Stuff from the HC show last night....

Me and my good friend Benny and a woman who was doing a report on straight edge went to a hardcore show in Lund, Sweden last night. Both Benny and me knew people from some of the Portuguese bands who were playing. Besides the two Swedish bands Balance and Hårda Tider, the line-up was top quality bands from Faro, Portugal: Pressure, Broken Distance and Critical Point. I was really siked to see Pressure and Broken Distance. All three Portuguese bands included members from the infamous Pointing Finger, a very beloved band, that sadly isn't around anymore.
Here's a little picture from last night:

And here's what I got from their merch-table:

I never got around to order this one from React, so when I saw it here, I thought that I better grab it now. Great record, very straight forward!

I bought these for two different reasons. I got the Broken Distance 7" because what I heard on their Myspace page is simply amazing and I dug it right away. It's very generic and it's almost as if you can hear it's coming from the Faro-scene, if you're familiar with Pointing Finger and Pressure (This is a good thing!). They had black vinyl and this orange/black split - I figured this is the most limited, but I don't know?

I bought the Balance 7" primarily because of their show that night. I really endured their energy (especially their pissed off vocalist!) and their generic style of hardcore. I didn't know much about this band before going to this show, so I kind of took a chance with this 7" since it's always hard to judge a bands' sound from their live performance. It turned out to impress me when I put the record on the next day. It grew on me instantly, but then again I only had last night's live performance to compare it to. In Like A Loin is one of the best releases coming from Europe in a long time, and as Crucial Dave from Broken Distance said it during their show last night: "...Balance is probably one of my favourite European hardcore bands at the moment..."... It might not have been those exact words, but you get the point.

Last but not least I got a tour edition of the Pressure 7". This is limited to just 30 copies and I was lucky enough to grab one while they had them. It's an amazing hardcore 7" and these Portuguese people continue to impress me, and they're really cool and down-to-earth-people too. Very important. Here it is:

Limited tour edition #23 out of 30.

Package 15.08.09

Over my (relatively) smaill amount of years in hardcore, I've had (just like anybody else) certain that I adored from the beginning, because they were their with me from start. Pointing Finger is one of those bands.
In my search for Pointing Finger records, I contacted the band on their myspace page to see if they could hook me up with some of the 7"s that are sold out. They've didn't have any to sell, byt they did point me to a label called Monument Records (Sweden). Monument put out Pointing Fingers "The Illusion Of Perfection" 7". I looked through Monuments catalog and there it was. I knew this release existed on both black and red vinyl (only black was listed in the catalog). So I contacted Johan who runs Monument and asked him if he had a red version lying around - and he did, so I placed my order for 2 PF 7"s. They came to day:

I didn't get to ask him about the pressing info, but I'll find out soon enough.
Some time ago, I got screwed over by a label called Heartland Records. I ordered the 7" by Pressure with a special pre-order cover /20. It never arrived so I had to file a paypal complaint to get my money back. Don't ever order from this label!
Anyway, I saw that Monument had the regular version of the 7" in-stock (didn't nreally care for the pre-order cover anyway), so I grabbed that one as well:

Portuguese hardcore is really overlooked imo. These two bands (well, RIP Pointing Finger) are the cream. I might even go as far as saying that Pointing Finger is one of my 5 altime favourite hardcore bands.

Before I press "publish", I just need to show you this. A little thing that makes it all worth it - something the captivates that the true unity and kindness is indeed alive in the world of hardcore, and isn't to be seen anywhere as clearly as in the world of hardcore. I ordered a tank top with a new promising band Outlast, and when I received it I also received a zine and a little message on the back of the envelope:

Nowadays I just find it so rare that people actually take time out to do something like this. It is nothing really, but it shows that people care. Like I said, something I only see in hardcore to this extent.