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Tear It Up played Europa

April 21st, 2011 by chocko

Last month the original lineup of NJ’s legendary DIY hardcore punk group, Tear It Up, played to a packed house at Europa in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Paul, Andy, Doug, Matt and Dave had not played a show together since 2003 and to see them on stage for the first of two reunion shows was something I was totally psyched for. I knew as soon as they hit the stage that the “no stage diving” rule posted all over the club would be broken and all sorts of mayhem would ensue. I was pretty close to the stage and the place was packed like sardines and dimly lit. People were stage diving and you couldn’t even see them until they were a foot away from you coming in for a crash landing on your face. I know the dude next to me definitely got his nose broke. It was so packed by the stage that you couldn’t even leave if you wanted to. Bodies were flying, slamming and moshing everywhere. It was definitely one of the craziest punk shows I had been to in a long time. Most of the songs played were off their 2001 “Nothing to Nothing” album. The crowd sang along to every song and Dave, the lead singer put the crowd into a frenzy while crowd surfing and somehow making it back to the stage without missing a beat. Their “Nothing to Nothing” album was recently repressed by Six Feet Under Records and they had it on sale at the merch table along with a limited edition ‘zine (I think the band only printed 100 of them) which featured old photos and flyers from the band’s archives. I wish I had bought a ticket to night 2 at the Irish in Kearny, NJ but that got sold out and there was no chance of getting in. Hardcore punk rockers from Western Massachusetts, Last In Line, also reunited for the show, which was cool because they used to play with Tear It Up a lot back in the day. Cell Mates, a punk band from Maryland, opened up the show. Check out their new single out on Wallride Records.