SXSW Live Shot: Sick of It All

Must have felt like old times for the Koller brothers. After a brawl shut down the Gypsy Lounge before Skepta’s Thursday headline set, by Saturday the East Sixth venue had five Travis County Sheriff cars parked out front, and constables patrolling inside. Just like the good old/bad old post-Reagan days that forged Sick of It All.

After 25 years as the first of the second wave of NYHC, not only are the Kollers still standing, they never went away. That’s the difference. Too many aging punk bands get tragically soft and petulant.

Not Sick of It All.

Maybe they don’t have quite the street fighting fury of their 1989 debut Blood, Sweat and No Tears, or the proto-mathcore experimentalism of 2000’s Yours Truly. They’re no longer the trailblazing bastards that gave an underground scene crossover success. But they’re sure as fuck not a nostalgia act, instead throwing down new tracks like “DNC” to power up the pit.

It all adds to the back catalog, which made their showcase a consistent whole. They don’t need to reinvent the wheel they helped carve. It’s still Lou Koller up front, that shredded blue-collar scream and primal politics all in place, ribbing the Hatebreed kids and getting the circle going like only a veteran can.

It’s still brother Pete, high jumping and victory stomping through his riffs. It’s still the seminal backline of Craig Setari and Armand Majidi (22 years and counting, still the new kids). They still pack a punch, the kind to get those cops working the crowd as they nod along instead of pulling out the pepper spray.

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