Worn In Red

Worn In Red

In The Offing

[3.5/5]



One of punk’s greatest challenges has been capturing its in-concert immediacy in the sterile environment of a recording. When your stock in trade is the visceral experience of a show, you’re faced with the seemingly insurmountable challenge of translating exhilaration onto album. Though countless bands have tried, few succeeded in conquering this decades-old conundrum.



Virginia’s Worn In Red surely rage in the flesh. Their songs seem created to be detonated in front of young audiences in basements and VFW halls. Their music is the soundtrack to DIY fests and group house potluck dinners. They carry the torch lit during the much vaunted “revolution summer” of ’85 in Washington, D.C., fusing the ragged spirit of Rites Of Spring and the positive attitude of Embrace. Yet Worn In Red are steeped in the modern mid-tempo hardcore of populist bands like Modern Life Is War and Verse. It’s a combination fit for personal and/or political uprising.



Worn In Red deliver a few fantastic songs that surely match the vigor of their shows. “When People Have Something To Say” hits a discordant, Planes Mistaken For Songs-esque groove with guitar lines that slither over the crackling drums and piquant bass. The band summon something equally compelling on the dirge-y “And You Knew” and “Fort Reno,” both similar in temperament with minor-key guitar arpeggios clanging like church bells in the latter’s introductory passage. Guitarists Brendan Murphy and Joe Lusk thankfully borrow some tricks from Hoover and Sleepytime Trio, giving the songs interesting twists and turns. Their intertwining riffs calls to mind antecedent Virginia bands Stop It! and Haram.



Murphy and bassist/vocalist Matt Neagle scream throughout, their lyrics addressing the struggle to live an authentic existence in a world mired in modern day conventions as determined by economic incentives. It’s a quandary well-examined by punks and political theorists through the ages, particularly the Situationists with their call to "vivre sans temps mort" (live without dead time): “One day you will find a way making all your days like you thought they were all weekends.”



Though some may find In The Offing to be overwrought, that’s part of its charm. Surely many felt the same of Fugazi’s recorded output. With time, touring and an editor’s eye (some songs could use a trim), Worn In Red could revive the rabid collective spirit of the early ’90s. Or at least they might give us something akin in scope, vision and beauty to Repeater. (NO IDEA) Casey Boland



GO DOWNLOAD: “When People Have Something To Say”

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