Non Compos Mentis were from Burlington, VT. Featuring ex-members of 5 Seconds Expired (previously known as SLUSH) they were a mix of "Boston Hardcore" (which was really rock-core back in like 95-98 ala 6L6, Scissorfight, SBC, etc) and grind.
First record "Smile When You Hate" is fantastic. Second one they dropped the "Mentis" and it's called "The Rats Know Him" and is not quite as intense.
Orchid last show. My blood boils just fucking thinking about it.
The changed the venue like twice the day of the show... whatever shit happens and it's cool that efforts were made to keep the show going, plus people were generally good about responding to emails.
The show gets moved to this weird little place in Harvard square. A billion people show up for the advertised door time, and everyone is told to come back in an hour. An hour passes, and the show is still a no go. The dudes running the show didn't want a million crusty kids hanging around the venue attracting attention, so they tell us to go away. Understandable... but everybody knows that the venue holds like 8 people, and nobody wants to be the last one in line. So it takes like another hour to convince everybody to go wait in the pit, and someone will tell us when the show is going to start. Yeah right.
I spend the next several hours getting breathed on by summer crust punk interns in the pit. Nobody ever comes to tell anybody anything, and we all wander back to the venue. Everybody has been there for at least 4 or 5 hours now and nobody has any answers.
Now it's raining... and it's dark out. Finally the promoters can't stop kids from lining up outside the door. Despite having been in Harvard Square all day I still end up about a hundred people deep in line. The good news is that Orchid is gonna be cool and play 2 sets so everyone will get a chance to see them. Yay. The bad news is that despite their entire fanbase hanging out in Harvard square all day on a whim, no one from the band has bothered to show up to the show. Booo.
Hours pass again. Wolves has also announced they'll play 2 sets. Unanimously no one gives a fraction of a shit. It's now like an hour and a half before the last train leaves and people are getting up and walking away soaking wet. I finally get to the doors and the dude tells me the show is full, but I can be first in line for the next set. I do the math in my head over how long it's going to take for Wolves to take a dump on the stage, and realize I'll never make the last train. I tell the dude at the door to fuck off, he tells me it's not his fault, I tell him he's right, apologize and tell him to pass the FU along to whoever's fault it really is.
Years later I watch the video on Youtube, and realize that the show is really just a bunch of identical looking nerds pulling their pud while Orchid whines and cries about people being too close to them. I re-live the whole event and bottle up the rage so I can beat my kids with it some day.
Orchid, great band, always will be, but fuck them.
The Taste of Silver @ one of the last MA shows (THE last?) in Woburn, performing Narcimalion in its entirety only to find the crowd response sucked so we gave up half way through and just played older material. This song survived, however.
