Concert Review/Photo Gallery: Life of Agony @ Webster Underground in Hartford, CT 5/24/22

On a cool Tuesday night up in Connecticut’s capital city, New York hardcore legends Life Of Agony took the stage for an intimate night at the Webster Underground. Opening the night were two local acts – He Was A God and infamous CT metallers Dead By Wednesday. Both put on high-energy short sets warming up the stage.

At 9:30PM Life of Agony took the stage. “Welcome to our little studio jam here at the Webster Underground” says guitarist Joey Zampella from stage left. As the band’s piano intro played, you could see vocalist Mina Caputo side-stage awaiting her cue to start the chaos. After a brief instrumental jam, Caputo joined her bandmates onstage for a blistering performance of “Respect”. Life of Agony typically play larger venues but this show was a total throwback to their early club days in NYC. The energy and connection in that small room in the middle of that big city was indescribable.

Off their iconic 1993 album “River Runs Red”, the title track was played with the intensity it was meant to be played and the crowd could feel it. After the audience got warmed up through the first song, chaos broke loose during “River Runs Red”. Crowd surfing, slam dancing, moshing – it all added to the amazing atmosphere this band has brought since day 1. Mina Caputo made it clear to the fans that this was the type of show she loves most – the intimate club shows with 50 people where the connection is tangible.

Their set also included quite a few tracks from their 1995 release “Ugly” as well. Despite these songs, as well as “Weeds”, differing from the original Life Of Agony sound, the crowd still fed off the music and energy of the band as they chugged through “Other Side of the River”, “Lost At 22” and more. Vocalist Mina Caputo told the crowd she’s been thinking about shaving her head to “become more of a fucking mutant”. “We are the Tuesday mutants” she said as they kicked into the next song.

Joey Zampella jumped on the mic and said, “by a show of hands, how many of you would like us to end the set with all River Runs Red songs?” and a wave of hands and cheers erupted from the crowd. “We will do that for you guys but only if you go fucking apeshit” he replied as the band began their “Method of Groove”. They closed out their night at the Webster Underground with fiery performances of “This Time”, “Through and Through” and lastly “Underground”. Catch Life Of Agony as they finish up their Northeast tour then take on Europe this summer!