Being in your thirties with a career affords certain luxuries you don’t have when you’re younger. In my case, this means a lot more opportunities to blow my disposable income on live shows and overpriced beers. And while I had thoroughly enjoyed being fiscally irresponsible this year so I could see old favorites doing their reunion tours, I had also been fortunate to be in the orbit of a burgeoning local scene in a way that I hadn’t expected. Not even a full week after seeing The Dillinger Escape Plan play Calculating Infinity, I ended up in a pizza shop to see a bunch of young talented musicians taking the torch to keep the scene alive.

Nestled in a sterile alley of data centers and furniture stores is Emilio’s Brick Oven Pizza, a locally owned pizza joint turned veritable NoVA hardcore institution. The owner, a motherly figure and apparent patron saint of the local scene, is a lover of the genre herself and had been hosting shows from her restaurant for years. This became clear later into the night when she jumped into the pit to shake her tailfeathers with the kids.

For the low cost of $15, I received a ticket to an event which felt more like a community block party than a concert. Organized as both a live show and a Halloween costume party, the night became a spectacle.

Out in the parking lot, as the streetlamps began to light, a man was pulling his tattooing paraphernalia out of his sedan, as young girls with black angel wings lined up to view his print book. Fathers unloaded amps and guitars from their trunks. An assortment of horror villains, playboy bunnies, and video game characters began to line up for their pizza.

Inside, the first band got started. The converted dining room was now a sea of fishnets, polyester, and adrenaline. The lineup for the evening ran the gamut from mathcore to powerviolence to alt-rock. Before things kicked off, I decided to pay tribute to the establishment by ordering us a round of Peronis and playing bodyguard for my wife, friends, and other at-risk surveyors of the pit. This proved to be an exercise in futility.

 With each set the crowd got rowdier. Every band played with fervor and appeared to be sincerely having a great time watching these kids try to kill each other. A tank of a man dressed as a Pokémon, a skinny kid with a smeared Joker smile, and a young woman in a Fight Club suit sporting a painted-on black eye all joined forces to barrel into and windmill punch not only each other, but anyone foolish enough to be within eyesight. We took too long to learn our lesson, so after taking some lumps we faded back into the 30+ tier of the crowd.

All the bands put on a great show. Fervent Plea and Scorpion were the standouts for me, as they both play styles that I cut my teeth on when I was coming up as a music fan. Fervent Plea takes inspiration from the late 90’s and early 00’s metalcore/mathcore scene. They played a set full of fury, blistering drums, and fun breakdowns. Scorpion played heavy powerviolence-inspired hardcore music with groovy riffs and gnarly vocals. The energy of those two bands was palpable, proven by the intensity of the crowd. I received the most violent kicks of the night during their sets.

Truth be told, as much fun as I had seeing Dillinger play one of their classics live, it didn’t really live up to the mythos I had built up in my head. There’s something to be said about bringing things back to basics. Influence and legacy are great, but at its roots music is about connection and community. What better way to experience that than in a pizza shop surrounded by your neighbors?

 

Check out the bands here:

https://www.instagram.com/ferventplea/

https://www.instagram.com/tugboat_band/

https://www.instagram.com/fondbandva/

https://www.instagram.com/scorpion_band_/

https://www.instagram.com/fivestepsbackband/

https://www.instagram.com/experience.hc/