Broken Hope

God damn I have not posted in a while. Not only have I been super busy, but I sometimes find blogging to be annoying and self-indulgent. Since I have been listening to almost nothing but metal for the last couple months, I decided I would post this 7" record from Broken Hope that came out in 1993. This record is one of the first records I ever purchased at my first ever show. I more or less remember the show, but I can't remember at all what the first record was that I purchased, I have a small collection of records I know were among my first, but its all a blur now.

So my first show was at the Thirsty Whale (I think?) in Chicago in 1993. The headlining band was Unleashed from Sweden, and Demented Ted and Broken Hope from Chicago. I only knew who Broken Hope were, and loved their cd that had just come out at the time, The Bowels of Repugnance. I think this was the first death metal band I really got into, the cookie monster vocals and the extremely disturbing lyrics were just the coolest thing to me when I was 13-14 years old. Now, I have a hard time listening to this album, but it does have a lot of sentimental value for me. 

My first show was not supposed to be this death metal show. My parents were really hesitant to let me go to a show, but for my 14th birthday, they bought me tickets to go see the Butthole Surfers and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the club (the Riviera in Chicago, if I remember correctly), the show had been canceled at the last minute. I was really disappointed, since I also was really into the Independent Worm Saloon album by the Surfers that had just come out. The next show I could find that I wanted to see was this Broken Hope show. Me being a dumb 14 year kid, and my parents being completely ignorant of the type of music it was, agreed to it, so I went to this show with my dad. I was a slightly puggy, nerdy looking kid, and I remember wearing this ridiculous Chicago Bulls Starter jacket to the show, and my dad was the only normal looking person there. Everyone else was dressed completely in black, had long hair, and to me at the time, were frankly just scary people. The club was gross and dirty, and I felt like everyone was just staring at us the entire time. 

But, the show was awesome, Unleashed were incredible, I eventually picked up one of their tapes, and Demented Ted were good too. The singer in Broken Hope actually talked like he sang in between songs, which was just the best thing at the time, and as souvenirs for the show, I picked up this 7" and a shirt. I maybe listened to the record 2 or 3 times, there was never any reason to play it since the songs were all on their album, but the shirt I got had the cover of the record on it (I can't believe my dad let me buy that, I don't think he was really paying attention...). I wore the hell out of that shirt through high school, occasionally having to turn it inside out when a teacher would look at it closely. 

I really have to give my dad a lot of credit, I don't remember him ever saying anything bad about the show, it was a little bit of a crazy experience, but no one bothered us, he had a beer and I just enjoyed the hell out of the bands. 

I wonder if Blogger is going to now flag this site for posting objectionable material, let's hope so.