Just over a month back, on July 6th, I attended a pretty awesome DIY grind gathering in the forests of Squamish, British Columbia, Canada that lit up the tranquil atmosphere with blazing grind and powerviolence from the afternoon straight into the night.
Organized by locals and inviting multiple comrades from both sides of the border, while respecting the land and putting on a grand celebration of fastcore, this year’s Squamish Fastcore Fest while it was my first, will not be my last. So this is kind of a (late) summary or reflection with some photos and video.
Things went very well, the fourth fastcore festival this time dovetailing with a cross-Canada grind tour headed by Ahna, Powercup, and Vile Intent, and leading up to a string of shows on Vancouver island and one final double prefest show in Vancouver the evening prior to the main throw-down in the deep greens of Squamish with the full line up.
And the list of bands contributing was exciting:
VILE INTENT (Montreal)
PIZZAHIFIVE (Lima)
LT.DAN (Detroit)
POWERCUP (Montreal)
SELF INFLICTED (Oakland)
DETROIT (Edmonton)
TENSION (Orange County)
BRIDGE (Orange County)
BRIDGEBURNER (Kamloops)
AHNA (Vancouver)
SIXBREWBANTHA (Victoria)
OSK (Vancouver)
SKUFF (Kamloops)
OBACHA (Squamish)
VIOLENT RESTITUTION (Vancouver)
BUNGUS (Victoria)
SHOOTING SPREE (Squamish)
Including Begrime Exemious and Streetpreacher for the evening shows the night prior, it made for a good set of nights. If you want to skip the rest of this breakdown and get a dose of the action now the playlist is right below, around thirty videos:
On that front it’s been a little difficult in Vancouver regarding cultural spaces and live venues for DIY bands (often making for some intimate and intense shows but also consistently interrupted by local officials), so like many shows the first one was in the back of a gallery. It’s a nice space and close to the next venue, and about half the bands got to play before the fire department shut it down.
It went Streetpreacher, Obacha, Six Brew Bantha, and just after Lt. Dan was finished destroying the place (most moshing going on during their set, no doubt about it) it was time to pack up and head over to the Astoria. My second time seeing Six Brew Bantha, really stoked on that, and first for Obacha. Obacha are phenomenal and I’ll have more on them later.
And yes it all continued, with Powercup reigniting the fire excellently after that hour between, followed closely the excellent and semi-goofy PIZZAHIFIVE which along with Lt. Dan were two bands I was just introduced to and ended up enjoying a lot. I’ll get into their fest sets in more detail. In other cases like Obacha and Violent Restitution (who followed Vile Intent) I was familiar with them, and despite the sound being far better for their set the following day they ripped out some crusty grind I’d only heard on record up to ’til then. Vile Intent are especially brutal and their sound is vicious, more on that below.
Likewise I finally got a taste of the killer Birdgeburner and the drum bass annhilation of SKUFF who wrecked the place the quickest both days. I was outside when they started and it was over not long after I went back in. Closing the night was the only death metal act Begrime Exemious who showcased their brand of death across multiple releases of theirs, and it was a nice switch up after the chaos of blasts up to that point. Ahna was on the bill that night as well as Subsist but I believe Subsist couldn’t make it and Ahna didn’t end up playing; probably due to the early show closure and a big day to follow.
Here’s some evidence of the first night of shows:
Next day hings kicked off around five in the afternoon. After finding a ride the night prior I hooked up with two guys from Quebec and we made our way into the setting for the festival: the forests of Squamish, B.C. I didn’t bring shit with me in terms of camping utilities so the plan, following the blur of grind, ended up being stay up all night and wind down near a fire next to a river with everyone else. It went pretty damn well, the scenery was fantastic as you’d expect.
Before that there was heaps of grind. I don’t know that I need to be overly thorough about each set especially those who played the Vancouver shows as well. All contributing bands brought high levels of abrasive, passionate, and thrilling grind or punk, busting through entire sets in under five minutes in the case of speed-fiends like Obacha and Shooting Spree or the drum-bass assault SKUFF. SKUFF brought their high-energy earth-cracking combo to bear on the forest floor early in the afternoon.
