REJFEST rattles Butler to the core
- Andersen Beck
- Aug 1
- 11 min read
On Friday, July 25th, in a little rec hall in Butler, 4 metal bands took to the stage and brought down the house. Rejfest, hosted by Rejected Generation, brought in 3 other bands – Rogue, Microgutteral Fluctuation (referred to as MGF), and newly debuted DeadAgainst. The bands played music from all over the hardcore spectrum; from alt-rock and emo to brain-rattling slam and deathmetal. For this journalist, Rejfest was the most fun show I've ever been to, and I implore all my dear readers to make all possible efforts to be there for any and all of these bands' shows.
Upon arrival at 5:30, there were about three dozen people finalizing the setup. Kids, young adults, parents – all across the board were helping, whether at the merch tables, the stage, the kitchen, and the door. Half the lodge's kitchen was appropriated into a tech room with guitar cases and cables strewn throughout.
I had met with Rogue earlier that morning for their pre-show breakfast ritual at Christie's in Ellwood City, but aside from them I really didn't know anything of the other bands playing that night. MGF made a name for themselves through a steady stream of performances over the past year, appearing on show bills from all around the West PA-West Virginia region. DeadAgainst had yet to debut, and I was vaguely familiar with some activity with Rejected Generation.
Benjamin Frenchak, a dear friend and once coworker of mine, was my guide into this particular scene. It cannot be stressed enough that without the support of Ben, this article couldn't have been written (or if it could, it would be very brief), so I'd like to formally thank Ben here. Everybody right now say "Thank you Ben!"
Ben is a friend of Rejected Generation and, on multiple occasions, has even sang with them on stage. He took the time to introduce me to the members before the show, all of whom were very warm and open to chat.
People filed in the lodge continuously, chatting with friends, buying food and merchandise. Pittsburgh's chapter of music-driven nonprofit organization Punk Rock Saves Lives had a table set up, offering all kinds of free safety resources, mental and physical, for anyone who wanted them.
At 7 p.m. everyone was corralled into the main hall and the music began. Rogue opened with Title Fight's Numb, But I Still Feel It and the crowd began to tear it up in the pit like a V12 engine on a cold start. Toby Nickles's screaming vocals rang out over Landon Newton's searing lead guitar. Mike Easterling's bass nearly peeled the wood paneling from the walls and Landon Oldenski's rapid snare action ripped through the speakers like an M60 machine gun.
After a roughly half hour set, Rogue was enthusiastically cheered as they made their way off stage. Many of the audience had never heard of Rogue before their performance, but they certainly earned many new fans by the end of it.
After a brief intermission, DeadAgainst took to the stage for their public debut performance; and what a performance it was.
DeadAgainst consists of Aiden Bellis on drums, Aaron Ray on vocals, Liam Zagger on bass, Noah Douthett on guitar, and Noah Ruby running tech and DJ. Watching these guys on stage was something to behold. They were unchained in the truest sense of the word; all of them screaming into mics, shredding out grinding riffs–syncopated and disjointed at the same time, and radiating with a maniac energy like an open nuclear reactor.
Put most aptly, DeadAgainst is a fun band, and they make fun music. The members yell at each other and at different sections of the crowd in front of them, tossing you around in a whirlwind of sound. From his DJ outpost off the side of the stage, Noah Ruby hits perfectly timed soundbites that beckon forth laughs and cheers from the crowd. Ruby's role in the band gives DeadAgainst a distinctly unique dynamic, unlike anything I've ever heard of, let alone witnessed in-person.
The highlight of their set was their cover of Hard in Da Paint by Waka Flocka Flame, which really needs to be seen to understand it – so I've done you all the favor of linking their recorded performance of it here.
(*Side note: guys I'm running out of cloud storage on this website because of pictures and videos and I will have to pay for more (╥﹏╥). On the other hand, I've only been able to fill up the storage because there's so many bands to cover and stories to write! Thank you to both the artists and readers who provide me with events to cover and encouragement to continue!)
After DeadAgainst came MGF, who brought with them that classic, aggressive, growling death metal that we all know and love. Similar to DeadAgainst, MGF is a band that knows how to perform. At several points in their set, bassist Mike Brueggman hopped off stage and into the pit, seamlessly pumping out basslines while erratic fists and elbows flew past his face. Lead guitar and vocalist Andy Hull had full control of the room, initiating crowd participation and call-and-response segments in songs, which were enthusiastically received. Somehow, drummer Liam Hurley maintained composure through his focused berserk drum attacks while dressed as a bottle of mustard.
