coast2coast

On May 21, 2025, I got to watch American hardcore punk band Torena perform in Cebu City as part of their Asia tour. Hailing from Oxnard, California, the band formed in 2020 and consists of frontman and guitarist Julien Urias, bassist Mika Ryan, guitarist Dante Denoms, and drummer David Stalsworth. The gig was held in R You Restobar, located in Kasambagan, and is a staple for local music gigs. Performing alongside the band were beloved local hardcore outfits, namely Nervevineturbine, Turnpike, Saving Ruth, Loaded Gun, Bloodclut, Sephtis, and Burden. 

When I first arrived at the venue, most of the attendees were gathered outside talking to each other, with the organizers setting up the equipment inside the bar. Meanwhile, a few members of Torena sat by a row of tables next to the entrance to sell merch such as T-shirts and posters. While waiting for the show to start, I sat and chatted with a few friends I made from prior gigs. Once we noticed that the other attendees started heading inside the bar, my friends and I headed in and sat by a table to wait for the performances to commence shortly.

Hardcore havoc

Performing first that night was hardcore and screamo outfit Nervevineturbine, whose performance I have always looked forward to due to how evocative and striking the band was. The two vocalists traded screams and wails that filled the atmosphere and struck the crowd with how intense and passionately they were delivered. On top of that, the band oscillated between fast and slow paces through their songs with ease and precision. All of this helped set the mood for the performances that succeeded, as one by one, the audience stood up and walked closer to watch the performance. While not the most immediate and hard-hitting band that performed that night, they did a great job setting the tone for the rest of the performances that came thereafter.

After Nervevineturbine got the crowd warmed up, it was Turnpike’s time at the limelight. Out of all the local bands that performed on this night, I was looking forward to watching them the most because I have listened to some of their songs during my spare time and enjoyed them a great deal. Fortunately, the band delivered in dishing out a series of heavy and intense performances that did the studio recordings of their songs justice. Without any warning, the band set the intensity high with a slow but hard-hitting opening jam, which got the audience more fired up with a few moshing and thrashing during the performance. Towards the end of the performance, more people started entering the pit to mosh wildly, with some of them screaming the lyrics at the microphone when the frontman handed it to them. Thanks to their vigorous and tight performances, Turnpike have continued to prove themselves to be a mainstay within Cebu’s hardcore music scene.

 Continuing the hot streak of vicious performances was Saving Ruth. Much like Turnpike, the band delivered a series of fiery and intense songs that kept the crowd feeling engaged and energized. Their music had a noticeable emphasis on catchy grooves and danceable rhythms, which urged some of the crowd to dance the signature two-step along to the band’s performance. Thanks to the drummer Near the end of the band’s performance, Ayong, the vocalist for another local hardcore band called GRIP, joined in to add to the already menacing performance with his powerful yells and even handed the microphone to the moshers who also wanted to scream along to the songs. Thanks to the belligerent and tumultuous bellows of both vocalists and the sharp performances of the musicians, Saving Ruth helped to keep the momentum going to keep the show entertaining.

The next band to grace the crowd with their performance was Loaded Gun. Up until this point, the bands thus far delivered satisfyingly intense and striking performances but nothing that I haven’t seen or heard from the past hardcore gigs I’ve attended. However, Loaded Gun was the necessary shake-up to the hardcore formula that I was already familiar with. From what I’ve heard, their style is heavily influenced by slam death metal and beatdown hardcore, both of which are characterized by hip-hop elements and a more guttural vocal technique known as “death growls”.

Right from the get-go, the hip-hop and trap samples set the tone for their performance and got me intrigued as to what sort of performance the band would deliver. Afterwards, the crowd and I were graced with an onslaught of ferocious growls that sounded revolting and vile in the best way possible, set against sharp and dense downtuned guitar riffs and tight drumming. The intense and ferocious musical display compelled the crowd, including myself, to start two-stepping and running around in a circle pit repeatedly. Sometimes, the band would unexpectedly pause their performance and let a hip-hop sample play, signaling that an intense breakdown was coming our way. In my opinion, this gave the band’s music an incredible amount of variety that made them stand out from the rest of the bands.

