"Everyone's open to heaven, But no one is open to death"

I'm going to use this time to talk about a band that has become one of my favorite active acts in music. That band is called Blacklisted. Blacklisted are a band that I have been familiar with for about 5 years, but I never really understood the hype. I had owned "our youth is wasted" and didn't give it much attention. After that I had written them off for a few years. I didn't give much thought about them until the first time I saw them live. It was at Sound and Fury 2007. The rest was history. The way that George captured the crowd was unlike anything I have ever seen before. From his introduction with "This Band is called Blacklisted, I love you all" To the last notes of their final song, I was in awe. They Opened up with "Ivory Tower", and then went into "Eye For an Eye". I will admit that I was scared shitless when i heard the opening riff of "Eye For An Eye", but as the chaos was unleashed, I found the true beauty in what i was watching. Its pretty hard to describe, so lets just say that its one of those moments where you are truly reminded of why you love hardcore. Of why you spent $1000 to fly out and see a bunch of dumb bands, of why you would rather be at a show with 50 other people, in some shitty hall, then some shitty dance bar on any given night. Of why you don't care that your parents will never take you seriously as long as you are involved in hardcore. It was one of those perfect moments. If you have never felt this way, then i truly feel for you. The Emotion in the room was unbelievable as they went through songs from "our youth is wasted", "the beat goes on" and their most recent release at the time "Peace on Earth, War on Stage". I was right up front, literally getting punched, kicked, and walked on every 30 seconds, but i didn't care. All I cared about was getting to be apart of their set. Its safe to say that I left a huge fan of this band. I went home, ordered all their records, and just waited until I got to see them again.


Heres a video of "thats not real much" live at S&F 2007.


Luckily I have gotten to see them 4 times since then. Each time, i have been forced to travel to see them, but fuck it, always well worth it.

The next time I saw them was in Chicago at the Suicide File reunion. The lineup was stacked; Regret, damnation A.D, Turmoil, Ringworm, The Hope Conspiracy, The Killer, The Suicide File, and of course, Blacklisted. Chicago is 15 hours away, The show was 10 days before christmas, I was BROKE, and had just started a new job two weeks prior. All perfect reasons to decided against going. But fuck it, I had to see Blacklisted again. So I headed out with only giving my boss 12 hours notice by leaving him a note saying that I was headed to my grandfathers funeral in chicago, and that i would be back in 5 days. One of the greatest decisions I have ever made. The Show was packed, and insanely violent. The best term I could use to try and paint you a picture would be "prison Riot". Blacklisted played second last, I thought this was strange seeing how the lineup was packed with legendary bands. But, when Blacklisted came out, it was made perect sense. Once again I was in Awe. I was immediately consumed by George's energy. Never have I seen a frontman rock the stage and the mic like the way he did. The set was perfect, playing nothing but the classics (That ain't real much, finding Faith, tourist, The Long way home, Eye for an eye, the entire POEWOS record and a new song). I went home from this show broke, unsure if I had a job anymore, unsure how i was going to afford Christmas. But only sure about one thing, Blacklisted are one of the best bands in hardcore.

Here is a video from that chicago show


Fast Forward 4 months later to April 11th and 12th. I along with 4 friends made it down to Minneapolis and Fargo for a perfect little Blacklisted Weekend. The show in Minneapolis was great. It was the first time that I had to see them in a local setting. They had also just released the new record which we were all super excited about hearing it live. The venue was prefect for this show, a long narrow room with no stage. The place just screamed DIY. We get there and it turns out that others had traveled to get there as well. Kids from Fargo, iowa, and Detroit all came down to see the show. That made me very happy to know that others cared as much as we did. Blacklisted hit the stage, after four unexciting twin cities locals. The show was only about to begin. They opened with "I am Weighing me down" and then continued into "Ivory tower". "Eye for an Eye" was magical as always. The place was full of energy, and everyone who was into was loosing their minds. I had goosebumps the entire time. Great shit. The best thing about the show was knowing that we were going to wake up the next day and do it all over again.

The Show in Fargo ruled. The show was at the Red Raven and a bunch of kids from Winnipeg made the trip down. Great shit. Im pretty sure this was the most violent show in Fargo history, of course thats not saying much. They played the same set, but it was still nothing short of amazing. Definitely one of the instances were you never want a band to stop playing, no matter how sore, or beat up you are. amazing.

Heres a picture from that show
(Credit to mr Rich Moyer)



Lastly, I'm going to talk about the most recent time I saw blacklisted, which was 2 weeks ago at Sound and Fury 08. They played third last on the sunday. I had been killing myself in the pit the enitre weekend, i could hardly walk, talk, or breath, but i still had a ton of energy for Blacklisted. They hit the stage and shit was magical right from the start. They opened with Stations, and every kid knew every word. They still played all the classics, with all the new songs i wanted to hear. Their set wasn't nearly as violent as last years, i guess they shook alot of the tough guys with the release of HTH,LTG. But I was totally cool with that. As a result it was a lot more unified as kids weren't as afraid to mosh or sing a long. Definitely one of my favorite sets of the festival. Here is the only picture i can track down at the moment. Notice the handsome gentleman on stage ready to dive.



There you have it, a complete review of my favorite live band. I saw them 5 times in exactly a year, and i hope to see them 5 more times this year. I already have plans to see them in November in minneapolis on the tour with Have Heart and Ceremony.

Blacklisted, They are unstoppable