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Music

Mohawks, Heavy Chains, and Lots of Studs: Photos from New York's Alright 2015

Four plus days of mayhem, stage dives, nudity, stick-n-pokes, and some of the best punk rock in the world. Possibly NSFW.

(All photos by Keith Marlowe)

When Chaos in Tejas , it left a vacuum in the punk community. Celebrating its 10th year, the festival had grown to be the premiere destination for the greatest punk rock in the world, along with similarly jaw-dropping metal, indie, electronic, and hardcore. In the years since, festivals like Not Dead Yet, Damaged City, and New York’s Alright have stepped to the plate to help fill out different aspects of the void left by the fest, with New York’s Alright leading the charge for the largest quotient of charged hair and studded black leather.

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At the core of New York’s Alright, now in it’s third year, is the thriving New York punk scene, with several record labels (Katorga Works, Toxic State, etc) and showcasing an ironclad list of punk talent like Warthog, Dawn of Humans, L.O.T.I.O.N., AJAX, and more. From there the festival goes global, inviting in headliners like Warhead (Japan), Part 1 (UK), and Isterismo (Japan), as well as key bands like Aspects of War (US), S.H.I.T. (Can), Vanity (US), Urbanoia (NO), Blazing Eye (US), and Vaaska (US) among others. Kicking off on Thursday (April 16), these bands performed in several different incarnations across three twelve-hour days at multiple gigs across Brooklyn and Manhattan.

But the festival isn’t just a series of shows, it's also a thriving sub-economy. Besides the Sunday show, billed as "BBQ & Flea Market" and featuring local punk artists selling everything from dangle earrings to GISM bootleg shirts to zines of every sort, the fest is also when many of the bands line up their music for release, with several bands dropping their latest LP, seven-inch, or cassette to coincide with the fest. It adds up to an expensive weekend, with $25 shows and several very attractive LPs with hand-screened art all occupying your wallet.

But none of this would matter if the bands weren’t some of the best on the planet. Highlights of the weekend included impressive sets from the Japanese raw punk powerhouse Isterismo, an insane noise attack from Aspects of War, late 70s UK street-punk inspired Vanity, art-y primitive punk from Dawn of Humans, Texas battering ram Vaaska, LA-based Blazing Eye, Japanese stalwarts Warhead, and more. Check out photos from the weekend below via Keith Marlowe.

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AJAX L.O.T.I.O.N. Pure Disgust Sadist Blazing Eye Kromosom Mommy Aspects of War Warhead Isterismo La Misma 2x4 Contingent Warthog Warhead Institute Pleasure Leftists Anasazi Part 1 Impalers Raw Distractions Glue Dawn of Humans