Waxed Thrashes It Out at The Basement

The cultures of skateboarding and underground music have been intertwined since the mid-1970s, overlapping to the point that it’s hard to find the border between them. Half-pipe legend Steve Caballero played in hardcore unit The Faction. Punk bands like Big Boys, JFA and Minor Threat wore their love of skating on their sleeves, while punk and metal unknowns soundtracked skate videos that simultaneously exposed kids to new music and new tricks. Decades before Brian “Pushead” Schroeder was being celebrated in posh New York art galleries, he played a big role in setting the aesthetic for the cultures’ intersection with illustrations for Zorlac Skateboards, Metallica and many more; he also played in Septic Death. Jake Phelps, the late, heralded editor of skating magazine Thrasher, was close enough to Boston hardcore outfit SS Decontrol that he appears on the cover of their genre-defining 12-inch The Kids Will Have Their Say. Friday night, the tradition continued at The Basement with a trio of bands celebrating the spirit of Thrasher’s Skate Rock! compilation series.

The room had to clear out a little after the 7 p.m. show, offering the visual juxtaposition of big amps being dragged in by mangy ragers while the singer-songwriter crowd made its exodus. By 9 p.m., the late-show crowd was in place and Hurts to Laugh was getting into gear. The long-running four-piece is anchored by frontman and concrete-park regular Erik Dail, who played the whole set in a pair of red platform stiletto heels that Jessica Rabbit might have coveted. Self-described as “Nashville’s gnarliest band” and known for stopping at skate parks whenever possible on the road, the openers played tunes from their 2021 LP What’s in Your Way, including a cover of Black Flag’s classic “Wasted.”

I was really interested to see Mexico City’s Cardiel, who was in the second slot on the bill. Named for superstar skater John Cardiel, the band was formed in 2010 by drummer-singer Samantha Ambrosio and guitarist-singer Miguel Fraino, two Venezuelan immigrants who set out to make the kind of music they wanted to hear in skate videos — a rowdy blend of fuzzed-out, ballistic thrash and psychedelic reggae. It sounds like a terrible idea until you actually hear what they do. The pair set up in close proximity, canted toward each other but mostly facing the crowd. Fraino’s Spanish lyrics, delivered in a hoarse scream, were sparse and let the furious riffs carry most of the songs, while Ambrosio’s beats transitioned seamlessly from a thrash-y gallop into spacey dub. 

While a guitar malfunction led to an impromptu intermission, I took the opportunity to check out the crowd. The ragers that night were a mixed bag of salt-and-pepper punks and young heshers, including a kid shooting on a VHS camcorder that was almost certainly older than him. Once the tech issue was resolved, Fraino gave a sincere salute to what he described as the most beautiful thing human beings had created: skateboarding. The band then dropped into their anthem “Destino Bowl Secreto,” an ode to half-pipes and street style whose video features the duo and their friends carving pools like they were in the Bones Brigade. Their passion was matched by enthusiastic fist-pumping from the maniacs in the crowd. By the time they were finished, the band looked absolutely spent, sweating out every drop of passion in their bodies in their triumphant Music City debut.

Taking the stage last was Waxed, now a full decade into their run on the Nashville DIY circuit. Though the band emerged as a run-of-the-mill melodic hardcore punk band, they eventually began taking on a prominent thrash metal influence. In July, they released their first full-length Give Up on the Another Riff Raff label. The album is a whiplash-inducing crossover cassette that recalls veteran Venice Beach hardcore and metal vets Excel and the feel of the peak NYC Combat Records scene — the kind of golden-age rippers featured on Headbanger’s Ball circa 1989. It was the first hometown gig for Waxed since before the holidays, and the heads were here for it. If the show wasn’t totally sold out, I don’t know how you’d squeeze another humanoid into The Basement. 

From the first guitar lick, the circle pit was a cartoonish swirling melee. Within seconds, the toxic waltz proved too much for a dude who bolted for the door; before the song was over, someone else scampered toward the bathroom, bloody hand covering his nose. The Basement has hosted all kinds of music for nearly 20 years, but recently it’s felt like hushed singer-songwriters were at the fore. Not so Friday: Waxed ripped through their 45-minute set like tissue paper, with diabolical divebombs, warp-speed solos that seared and snarled and frontman Luc Richards spraying PBR on everyone within a 5-foot radius. 

Soon, the guy with the bloody nose emerged from the restroom, appearing not much worse for the wear, and waded right back into the pit — a testament to how much Waxed has to offer. The loosely defined genre has been around for a long time and has had plenty of issues to grapple with, running the gamut from strains of misogyny and homophobia to silly tests of purity. But when skate punk is at its best, there are few things that can top the catharsis, even if it comes with a bruise or two and a little ringing in the ears.