I recently heard someone make a comment that "there just aren't enough live music events happening around Philly for anyone to write about." With all its earsplitting guitars, pounding bass drums and screaming vocals, it's amazing to me that some members of the Penn community still haven't heard the sounds of the hardcore scene pouring out onto the streets of Philadelphia. Surely you must have noticed the crowds of young kids with pierced faces loitering outside of houses-turned-venues, or at least heard the menacing noises of Penn's very own Balboa resonating out of the basement of the ATO house. Yes, the punk rock-hardcore-emo scene is alive and well in Philadelphia, bringing a ruckus and damaging ear drums every week of the year.
The strength of the Philly hardcore scene has been demonstrated by its amazing resilience over the past few years. 4040 Locust, the Rotunda, the Killtime on 39th and Lancaster and its neighbor, Stalag 13, are just a few of the local venues that had thrived and were subsequently closed down. However, due to the persistence of certain members of the hardcore community, bands have found new venues in some rather unlikely places.
Funrama, in the basement of an inconspicuous house at 41st and Baltimore, provides an intimate and cozy atmosphere for bands and their fans, with the smell of kitty litter and moisture from leaky pipes adding beautifully to the grassroots, gutter punk aura. The Unitarian Church on 21st and Chestnut and, recently, Calvery Church on 48th and Baltimore, also occasionally host shows on evenings and weekends, after the nice old ladies and organ players have already gotten home. Just a little further away are the Owl Cove at Temple University and, my personal favorite, Lasalle University, where I saw Bane and caught a fist in the mouth last year, in the Dunleavy Room. Of course, there's also the Pi Lam house on Spruce Street, which hosts shows every once in a while.
Shows usually cost anywhere between five and 10 dollars and include anywhere from three to upwards of six bands at a time. Small Brown Bike, the Hope Conspiracy, Converge, Poison the Well, Bane, Dark Day Dawning and 7 Seconds are just a few of the more well-known bands who have played here in Philly churches, basements and holes in the wall over the past year. New, young, talented bands are constantly playing shows and making names for themselves in the scene. And for those of you who are still disappointed that hardcore music doesn't have anything to do with porn, I can tell you from experience that there's a good chance you'll see at least one naked guy in a circle pit at a Rambo show -- I saw one just about a month ago at Funrama.
