Salient

Horse the Band

By Matthew Proctor | 24 Mar, 2008

HORSE the Band. Often described with the nonsensical term ‘nintendocore’ (which they invented themselves, incidentally), these guys are hard rocking hardcore from California. With keyboards. The premise is a hardcore band, with a crappy 8-bit keyboard, trying to create music similar to the stuff they used to hear on their NES back when they were young.

Basically they rocked. The guitarist and bassist are both immensely talented, weaving the intricate patterns that define what hardcore should be about. The drummer, on loan from The Number Twelve Looks Like You, was even more impressive, which is weird. Because The Number Twelve Looks Like You fucking suck. Anyway.

It was interesting that these three were standout performers, because you’d think if their whole gimmick is based on keyboards, the keyboards would be pretty rockin’. And while I can’t really complain, I wasn’t particularly impressed either. Strange.

The on-stage banter between these guys was great; they obviously thoroughly enjoy performing. Between the thoroughly confusing rants about the benefits of niacin, of all things, both the keyboardist and vocalist wore a latex horse mask given to them by a member of the audience. And then both complained, loudly, about how playing in a latex horse mask in a sweaty venue is basically a really bad idea. Nice.

The crowd also deserve mention. Given the influence that HORSE have had on some third-wave emo bands (Enter Shikari spring to mind), there were exactly the number of emo kids at the show you might expect to see: some, but not many. Instead, there were the normal bogans you get every night at Valve, the hardcore kids, and a surprising number of indie kids. HOWEVER. Hot indie kid who was standing up the front on the right: If you insist on standing right up the front at a HARDCORE CONCERT, your feet are going to get jumped on. Either move away from the pit or deal with it. Don’t complain between every single song.

Finally, Every Man For Himself’s self-released demo screams DIY so fucking loud its voice is pretty much fucked. I may not dig your metalcore, but I dig your work ethic. Respect.