The Richmond hardcore festival United Blood holds a special place in moshers' hearts, and it was fondly missed when the organizers decided to stop doing the fest after COVID forced the cancellation of the 2020 edition. Last year, though, United Blood came back for the first time in six years, selling out Richmond's bigass Canal Club and once again providing two straight days of welcoming bedlam. I went to last year's fest, and I had a great time. That fest wasn't a one-off. United Blood is coming back in April, and its newly unveiled lineup has a whole lot of bangers.
The headliners at this year's UB are Australian flag-bearers Speed, who just played their first two Richmond shows last year, and Atlanta straight-edge crusaders Foundation, who reunited in time for last year's FYA Fest. The top of the bill is also stacked with NYHC legends: Agnostic Front, Breakdown, Killing Time, Merauder.
Elsewhere on the United Blood bill, you'll find a ton of the bands that mean something today's hardcore landscape, including Fiddlehead, Incendiary, Restraining Order, Magnitude, Raw Brigade, Combust, Method Of Doubt, C4, Neolithic, Sin Against Sin, Wits End, Love Sick, Steamroll, Frothing Mad, Spikepit, Freeze Out, Hitman, WMD, Mindforce side projects Crush Your Soul and Fatal Realm, and local heroes Division Of Mind, Swamp Thing, Killing Pace, Dimension Six, and Lose Sight. It's also got older bands like Bitter End and Friend Or Foe coming back. I'm especially amped to see British crushers T.S. Warspite.
United Blood tickets go on sale Thursday, for cash only, at the Richmond record store Vinyl Conflict, with extras going up online Friday at noon at the Canal Club website. Set an alarm or something; they sold out really quickly last year.
