When I was really into hardcore in the late 90s and early 2000s, there were very few people in this area that were consistently bringing touring hardcore bands to our city. I had done a bunch of smaller hardcore and punk shows at Vertex and in my old smelly basement, but I wanted Rochester to start having a lot of the same shows that Buffalo and Syracuse had. By 2001, it was on and I was booking a lot of tours here. I was also losing a lot of money. Aside from the whole always being broke thing, it didn't really bother me. I was after all the one who put myself in this position. Plus, I was booking all of my favorite bands at the time. Occasionally, I would do a show for a band like Thursday or Coheed and Cambria, but pretty much every "big" hardcore show I booked I lost $100 or more on. I once lost $800 on a fest I booked here, another time there was $500 on some random touring bands. One of my favorites though was the night I lost $300 on an American Nightmare show. I had gotten them on a show at the Bug Jar a year and a half ago when they were still a fairly new band. By 2001, the word was out and American Nightmare was a pretty big band for hardcore standards. Yet, for some reason, bands like this never really took off here. I was always thinking my city would come around and these shows would draw as much as Buffalo or Syracuse and they never really did. Unless it was Bane. Anyway, I had already seen American Nightmare plenty of times in cities like Wilkes-Barre, Syracuse, Gainesville, and Buffalo. The thing about "hype" bands and bigger hardcore bands is that I never really cared about any of that. Not only that, but at the time I wasn't all that into Ten Yard Fight so seeing "ex members of Ten Yard Fight" in their name never really did much for me. There is a certain blend of hardcore I have primarily stuck to and usually I will just seek bands out as I see fit. American Nightmare was a little bit different musically than what I was listening to, because of how fast their drumming was, but more importantly because of the vocals. While you couldn't always hear everything live in those first few dozen shows, the vocals that Wes was putting on those first few records weren't like much I had heard prior to that. But more importantly, the lyrics were completely different than anything that was coming out at the time. I think that is why this band is so influential and people get so excited about them still. I know that I was dealing with a lot of personal issues back then, especially in 2000 and 2001. Having the first two American Nightmare EPs to listen to back then definitely made things a lot easier for me. I know that sounds cheesy and it probably is, but hardcore definitely carried me through some of my toughest times and American Nightmare was one of those bands. I was in a lucky position to pretty much see them from the beginning to the end, as well. The show I did here in 2002 itself was a lot of fun. Of the 125 or so people that were in attendance, I would say 75 or more were from out of town or they were RIT students. Crazy to think about it in retrospect, but most of the attendees of my shows back then were not from here. I would definitely say that out of all the shows I put on this had the best lineup for my tastes. There were a lot of shows that other people have said were this and that, but I like this lineup the best. I loved Miles Between Us and even helped them put out their first EP. I think they are still one of the best bands to come out of Canada too, for what that's worth. Bad Business were definitely one of my favorite local bands and easily my favorite of this era. Over the next couple years, they were able to make their mark and even did a couple tours. That 7" is good shit, too and still gets some spins on my turntable. Striking Distance were just a solid hardcore punk band. I loved seeing them live, Dave Byrd was also fun to watch. I still have the Striking Distance tour shirt from this show. Thanks to my main man Chris Rivera for holding it for me while I traveled cross country in 2006. I feel like Death Threat in 2002 and 03 was what Wisdom in Chains have been for the last few years; an extremely solid hardcore band that you could always count on to come play a good hardcore show. Their first two LPs are definitely two of my favorite records to come out in the early 2000s. Death Threat had canceled on the Thursday/Carry On/ETID/No Warning/Hopecon show I put on a few months prior to this, so I was stoked to finally have them on one of my shows. I think they actually played after AN though and I knew I had already lost $300 so I was kind of bumming by then. I even broke down in tears while explaining the situation to a friend of mine that night. Again, I always had extremely high hopes for Rochester and I was always kind of let down on nights like this. I swear when I was looking out off the stage it looked like there was enough people there for me to at least come close to breaking even. I guess I am not that great at estimating crowds. Still though, that American Nightmare set was extremely fun and I don't know how many more of their shows I enjoyed that much after that night. I am still glad that I got to take part in not only this show, but all of the other hundreds shows I was involved in during that era. A lot of people talk bad of bands doing reunions and I personally usually skip them. I even sold the tickets I had to BOTH American Nightmare reunions in December. I have made it a point to intentionally skip watching all videos from the shows. Now having watched this trailer, it does bum me out and I think when they play again, I will try to go see them live.
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