United Nations Keeps The Screamo Dream Alive On MLK Day.

Text and images by Rick Kauffman.

United Nations has realigned themselves for a couple of east side shows. On MLK day, nearly four years to the day of their first show – coincidentally on the day of President Obama’s first inauguration, lead singer Geoff Rickley occupied his regular stomping ground with full band in tow at The Barbary. They headlined with support from Braille, sludgy hardcore act Old Lines and the kickass ambient/hardcore three-piece Black Clouds.

Rickley’s entrance to the stage was rather ominous. The band had set up their gear and sound-checked the vocals with no familiar faces among them. UN was formed as a supergroup of sorts with Rickley, Ben Koller from Converge and Daryl Polumbo from Glassjaw. But, according to accounts of contractual obligations, the lineup as it began in 2005 is no more. Instead, two members from Pianos Become Teeth have allegedly joined the band, which is still fronted by Rickley, who in his post-Thursday days is free to do as he pleases – including DJing nights at The Barbary.

It wasn’t clear whether he needed a cup of coffee or a .5 cc shot of Epinephrine straight to the heart, but when Rickley (drunk or not) finally appeared, goddamnit, he was out-of-the-bag the moment he stepped on stage and didn’t disappoint for 45 minutes.

UN, while not in existence during the time of bands it emulates, is the last of a dead scene. Screamo, pre-bastardization by the MTV and radio-friendly hardcore era, was raw as fuck, heavy and full of emotion, a late 90s natural evolution of punk rock that just wasn’t quite pissed off enough. Post-hardcore of the 2000s, which Thursday and Glassjaw were among the elite members, crawled from the basements and eventually went the way of 80’s glam metal—all show, no soul. UN, coupled with extreme tempo changes, double bass and punishing snare hits, carries on the hardcore spirit with dignity.

“This goes out to all those without money and without power, who fall victim to those with power and those with money,” Rickley said.

Rickley fed his microphone through the light bracket on the ceiling and hung above the audience singing UN’s track “Fuck the Future.” He then climbed atop the bass drum during the song’s finale and purposefully ripped a ceiling tile down onto the drumset and himself (caught mid-fall in picture below).

The final song they played, “United Nations vs. United Nations,” is in reference to the current lawsuit that the multinational organization has filed against the band of the same name.

A man in the audience shouted, “They can’t even play music.”

And he’s probably right. Hardcore has always been about doing and playing what you want, political activism through drums and guitars, and guttural screams to stick it to the status quo. It’s the antithesis of the mainstream. Fight the other fishes head-on for your own place to swim.

UN has had their Facebook and Myspace page removed because of copyright infringement, and currently rely on their website (unitedfuckingnations.com) to field questions from fabricated people in third world countries, such as:

Q: As my country was recently invaded by the US, I was burned very badly by the hotness of bomb. My face was even melted. Please make US understand reason. I sorry my English so poor.

Hassan I sabah

Answer: Yo H-Dog,

Who’s show were you at? A US band? Neurosis maybe? You’re right. They totally melt faces. We can only aspire to that level of brutality.

Bonus points for the Hassan I Sabbah reference—long live screamo (call it skrams and I’ll fight you).

Geoff Rickley returns to The Barbary tonight to guest DJ Through Being Cool (formerly known as MakeOutClub for all you faming and lustful little punkrockers out there).