Let's be honest, I hardly listened to anything new this year, let alone remember it enough to discuss. My most listened to song this year was easily "Concerto In X Minor" by BRAND NUBIAN, if that helps put you in the headspace I'm in. The older I get, the more time I spend as a freak rocker, the more I put value on live performances and experiences in DIY rather than generic 4-song demos fast hardcore with flirtations of a d-beat riff. So with that I'm gonna hit you with my top ten moments of ROCK in chronological order.

Louisville Snowstorm

BAD ANXIETY and SILO KIDS embarked on a short winter tour early in January. We ended up driving right into bad weather. The first show of the tour was canceled because of snow and ice. We saw snow everywhere on this trip, but nothing like Louisville. Cars swerving, punks shoveling parking spots, so others could park, actually dangerous bad weather. After the fact we all agreed, this show should have been canceled. But the conditions just amplified the experience. Only the realest of freaks braved the weather to see us play in a detached garage, the set was bonkers and everyone was just smiling and stoked to be there. Living in the deep south, I don't experience snow. I soon won't forget white-knuckle driving the rental van while doing my best to encourage the troops that we wouldn't spin out and die, to then play the most fun set of the tour. Highly recommend Louisville in winter.

SILO KIDS vs BAD ANXIETY - Battle Set

This was the year of the battle set in Hattiesburg. Once we realized we had a big enough venue, enough gear, and bands that didn't share any members, we knew what we had to do. This show in January set the tone for the rest of the year, shows with gimmicks, having fun, doing things other scenes simply won't do. So many people say they've never seen or been a part of a battle set. Or that they haven't done that since they were 16. Time to bring it back. They rule.

ABI OOZE and JUDY AND THE JERKS

The OOZE crew and the JUDY crew went out on a nice midwestern tour this year. The tour rocked, but we capped it all off with a gig in Hattiesburg. Huge gig, everyone having fun, tossing balloons, throwing around props, people moshing with whatever object they could get a hold of. Whoops, I tried to lift Nevada from ABI OOZE onto my shoulder while they played, and they fell face first and fucked up their guitar. Whoops. SILO KIDS covered a JUDY AND THE JERKS song. Our friend Sophia played their first set EVER by playing bass for one JUDY song while I got to mosh for my own band. It was just a crazy sick gig that was a true celebration of friendship in my favorite little town in America.

PRIMAL BRAIN at Everything is Not Okay 4.5 in Oklahoma City, OK

I really like the band PRIMAL BRAIN from Oklahoma City. Amazing people making amazing music. Saw this band twice(?) this year and each time was incredible. But we're going to focus on the set at Everything Is Not Okay 4.5. You may have read my previous gripes about that fest. But one of the few redeeming factors was this set. Nothing better than seeing your friends play an incredible set, people go OFF, crawling around on stage during the mosh parts because you know all the songs. It was a blast and made me pump my fist in the air in ultimate satisfaction.

SILO KIDS at Gluesniffer Fest in Murfreesboro,TN

Similar to seeing PRIMAL BRAIN, there really is nothing better than seeing your friends' band dominate a set, command an entire room, and leave everyone begging for more. This time, I actually had the opportunity to play drums for SILO KIDS for this set, but I still felt like I got to be there as an observer to such an incredible set performed by the real current rulers of Hattiesburg. You can read more about it here. A legendary rock moment.

VIVA LA THRASH! in Nagoya, Japan

Describing VIVA LA THRASH! is not an easy task, I recommend just looking up a video online. It's two dudes, decked out in some silly gear, playing to a backing track of a weird mix of pop tunes and digital fastcore riffage. One guy just walks in a circle performing and singing and does a funny jump at the end of the song, the other member doesn't move a muscle and just plays the songs from a little device. It was like watching a comedy sketch, but played as a serious band. I knew going into this set it was going to be fun as hell and I would love it. The crowd loved every song, circle pitting with the main guy, crowd-surfing. They started the set off with an a cappella version of We Will Rock You by QUEEN with "Vi-va, Vi-va, Viva La Thrash!" for entirely too long. True weirdos doing weirdo shit. We didn't speak each other's languages, but we spoke volumes by just patting each other on the back saying "Viva La Thrash!" multiple times all night.

