Ok next thing from Philly might be the band Sudden Impact ( I mean a feature/ itw) but I must tell you about the 4th Free Edge Fest who happened almost 2 months ago ( yes it's late, sorry for PETA but you know, there are only 24 hours in a day, and less for lazy people like me :-) )Free Edge ok here is the "official website" if you want more..So it was June 1st and 2nd , 2007, from let's say 5pm to 2am first day, and 2pm till dunno the second day ( because I wasn't there). People from The Rudes were dealing with security, the venue was Salle Yves Renault at Chambray les Tours, and there I met former Campus guys like Greg ( Les Plaisirs Du Core for those who remember), and Radio Beton staff ( Arnaud " Bring The Noise" amidst them). You want more "Gala Voici" Tours(and around) rock activists ? No , nobody was pictured on a beach in Corse..but people behind Free Edge are former No Time To Lose & Riot State Killers musicians ( and current Nine Eleven, for Mr Richard)or "L'Oreille" journalists ( like Theo). Ok let's start the review, many interesting merchandising/militancy/ alternative info stands, like Hardcore District ( Tours/ clermont ferrand/ Toulouse), Exutoire records ( near Bordeaux, they also achieve the fanzine Sedition),the guy from Hey You, Rodolphe, PETA, Born From Pain, Empty Vision/ Fields Of Hope recs , Vitamin X, Bone Brigades recs...two bands were replaced, don't remember who but Daily Mind Distortion and ISP played. DMD started the festival, at the beginning there was like 40-50 people there, interesting set, I would say better than what they did at Lilo in February ( or I felt better this day), kind of punk garage'n'roll with Mr Stouf looking like Henry Rollins in 81, they ended with Riot State killers hymn "RSK". Next was Aussitot Mort, some "modern" emocore for me, not my cup of tea...FTX was , the singer always close to Ray Beez ( clothes and attitude), but this time it was too NYHC for me, less "groovy" or catchy. With ISP,went the show on, the singer running out of stage and singing in the audience a lot of time, more "melodic" hardcore but not Bad Religion/ No FX stuff, unfortunately they took a garage/punk turn for the 2nd part of their set. Then come Year Of No Light, a surprise, their sound is close to Isis or Unsane post hardcore, (funeral) doom and primal black metal ( Darkthrone/B***um/Emperor early stuff). No singing but screaming and yelling ( and the guy also plays keyboards), very interesting but is it really adequate in a hardcore Fest ? it's up to people to ask and think...Nasty coming next was straight modern hardcore (beatdown hardcore), death metal meets NYHC, tough guys gathering and KDS movements, they got an encore and obviously had fans. Empty Vision from Hannover came after ( I must say that everyone was cool there, you could talk and interview everybody on the spot, so I discussed with Empty Vision, Born From Pain, Vitamin X, PETA people, Hardcore District), quieter for your ears, for me a mix of emocore and NYHC, a young crew who ended their set with a SOIA cover, "Scratch the Surface" (and they managed to do, people were down with them, at least the first row). then came my fave for the day, VITAMIN X, old school hardcore ( some let's say "assholes" but after all they can like whichever hardcore style they want :-) wanted to oust them and get Born From Pain), really funny on stage, and the next level if compared with the bands who performed before, you got cirlce pits, brave heart, stage diving, whatever, intense hardcore show, they ended their sets with " See Thru Their lies" and also played " Minor Threat" by you know who ( Yohan DFI should have jumped on stage to sing with them :-) ), the singer was beneath a crew of stage divers and still singing, really great ( ok for Michel Drucker it was awful :-) ). Born From Pain was a return to brutal hardcore ( like Nasty), if you like Merauder, it's for you...and Burning Heads was the "cool it down"/ " let's chill" moment with several reggae punk cuts, like " Evolution", melodic hardcore like "STFU", "Freedom", even some dub ( Bad Brains or HR influence ? just joking !)...at the end they played " Endless Summer" ( maybe a new cut, still reggae punk stuff) and the famous "No Way" ( by Adolescents). And that was it for me...of course the 40 people from the beginning turned to some hundreds at the end, but the venue wasn't sold out. anyway, great event!!