Video: Extinction / Shai Hulud / Trial / Harvest / Ten Yard Fight

One thing that was always interesting in the 90s was how often various tours always collided in cities across America. This often resulted in shows with 8 - 12 bands on one bill, but they were never intended to be all day fests. This show on 8/9/98 at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago is one of those situations. Ten bands played that day, but the video I have only contains fives of them: Extinction, Shai Hulud, Trial, Harvest and Ten Yard Fight.

Video: Trial / Avail - Portland, OR 5/16/98

I recently got together with my old friend Adam to hang out for a few with our kids, and he handed me a stack of late 90s Portland videos that I didn't already have.  Virtually any hardcore video you see from Portland between 1997 and 1999 was filmed by him.
Let's start with Trial and Avail at Stage 4 Theater on May 16th, 1998.  I have no memory of the opening bands, but this show was pretty nuts during both Trial's and Avail's sets.

x206x Zine #2

Here's the second (and I believe final) issue of x206x, which was done by Chris Jacobson (Wait In Vain) and Big Jake.  This came out sometime in late 1998, and has interviews with Trial, Indecision, Left With Nothing and Skarhead.  It's a fun zine, even though they completely butchered my last name in the Top 10 lists.

x206x Zine #2

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?vi2iwmv02r4ck4d

Trial - live in Portland [4/29/12]

On Sunday, April 29th, Trial played Portland, OR again for the first time in 13 years.  Jeff from Because We Must got it all on video and has shared it with the interwebz.

Trial (full set) 4/29/12 from Because We Must on Vimeo. Also, here is the full Unrestrained set from the same show: 

Inside (Japan) - Demo 2010

While I was in Japan back in April, I went to see Shai Hulud who were on tour with Endzweck. I met up with them for dinner before the show started and then we made our way back to the venue which was 2 floors under the main street in Shibuya. Im hanging out with my friend Koba and he tells me I need to see this band Inside, who was opening the show. I was planning to see them anyway but went in to check them out. They seriously blew up the stage. So much energy and a killer live show. I spoke to them afterwards and they had saved a copy of the demo for me (thanks guys). I told them I would post it as a download so here it is. Keep in mind, the vocals are sung in Japanese so Im not quite sure what they are saying but I really enjoy the music...if you dig bands like Have Heart, Strife, and Trial, give Inside a chance.

*NEW LINK*

Inside - Tokyo Straight Edge Demo 2010

Trial

It has now been confirmed that Trial will be playing a show in Chicago in April of '09, and that is news that makes me very happy. There's going to be a book coming out called Burning Fight, that is all about 90s hardcore, and a show is being organized to coincide with its release. Disembodied, and Unbroken had already confirmed, with Undertow apparently being close to confirming as well, and then the news of Trial confirming came along to knock me on my ass. Suffice to say, these knees that have been disagreeing with me for years will be dragged out onto the floor one more time, and will see some epic stage diving time as well. I don't want to sit here for an hour, and expound upon what Trial has meant to my life as a band, so if you'd like, you can go read this blog that I wrote on myspace shortly after the reunion shows of 2005.

Now onto some of the more rare Trial recordings. First up is the Trial demo tape from early 1995. They recorded this in January of '95, and then broke up for a brief period of time, got back together a couple of months later, and realized that kids were into the demo. The recording isn't as tight as Trial came to be known for, but the raw emotion in the songs is still very present.
I'm not sure how many were made, but here's the cover of the demo tape version:

The demo was also released later as a one sided 12" in Europe by Hipster Records, and was limited to 300 copies.

Trial - Demo [1995]
http://www.mediafire.com/?0q6lwqo8vluq27q


And now onto the "I'm Still Screaming" live 7" that was put out by Division Recordings out of Tacoma, WA. Division Recordings was one of the labels done by Ross from Last Man Standing and Stay Gold. He was always a rad dude, and he put out some great records for some NWHC bands that otherwise might not have been heard outside our little corner of the nation. It's not listed in the liner notes, but this 7" was recorded at the RCKCNDY in Seattle if I remember correctly. It features the OG Trial lineup, which leads me to believe that it must have been recorded in 1998, although the record itself didn't come out until 1999. Technically, this 7" is Division Recordings #4, but since this is Trial we're talking about here, it's really Division #4.3

The record itself came out on 3 colors:
black (?), blue (243), clear (300)

There was also a "Martin Audio Can Suck It" press that came out due to a problem at the cover printing plant (Ross also had an issue with the printing shop for the covers of the Left With Nothing 7"), and was limited to 75 copies.


Trial - I'm Still Screaming [live]
http://www.mediafire.com/?rnarb0mokb458f3

Timm re-released Through The Darkest Days and Foundation onto one cd a couple years ago, and is now repressing Are These Our Lives? on vinyl, so head over to Panic Records, and order them!