C.A.FEISSNER in Ashikaga, Japan

This show had it all. A competing gig in the same building with Japanese Rockabillys, muscle cars and poodle skirts and all. Friends laughing and having fun watching sick bands. An actual child moshing and the whole crowd mimicking her actions, letting her lead the crowd. And most importantly, C.A.FEISSNER from Sendai, Japan. Furious, no-nonsense Japanese hardcore punk. The front person was wearing an all white suit, holding up a custom bound book, whose contents were taken from old Japanese zines describing the burgeoning US hardcore punk scene. We were told that these zines were very influential in Japan, and here they were bound in a book, gold tassel, looking like a version of the Punk Bible. The front person was holding it up, going to the pages of BLACK FLAG, MINOR THREAT, and so on during the set. All while playing like his life depended on it. Every member of the band played like this was the craziest show that had ever happened. Not a dull moment, no moment to catch your breath, just an assault of pure hardcore punk like this was the last show on earth. It was inspiring. C.A.FEISSNER is a band you watch, and it sticks with you. In the words of C.A.FEISSNER "This is Sendai, not US".

BAD ANXIETY at the Jackson Folk Fest in Jackson, MS

This was a surreal gig. BAD ANXIETY was asked to be part of the 'Punk Block' for the 82nd National Folk Festival that was being held in Jackson, MS this year. Seemed odd, but the Folk Festival seemed like a really cool thing. A big multi-day event focusing on the music and art of the people in the area. So many incredible blues, gospel, and jazz acts performed. Booths from all sorts of local artists, even a zine making booth and a skate demo. It was rad. The stages for this event were huge. Like a big open air festival with markets and vendors, chairs for seating. This was a very 'normal' festival, and a huge one at that. This was going to be an awkward set for a very strange crowd. Before the show, we all agreed to play it like any other gig, go crazy and speak in between songs like you would with any other show. That includes curse words thrown at certain political figures, calling issues out by name, so on and so forth. Let me remind you this was in the deep south at the most normal of normal music events. Before we played, I literally had to beg for anyone who is able to please stand up and come closer to the stage, or we would die from awkwardness. Luckily, a lot of people did and we thankfully had plenty of friends there. The set was awesome, people had fun and danced, cheered us on when we called for the head of the current governor. What could have been the most awkward set of our lives ended up being extremely rewarding. So many folks afterward thanked us for saying what we said and for playing with such intensity. For some younger kids, this was their first time seeing punk live, and they loved it. They begged us for more info on how to find shows and bands. A few people in the crowd were disgusted sure, the police were called on us while we were playing. But they didn't do anything and no one cut our set short, all 12 minutes of it. The other bands on the 'Punk Block' were a noise act and a garagey kinda band. So, even there, we kinda stuck out hard. All the awkwardness was way worth it.

YAHHO in Hattiesburg, MS

This year I booked the biggest show I've ever booked. While we don't have a total count for sure, but we guess it was near 200 people, on a Tuesday, in Hattiesburg, MS. Maybe for you that doesn't seem crazy but for us it did. Everyone was there to see YAHHO, a chiptune hardcore punk one man band from Okayama, Japan. His music is very hard to describe, so I recommend just looking it up yourself. He is an insane performer and captivated the whole crowd. People were crowd-surfing the whole time, screaming like they were watching the Beatles, just an insane chaos dance party. At one point, YAHHO climbed onto the roof of the venue and just performed from up there. The crowd lost it. At the end of the night he had a line of folks wanting to take pictures and get autographs. It was an insane reception that none of us had anticipated. Even the other band on tour with YAHHO, HAVANA SYNDROME (Buffalo, NY), had a crazy set. There was a wall of death for this synth punk band. It was nuts.

Wheel of Misfortune

I love a dumb idea. I thrive off a gimmick. No more gimmicky set can be had than the BAD ANXIETY vs SILO KIDS "Wheel Of Misfortune" Battle Set. Not only was this a battle set, this had the WHEEL. The Wheel Of Misfortune is a real big spinning wheel I made that has 10 slices. Each slice has a "misfortunate" thing the band that last spun must do. Examples include - play blindfold, play dizzy, switch members, play slow. The list goes on. It was dumb, whacky, stupid, and fun. The battle part made it even sillier. Watching SILO KIDS struggle through playing a song after spinning for 30 seconds and getting dizzy was incredible. BAD ANXIETY went first and when I spun the wheel it landed on 'MIME', we had to play our first song completely silent but acting like we were still going off being crazy. It was so dumb and awesome​, people moshed, we didn't make a peep.