Punk bands, for the most part, don’t really age too well. That’s a damnable shame seeing as a lot of ‘em have been able to reform (I dunno how all of those guys are still alive, frankly) and tour a bit to mixed reviews.
Seeing one of those reconstituted groups play is really a crap shoot. It’s either gonna be an incredible show or a total bummer – there’s usually no middle ground. Catching the Zero Boys might lead one to believe that getting the old band back together is a good idea seeing as that Indiana group turned in a few of the best tours in the last five years or so. At about the same time, the New York Dolls started recording and touring again. And that was not a good idea at all. That’s how it goes, though. The Dolls’ outcome is still way more frequent than the Zero Boys.
In thinking about all of this, though, those two aforementioned bands both had pretty deep catalogs to draw from despite the fact that neither group recorded more than two albums – each still had a litany of ‘hits’ to swing through. But lesser bands really need to take into consideration how repurposing twenty or thirty year old music is gonna wind up.
Genetic Control, a Montreal based hardcore band formed during the early eighties, didn’t suffer from the homogenization of the genre during its first go round. The northerners only issued eight tracks – seven of which comprise the group’s lone single entitled First Impressions.
Being released in 1984 might have placed Gen Con towards the outer recesses of the genre – then or now- but it was still able to turn in some decent songs. “Urban Cowboy” is all break neck speed while being able to eschew most of the metal tropes that were already leaking into hardcore at the time. There’s a bit of a New York styled break down replete with a hard rock guitar solo, but apart from that, the track’s on the up and up. The same goes for the majority of the band’s proper releases during its first incarnation.
Probably in part due to the huge number of other groups getting back together, Gen Con sought out some reunion gigs during ’98 and again in ’05. There’s probably recorded evidence of both incarnations – for good or not. But the Brave New World album works to document the first reunion and tacks on the aforementioned work from the ‘80s. Oddly, though, the older material comes after the twenty song live show.
Despite the odd tracking, hearing Gen Con work out some of the same songs fifteen years apart points towards the pratfalls folks get themselves into when reforming their bands. The live tracks aren’t the worst ever levied upon the listen public, but none of it moves to solidify the group’s place in hardcore history. Either way, those last eight tracks are worth taking a listen to. It won’t change your life – or your perception of the genre. But it’s an interesting genre footnote.