SHOW REVIEW: Empty Vessels/Happy In Hemet/Monochromancy/Orphan Cripplers @ Creep 13 Punx Safe Haus 6/22/15

   This was a spur-of-the-moment show for me; I had seen the flyer on Bean's FB page, noticed it was a free show and that they'd be coming my way as they headed from from Hemet to Escondido, and tossed out the suggestion that he and Viv pick me up while en route despite the fact that I had no gas money. I didn't really expect them to take me up on it but to my surprise they were down and around 7:45 they picked me up from my apartment. The ride down to Esco was pretty chill, listening to grunge (including a Nirvana song I'd somehow never heard before) and although Bean's GPS was a bit off and we had to backtrack a few miles we still got there before the first band was set up.Upon arrival Bean downed his only beer and I had some vodka shots; they played me one of the songs from their upcoming EP and it was good stuff, although the snare drum and bass guitar tracks need to be raised.
    I needed to use the bathroom so we got out and awkwardly approached the house. It was a one-story pad that seemed to just spill out organically onto the patio where there were a few circles of punks hanging out. There was also a fire-pit across the driveway where some more people were chilling, and I asked an obviously-drunk dude with a goatee where the bathroom was. He guided me down a hallway to what appeared to be the only bathroom in the small house, next to the kitchen. The guy was a bit older than anybody else there and was like the kind of former-skater punk type who's still gnar'd out even though his knees probably aren't what they used to be, and by skate-punk I mean more Smut Peddlers/Dr. Know than Pennywise/Guttermouth. You know the type. I think it may have been his house but I don't think we ever really confirmed who was actually hosting this show.
   The first band was a group called Orphan Cripplers, a 3-piece grind-punk band that didn't do much for me but weren't entirely terrible either. They had a couple pointlessly short songs, as bands of this ilk are wont to have, but they managed to mix up the tempo between circle-pit/D-beat thrash to slower quasi-breakdowns enough to keep it from being boring. A bigger guy was trying to get a pit started the whole set and I guess my headbanging indicated that I was down for that cuz he kept trying to put his arm around my shoulder to bring me into his imaginary circle but wasn't all butt-hurt when I politely resisted. A couple kids did eventually slam with him.
   After the set Bean & Viv went to get some more beer because they hadn't brought nearly enough alcohol to sustain a punk house show, so I snaked my way into a circle with some of the kids who had been dancing during Orphan Cripplers. They were all younger than me, I wanna say probably around 20 years old, so they were full of enthusiasm and jokes and friendly vibes. They were based around a small keg of Stone beer as well so that sealed the deal. All they had were small Styrofoam cups and the beer was a bit foamy but some dude looked at me and was like, 'help yourself man!' and it was much appreciated. I introduced myself to some girl named Ari who apparently does the booking for these shows before Java showed up and we started chatting it up. Also during this juncture that bigger mosh guy came up to me and introduced himself - his name is Jimmy. I explained that my leg was hurt and that's why I wasn't trying to get too rowdy (which was a half-truth) and he was like, 'it's all good man!' Drunk Skate Guy came out of the house and said something along the lines of 'come inside and watch Monochromancy! I just learned a new word!"
   Monochromancy is a dude doing abstract dark soundscapes on his electric guitar; I'm not very well-versed in this type of stuff although I generally like it, but for that reason I don't really describe it too well. My first thought is that it's like my buddy Doug's project Light Light but far heavier and thrashier. Homie was really killing those strings, I can't believe he didn't break anything with how hard he was strumming. Again, I don't really understand sound manipulation or pedals or guitar FX pretty much at all so my commentary here is limited in that regard, but it was a cool set and the dude was nice when I talked to him afterward.
   Happy In Hemet was up next and I stood around inside the house as they set up their stuff. I always wanna help people set up and break down their equipment so as to be of some kind of assistance, but even in my own band I feel like I'm just getting in the way. They did, however, specifically ask me to set up the baby heads around them when the amps were ready, to which I gladly obliged. If you've never seen Happy In Hemet (formerly Beanvian Stalks Guava) they have a sort-of schtick where they surround their performance area with mannequin heads adorned with baby-face masks so as to create a surreally creepy aura around them. I made sure to put one above the TV stand next to Viv's set-up so it looked like it was peering down ominously on the crowd.
   The band played a great set; I've seen this group many, many times over the last few years and this one of the tightest sets I've seen from them. They had mentioned that they've been practicing a lot more often lately and it shows. Also, they seem to have a number of new songs - or at least, new to me. Bean was very concerned about the levels of the various amps but it all sounded good and the crowd reacted very positively. Happy In Hemet have a very unique style and for the most part they stand out from whoever else they play with, and tonight they definitely built excitement where before there was just a somewhat by-the-numbers punk show. People were feeling the weirdness. People were getting Happy. Towards the end of the set Bean encouraged the kids in the crowd to put on the baby-face masks, a request duly met as masks were thrown into the pit.
   A big part of what made this show dope was that although everybody was punked out and halfway-if-not-more-drunk, there weren't any assholes, everybody was real cool. Even though me and the Hemet crew were the odd men out and everyone else seemed to already know each other, people were hella friendly and encouraged us to start coming to shows there more often. I think I might do as such.
   The last band of the night was Empty Vessels, a 2-piece hardcore band on tour from Connecticut. For some reason I expected them to be, like, youth-crew HC or something but it was more along the lines of Deathwish technical heavy hardcore. Maybe its just lumping them together because they both have a female guitarist/vocalist but I got a Code Orange vibe during their set. There were some very interesting time changes and well-executed off-kilter fills throughout the set; the only problem was that the vocals were pretty much inaudible. Both the drummer and the guitarist were screaming their heads off but the music was so loud it was impossible to hear anything they said. All in all it was a good set though.

   After the show was done I lingered outside next to a tree where I had hung my backpack. Bean & Viv had left a few songs into Empty Vessels' set so I was waiting on Java , who bought a CD from the guitarist girl. I think her name was Allison. I asked if she'd be down for a short interview but she sad she wanted to wait for her drummer, which was understandable. Jimmy & some other kid who were cleaning up accidentally dropped a glass bottle in between where Java's car was parked and where we needed to drive so we waited for them to clean it up. The drummer guy was taking forever and I really only had basic, rudimentary questions anyway so I nixed the interview idea and we said bye to everybody. On the way home we listened to the CD Java had bought and it seemed like a real quick drive. When I got home I put on the Descendents and went to sleep.