Another cliché hardcore punk song about hardcore punk…and to ensure it stays a cliché forever, it is another COVID-19 song about missing shows!

The past year and a half have been the longest period in my life where I was not going to shows regularly. While I am very well aware that this is an extremely privileged problem to have, and I count my lucky stars every day for having a roof over my head and a warm meal on the table, it is something I miss deeply. I miss going to shows, be it big or small (I prefer the latter), I miss mosh pits, I miss having some guy yell “Špilej!” from the back of the venue, I miss the ringing in my ears when I go to bed, I miss finding bruises on my body days after the show, I miss driving 12 hours to watch a band, I miss somebody spraying the crowd with cheap wine in a plastic bottle, I miss being sweaty because I am wearing a jacket, I miss hanging out with my friends before the show, I miss the feeling when the drummer starts off the song with a d-beat, I miss coming home late and knowing that work the next day will suck, I miss looking for my jacket because I threw it somewhere, I miss yelling along to songs, I miss slipping on a spilled beer and falling on my ass, I miss standing outside in the cold after the show, I miss stopping at the gas station for a snack at 3 am, but most of all, I miss the feeling of peace in those 20-minute sets - no problems, no worries, no stress, no responsibilities, just pure fucking bliss.

Going to shows has changed my life (hey look, another cliché!) and I still remember and cherish all the memories - be it the first time I had the guts to stage dive in my life at a Pennywise show, my first pile-on singalongs in Rog, going to Fluff for the first time, my first mosh pit at a local show to a band covering a Metallica song, sleeping in a car in Gornja Radgona after a show, seeing Converge for the first time and having my mind blown, going to the UK for a one-day festival - the list goes on and on.

What I always thought was dumb is that we never gave our local bands enough respect and acknowledged their importance - these are the bands that keep everything afloat and without a healthy local scene, there is no scene. Go watch your local bands, buy their records and listen to what they have to say. I promise you’ll not regret it.

So is this song just another cliché? Kinda. Do I care? Hell no - cliché forever.