Another Victim

Footage of “Lesson In Fear” from Bloodaxe Festival show in Tokyo this summer. 

PSA from Anderson.

Jammin’ a little Alice In Chains in between songs at practice tonight. You are one if you hate on Layne and his voice.

Hey Everyone.

I am the worst blogger/updater that ever lived. (see my blog..two posts in just as many years). However, in the spirit of the Japan shows quickly approaching I thought I’d write a few things.  

First off, I have to say I’m really excited to go. The Promise went there right before we broke up in 2005 and it was an adventure. Tons of awesome kids, crazy shops and insane things to look at. This time around I know it’s going to be a complete blur as it is such a short stay but I can’t wait.

It still baffles me that we’ve been given this opportunity to play. I’m equally honored and humbled by it. I, for one, have never been keen on the reunion idea, even though Another Victim already did do that a mere year after we broke up ha.  I guess it’s natural to question the motivations behind it. Are we trying to deceive people by playing the part? Are we trying to relive some old glory long since dead? Are we trying to cash in on some fleeting HC fame? Shit, I wrote songs about this. Here I am doing what I said I despised.

I’m not going to try and justify things to anyone. The only person I have an obligation to answer to is myself. I wrote songs about that too.  

The fact is, I love hardcore. I don’t go to many shows now. I only know about a handful of new bands but that doesn’t change the feeling I get still when I see a group of kids singing along to Trapped Under Ice.  The goosebumps that spring up on my arm at being at a Long Island show and seeing young bands like Backtrack build and keep their scene thriving.  It’s magic.

My point is no matter how detached I get from this scene.  No matter how far away it may seem — it’s still a part of me. It helped shape who I am as a human being and it set me on this life I’m living. For that I will always be grateful. I’m 32 now and am not going to claim old when John Joseph still runs circles around 19 year olds but with my life, where it’s heading, opportunities like this just don’t come around.  This is a chance not to relive something but to live something I’ve always loved. To be with my friends and to share an experience I’ll always remember.

Anderson DNA 

Quick note about this video;

Found this on youtube. This was a show we played at the Westcott Community Center which is where AV played their first show actually.  Lots of great times and great people.  I remember this show.  It was after the tour we had done with Earth Crisis, VOD, and Fury of V.  We were about to go back out on tour with Harvest. However this is as far as we got cause we had no money ha.  The tour ended up falling apart anyway if memory serves a few members of Harvest ending up getting strep and had to cancel the tour haha.  

Anyways fun show, lots of bad dancing and style but who cares.  Everybody was having fun and everybody felt young.

That’s all that matters.

Koba put up Part I of an interview he did with Buske on his blog. Since it’s in Japanese and doesn’t translate very well, here are the questions and answers from that post.

__________

1. First, AV reunion for Bloodaxe Fest 2010 was big news in Japan. Let me know the sequence of events and what do you think when you get the first offer mail?

Right off the bat, thank you for even considering us. We have been a defunct band for 10 years now, so the fact that there’s even still interest, let alone in Japan, for us to play is awesome. Considering AV’s political and idealistic stance on all of our previous recordings and some of our members current stances, it seemed a bit awkward to agree to doing shows. We discussed it and all agreed that at the end of the day, it’s a life experience and it’s something to reward us for the years of work and dedication we put into the band while we were doing it. AV was never a “big” band, we barely did 2 tours and never made it past Florida on either of them. We never toured Europe, never did Mexico, Canada only a few times - so to get an offer to come to Japan in 2010, we put politics and personal beliefs aside and agreed to play. Japan has also been nothing but supportive and appreciative of AV and all things Syracuse as well as all of our bands since AV, so it’s also a way of us returning that love. 

2.Did you get other offers until now and have you ever planned on doing any reunions?

There’s never really been any official offers, no. People suggest things often but like I said before, they’ve never really been entertained because AV isn’t really a relevant part of some of our lives. I’m not one for reunions to begin with, especially for bands the size of AV. When Gorilla Biscuits did the reunion, that was well deserved - they are/were an enormous band. Thousands of people never got to see them, I don’t necessarily think AV is at that magnitude haha. Japan has always showed us a ton of love, so we feel like it’s well deserved to do a couple shows there. If anyone else came knocking after this, I don’t think we’d do it. We’re just not at the same place in life we were when we wrote those songs. 

3. I think the friendship AV 315 and Bloodaxe 168 too long. Is a reputation of long standing one of cause for the reunion?

That definitely had a lot to do with it, yes. You guys have flown over to see our bands after AV numerous times. Daiki actually saw AV in NYC once before we knew him haha. You guys have shown us nothing but love for 10+ years, so we’re just giving it back by coming over upon your request. 

4. When did Japan tour fixed, how’s your tension?

I assume you mean “how tight is the band” by this haha. Considering we haven’t played these songs in 10 years, they’re were a little dusty but we’ve done a good job of cleaning them off and getting them polished. 

5. You came to Japan two times (THE PROMISE and TERROR). Let me know some memories on each times.

The Promise was my first time to Japan so that has far more memorable moments seeing as everything was new to me. The 7-Eleven’s blew my mind (and still do) considering how similar looking they are yet so NOT similar in product haha. Replace our hot dogs and chimichangas with squid scrotums and eels squeezings and you have the Japanese 7-Eleven experience. So crazy. With Terror, I knew what to expect so I did less of the tourist stuff and actually hung out more. Ate some incredible food, hung out and played some of the best shows I’ve ever played in my life. 

(Part II coming soon)

Did a little jamming tonight w/ JB on some of the older AV songs to refresh the memory and clear away some cobwebs. Buske’s dog decided she wanted to get in on the action.