Live Review: Converge at The Brooklyn Monarch (2025/06/14)
Rich Hall Life Celebration Day 2
Ticket Price: $47.33
I personally didn't know Rich Hall nor was I familiar with his role in the NYC live music scene, but from what I could gather from the show, he had a profound impact. I believe he was only 50 years old when he recently passed, so it was clearly unexpected and far too soon, to say the least. To celebrate his life and contribution to hardcore and the local NYC music scene, they put on a day show featuring Converge as headliners and ten other acts from the hardcore and metalcore genres.
The doors opened at noon but I managed to arrive around 3 PM when Nora was on stage and was able to see eight of the eleven total bands that performed. I was most familiar with Cave In from Boston, as I saw them last year with Coalesce, and they are definitely worth seeing live. They have some really heavy jams but also feature some really awesome clean vocals.
Of all the acts that performed earlier in the day, I think Shutdown was the most fun. They are a traditional Brooklyn hardcore band and proudly represent the old school scene they grew up in and helped form. However, of all the bands on the bill, Defeater ended up being the most outstanding performance for me. They sounded the best of all the bands, and I enjoyed their song choice. Another Boston/Massachusetts band, so I have to give the nod to "The Bay State" for leading the charge with some really awesome bands.
Converge did not disappoint, and after nearly seven hours for some members of the crowd, they had just enough left in the tank for the headliner. I think the short 20-25 minute sets were good to allow people to pace themselves throughout the day, and then we got a couple of longer sets to close out the evening. Props to the bass player and backing vocalist for Cave In and Converge who was on double duty back-to-back. It is rare to see musicians perform for multiple bands on the same package, and he went all out on both sets.
Cheers and keep rocking!