Live shows in general are coming back, but hardcore shows are especially coming back. Hardcore shows are crucial physical outlets and community gatherings for the people who need them, and they’re the kind of things that can’t happen when global pandemics are still rampaging. (When they did happen during the pandemic, people got upset.) COVID might not be fully dead yet, but people are now comfortable gathering en masse, as we saw with the instantly legendary Real Bay Shit show a few weeks ago. This past weekend, I went to my own first show back, a big guerrilla-style outdoor punk spectacle under a bridge. (I’ll have more about that when my hardcore column runs later in the week.) And now we get to watch what happens when Mindforce hit the stage once again.

The hard-stomping Hudson Valley band Mindforce were a big deal before the pandemic, and they kept the momentum going without shows. Last year, Mindforce released the great EP Swingin Swords, Choppin Lords, and they also dropped the one-off single “Reign Of Terror.” Various Mindforce side projects also came into being and released music: Pillars Of Ivory, Colossus, Sentinel. And on July 3, Mindforce returned to the stage at Philadelphia’s Underground Arts, playing the record release show for Year Of The Knife’s Internal Incarceration album. The Hate5six video came out last weekend, and it is a thing to witness.

Hate5six is the project of Sunny Singh, the videographer who’s filmed hundreds (thousands?) of hardcore sets in the past few years. Singh has been back in action again these past few weeks, and all of his videos are beautiful things to witness. But that Mindforce video? Whoo! When Mindforce opens with “Excalibur” and the whole room screams along, that is a thing of beauty. I’ve watched it a bunch of times now, and I get goosebumps every time. Check it out for yourself below.

Singh has also shared other videos from that same show. Here’s Year Of The Knife:

Here’s Queensway:

Here’s Age Of Apocalypse:

And here’s the Sunny Singh video of people talking about what it means to head to the first show back in Baltimore:

I’m seeing Mindforce with Regulate and Dead Heat next month in Richmond, and I could not possibly be more fired up.