To give you some indication of just how big a wave Santa Cruz hardcore champs DRAIN are riding, the band less than a month ago played in Los Angeles as the featured support with Kublai Khan TX for a sold out set at the famed Hollywood Palladium. Less than a month later, DRAIN was back in the same region, this time as the headliners to close out the two-day multi-genre celebration in Viva Pomona.

With The Glasshouse as the base, the DIY fest pooled a comprehensive roster of artists spanning two days, with a Sunday that featured a slew of hardcore and punk with the likes of Scalp, NIIS and the surging END IT all making highlight appearances to finish out the festival strong. Leading into the main event, DRAIN brought a combination of mainstage spectacle with the band's small room intensity, making for a communal experience that was as much about the band onstage as it was the fans on the floor. 

That is the magic of DRAIN - everyone gets involved. 

Riding high on the momentum of their latest release via Epitaph Records, ...Is Your Friend, DRAIN's emphasizes on shared experience in hardcore is pair of what have given them the ability to play the same area twice in less than a month with such success. Frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro's ability to rally a room is uncanny. Songs like "Nights Like These" and the band's take on the Descendents classic, "Good Good Things" assert a kind of feel-good cleanse that is not only refreshing in hardcore, it's probably needed now more than ever.

READ THE KNOTFEST.com FEATURE WITH DRAIN - HERE

Even on tracks that offer a bit more introspection like "Scared of Everything and Nothing" and "Who's Having Fun?" the message of giving it your best shot and operating with a healthy sense of 'fuck it' resonates loud and clear. DRAIN seem to understand what many of the rest of us struggle with, we may not be here for a long time, so might as well have a good time. 

Ensuring that the day ones had a their fill too, DRAIN classics like 'Feel the Pressure" and the anthem in "California Cursed" were the kind of heaters that worked the entire floor of the Glasshouse into a sweaty mess. DRAIN offered the perfect finale for VIVA POMONA, an event that underscored the importance of community through music. See the gallery of images from the mayhem below from photographer Maurice Nunez. 

DRAIN