Sure, why not shoot an Antiquiet Session in Texas? Outside. In the rain. From the mosh pit. What could go wrong? Apparently, not much. Pride begins to describe the feeling we have presenting this, our 20th session, featuring Cancer Bats. Anyone that’s ever thrown any kind of party at SXSW can tell you what kind of insane rodeo it can be, but for the past couple of years, we’ve been working to raise the bar out there and realize a big idea: With the Swing House Studios crew in Austin, we recorded and filmed each of the seven bands’ sets exactly like we do in the studio back here in LA. The bands, the crowd, and the whole crew brushed aside rain and a thousand other challenges last weekend, and we couldn’t get Cancer Bats’ complete slaughter of their headlining set up here fast enough. Dig in.
For me, the answer to the “favorite band of all time” question has been the same for over 15 years: Refused. The energy with which they attack the stage is a force of nature to be witnessed. But there are a very small handful of other bands that have managed to viciously claw their way into that upper echelon with them, and Toronto’s Cancer Bats is one of those few. Between their sets in Austin this year, and their brand-new album Searching For Zero, arguably their best yet, they’re quickly becoming a new obsession for me and every old hardcore kid I come across looking for something new, fresh and vital.
The full set can be viewed in its entirety, here in this YouTube playlist.
Cancer Bats’ 5th LP Searching For Zero was released on March 10th and is definitely worth picking up. Get on that at cancerbats.com, where you’ll also find all of the band’s tour dates, currently taking them through Europe & the UK.
Stay tuned through the rest of the year; we’ll be rolling out all of the other live sets from the SXSW showcase, interspersed with a bunch of in-studio sessions done at Swing House’s brand new big awesome studio in Atwater Village.
