This zine rules. You can tell the dude who put it together (Matt Rolland) really spent a lot of time and care putting it together. The zine could have easily been called "The Stage Dive Chronicles", as there are numerous anecdotes peppered throughout the issue about Matt's favorite concert-going pastime; Diving off the stage onto people, a tradition which has deep roots in Hardcore music. Matt goes into extreme detail documenting dive placement and execution plus you get to read about lots of headwalking action as well which is always fun. The stories slash show reviews are told in a first person perspective which is entertaining to the reader, and almost makes them feel as if they are there.
The story about causing a near riot at a Modern Life is War show was both funny and engaging writing. The Hit Me Back interview was awesome as well, with good questions asked by the author and good answers given by the band. I enjoyed the Black SS interview immensely too, and Matt came through once again with some good questions. When I saw their name on the cover it had me stoked on jump because BSS are one of the best HC Punk bands playing today period. Reading through the show reviews, I observed that these pieces were written in a bit of a cluttered format, they were still interesting. It was cool reading about shows I've attended in the Chicago area from someone elses perspective, as well as reading about epic journeys across the border to see Fucked Up in Toronto. The bad review of Tim Horton's surprised me, as I heard their donuts are quite tasty as is the coffee. I'll have to make it up there someday and give it a go myself.
One beef I had with this issue were the record reviews. They were typed up via typewriter to apparently demonstrate how much it would suck to have to do a whole issue that way. Well the reviews came off as a bit rushed, but dude still has good taste, as Deep Sleep, The Repos, and Cross Examination were all given good reviews that I would agree with, however I don't agree with his assertion that the Betrayed EP is a horrible piece of crap. Overall, This zine is a super solid effort and is worth coming out to a Chicago area show to track down. (Supposedly these aren't available through the mail, but only in person) I would love to see issue #1, as well as future issues, as I would go out of my way to pick one up and so should you.