The set ended with Hull dropping to his knees and facing a 15-second-long stream of mustard straight from the bottle–a shocking feat that unfortunately nobody seemed to capture on film. MGF worked the crowd into a wild frenzy; in the post-set intermission, lads were walking out of the pit with blood-covered faces (whether their own or someone else's is still up in the air) with wide grins of camaraderie.
The energy was at its peak when the headlining home-grown Butler PA hardcore band Rejected Generation took over the stage.
Rejected Generation shares some members with DeadAgainst in Noah Douthett and Liam Zagger, who are in their respective roles as rhythm guitar and bass, but this 'Motherband' features Arlo Watt on lead guitar and Will Schantz on drums. The set begins with Schantz howling at the crowd in his Tommy-Lee-esque headset mic, which earned an equally gladiatorial applause from the pit. At the piercing screech of amp feedback, the sweaty, pulsating, fleshy mass that was the moshpit erupted like an Iraq oil pipeline.
As seen in the photos above, their set was not limited to just their own band members; several guests were brought on for different songs throughout the show, like Ben Frenchak, who joined for vocals on Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), and Hayden Miller, who played additional guitar on and off throughout the set, along with several others.
A high point of the night for me was Rejected Generation + friends covering Chevelle's Send The Pain Below. Seeing a dozen guys on stage and a whole room of mostly strangers (to myself) chanting out the iconic chorus was a tad moving.
An impressive show to say the absolute least. Everything from the atmosphere, the songs, the energy, and the individuals both on stage and in the crowd was exceptional. Rejfest set a precedent that every show in this city should strive to replicate. After the show ended, after the crowd funneled out and into the humid night air, I corralled all the lads from Rejected Generation and DeadAgainst for a quick interview.
(BLD stands for me -- also forgive me if anyone's quote is accidentally misattributed to someone else, I can only listen to the audio playback of the interview and I'm trying to match voices with faces so there's a possibility of a few slip-ups.)
BLD: DeadAgainst, how did you form?
Aiden Bellis: It started after Rejected Generation, we were wanting to start a hardcore band from like way before Rejected Generation.
Noah Douthett: Me and Aiden yeah, it's been a minute.
BLD: How long?
Aiden Bellis: Since we first got into hardcore; like the minute we were in a band together, like before this, we wanted to make harder music.
BLD: When did Rejected Generation start?
Liam Zagger: Back in August of last year we started practicing, we played our first show November 2nd.
BLD: What's the Butler scene like?
Will Schantz: The Butler scene, from what I hear, it used to be fucking popping.
Liam Zagger: Back in the 90's.
Will Schantz: There used to be shows in the early 2000's and 90's.
Aiden Bellis: Even like Suicide Silence played in Butler one time, just as like a small little show. Like they played at the Art Center I wanna say, or something... back in like 2006.
Will Schantz: The main goal is to truly blow up and bring the scene back to Butler … and then act like we don't know nobody.
(All laugh)
BLD: I never knew there was a big scene here, I mean I'm from like 30 minutes away.
Liam Zagger: It's not that big, we are getting this ball rolling again.
BLD: Well, so many heads showed up tonight, it's hard to believe it's not a bigger thing.
Will Schantz: Dude, it brought me to tears, brought me to fuckin' tears.
BLD: I've been covering a few different scenes around Pittsburgh, and this is like the coolest, most open too, like people are REALLY into it – and very positive, there was like no negativity except that little fight thing but that got handled so quickly.
Will Schantz: Well like the most important thing is just knowing what your audience likes. Knowing how they get into it.
BLD: For Rejected Generation, what are some of your musical inspirations?
Noah Douthett: We just play what we want.
Will Schantz: Sum 41, Misfits, … wide variety.
Liam Zagger: The whole point of this shit is free will. To do what we want and make shit that makes us happy, more than anything.
Will Schantz: If we wanna make a blues song one day, we'll make a blues song.
BLD: This seems like the kinda place too where anything could fly, like when working with a blank-slate scene like it sounds like you are, and with these people that are so supportive, you guys could really do anything.
Liam Zagger: Yeah it feels empowering.
BLD: Like with Waka Flocka Cum (title of DeadAgainst's cover of Hard in Da Paint, whose mentioning garners laughs around the room,) that was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever seen live.
BLD: So Rejected Generation, do you guys have anything streaming yet?
Will Schantz: No, we're working on it. We're actually recording through a college so it's taking a pretty decent time.
BLD: Which college?
Will Schantz: Duquesne University.
BLD: Dude everybody records through Duquesne that's so awesome (shoutout MISSING!).
Will Schantz: (chuckling) That's probably why it takes so long!
BLD: So in Rejected Generation, who's working on song writing? What's that like?
