This year the festival will be sorely lacking Juiceboxxx, and is supposed to include "hardcore" bands. I wish there was an emoticon for eye rolling. "Hardcore" has got to be the most self-aggrandizing name for a music genre that I've ever heard of. What was the other option, "super-duper-awesome-core"? To make matters worse, "hardcore" is supposed to be an evolutionary off-shoot of punk music, when many of the "hardcore" bands I've heard have little or no resemblance to punk music at all.
Take for instance, Dead End Path, one of the "hardcore" bands schedule for the Fucking Awesome Fest. Listen to some of their songs, and then compare it to Cannibal Corpse, a death metal band. They both sound like Cookie Monster clearing his throat while a walrus gnaws on an electric guitar. It leads me to believe that much of "hardcore" is just metal music by people too embarrassed to admit that they make metal music.
Detroit Gorilla summed it up like this:
It’s kind of like having two independent events going on in two buildings that happen to be on the same block, but you have the freedom to crash the other party and gawk at all the weirdos (either hipsters or hardcore dudes depending on your perspective.)
That being said, I'll be trying to keep as open a mind as I possibly can. Between 2 stages at the Majestic, 2 at the Magic Stick, and something in the Garden Bowl, there were will always be something happening somewhere, so you might as well sample something you've never heard of as you're waiting for something else to start.
The people at the Majestic have now released a detailed schedule (larger versions can be found here):
They've even taken the extra step to compile several mix tapes that you can listen to online over at soundcloud. Here is the mixtape for Wednesday's bands:
