Since forming in 2022, Oklahoma City’s Free 4 All has been busy. The five-piece hardcore band delivered three releases last year, playing dozens of local and regional shows and developing a reputation as one of the figureheads of a vibrant and fast-growing hardcore scene in the Sooner State.
Free 4 All’s quick rise caught the attention of legendary Front Range hardcore label Convulse Records, which brings the band to Seventh Circle Music Collective in Denver to headline a March 15 showcase with New York City bruisers Big Shot and Colorado locals Trajectory and Pressure Drop.
“It feels like a good next step for us, outside of just doing little weekend bangers,” guitarist Ty Everett told Boulder Weekly while preparing for the band’s first multi-state tour. “To go out for a week and see what other cities think about our sound — just checking out other scenes and seeing what their bands have going on.”
The band is promoting their most recent release Blood 4 All, a four-song split with Minnesota’s Out4Blood released on Hive Minded Records in August 2023. Free 4 All use their two tracks to deliver their brand of chunky-riffed, groove-laden blasts in the tradition of classic New York hardcore bands like Killing Time and Outburst. Additionally, each of the two bands on the split features the other’s vocalist in dueling collaborative tracks “Ante Up” and “Hold It Close.”
Vocalist Jordan Vargas admits the idea for the split was partly inspired by a joke about the similarity between the two bands' names. But he says the release also represents a meaningful bond.
“It’s just a cool way to bridge two places together,” he says. “It gets people from OKC to listen to a band from somewhere else and vice versa. I think that kind of thing is what makes it feel like a community.”
'A community that helps build itself'
Front Range showgoers will feel that sense of community during Free 4 All’s upcoming live performance, from joyfully reckless stage dives to unruly mosh pits and melees around Vargas’ microphone. This general obliteration of the boundary between artist and audience has marked the evolution of hardcore shows for over four decades.
It’s no coincidence that the first stop on Free 4 All’s maiden voyage will be at a volunteer-run, DIY music collective like Seventh Circle. It was a similar space called The Sanctuary in Oklahoma City where the band cut their teeth during their earliest shows.
“We play controlled chaos music, so it’s cool to have places that facilitate controlled chaos,” says bassist and Hive Minded Records co-founder Josh Lehew.
A space to let loose is one thing, but Free 4 All drummer James Mace says there’s a deeper value to all-ages extreme music venues that have been a lifeline for the scene for more than four decades.
“Places like Seventh Circle and The Sanctuary are really holding the scene together,” he says. “They’re not just trying to meet a bottom line. They’re cultivating real hardcore shows.”
On any given night in their hometown, Free 4 All’s members are just as likely to be found at their local DIY spot performing on stage, working the door or swinging their fists in the center of the room to spur on new or visiting bands. The upcoming tour kicking off in Denver is an opportunity for Free 4 All to bring their own music to new audiences, but also continue to feed the hometown scene that sustains them with new inspiration.
“We’re trying to bring different bands we meet to OKC to kind of showcase them for kids who might not be familiar with straight-up hardcore,” says Everett, who is also an avid concert promoter and local booking agent.
Those kids are packing VFW halls, backyards and guerrilla venues to see hardcore bands from around the country. Newly formed OKC bands are experimenting by combining hardcore elements with everything from power violence to dream pop. Guitarist Josef Menjivar says this also creates opportunities for fans to feel connected in ways beyond music.
“It’s a community that helps build itself. You started going to shows as a young person, you looked up to people in the scene, you started bands, you got older, kids looked up to you, they started their own bands,” he says. “You just kind of build it up on the ethos of coming together. There’s comfort in a big group, in finding an identity that way. I think that’s what keeps it strong and growing.”
ON THE BILL: Free 4 All with Big Shot, Trajectory and Pressure Drop. 8 p.m. Friday, Mar. 15, Seventh Circle, 2935 West 7th Ave., Denver. $15