I arrived just as Violent Restitution was setting up and the beach was being staked out for spots and a fire, and their sound was far more meaty this time around. The only band I missed was Bungus, great local grind attack from Victoria, and I’m kinda bummed about that still.
No dull moments to be had in the line up to be sure, going in I still was more excited to see a few acts more than others; of course there were some that I hadn’t heard that blew me away and shuffled my excitement (Lt. Dan, Self Inflicted). Shooting Spree were at the top because I can’t find shit on the internet outside one phenomenal tape nor do I know where I can snag some of their physical wares. They played a ton a didn’t know and one or two I did, “Insect Welfare” which slays fucking hard for example. Grind fans should be all over these guys.
It was too fast, I wanted an encore. Obacha (who followed Violent Restitution), Osk, Ahna and Bridgeburner were also high on the list. I’ve only seen Ahna once opening for Mitochondrion and Willing Feet and it was interesting but didn’t click until I sat down with some records several times. One of the more unique genre straddlers and similar to Begrime Exemious the only aberration in genres of the day; though that’s a little inaccurate. Ahna’s doomviolence was fast that night with several new tracks and a dual bass attack (Shawn from Osk on the second one), while closing with the slower title track from their last record. Scroll down for some footage of the new stuff:
Osk are awesome, played both nights and were focused and tight . But with so many great tracks I hope there’s more mix-ups in future set-lists. What they did play crushed of course so why complain at all? Both Osk and Six Brew Bantha are really tight live, the latter putting on an even better set in the woods with their frantic grind storm than the night prior in Vancouver; vocalist and crowd interacted a ton during SBB’s set of new and recently recorded material. Then we have Obacha who are absurdly fast ripping through new material which is already up on bandcamp (and who’s largely responsible for putting the fest together) and Bridgeburner who fucking destroyed with new material and again obscenely catchy tracks. More videos in the playlist.
I regret not recording some of Obacha’s set. There’s some footage out there though and if you’ve ever heard them you know how intense they are and it’s amped higher live. There was not only Bridgeburner, but also Bridge which despite being furious and aggressive was not burnt and instead tore shit up nicely in the dirt semi-circle in front of the stage. They, like Tension, were another segment of the scene from Orange County and both represented well a different flavor of the same pure aggression in the dark of the canopy that night. Oh and someone did climb a tree by the end of the night sometime around Powercup’s set.
Like I mentioned, a few of the unexpected and unknown (to me) great bands I learned of that weekend were Lt. Dan and Pizzahifive, both two piece drum-guitar duos that lay down some hard-to-not-enjoy grind that blasts and slams better than some of the big players out there. Lt. Dan played near the end in the darkness, and as you can see below through tracks like “Hungry Hungry Hypocrite” even late into the night they brought tremendous energy to Squamish with members of Powercup and SBB getting in on the vocals at one point.
During PIZZAHIFIVE’s set the mic really crapped out but the grind went on. How about some claps with your midnight forest mincing?
In that same grouping of unexpected awesome was the mighty Self Inflicted who played much earlier. You’ll want to get on them if you haven’t already like me apparently. They didn’t have any of their own merch but the time on stage made up for it:
Detroit (from Edmonton) are another band that seemingly out of nowhere flattened me with razor sharp burst-riffs both days, where songs that just got increasingly more angry. I suggest you do stream their substantial records because they’re quite something, or have a taste of some of the carnage they brought that day. Here’s one from Reality Denied, their new record, called “No One Else Pretends”:
Then you have monsters like Powercup and Vile Intent who are impressive and attack with different styles. The latter bringing back the oldschool Spazz/Infest powerviolence feeling and blowing me away equally on both nights, the songs sharp and brief with a great dose of heavy underneath made all the more oppressive by the environment. The former’s blinding approach is really something one must witness. It’s no wonder these two groups have a lot of buzz around them and I understand it a bit more having seen them rip up the forest floor that night, quick as all hell and dirty.
After the bands most people went down to the beach and fire to wind down. There was a bit of mischief at that point on the dark banks of the river, and eventually a small and quick fight, but nothing heated or lasting. Good times, great grind, beautiful surroundings, nice people. Not hard to see why it was so great — let’s end it there. I suggest you support stuff like this in your area or join in next time Fastcore Fest returns. Photos of some moments of the afternoon and night are below, so enjoy!
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