This Day Forward

Rock/pop

Though they were oft-uttered in the same breath as emo-melodic stalwarts Converge, Thrice and Saves the Day -- This Day Forward was always less pallid and sweet in its musicianship and vocal prowess. Instead of chiming in nasal teen-tones about funerals or romanticism, singer Mike Shaw developed a polyp-shredding scream that'd scare Hank Rollins. Guitarists Vadim Taver and Brendan Ekstrom utilized a head-charging rhythmic/lead groove that could be as corrosive as it was calming, a crunch of melody and atmosphere in league with At the Drive-In or Glassjaw. They seemed a mature, serious lot, their lyrics filled with a turmoil and angst that wouldn't succumb to the rhetoric of Gen-Y emotionalism or bad poetry. Why all the past tense references for these Philly/N.J./ Langhorne area kids? After three albums and seven years, TDF are done. It's a shame, what with the instrumentals on In Response (Equal Vision) besting even their initial metal-messes on the Eulogy label. For their last show, they bring along Equal Vision Canadians AlexIsOnFire and Albert React, a batch of Pennsylvanians who seem to borrow This Day Forward's obsession for dirt-ballish rhythmic propulsive punk.

Sun., Dec. 21, 6:30 p.m., $8, all ages, with AlexIsOnFire and Albert React, First Unitarian Church, 22nd and Chestnut sts., 800-594-8499.

—A.D. Amorosi

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