Sound And Fury 2024: Watch Have Heart’s Reunion, Touché Amoré’s Surprise Set, Nothing Covering Coldplay, More
This was a weekend full of violent spectacle, and by that of course I mean that Sound And Fury went down in Los Angeles. The Sound And Fury fest, North America’s biggest hardcore festival by far, moved to LA’s Exposition Park a couple of years ago, and it was probably the single most important annual event on the hardcore calendar even before it started drawing gigantic post-pandemic crowds. Once again, those of us who were not there can look upon this year’s footage and feel absolute despondence, which might be slightly lessened by the fact that we made it through the weekend without anyone kicking us in the jaw.
The biggest news from this year’s Sound And Fury was the return of Have Heart, the Boston firebrands who broke up in 2009. Have Heart’s legend as only grown since the band ended. In 2019, they played a series of reunion shows, and the one in Massachusetts drew nearly 10,000 people. By plenty of estimates, it was the biggest DIY hardcore show in American history. They also headlined that year’s Sound And Fury, and videos from that set were incredible. This year, Have Heart announced another reunion. Before Sound And Fury, they already played Detroit’s Tied Down and Manchester’s Outbreak, and they’ve got more shows coming up. Still, Sound And Fury was probably the main event. Last night, they might’ve played to more people than at that 2019 Massachusetts show.
Have Heart headlined the second Sound And Fury night, and Fiddlehead, the current band from singer Pat Flynn and drummer Shawn Costa, headlined the first night. Have Heart didn’t play any new songs or anything last night, but the sheer vision of them leading this massive crowd through those cathartic singalongs is absolutely stirring. Watch some videos from last night’s set below.
Have Heart’s California contemporaries Touché Amoré are past Sound And Fury headliners, and they played a surprise set at the festival on Saturday. (Fellow Sound And Fury legends Ceremony did the same thing last year.) It looks like people were ready.
Surprise Touché Amoré set at Sound & Fury pic.twitter.com/k8UVnl8wRi
— BrooklynVegan (@brooklynvegan) July 14, 2024
Lots of bands played cover songs at Sound And Fury, and most of those covers were heavy classics: Twitching Tongues doing Misfits and Downpresser, Harms Way doing Sepultura, Demonstration Of Power doing Death Threat, Cosmic Joke doing Agent Orange, etc. But heavy shoegaze greats Nothing went a different direction, trying out a weird version of Coldplay’s “Yellow.”
Even with plenty of melodic and hardcore-adjacent bands on the bill, it’s pretty striking to watch this year’s Sound And Fury videos and see how the fest was dominated by heavy, apocalyptic mosh music, with bands like Volcano, Sanguisugabogg, Big Boy, and Sunami playing sets that looked tremendous. It appears that people were especially amped about the experimental slam project Torture, a recent Stereogum Band To Watch. When you see mastermind K.K. screaming to hurt someone over his Janet Jackson headset mic, that band makes a lot more sense.
TORTURE pic.twitter.com/EINTzko3Cy
— haha iight (@DAZE_STYLE) July 14, 2024
Torture had a Pit Island pic.twitter.com/GCd8TsKwHH
— bo (@bosxe) July 14, 2024
