Mindset

About a month ago Mindset played their final European shows and I was lucky enough to get to go to the show in Mannheim. This show had cast long shadows and my level of anticipation was pretty high, mainly because I was really looking forward to seeing Mindset again, although sadly for the last time. It was an all straight edge line up, which was very fitting for the occasion I guess. Reflect and Insist from the UK played alongside with German SXE bands Statement X and Domain. True Identity had to cancel their trip to Germany, which was the only bummer about this evening.
I didn't really know anything about the first two bands mentioned, but live they were pretty damn good. I think it was Reflect that opened with a Turning Point cover. More bands should do that. Statement X and Domain both feature buddies of mine, which added even more to my level of anticipation. Domain are a fairly new Youth Crew band from the south of Germany, and goddamn, they put on a great show. Their first song was a cover of Take A Stand by Youth Of Today and the place went nuts. Good for them. I was just listening back to their demo online and it doesn't hold up to their live show at all. I hope they will release something on vinyl at some point soon. I had seen Statement X before and I think I wrote about them on here at some point as well. I do like the band musically, but I'm still not sold on the singer's voice. But the rest of the audience seemed to like them just fine, which was very cool to see.
Then Mindset took the stage and they did not disappoint. Truly one of the best (SXE) bands of the last decade. Not only because of the lyrics and music, but also because they actually had something to say. There's stage banter, and then there's stage banter, if you know what I mean.

Mindset's final legacy is Nothing Less, a 7" released a short while before they came over to Europe. Just as good as everything else they had released before. The pre-order had sold out quickly, which I had missed out on of course, but they had two different variants with them on tour. There was a dark red/brownish variant and the coke bottle clear one you can see here. I bought the latter since I thought it looked nicer. Afterwards I learned that the brown one was more limited, out of 305, whereas the coke bottle clear one is out of 500. Should have bought another one of the brownish ones in hindsight. I did go home with a bunch of these, but all of them were for people who couldn't go to the show. Oh well.

I also picked up a copy of Leave No Doubt on yellow vinyl (2nd press /750), because why not? At 10 bucks a pop I just couldn't say no.

And just for fun, here's a link to a video of the show shot by Hate5Six. I think it's a pretty good indicator for a show being awesome when members of the band - who are not the singer - stagedive at some point during the set.

Mindset - Final German Show @ JUZ Mannheim 02/13/2016