MUSINK 2019 was a weekend full of loud tunes and insane tattoos. Every year, Travis Barker’s annual shin dig brings many of the world’s finest tattoo artists and wildest musical acts together, under multiple roofs, at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, CA.
This year’s lineup of bands was especially heavy, featuring: Suicidal Tendencies, Limp Bizkit, Hatebreed, Sick Of It All, Ho99o9, Bleeding Through and more; prompting Metal Injection to head down and check the festivities out for ourselves.
Day 1:
Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through was storming across the stage when we arrived. The band moved and sounded liked they hadn’t been on a several year hiatus and whipped the growing crowd into a moshing, pile on, lip splitting [note: the author got his lip busted standing too close to the pit during their set! #goodtimes] frenzy.
Sick Of It All
Sick Of It All capitalized on the audiences’ new found mania and went fucking off. These hardcore legends brought the energy level inside the OC Fair’s Hangar stage to sweltering levels. It was a chilly weekend [50 degrees is cold far California…okay?!], but people where sweating alongside the band as they ripped through classics like “Injustice System” and new jams like “Inner Vision” and the, oh so rockin’ “That Crazy White Boy Shit.”
Hatebreed
Hatebreed came out and obliterated the place. The mosh riff kings, the beatdown champs, the epitome of gym playlist music, Hatebreed opened up with “Proven” and once again, proved why they’re untouchable. If you’ve never lost your voice screaming along to Jamey Jasta amidst a dog pile of sweaty dudes, you should seriously reevaluate your life. The band’s greatest hits style setlist spanned Hatebreed’s 25 year career, going way back to “Driven By Suffering” off 1997’s Satisfaction Is The Death of Desire, to newer anthems like “Looking Down The Barrel of Today” from 2016’s The Concrete Confessional.
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies closed the night with a bang. These Southern California, thrash-punk legends have a rabid following around these parts and have always kicked tremendous ass live, but this current incarnation of Suicidal is out of this world. With former The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman and ex-Slayer drum god Dave Lombardo in the band, Suicidal Tendencies is basically a supergroup of the highest order these days. Once they opened with “You Can’t Bring Me Down” Cyco Mike Muir and his gang of merry men had the packed MUSINK crowd in the palms of their hands. They might have released their self-titled debut album in 1983, but Suicidal Tendencies is still one of the sickest live bands of the modern era.
Day 2:
Miss MUSINK 2019
The annual Miss MUSINK competition kicked things off on the second day, followed by a mind blowing performance from Ho99o9. This industrial/metal/rap group puts on one hell of a show. Two vocalists bouncing across the stage, setting off a barrage of twisted samples and propelled by one wild ass drummer; Ho99o9 definitely are one of the most captivating bands around right now.
Ho99o9
Of course everyone at MUSINK day 2 was there to witness the return of Limp Bizkit. Fred Durst, Wes Borland, Sam Rivers, John Otto and DJ Lethal, all back together again; putting “bounce in the mosh pit!” as the words to their classic turn of the century/early millennium ode to cruising “Rollin’” clearly stated.
Limp Bizkit
The band opened with “Hot Dog” off 2000’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water and Lord have mercy, they immediately followed up with an extended version of “Break Stuff.” Yes, the final single from 1999’s Significant Other, the song that launched countless bodies into the air during the waning days of the Clinton administration and may or may not have incited a riot on PPV. Guitarist Wes Borland jumped into the crowd and played the last half of the track in the middle of the goddamn mosh pit and the already manic audience went even more apeshit.
Limp Bizkit rocking the set
Limp Bizkit blew up in the pre-internet, pre-9/11 utopia of late 90’s, early 2000’s America. The music biz, pop culture and society at large is almost unrecognizable from the band’s heyday, but while the world has changed around them, Limp Bizkit remains unscathed from the ravages of time and rocked MUSINK 2019 like it was 1999 all over again. Fred and the boys even had a little fun, throwing around a mix of Nirvana, Green Day and Pantera covers [the intro to "Mouth For War" FYI] before launching into their own rendition of George Michael's "Faith." While most current mainstream rock bands border on the sterile/boring side, Limp Bizkit's brash, "…did it all for the nookie" no fucks given approach felt like a breath of fresh air.
MUSINK 2019 was heavy, fun, and full of rad ink!
How much do you miss Limp Bizkit? How are Suicidal Tendencies still killing it after all these years? What's your favorite Hatebreed song? Let us know what you think!
