The hardcore scene has been growing in the underground venues of the Coachella Valley, so it’s only fitting that the scene will soon host a legendary hardcore band in one of the desert’s smallest performance spaces.
Ignite, a powerhouse hardcore band from Orange County, is playing in Indio for the first time ever. Since 1993, the band has been a big part of the melodic hardcore sphere; thanks to breakthrough albums like A Place Called Home and Our Darkest Days, featuring former vocalist Zoltán “Zoli” Téglás, Ignite is now considered legendary. Téglás’ Hungarian heritage allowed the band to be vocal about topics such as war, communism and freedom.
The band has gone through a number of changes since 1993, with bassist Brett Rasmussen remaining as the sole founding member after the departure of Téglás in 2020. Rasmussen and the current lineup of Ignite will perform at Music House Indio on Thursday, Feb. 27.
During a recent phone interview, Rasmussen discussed how Ignite became familiar with Hot Stuff Booking, run by local hardcore frontman Sage Jackson, who is bringing Ignite to Indio.
“The first connection was through the band Berthold City; my good friend Andrew (Kline), who plays guitar in Strife, sings in that band,” Rasmussen said. “They played (at Music House) a few months back and said it was really fun and awesome. I’m always on the lookout for new places to play that we never have tapped into, so I was super-excited when he said, ‘Yeah, it was fun. The kids were cool, and the promoter was rad.’ I connected through my other buddy who lives out there, Bill, who works with Coachella. He’s been a huge hardcore fan for years and years, so he connected me with the kid Sage who books the shows.”
The members of Ignite still relish the opportunity to perform in small-capacity rooms, even after playing stadiums and festivals.
“I love it,” Rasmussen said. “I think this is the best way to grow more. Even in Europe, we’ve played big stuff with giant bands over there, but then our agents are like, ‘Hey, there’s this new venue in the small city,’ and I’m like, ‘Let’s do it.’ All that translates to fans following, making the scene healthy, and making our scene grow. I’m a big believer in playing the smaller scenes, smaller markets, when you can. … When we first started going to Europe back in the ’90s, and we’d go and play these deep Eastern countries … where bands weren’t going, you could just see how grateful people were that bands were coming. My mantra is, ‘Let’s go play these places and stoke people out and have a good time and grow the scene.’”
Even though the hardcore genre has been booming, the DIY ethos and punk roots remain. Hardcore bands can still work their way up the figurative ladder via connections, and staying true to one’s roots.
“Bands do get big; you’ve got your Hatebreeds, your AFIs, your bands along the way like Knocked Loose and Turnstile that have gone through and become these bigger bands—but it’s all the same path,” Rasmussen said. “It’s all just putting your dues in, playing small shows, making connections, and having a good rapport with people. All that stuff is the same, no matter what year it is.”
Hardcore, as it stands now, is a loose term, and can include a wide spectrum of sounds. Rasmussen discussed how the definition of “hardcore” has changed over the years.
“My first idea of hardcore was Minor Threat, Uniform Choice, and stuff like that,” he said. “… There are some bands that sound more punk; some bands sound more metal, and metalcore—and that’s a pretty big spectrum for hardcore. There are a lot of different sub-genres within hardcore, so I don’t think there’s any one defining sound. There’s always that debate, where it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s not hardcore,’ and it changes. … I think it’s in the eye of the beholder.”
There are still many misconceptions about the genre and lifestyle, Rasmussen said.
“I think it can get a bad rap at times, because I don’t think people understand what happens at shows,” Rasmussen said. “It looks like this violent, crazy fight that’s going on, and there definitely is some bit of violence and aggression, depending on what show you go to, but I think it can be misconceived (about) what it is. It’s usually a pretty positive thing from our experience. We’re a little bit more on the positive side, rather than the brutal, heavy-ish side. … The people who are involved in the scene are always very smart and insightful, and it seems like it’s intelligent kids who want to make a positive change in the world. It’s never come across to me as this knucklehead scene with a bunch of dumb kids.”
Hot Stuff Booking’s dedication to hosting hardcore in the Coachella Valley has led to criticism and conflicts with venues and city officials—something that’s all too familiar in the hardcore world.
“The people who are involved in the scene are always very smart and insightful, and it seems like it’s intelligent kids who want to make a positive change in the world. It’s never come across to me as this knucklehead scene with a bunch of dumb kids.”
Brett Rasmussen, on the hardcore scene
“It’s always been a challenge to put on hardcore shows, even when we first started touring,” Rasmussen said. “We’d go down in the South and be playing really strange venues and warehouses, and people would put on shows where they could kind of get away with it, because that’s just the DIY ethic of hardcore.”
After decades of Ignite being focused on albums, Rasmussen said that due to the changing times, the band will try to release a few songs a year.
“We’re always writing, and it’s a little bit different now, which is interesting,” Rasmussen said. “We are an album band for sure … but our record label is like, ‘Hey, if you guys just want to put out two songs, you guys are more than welcome to do that.’ Our label is really pushing the idea to a lot of bands on their roster to just make sure you don’t disappear for two or three years. We put out a single this past year. It was a really fun song to do. We had a guest vocal—the singer from Comeback Kid sang on the song—and our label was really psyched on that. … The idea is just to keep releasing stuff as often as we can.”
The ultimate goal for Ignite is to keep growing, and to have new material to take on tour.
“We’ve had some long gaps in between albums over the years, and it’s definitely not a good thing for touring and for keeping fan bases,” Rasmussen said. “A lot of people forget about you, and if you go back to a city that you played seven years before, and you haven’t had a record come out … you can get a drop-off, so it’s important to stay active.”
Ignite is one of the biggest bands that Hot Stuff Booking has been able to host. Rasmussen said he wanted to make sure the show is a success.
“When we talked to Sage, I was very adamant about, ‘Look, you set the price; you set the bands,’” Rasmussen said. “We don’t want to come in and make it something that’s not cool for the local kids. I go, ‘Whatever you set the price, we’ll work with whatever it is,’ because I don’t want to come in and disrupt and be like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to play this show in a 100-cap room, where these young kids are used to paying a couple bucks to go see show, and now we’re going to put on a $40 show.’ That just wouldn’t work, and that’s not the point. The point is to have an awesome show, stoke out the kids, and have us be stoked—so whatever it takes to make that work.”
Ignite will perform at a show starting at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, at Music House Indio, at 82777 Miles Ave. Pop Free, Jack-Knife, Darasuum, Bronca and Deviated State will open. Tickets are $15 online (plus fees) and at the door. For tickets and more information, visit Eventbrite.