STICK TO YOUR GUNS @Skaters Palace, Münster
Hardcore is more than music. The genre has always been highly political and most people into hardcore have connections with veganism, animal right, LGBTQ+ right, feminism, and left-wing politics. Seeing the state of the world in early 2025, it’s important to keep hardcore alive and give one more platform for progressive, left positions. Stick To Your Guns have been a left-wing band forever. They new record is extremely optimistic and the band decided to spread its message on tour in Europe even though their homes in L.A. were threatened by massive wildfires.
Münster is a left-leaning city, Skaters Palace is a cool location, and it’s saturday – let’s go!
No Cure had secured the opening spot and woke the crowd up. The optically highly diverse band took no prisoners during their 20-minutes set. Straight up brutal hardocre with straight edge message blasted through the P.A.. The sound was excellent (the whole evening, btw). Good start into the evening.
Elmwood Stray played next – and frankly, they don’t fit with negativeblack.net. Generic modern hardcore including clean vocals. Nah.
Co-headlining the evening were Bodysnatcher, who layed waste to the venue. Brutal, groove-ridden death metal is the core comeptence of the dudes from Florida. They’re dabbling in hardcore, up to two-step-fitting passages, making them a solid fit on the tour. Shouter Kyle proved to be a charming humble host and connected with the crowd. A solid, brutal set leading to a solid, active moshpit. Well done!
Fun fact: during the changeover for Stick To Your Guns, the FOH blasted good old 80s pop and cheered the crowd up. “Take on me” got the whole place up and singing. Great!
Stick To Your Guns had no problems to keep the sprits high. The crowd was a in very good mood and moshed, sang along, and crowdsurfed from start to finish. Six days into the tour, the band was into it and worked as a unit. Shouter Jesse and the guitar duo Josh & Chris were active on all ends of the stage and entertained the crowd, while bass player Andrew broguth another layer of movement on the stage. The setlist was a solid mix of songs of “Keep Planting Flowers”, songs of “Disobedient” and of course “Amber”. It was a very entertaining 60 minutes gig, even though a short encore would have be cool and a perfect finish for the evening.
I was hoping for many comments and statements about the recent political situation as well as uplifting thoughts from Jesse, as it would befit a political hardcore band like Stick To Your Guns. Sadly, we got two such statements, one about the situation in L.A. and one about the importance of keeping a positive attitude even though the times are dark. A few more comments would have been perfect, but even when considering that, the show has been excellent.