Wild Side Chicago

Back in May, I ended up taking a trip to Chicago to see some friends... none of whom I'd met in real life before. A friend of ours was getting married and the group of us made quick last minute plans to make the flight, book an Airbnb, and spend a couple of days together before going to the wedding celebration. As awkward as that sounds like it could be, it was a great time to see and hangout with people that I've only ever talked to online.

The first day there, we planned on spending the day in Chicago and visiting various book and record stores. I had high hopes in finding some cool shit, but unfortunately I didn't see a lot of used stuff for sale... but as we were getting ready to leave Bucket O Blood, I noticed a small rack of 7 inches hidden away in the back corner. Thankfully they had one record that I could pick up as a souvenier of my trip.

I first picked up the Wild Side 7 inch when I saw them play at the Triple B's America's Hardcore fest back in 2019. At the time I was under the impression that it was only pressed on black vinyl, and was okay with the one that I'd bought. I was quickly corrected and informed that there was a mint green colored vinyl version of the 7 inch and I knew that I needed it. Five years later, I was stoked to find one in the... ahem... wild. I've been listening to Wild Side quite a bit since picking up this 7 inch and the band still holds up. So good.

100 pressed on green.

Wild Side Attitude

I made one more stop at the merch tables during the America's Hardcore fest...this time for Wild Side. They were probably one of the bands that I was most excited to see live on this stacked line up, and they did not disappoint. They had great energy, and their guitarist with long hair, tight blue jeans and Van Halen shirt absolutely shredded on the guitar solos. Band was a blast to catch live.

Spoiler alert, but their album is probably going to take the number one spot as my favorite hardcore record this year. I even told the singer as much when I spotted him as I was leaving the show, and with the cocky confidence you should expect from Wild Side, he told me it was actually the best album of all time. However, when it came to the first Wild Side 7 inch, I wasn't familiar with it at all...and truth be told, I wasn't really expecting much from this record. I don't know why, but I felt that these songs were going to fall well short of the band's album, and I couldn't have been more wrong. This 7 inch is great and easily measures up to the full length. With that intro to the Wild Side song, it makes me think of Mental alongside that Iron Boots/Warzone sound.

Since this 7 inch was only pressed on black vinyl, and there were no other pressings for this, I was happy to pick up a copy from the Wild Side merch table after the show...and grabbed a 'Who The Hell Is Wild Side?' sticker as well!

Who The Hell Is Wild Side?

After recently picking up a couple of new records from Triple B, I was fired up on the core. The new One Step Closer and Fury records were cool, but I needed more. I went back to the Triple B store to see what else was going on, and since there were a bunch of new records from bands that I'd never heard of before, I just bounced over to their bandcamp page to see if any of it was worth my attention.

Admittedly, I had low expectations from Wild Side. That album title was just not sitting right with me, and I was expecting some bullshit, but with the hype machine talking about "what the third Warzone LP should have been", I decided to give it a chance. Holy fuck. Yes! This record rules. There is definitely a Warzone influence here, but I'm reminded more of Warzone knock-offs like Iron Boots...and since I fucking love Iron Boots, I'm down with this Wild Side record. Quite possibly my favorite hardcore record of 2019.

I'm not wild (see what I did there) about the colored vinyl options. Platinum and metallic gold are two of my least favorite colors, but I grabbed one anyway. Platinum is limited to 200.