Somewhat contrary to the song “Sofia isn’t New York” by Rejection the people who were at the show in “Blue Box” on 23 November 2008 teleported to the Big apple at least for a few hours. This was hardcore classics Madball’s second live in Bulgaria, so both they and we knew what to expect. There was no one surprised or unprepared and all the energy was put in practical actions towards full on hardcore fun.

First were the guests from Greece – Die Without who were rather unenthusiastically met by the audience. It’s hard to be the opening band of a big show where everyone has come to see someone else and in a country where no one knows you. Yet, the dudes played with passion and towards the end of their set even provoked a small-sized moshpit. They also played a cover of Agnostic Front’s “For My Family” from their last album. And that was the first New York connection for the night.

Bulgaria’s road to Europe goes through the Bosporus, a local politician once said. The one to New York goes through Plovdiv which, as Delate once again pointed out, is only theirs. The guests from the City of the hills delivered the songs from their album “Hardcore and Weights” with a lot of energy. Among them was, of course, “Hot Cunts on the Horizon”. And this is when the true fun began.

B.F.D.M. once again proved that they make music that is one level above most of the other local bands, at least in my humble opinion. If you breed Slayer with Beastie Boys and their offspring mates with Suicidal Tendencies and Cro-Mags’ kid, that’s how the result would sound. B.F.D.M. played for the second time with their new vocalist Galin (known from fronting Varna based cut throats like Outrage and G.O.T.C.). Things with the new line-up are now completely smooth and the delivery was solid. There were also new songs that were quite crushing too.

Then came the time for Madball! The venue was packed. There were around 6-700 people at the show by an eye’s judgement. All of them spontaneously exploded in the moshpit as Freddy Cricien and co took the stage and blasted their first tune. This was followed by cult songs like "For My Enemies", "Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop", "Set It Off", "Our Family", "Look My Way" and what not. The energy Madball emit as they perform before a crowd is beyond immense. Freddy took advantage of the rather wide stage in “Blue Box” and didn’t stop running from its one end to the other and jumping all over the place. And did so for about an hour. Now think about how you lose breath after climbing more than 3 floors of stairs…

On the other side was the audience that, infected by Madball’s energy, also did its best. The whole space in front of the stage, that had people jumping off it all the time, was a moshpit… Fuckin’ hardcore, you know! Freddy mentioned that he’s impressed how things have developed in our scene for the five years since Madball last played here and that it’s heading in a good direction. We’re flattered. And as we speak of pride, “Pride” was the evening’s final nail.

After such a show you can’t help feeling pumped up. You can’t help feeling recharged with extra strength. It doesn’t matter that the next day you collide with life once again. And it sucks and it wins most of the battles between the two of you. But this is why we listen to this music and love this scene. Greet all the people with Yankees hats, “Buck Foston” T-shirts pulling the legs of the fuckin’ “Red Sox” all the time. It doesn’t matter we’re still in Sofia.

Report & photos:В Stefan TopuzovВ