Will Schantz: It's like a ping pong match. We just like bounce the ball back and forth between each other and we're like 'How does this sound if we do this, or with this' and eventually a song will get made.
Liam Zagger: Yeah that's usually how it goes.
BLD: Usually comes out of like long jam seshes and stuff?
Arlo Watt: Either that or some people just have stuff already ready. Stuff they work on themselves and we bring in and other people mess around with.
BLD: How many events like this have y'all hosted?
Will Schantz: Two, this is our second ever time hosting. Our first show we hosted ourselves, everything was done ourselves.
Liam Zagger: That was here too, at this same building.
BLD: So have you guys played around here regularly?
Will Schantz: This is my first time actually doing some live shit, these guys (Rejected Generation) have much more experience than I have.
BLD: For you guys, what's the best part of doing shows like this?
Noah Douthett: The energy.
Liam Zagger: Getting people moving.
Will Schantz: Just seeing people jump around. Seeing people actually go through the efforts of beating the shit out of each other.
Arlo Watt: It's why we do it.
Aiden Bellis: This was my first experience in a show like seeing people just absolutely wailing on each other, and it's just crazy to see.
Will Schantz: It's much different seeing people move in synchronicity. Moving at the same time and beating the shit out of each other.
BLD: It's unreal man, I remember being young and watching the classic Denny's hardcore show (known officially as the Denny's Grand Slam), and it's like a dream come true to actually see this IRL.
Will Schantz: One day there will be an RG and DeadAgainst Denny's show, or at Eat N Park!
BLD: What would y'all tell somebody who's afraid to get in the mosh and fight like that?
(All in unison): Just power through it.
Liam Zagger: Do it the first time and then you're gonna see why.
Noah Douthett: Clear your mind and just go for it.
Aiden Bellis: The first show I ever went to was Knocked Loose and Slipknot, which they had some pretty good moshes, but I was like terrified to get in until I actually got in and it wasn't bad at all honestly.
BLD: What's an obstacle or challenge in playing the kind of music you guys play that you don't think an audience member would understand?
Will Schantz: It's very, like, arrogant. It's ignorant as well - because we write stuff just because we like how it sounds you know, and we write stuff that just sounds stupid, but it goes hard at the same time.
BLD: Is there kinda like a dissonance when you're up there playing and it all just sounds kinda weird, but everybody's going with it, but it's different because you know what it all is?
Aiden Bellis: Yeah I was kinda standing there like, I don't get why people are moving so much at our debut show.
BLD: Rejected Generation, where are we headed in the future? I heard we got an album coming with Duquesne, what direction are we moving in?
Liam Zagger and others: Forward
Will Schantz: Always up, there's always an upward trajectory.
BLD: Pittsburgh as a whole is kinda on that trajectory, especially the music scene. We can only just power on and get better with time.
Will Schantz: Maybe a little selfish but I think Pittsburgh has it enough, I think Butler needs to get their own scene.
BLD: We need people to start driving up, need to get more respect up here.
Liam Zagger: We need a venue.
Will Schantz: We need the Butler, we need the Conno, we need the Evans City scene, we need all of the fuckin' 15 minute area scenes wrapped together.
BLD: And we need to get these kids doing this shit, we gotta get more guys like Rogue. Like those guys just graduated high school and they've been playing since like their sophomore year. We need high school bands again bro.
Noah Douthett: I'm 17.
Aiden Bellis: I'm 15.
Will Schantz: High school is literally like the prime years to get into this shit because you have an open gateway to like a thousand people to just be like 'yeah read this, take this poster, take this sticker, this is my band.'
BLD: And it's so genuine too. I mean you can make all kinds of criticisms about young song writers or whatever, and when you're young you're bound to be too derivative or kinda cringy, doing like wack shit, but also it's so honest, so real, and it comes from a place of real love. That shit gets so lost so quick in a lot of college bands, there's just something missing sometimes.
Will Schantz: I really think people forget what makes them who they are, and it's the people in the crowd listening to you fuckin playing.
BLD: Anything you guys got to say to the people?
Liam Zagger: Check us out, we're gonna be in your city soon.
Noah Douthett: Give us a chance.
Will Schantz: Buckle up and stay tuned.
What a ride, eh lads? Big love to everyone who played at Rejfest, as well as everyone who showed out for these legendary local bands. Big love to my homeboys from Rogue and my top dawg Ben Frenchak! REMEMBER FOLKS: If you see a poster for a show, GO TO IT!!! Simple as that. Art is what makes life worth living, it's the good stuff. The real deal.
See y'all at the next one, so long.
-Andersen Beck Founder, Reporter