To keep the momentum going, Bloodclut took the stage and gave us a more straightforward, yet no less engaging, performance. The band’s two vocalists traded powerful and fierce vocal performances with each other on top of extremely tight and sticky guitar riffs and drumming. Their approach to hardcore was the most simple and clean-cut out of all the bands, but that didn’t at all detract from their performance. In fact, I would go as far as to say they gave some of the catchiest and most infectious performances of the night. The crowd did not hesitate to two-step and mosh in the pit, as well as grab the mic from one of the vocalists and scream along whenever the opportunity presented itself. For as much as I look forward to a stylistic deviation during hardcore gigs to add some variety, I still completely appreciate and respect a band’s ability to inject some adrenaline into the crowd with some well-performed, sharp, and simple hardcore jams.

Oxnard bombard

Finally, the time had come for the main act to perform, Torena. While the band was getting ready, the crowd started to gather toward the stage to watch the band perform. The band kicked their performance off with a slow and heavy jam that urged much of the crowd to aggressively thrash around and lunge into each other. Afterwards, the band started performing their songs and the pit was much more packed than it had been during the prior performances. To show my enthusiasm, I joined the circle pits and two-stepping that ensued, all of which were a thrill ride on top of hearing the band’s bellicose and hard-hitting performance. 

There was not a single moment where the pit was not surrounded by people moshing or running around wildly, which was a sight to behold and one that the band fully deserved as their performance was nothing short of entertaining, engaging, and intense all at once. Every single chord and drum beat hit like a truck and the band did not let up one bit. The crowd and I were so entertained and invigorated by Torena’s performance that once the band had supposedly finished playing their last song, we all chanted in unison, “one more song!” repeatedly as we so desperately wanted to see the band continue performing. The band then decided that they would grace us with one more song to cap off their performance for good, and I’m happy to say that they gave it their all throughout their performance. 

Final rites

After Torena’s performance, some of the audience who came to see the band perform got their fill and left. However, I wanted to stick around and see the last few performances of the night. The next band that took the stage was Sephtis, whose blackened hardcore style I always found appealing and distinct. While their music was not quite as groovy or immediately catchy as the other bands that night, their performance was nonetheless gripping thanks to their relentless drumming, tremolo-picked guitar riffs, and piercing shrieks. At this point, I was still recuperating from the intense moshing and running I did from Torena’s performance, and I was surprised to see that there were still a fair amount of people still standing and moving along to the band’s music. It really goes to show how energetic and vigorous Cebu’s hardcore scene is. 

The last band to perform that night was local hardcore outfit Burden. Out of all the local bands that performed that night, I was least familiar with them aside from Loaded Gun. Similar to Bloodclut, the band consisted of two vocalists, both of whom dished out high-pitched yells and screams on top of straightforward yet energetic hardcore riffs. The band’s performance was visceral enough that I mustered the energy to get up and engage a little bit with the crowd for the last performance of the night. The rest of the audience seemed to have recovered as well because there were more people moshing and dancing along to Burden’s performance. Overall, Burden’s performance served as a satisfying conclusion to a night full of visceral, unrelenting, and raw displays of hardcore punk energy.

Without a doubt, I can say that Hostile Youth put together an incredibly fun and thrilling hardcore show that continues to prove that they can string together the best local and overseas hardcore talents and bring out the best in them for the audience to bear witness to and enjoy immensely. Torena, especially, delivered one of the most exciting and impassioned live performances I have seen from any hardcore band thus far. It’s definitely an honor for the local hardcore scene that Cebu was the band’s first destination in their Asia tour, as they were able to put their best foot forward and grace us with an extremely solid and energetic show that night. However, I am confident that they continued to deliver a similar level of intensity in their succeeding performances as part of their tour. Much love to Torena and Hostile Youth for all their efforts in putting up an awesome show and I look forward to whatever gigs the latter has planned for the future.