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VOID LIVE @ THE 930 CLUB BOOT
So anyways, if you’ve hung around hardcore for even a minute you’ve probably heard someone expound on the virtues of Void. Void are on of the first true originals of the hardcore era. Unlike say, Black Flag or the Bad Brains, they didn’t originate via the aftershocks of 70’s punk/wave/whatever. They were influenced by the bands that came from those aftershocks, and as much by the aforementioned punk bands, as by more rock/metal acts like the ever popular Motorhead and Venom (how often do I ref these 2 on here…). They began sometime in 1981, as this is when their first demo (basically a 20+ song live in studio slop-fest), is dated, but they didn’t rise to prominence until arguably the height of the HC era, 1982/83. This prominence came via a handful of appearances on comps like Flex Your Head and Charred Remains, and of course their split LP with fellow DC area band The Faith. But part of their infamy back in their day was the result of their now legendary live performances, which are sadly in this day and age, very under represented on tape and video trade lists.

I wouldn’t argue that Void’s studio material is irrelevant. On the contrary their split with The Faith is one of the most important documents of its time. With so many bands in DC and surrounding areas content to mimic the Minor Threat formula, and mining the same few records for inspiration, Void were obviously one of the few to find their own way. Singer John Weifenbach growls, screams, and grunts his way through esoteric adolescent gore fantasies and LSD-magnified rage-outs. The rhythm section of Chris Stover and Sean Finnigan (R.I.P.) wobbles and swerves its way in and out of the tempos that anyone else would play with pedestrian indifference. Guitar player Bubba Dupree mangles his chorus tinged metal influenced playing with violent abandon. His amp bleeds high squealing feedback, strings bend disgustingly out of tune, and the sounds bash and crash together in and out of time to produce a sound that never had an equal then or now. Everyone knows this though. All that’s been written of Void has said as much, and now more than ever they get their due from people outside the punk scene as well as in it. But what frequently is hard to account for is the live shows discussed in various hardcore oral histories, which are said to be the very same qualities amplified a hundred times over. More chaos. More feedback. More hard-core.

There’s only one live Void live bootleg that I know of: this is it. I have a tape and video of 2 other late period live sets, but this one seems to be from their peak. After the 12″ had come out, but when they had just started testing out new songs for their misunderstood “Potion For Bad Dreams” lp. While there are no Potion songs on this bootleg, I happen to own a tape of the complete show that night, and they did play a couple. That aside though, if you’ve ever read about Void shows and wondered if it’s really as good as everyone says it was, well this answers the question. It’s obviously, a resounding yes.

Opening with the classic Who Are You it becomes obvious what the audience was in store for that night. Dupree’s guitar sounds cavernous and gigantic. Thick, saturated… like there’s an actual physical weight to the sound waves. The opening crashes of cymbal and bass accents against the guitar hit recklessly before the group hurtles into the verse. Already they’re dogging in and out of time, frantic and out of control. Feedback from the mics and instruments washes in and out, the vocals fight against any natural rhythm, and the guitar still bears down on everything fighting for total supremacy. There’s something about the live performances of some bands that just can’t be caught in the studio. It’s a different frame of mind, a different experience,  a completely different kind of energy, and for a band like Void, it’s a world of difference. When they play Ask Them Why in this set the beginning collapses into an almost formless mix of sounds before emerging back into focus at the start of the verse. Part of the mess is the sound of the music’s sound, being displaced by the movement of the band members and the audience (no doubt they’re crowding the stage). Strums and hits and squeaks move out of phase for a quarter of a second and it conveys to the listener a sense of movement and kinetic energy that I don’t think could be accurately duplicated in a recording studio, outside of essentially filling the room with a rabid audience.

Everything that makes Void a special band is amplified in these songs. I think it could actually be the definitive Void document in its unabridged form. I understand the gravity of that statement, and it’s not meant to diminish their other work in any way, but rather to emphasize how insane and out of control this performance actually sounds.