I RISE, MAINTAIN, PITFALL, TROUBLEMAKER, BLACK TEETH, FOREIGN OBJECTS @ UMass Amherst

So last night, we (Maintain) had this show in Amherst, MA. At the UMass down there (notorious for having that awesome Final Four basektball team which included fellow Puerto Ricans, Carmelo Travieso and Edgar Padilla, and a collegiate version of Marcus Camby). Anyway, first I have to say that university is probably the biggest one I have ever seen in my life. So, yea, the show was at this place called the Cape Cod Lounge, which was a bigger version of the UML MPR at Fox Hall. As for the show perse, it was good, despite being a midweek show, in the middle of nowhere with relatively no bigger bands playing.

Black Teeth:
This band was the first band, they jumped into the bill late, because one of the bands that was supposed to play dropped out or something. They were from Illinois, I found out later, but then it made more sense seeing the singer with a White Sox hat. Anyway, this band was really good. Pretty heavy hardcore, even though they didnt play a longer set because they broke some strings they managed to impress me. The drummer is really good. But yea, their set got shortened by equipment failure.

Troublemaker:
From Jersey. I was kinda looking forward to play with this band, not in the sense that I liked them, but more in the sense that I wanted to see what they were about, plus the band name sort of rules. They were totaly different from what I expected. I wasn't that really into them, but they did cover Integrity. No one moved though, cause it was one of those awkward sets. The singer was pretty funny though, and I wanted his Puma jacket. haha.

Pitfall:
I haven't seen Pitfall in the longest time. But they are pretty much super generic hardcore that's sort of cool. With cool heavy parts here and there. They play super tight which is kinda good for bands their style, because too sloppy makes it totally awful, but tight makes it good. I am not a super Pitfall fan, but it's way better than their last band Defiant Hearts (which in my opinion, totally sucked). So yea, they played a really tight set.

Foreign Objects:
This is a band I have never heard of at all. But they had a chick singer, a chick bassist, and a chick guitar player, and a dude drummer. The way he set up his drumset, had me thinking that they were gonna be like one of these super annoying stuck up indie band. But no, they were pretty punk. Not my style of punk I guess. It wasn't bad, but they did bore me. Although I have to say that singer chick was sort of hot. Loved her tattoos. Anyway I lasted like 2 1/2 songs, then went to the back to warm up for our set. I heard they covered Stiff Little Fingers.

Maintain:
From my perspective, we played a good set. Not our best, sort of faster than we usually play, but good. Kids liked it a lot for being our first Western Mass show. Kids loved the Refused "Rather Be Dead" cover.

I Rise:
I seriously haven't seen this band since the day we started recording our full length, and before that, the last time I saw them was like january 2008. So more than a year. I know they had that new record, and I wanted to hear some of those songs. They played them very well. The new drummer is better than the guy that played after I left them (sort of, cause I was in the band just for tour). They seem more slowed down than before. And Alex loves pedals.. They had a good set, all I can say. At this point mostly everyone had left. But it was a good close up set.

I hate college life.