Drug Control? It’s Not What You Think…

To celebrate the release of new EP “Stabbed,” local straight-edge hardcore act Drug Control threw together a release show featuring fellow SoCal groups Momentum, United Nothing, Soul Power, and Frontside, at local venue the CHE Cafe.

Despite the heavy and aggressive music, the crowd was smiles all around (except when the breakdowns hit), as patrons of the San Diego hardcore scene gathered to celebrate new music from their peers. The night kicked off with a blast of heavy youth crew courtesy of Los Angeles-based United Nothing, immediately turning the usually peaceful floor of the CHE into a wall-to-wall pit full of two-stepping fury.

Next was Momentum, another Los Angeles band. However, instead of delivering more straightforward hardcore, they launched into a set of heavy and technical and heavy crossover thrash. Once again, the space was alive with side-to-side moshers, windmills, and two-steps, until the last note was played.

After Momentum left the stage, the venue was again lit up with laughs and conversation. Twenty or so minutes passed of calm, and then it was time for locals Frontside (featuring members of the now defunct San Diego group Cut Your Losses) to take to the stage, or in their case, the floor. The four piece delivered a setlist of power chords and mid-tempo two-step sections, complete with a never-before-heard song raging against President-elect Donald Trump. Every hardcore band needs one of those.

Now, before I begin to describe Soul Power, I need to get a few things out of the way. Although a straight-edge hardcore band in every sense of the word, they are a whole lot more than that. Discarding the typical “holier than thou” drug-free attitude, they boast extremely well-written and intelligent lyrics, something many hardcore bands cannot really claim. Even though they share 2/5 of their membership with Drug Control, they have certainly developed their own sound to set them apart from their peers. They riled up the crowd and gave all their fans a solid dose of groove, in their own unique way before giving the stage up to the final act of the night.

Drug Control, unlike many of the heavier and more metal-influenced hardcore bands popular today, are a blast from the past, in the sense that their music is straight up mid-to-late-eighties youth crew music promoting a drug-free lifestyle. They played a more or less even split of their first EP, and their latest output “Stabbed.” If any Judge or Youth of Today fan travelled in time from 1988 to witness Drug Control perform in 2016, they would be able to sleep better at night knowing that good hardcore isn’t going anywhere.