edge. Not the type of hardcore that those types of fans expect, a couple of attempts to slam dance in the small row house living room (maybe a 12 x 15 room) petered out pretty fast because the music was just not conducive to moshing. They struck me as the kind of US jamming post-punk band that SST was signing during their big 1987 overload of releases, a smart, instrumentally sound psychedelic DIY combo. You could tell these guys probably spend a lot of time jamming in their practice space but they still had a loose feel, a couple of songs had false starts that didn't diminish the impact of the results. Sperm have a couple of cassettes out, I recommend checking out the latest one "Yahweh Brings Us To This Hell" on bandcamp, very cool underground 'weirdo guy hardcore'-
http://spermbuffalo.bandcamp.comThe other bands were opener Atrocious Kontrol, local Richmonders playing d-beat tunes, Animal Planet from Charlottesville VA doing their second show, real good punk with solid intrumentation especially bass throb, and headliners Bitchmouth which features a mix of experienced and rookie members that produces a healthy din.
The Green Room specializes in rocking punk shows by smarter-than-usual punk bands with an interesting edge, I trust the guys who book shows here to introduce me to some off-the-wall rock 'n' roll, this show being a perfect example, this was surprisingly good stuff.