Last Lights

Last Lights is a hardcore punk band that is unfortunately now defunct due to the untimely passing of 24 year old lead singer Dominic Mallary in December (apparently from complications resulting from his last performance, The Boston Globe reports). I am just familiarizing myself with the band, but they seem to epitomize the ideals of hardcore punk: full of dizzying guitars and caustic lyrics railing against complacency and mediocrity. The best hardcore is clever hardcore, and Dom's writing is proof: song titles like 'U.S. Out of New England' and 'Everybody's Working for the Weak End' reveal wit, anger, and intelligence (the latter especially can be rare in a genre with its fair share of testosterone and rage). I also love his approach to lyrics - he's not afraid to raise more questions than he answers and some of the lyrical content reads on its own as poetry: "the lack of meaning is also a meaning / the lack of feeling is also a feeling / but don't press my face to the floor and call it a ceiling" (from 'Love + Rent'). Last Lights will play a final performance (with friends on vocals) at a memorial benefit for Dom's family on February 21st in Worcester, Massachusetts.