by Roy Scopazzi
The first song on the first EP that Maruja released is named Thunder, and there is nothing better to describe the atmosphere in the crowd at Cornerstone than a giant thunderstorm. The way the crowd seemed to contract and compress as both the singer and saxophonist urged them on made it look like a living being. At one point, one of them starts off a song by simply spinning his finger and causing a circle pit to start. The lead singer stage dives twice, and a wall of death starts off a song only to be built up and start again during that same song. The energy is a mixture of righteous anger towards injustice and pure, uncut hype as they worked through most of Pain to Power alongside mainstays like The Invisible Man and Thunder, in what ended up being an hour and 45 minute set.
The encore was even more chaotic. It took a dedicated crowd to get them to do it and a few people had already left as the set was going on about an hour and 40 minutes. When they got into Bloodsport, the song they had started the set with, the passionate remaining people went absolutely buck wild. This occurred at their last show in the Bay Area at the Brick and Mortar and it just goes to show how passionate we are about these guys.
Local “post-apocalyptic spaghetti western surf rock band” Hangtown opened up the show and from those genres they called themselves, you can take a decent guess what kind of energy they bring. Worked perfectly to get people hyped while playing a very distinct kind of rock and roll.
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