It feels like it was a lifetime ago when Curl Up and Die played their (supposed) last show ever in Vegas. The hometown metalcore band had just returned from tour and it seemed like they were going to keep increasing in popularity. Fans, having heard about the show via Curl Up and Die’s Airbag message board, crowded into local music shop Balcony Lights to watch the band play. Shortly after that gig, the news trickled out via Myspace (okay, let’s say a few lifetimes ago) that the band was calling it quits.
The band members stayed relatively quiet over the next 14 years. We got an announcement of a reunion for their label Revelation’s anniversary show… Only for it to immediately get pulled, the label itself jumping the gun at making reunion announcement when the band itself wasn’t ready. Frontman Mike Minnick reemerged in the bands Puig Destroyer and Less Art. Then, finally, the band announced a full-fledged reunion for this year, with Minnick joined by original members Matt Fuchs and Ryan Hartery, with friend Keil Corcoran joining the fold on drums.
We
Are
All
Dead
Curl Up and Die started their hometown reunion show with those words from their 2002 album Unfortunately, We’re Not Robots but they were far from dead. Their first Vegas show since disbanding in 2005 was sold out and an army of kids – to borrow a phrase from the band’s contemporaries Faded Grey – now older and with slightly less hair, pushed their way up front to scream along with frontman Mike Minnick.
The band, playing only their second show in 14 years, sounded tight with the addition of new drummer Keil Corcoran as they took us down memory lane at blistering speeds with old favorites “Ted Nugent Goes AOL,” “Ultra Carb Diet Carpooling Stupid Fucking Life,” and “Doctor Doom, A Man of Science, Doesn’t Believe in Jesus, Why the Fuck Do You?” (the Marvel super villain was a constant presence during the band’s set, appearing on their backdrop).
CUAD weren’t the only band reuniting that night. To the delight of fans, fellow locals Caravels, who disbanded after a show at the Bunkhouse Saloon in 2015, also came together. The band expressed their admiration for the night’s headliners while playing through a tight set of emotional hardcore. Four years may have passed since their last gig but the crowd still remembered every word, with the biggest fans working their way through a packed crowd to the front to sing closest to the band.
Opening the night were locals World Tension and Entry from Los Angeles. The lone non-Vegas band, Entry still won people over with their fierce energy and frontwoman Annie G’s commanding presence.
World Tension represented the third generation of Vegas hardcore on display at the show– the modern-day scene you’d expect to see at the American Legion Hall. Fans were hardcore dancing from the first song and frontman Fidel Romero expressed gratitude for the opportunity to play with a stacked lineup of Vegas legends.
-Emily Matview
Photos by Aaron Mattern | https://www.flickr.com/photos/akmofoto/
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