The Night Before We All Got Sick

Sick New World weekend started before the festival gates opened. The night before the festival, Poison The Well, Terror, Pain of Truth, and End It took over House of Blues Las Vegas for the most brutal sideshow of the weekend. Other shows had range. This one had impact.

We all knew what we were getting ready for. War. Circle pits, crowd surfers, hardcore dancing, fists, feet, and bodies coming over the rail all night. Fast, loud, physical, unforgiving, and brutal. Exactly what that lineup promised.

End It

End It opened with punk speed and Baltimore bite. Short songs, sharp edges, no wasted motion.

Pain of Truth

Pain of Truth stood out. They were heavy, but the rhythm gave the violence shape. The riffs had bounce, the breakdowns had weight, and the floor responded every time.

Terror

Terror brought classic hardcore authority. Direct riffs, direct words, direct impact. They have spent years turning rooms into controlled chaos, and House of Blues gave them exactly what they needed.

Poison The Well

Then Poison The Well closed the night with the kind of set that made the whole room feel personal.

This was not just nostalgia. Poison The Well are back in the light after 17 years away, with new music and crowds that still know every old song. Botchla opened the night, and Slice Paper Wrists, A Wish for Wings That Work, For a Bandaged Iris, Ghostchant, and the newer material all hit like different parts of the same wound.

For a lot of people in that room, this was childhood brought back in the most brutal and cathartic way possible. Old damage, older bodies, the same songs, and a room full of people still willing to throw themselves into it.

Photos by Kristopher West