Edge Day 2000 : The Last Show Of In My Eyes

EDGE DAY 2000: The Last Show Of In My Eyes from Revelation Records on Vimeo.

This is what we could salvage of the documentary "EDGE DAY 2000: The Last Show Of In My Eyes." Hope you enjoy it! Here are some words from In My Eyes' guitarist, Anthony Pappalardo:

For the entire existence of In My Eyes there were always three words used to describe us that made us cringe: Youth Crew Revival. Most 'zines that were covering Snapcase and Chamberlain would mention we were "great at being a Youth Crew Revival band" and it drove me fucking insane. The Youth Crew was Youth of Today's crew, not a style of music and certainly not relevant to a band formed in 1997. We all loved Youth of Today but we weren't setting out to revive anything. That phrase always made me think of a bunch of kids in varsity jackets standing over a drawing of the Step Forwards record dude with wires hooked up to him like Weird Science. Suddenly he rises out of the pages of Boiling Point and He's Alive... the Youth Crew had been revived! Let's all pose in the street a la We're Not In This Alone and bleach our hair!

In My Eyes accomplished infinitely less than many of the bands that were our peers in Boston. From Bane and American Nightmare to Converge, Isis, Jejune and Piebald; we'd toured less, played less and never committed to the band full time but it didn't mean it wasn't our lives or that we weren't happy with what we had left behind. We weren't able to be a "full time band" and that made things fun. We had an outlet to pour ourselves into every weekend and it made even the smallest show special.

We didn't revive the Youth Crew, we lived our crew. Some of us listened to Juvenile, while some listened to Stereolab. We could be found wasting our money on sneakers, jackets, unhealthy vegetarian food, gambling or video games. We combed the streets of Boston looking for fun, records and girls… girls were the hardest to come by. In My Eyes was our way of avoiding the September to June College Malaise that defines Boston.

Initially we were a handful of kids crammed into the first floor of a poorly insulated Mission Hill apartment with a Subway table in the vinyl floored kitchen. By the end of the band our friends inhabited about 43% of the neighborhood, formed twenty thousand bands and record labels and we all found time to hang out on each other's porches and stoops no matter what was going on.

In My Eyes was convinced to play a final show, as the band had run it's course. We were exhausted, broke, and all facing different directions while still being best friends. Matt Galle, Tim Mailloux and Ray Lemonie aka DHU were responsible for most of the all ages punk and hardcore shows in Boston at the time and they wouldn't let us go out with a whimper. They booked an all ages, $5.00 show in Haverhill, MA, where Ten Yard Fight had once played as well as 108, about 7 years prior. Haverhill was about ten miles from where I grew up. I spent my teen years there in coffee shops, grinding and sliding the curbs in the town's parking garage. It was part of the Merrimack Valley, an area responsible for Cave-In, Piebald, Converge, Ten Yard Fight and other notable bands. It was nice to end where I started.

The show wasn't going to take place in Boston so we could have an all ages show with no barriers, without giving a cent to club owners that hated us the other 364 days of the calendar year.

DHU asked me who I'd wanted on the bill; I remember asking if American Nightmare could play... they didn't and I'm not sure why but Wes sang the ending of Through The Motions which is part of this documentary. In viewing the video again I realized how much this song aspired to be a Moondog song though it's mid-paced tempo was modeled after Inside Out.



I'm not sure why my memory is so sharp for some things and so vague for others but I'll run down the last time In My Eyes played together:

• A few weeks prior we played a last show in Riverside County in California at the Showcase Theater. I liberated a pair of gold Air Max 97s from Niketown as an homage to Civ's obnoxious creepers at the last GB shows.

• As In My Eyes was fading out, a lot of us noticed the focus on NYHC folk-lore and generally being "hard" in hardcore 2000. We purposely chose to cover A Time We'll Remember and Bottled Violence, two songs without mosh parts that are as energetic as any songs recorded to keep an emphasis on stage dives and sing-alongs... things we saw as the core of the band.

• Friends from all over the world came, a lot of our friends hadn't been to a show in years or ever, some of them liked Limp Bizkit and others, House music. It was rad to have such a mix of personalities and backgrounds there in one place.

• The show was $5.00; I'm not sure how many people paid but I know for a fact that no one I knew was asked for even a dollar. Clevo mentions there being 500+ kids there, I'm sure at least 200 were on the "guest list." I have no idea how many kids were actually there but it felt like at least 501.

• The palm tree background was pretty calming, and later, Jeff and I joked about starting a new band, "Veggie Burger in Paradise", a Leisure Core band inspired by the backdrop.

• We all knew Sweet Pete was tight with Porcell but didn't believe he'd really show up to sing Straight Edge Revenge. It kind of blew me away how kids didn't give him a little room to do his thing, I always thought he was pretty incredible on stage and would have liked to see him have a little more space.

• There was one In My Eyes song we all thought sucked so we didn't play it but I'm not sure 11 years later what it was, maybe it was Overlooked.

• Dudes ripping down the ceiling cost us $400.00, which is 80 paid customers. I might start a Kickstarter to recoup the costs retroactively.

• There were a lot of humans there not wearing shirts... I'm pretty sure 11 years later they'd keep their "Hanes Beefy Tees" on.

• None of us could even get near our amps to look at our tuners due to the amount of Edgemin on stage, we gave up and tuned by ear. Al Quint once complained that we were always out of tune because we "jumped around so much", I'm surprised how in-tune we actually sounded.

As for the actual documentary you're viewing now, it was supposed to be this multi-angle, multi-camera, semi-mega production packed with ephemera, interviews and insight. Instead, it sat somewhere for years until a short sample tape and an invoice arrived in my mail box years later. There was a lot of confusion about what really happened with the movie, I wanted to work with the editor and really make this different but instead the film crew disappeared and we all forgot about this until Larry Ransom found this 30 minute cut.

I wish I didn't swing my arms around as much when I talked but I'm happy with this slice of In My Eyes and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Thank you to DHU for booking the show, everyone who came out as well as Shark Attack, The Killing Flame, Mouthpiece, Fastbreak, Bane and Ten Yard Fight who played for next to nothing to be a part of the day.

I never went to my senior prom and spent 15 minutes at my college graduation because In My Eyes had a show booked at a shed in a New Jersey backyard with Ensign which I played with a 100+ degree fever but I had this day no matter how bad my memories of it actually is.

Despite this show being an endpoint for In My Eyes, I see many of the people on that stage weekly, monthly and at weddings and other celebrations to this day. We share tweets, texts, emails, Facebook wars and other social media connections and we all agree it was a great time that continues into our (gasp) adult lives.

Thank you.
-Anthony Pappalardo 10.17.2011