🎶 Crucial Track for today: "Turnstile" by Hot Water Music →

I first saw Hot Water Music at the 1995 Cleveland Hardcore Festival and was absolutely blown away... at that point they had only been a band for about 10 months, but they were already super tight and had amazing songs. You just knew they were going to be big.

That festival was pretty good looking back, beyond HWM opening the later Saturday lineup: Fifteen, Garden Variety, Dahlia Seed, Frail, Despair, Jihad, Channel, Threadbare, Los Crudos, Grade... and many others. No price on the flyer, but the 1996 version was $18 for 3 days, which is just insane. About $38 in 2026 dollars. What a steal.