Bane Calls It Quits After 20 Years of Spirited Hardcore, Plays Final Shows Next Month

Legendary Boston hardcore band Bane are packing it in after two decades together. Four highly influential albums and innumerable world tours under their collective belt, the quixotic quintet will play two final shows next month at the Worcester Palladium in Massachusetts.

Formed in 1995 as a side project of metalcore band Converge, Bane quickly advanced their own free-spirited underground movement led by the pulsating riffs of guitarist Aaron Dalbec and unmistakable yowl of vocalist Aaron Bedard. A mainstay of revered label Equal Vision Records, their 2001 album Give Blood remains an oft-cited landmark of the hardcore punk genre.

Last year, the band issued their final effort, Don't Wait Up. Since the album's release, they've continued to tour both stateside and abroad with the promise that this summer will be their last hurrah. As frontman Bedard told Time Out Shanghai, the unstoppable onward march of age prevents him from continuing indefinitely, though he still feels a kinship to the cause:

"Obviously there isn't a clear line to when you become too old for that, but the older you get, the further away you move from that urgency. And I've been wrestling with that for ten years now, that sort of line -- am I past it? Have I gone by my expiration date without being aware of that? But why does my heart still love it so much? Why do I still feel so energized on stage?"

Bane's energetic performances, concise compositions and open-minded lyrics have made them a favorite of heavy music fans the world over. In an interview with Noisey, Bedard affirmed his satisfaction with the band's individualistic perseverance in their independent heritage:

"The only thing I care about is that we're hardcore kids who stayed honest and just f*ckin' stayed ourselves. We never got ahead of ourselves. We never forget where we came from. We never forgot the bands that we loved and that they were the reason that we were in a band ourselves. ... If there's any legacy, I'd like that to be it."

Below, watch a hair-raising, spine-tingling 2002 set from the band.