8

THURSDAY

What’s up with Snapcase? For a hardcore band (that’s little “d,” little “c”), it seems way too prepackaged to be taken seriously. The press kit had to be sent over in a FedEx box instead of a regular 34-cent envelope. And instead of a few pages assembled in the typical cut-and-paste style, the Snapcase press looks more or less like War and Peace: literally hundreds of pages that have to be held together with one of those giganto black fancy clips. It would probably take a genuine sitting to read all in one fell swoop, like getting through a copy of Beowulf in Old English. Or, certainly, like getting hit over the head by a boot at a Snapcase show. So much for shunning the corporate image. In any case, Snapcase is loud and raging, and sings about messed-up stuff. That’s pretty hardcore. The shredding begins with Face to Face, H20, and Dashboard Confessional at 7:30 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $15. (202) 393-0930. (Tina Plottel)