“You f***ing got into this show for free,” ’s Lee Spielman kept yelling at the packed and thrashing audience, egging them on into a mosh pit that stretched to the bar and toward the back of the venue.
While getting dropped during a stage dive or hurrying to the bathroom cupping a nose full of blood, few in the Hi-Dive crowd were likely wondering why they actually got into this for free. Hold on — why was this a free show? By the looks of the place there was no real way of telling.
No banner draped the back of the stage sporting some sort of sponsor. There were no reps walking around pitching a product. None of the artists shouted out a brand or company while on stage. The only special shout out was to the Hi-Dive, when Spielman thanked the rock club for letting a bunch of kids stage dive, hit each other and walk out bruised and battered on a Tuesday night.
In support of their new release, “No Peace,” Odd Future-affiliated punk act Trash Talk is nearing the end of a 17-date free tour, which is, somewhat subtly, sponsored by , a personal vaporizer. All fans had to do was go to a website before the show, , then, on Monday, RSVPers received an email with the unannounced location of the show (Hi-Dive). The anticipation of waiting in line, the free-ness, the sponsorship and email collection, it all had the feel of a targeted living advertisement you’d find at SXSW. But the difference being, Tuesday night wasn’t an all out marketing campaign. Even on stage, the Jesus-lookalike hype man for the nightap opener, , rolled a joint instead of providing a bit of product placement for the nightap host.
For a punk act, itap the perfect way of doing a free and sponsored show. This wasn’t an all hail corporatism brand experience, like these shows can tend to be. It was a concert, and a wild one.
By 9 p.m., Odd Future producer and rapper Left Brain was making his way through a DJ set (with a tiny bit of rapping) for an audience that was finding a weird balance between punk-rock thrashing and hip-hop dancing. His aforementioned hype man pushed the crowd to climb up on stage for a dive. And even that early into the night, members of the 16-and-up-crowd (who must have barely been 16) clawed their way out of the middle of the pit looking rattled. At one point a girl hopped up to stage dive and somehow cut off the connection to Left Brain’s laptop — making for a somewhat-awkward halt to the music.
The scene provided the perfect example of the niche that L.A. hip-hop collective Odd Future has carved between punk and hip-hop. Here, a producer pushed a bunch of studded and mowhawked and leather wearing punks into a mosh pit with bass drops, four-to-the-floor beats and mashups of various rappers. And this was all a precursor to a thrash punk act in the same collective.
It all led up to a crushing and 45-minute set from Trash Talk. With hardly any break between acts, Trash Talk ripped into its first song, hardly even needing to tell the audience to start lifting each other up to the lights of the Hi-Dive.
Through older takes and cuts from the band’s new album, Spielman pushed and pushed the crowd to a breaking point. Running through the audience, bringing the elbows, shoulders and shoves with him, he made sure to spread the release of aggression through the lengths of the Hi-Dive (as far as his mic cord would allow). His limit, it seemed, came near the end of the set, when he plowed his way to the bar, climbed on top and dove on unsuspecting beer drinkers.
Leave it to Trash Talk, the band known for creating near-riot situations, to turn a sponsored event into something thatap about an experience, not selling a product.
We should also point out that our brave photographer left the show with a nasty gash on his face and a battered hand (hopefully not broken) by toughing out the set for the pictures above.
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Seth McConnell is a member of YourHub at The Denver Post and a regular contributor to Reverb.
