Hardcore night of the year: Suicidal Tendencies + Madball at Teatro Flores

When you see 2 giants bands in the same flyer, like Suicidal Tendencies and Madball, you already know it could easily be the perfect Hardcore gig. It’s like a clash of titans, where everyone is invited to blow up the venue.
On March 8th, these two bands arrived at Teatro Flores, with Hueso as the local support act.

Hueso got onstage at 19.40, and his Death Metal, with bits of Groove, was an excellent way to start this gig. 
The band sang lots of protestant lyrics, with Santi on low growls, that worked very well with the riffs from Fabio and the aggressive drumming by Gustavo!

When the clock marked 20.30. It was time for Madball to show us how they do it.
The set started with “Nuestra Familia”, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”, and “Hold It Down”. It was clear at a glance how many Madball fans showed up, especially when Freddy made the crowd sing the lyrics. Talking about him, he was totally wild onstage, running from one side to another, as Mike sang backing vocals while playing those killer breakdowns.
“Set It Off”, “Smell the Bacon”, “Lockdown”, and “Get Out” were next on the list. Freddy took the time to say thanks to Argentina, in his words, they were “one of the first countries to give support to their music in their early days”.
It was a non-stop performance, one track after another, no rest, only violence and brutality.
Next songs played were “Don’t Misstep”, “Infiltrate the System”, “Across Your Face”, and “Face to Face”. I think that the only moment of pause was when Freddy told that there’s a new album coming out in May, by Nuclear Blast records, but they didn’t play any new stuff, they’re saving it for the next tour. 
“Fall This Time”, “Tethered”, “New York City”, “Down by Law” and “Rev Up” were the next songs, followed by a cover of The Animals: “It’s My Life”, and then “For My Enemies” and “Look My Way”, time when Freddy jumped to the crowd to let them sing at the microphone.
Their powerful set ended with “Doc Marten Stop”, “100%”, and “Pride (Times Are Changing)”.

The almightyness came onstage at 21.30, when the first clean notes of “You Can’t Bring Me Down” started sounding as Suicidal Tendencies appeared on stage. 
At that time, Teatro Flores was at its fullest without a doubt.
The whole place was surrounded by a circle pit as Mike Muir jumped around the stage, letting the crowd sing the chorus.
The next one was “Join the Army”, followed by “Lovely” (a rare track on the setlist, a fan favourite from “Lights, Camera, Revolution”). Before introducing the following song, Mike gave us all some advice about not letting anyone tell us how to live our lives, and to stand for what we feel is the right thing to do, and that’s how we got into “Freedumb”, where Ben jumped into the crowd and kept on playing guitar as the people were holding him. This kind of intensity remained the whole show!
After Mike introduced us to their young bassist, Tye (Metallica’s Robert Trujillo’s son; I find it totally amazing how he is playing the exact songs that his dad recorded with ST 30 years ago), “Send Me Your Money” started being played by the band. And Tye really left us speechless with his incredible bass solos on that iconic bridge. Just as his father did on the album.
“War Inside My Head” was next, and we all know how much everyone loves to get mad as hell when it is being played. And this time was not the exception, even Freddy from Madball joined the stage from behind to sing the chorus with them!
Going back to the first record, “Subliminal” was next on the setlist, followed by “Possessed to Skate” and “I Saw Your Mommy”, where Mike made lots of fans get onto the stage to start a circle pit while the band kept playing the famous track.
Gotta give some love to Xavier, their new drummer. The guy has amazing skills and makes it look so easy. Also, he never erased the smile on his face while playing, not for a single moment. 
“Cyco Vision” and “How Will I Laugh Tomorrow” (where Ben jump from a pretty tall amplifier, we all thought it was going to end in a bad way. Unfortunately not, looks like he’s kind of expert on that haha) approached us to the end of the show, given by “Pledge Your Allegiance”, with Mike making people get onstage once again. So, it ended totally on high!

Photos by Eliana Fernandez

Review by Agustín Lopez

Produced by California Sun Producciones & Hellnoise Booking

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