INTERVIEW - XWeaponX on their Outbreak fest triumph, flying the straight edge flag, and why the LP is never happening
XWeaponX set Outbreak's second stage ablaze when they opened early to their straight edge legions, and the recipe for carnage lies with vocalist Dave Baugher
Putting a festival together, to Outbreak’s credit, is a total disaster. Bands exit the lineup at the least opportune times (some more dramatically than others), and even in the scramble to make it all right, it seems that punters will never be happy regardless. It seemed, though, that Outbreak had one thing truly locked down - it was to close the festival with Hardcore’s breakout superstars, and open the very same day with its angrier, louder brother. And, with the straight edge movement growing firmer in the United Kingdom by the day, with bands like Hour of Reprisal and Supernova flying the flag, there was no better way for Outbreak to give the community exactly what it needed than with XWeaponX.
Kicking off the second day of the Manchester festival, a day that attendees had quietly accepted would largely be the more violent of the two, the band made up of members of Knocked Loose, Gates to Hell and a vocalist with enough fire to stand taller still took to the stage in triumph, made a stand for its community, and left the edgemen in the audience with weak knees and a new sense of pride. XWeaponX are no strangers to such a reaction, tearing across the festival circuit in the US and proving themselves through sheer vitriol, but with Outbreak as their first UK show, there was truly no better way for the festival to begin. And as it turns out, the band hasn’t become the festival favourite on purpose.
Domination
When Altopsy meets XWeaponX vocalist Dave Baugher, he’s already beaming. It has been a few hours since their triumphant set opening the festival, and it’s clear that it has made an impression on him. “It was nuts. It was insane,” he says. “And even for a show starting earlier in the day is nuts. The fact that anybody gives a shit about this band, let alone in another fucking continent is insane. It’s stupid.”
It seems as though the high that the band has been riding since their first demo in 2022 simply hasn’t worn off - for XWeaponX to be representing straight edge overseas is wild in itself, but it seems that the band playing festivals as large as Outbreak has grown to be, and for so many people to arrive early, is pretty shocking for them. The band’s success at festivals, though, isn’t perhaps as immediate a plan for XWeaponX as their schedule would have you believe.
“I don’t want to be known as the fest band, unfortunately, it’s just kind of a byproduct of the fact Knocked Loose is really busy, which is awesome,” Baugher says. “Those are my friends and I love seeing them conquer the world, but the flip side of that is that we can only do stuff here and there, so we kind of sneak stuff in where we can and pretty often, it is fests.” The band is taking a crack at making a Northeast US tour happen by the end of the year, and it’s certainly good news for a band that has, since its inception, done things its own way. After all, as a band that has only launched two demo EPs and a split with World of Pleasure, it’s clear as day that they don’t have any interest in adhering to expectations - let alone the expectation to drop the album. Because it’s not happening.
“I don’t ever want to write an LP. I don’t think anybody needs eight or ten songs on one record of Weapon X music. I don’t want to put out a record where i think ‘this can be skipped… this can be skipped…’ I find that doing it as an EP or a split or whatever is a cooler, more fun way to do that.” He grins. “Plus, just dropping two demos is really stupid and funny.”
Conviction remains
It’s this demo structure that does a lot of speaking for XWeaponX - though the band at large might be made up of musicians that take great pride in polish in their other works, the scrappiness of this vicious straight edge project has helped it to cut through the noise and make its mark less with precision, and more with force. There’s a bruising, clobbering atmosphere to the two demos that the band have released that sever frills and gun straight for the throat, and it seems that Baugher wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I think we have a good amount of polish by virtue of Isaac and Trey as musicians, they are nuts. Bryan is nuts. I think with that comes a certain level of polish, but we all like Hardcore so it’s important to me to keep that in perspective. I’m just a guy that goes to shows, and I’m a guy that plays shows sometimes. I’m not a rockstar. None of us are fucking rockstars. I guess they [Bryan, Trey and Isaac] kind of are, but they’re not rockstar people, you know. They play shows and they’re fucking awesome.”
It’s a humble take for sure, but Hardcore’s greatest are guys who pull up for their scene and drag it onto a stage wherever they’re booked, and that’s exactly what XWeaponX continues to do for Louisville, Kentucky, and for the straight edge. The band gives it hell onstage, and pummels with its demos, but in the face of a frenetic writing style and a touring schedule that is largely determined by what its other members are up to elsewhere, considering the future of XWeaponX doesn’t appear to be a part of the equation for Dave, and it seems that he’s happy for the band to be doing exactly what it’s doing. I posit to him that this is how the band appears from the outside to their most dedicated fans, seeing the fire of in-the-moment passion burning in their live sets, and he takes a moment to think.
“A handful of people have told me that they are straight edge because of Weapon X, and we did a track with Carl from Earth Crisis [B.N.E from Weapon X Demo 2]… I thought that when this first started, we were going to play like, two home shows a year for a year or two, and my friends would mosh, and that would be it,” he says. “And that would be excellent. I would have loved that. The fact that I’m in the UK because I’m in a straight edge band playing breakdowns is psychotic.
“I don’t care about making money. I don’t care about being known or anything like that. I just care about Hardcore, and that’s all I want to do. I want to play as many shows as I can and contribute in the small way that I can, that’s it. That’s the only thing that matters.”
A bond not meant to break
There is little doubt that XWeaponX was one of the most anticipated sets of Outbreak’s weekend, and they delivered in a truly spectacular fashion. The band’s attitude and staunchness has made their climb so fascinating, because in equal measure, they don’t seek fame, but refuse to budge.
Dave Baugher might not stand on the same pedestal as his bandmates, but he still remains the beating, furious heart of Weapon X simply by representing his scene, giving back and proving that the popularity they’ve attained doesn’t come from its proximity to Knocked Loose and Gates to Hell, but because they say what they mean, and mean what they say. Authenticity can’t be bought, and this is a band that has it in droves, and refuses to take a step if it doesn’t help to broadcast Hardcore and the straight edge movement at large, not themselves.
Weapon X, and the brigade of straight edge fans they pulled out of mosh comas for an early start on Outbreak’s Sunday made a bold statement that was impossible to ignore, if not for its candour, then for the fact that it opened the festival, and that Knocked Loose sang its swan song to close it too. Learn the scripture, hold it close, and remember - Weapon X. Straight edge. Fuck you.
Weapon X Demo 2 is out now via Daze. Listen on Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Great stuff guys - keep it up!