Keystone Jam

keystone jam

Hey there Deadlies! Mike T here. We’re almost three weeks removed from Keystone Jam 3 in Reading, PA but I wanted to reflect back to that evening and my experience. Not to mention create a new playlist for fans of hardcore to enjoy.

Agnostic Front, CIV, Hatebreed, Biohazard and Sick of it All were part of my music collection growing up. At that time I honestly never appreciated hardcore for what it was, and truth be told, I didn’t even understand these bands were part of that movement.

Over the past two years or so I’ve been introduced to hardcore in depth and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with it.  It’s slowly become one of my favorite genres to listen to and now gets daily play, sometimes all day. It’s incredible, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to figure that out. Better later than never I suppose.

A few weeks ago (December 21st), Keystone Jam 3 happened at Reverb in Reading, PA. It was a special day for me for a couple reasons.

The first is that it would actually be the first pure hardcore show that I’ve ever attended. Yes, you read that correctly. I’ve seen hardcore bands on other concert bills, but never from beginning to end, and certainly not from noon to midnight.

The second is we had just launched our brand new coffee, which we teamed up with PA Hardcore legends, Wisdom in Chains on. They also played the bill that night and they absolutely blew the doors off of the place. It was the first time I had seen them live. They were kind enough to let me set up at their merchandise table to sell bags of the new Amaretto Biscotti Sogno.

The entire day turned into so much more than just selling bags of coffee. I got to meet so many great new people and I loved interacting with every single one of them. I also got to watch 18 bands blow the joint up for nearly 12 hours. The energy was great, the people were great, the bands were great and it was an absolute blast.

I already knew, and have listened to a few of the bands, but I was also turned onto quite a few that I’ve since listened to and they’re now part of my daily playlists.

Speaking of playlists, I took the time to create a new Spotify Playlist based solely on the bands that played at Keystone Jam 3. I went through each band’s library and chose a couple/few of my favorites from each, which you can listen to here. It’s also embedded below. If you search, the name of the Spotify Playlist is KEYSTONE JAM 3.

We just wanted to give one final thank you to everyone that picked up a bag of coffee, helped me while I was there, Chris from Reverb, Nameless Prints and of course, the entire crew from Wisdom in Chains. Much respect.

Also, if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to pick yourself up a bag of the Official Wisdom in Chains coffee.