Sound and Fury 2024: Recap and Galleries

For one week in July, Sound and Fury brings the hardcore community together to sing and dance and scream at the top of their lungs, and they do it all on their own terms. Hardcore for hardcore, an inside job on the grandest of scales.

Recap by Nikki TxF, all photos by Ray Camacho

Every summer since 2006,  Sound and Fury has invited dozens of bands to Southern California to perform for thousands of fans in one of hardcore’s most anticipated events of the year. A fest that sets itself apart in almost every regard, S&F is a true example of how far hardcore has come, and also evidence of the incredible things that can be achieved through the power of hard work, community, and commitment to the DIY ethos this subculture was built on.  

Beyond the two day main event held on July 13th and 14th at Exposition Park in central Los Angeles, Sound and Fury 2024 featured a full week of fun events and incredible shows as a precursor to the festivities for locals and anyone who happened to be in town early enough to attend.  The week kicked off with a live episode of the Hardlore: Stories From Tour podcast at Brain Dead Studios, featuring a Family Feud face-off between the S&F Production Team and members of Twitching Tongues (click HERE to read more), and kept the laughs going with a live episode of the Bein’ Ian with Jordan Podcast, hosted by Ian Fidance and Jordan Jensen, with none other than End It’s Akil Godsey delivering hilarious stand up alongside comedians Shapel Lacey, Jason Ellis, and Jessie Johnson. The week even included a screening of the incredibly raw and visually stunning, subculture themed thriller Green Room, moderated by Hardlore at Brain Dead Studios, including a Q&A session with the film’s writer and director, Jeremy Saulnier.

As if the two day fest itself didn’t feature enough incredible music, the pre shows for the fest included: Chat Pile, Marbled Eye, and Luster blowing the lid off the Lodge Room; an incredible showcase presented by Triple B Records that included Hold My Own, Firewalker, Conservative Military Image, Fury, and Mindforce at 1720 Warehouse; the record release show for Speed’s latest album, Only One Mode on Flatspot Records, at the Belasco Theater, including support from Foreign Hands, No Way Out, Initiate, Demonstration of Power, and God’s Hate (click HERE for a full recap of an awesome evening); End It, Clique, Cosmic Joke, and Resurrection at Programme Skate and Sound in Fullerton; and Full of Hell and Nothing performing their joint release When No Birds Sang in its entirety for the first time with support from TAGABOW and Terror Cell Unit (click HERE for the full recap). (If I missed anything I’m sincerely sorry. It’s an overwhelming list to recount, I can’t imagine organizing it! – Ed.) Each and every one of those shows is a main event in its own right.  All of them under the same umbrella in the same week is nothing short of a miracle.   What Sound and Fury offered as an appetizer is more than any of us had any right to expect as a main course, and they were just getting started.  

Since 2022, Sound and Fury Weekend has taken place at Exposition Park in central Los Angeles, a 160 acre green space adjacent to some of LA’s greatest historical and cultural institutions.  It is a sprawling urban park that is the perfect setting to take in live music on a warm summer day….along thousands of your best friends.  With two stages set up in tandem to allow for alternating sets that flowed seamlessly into one another, keeping the day moving as one incredible band after another performed in front of packed crowds, awesome food vendors catering to every taste and diet, green space for lounging, and even astroturf in the pit to cut down on the dust, Sound and Fury has it all.  Except for one thing – barricades.

As I mentioned before, the Sound and Fury team is made up of hardcore veterans who understand what makes for great hardcore shows, and one of those things is participation.  Hardcore is built on the idea that this is your stage, this is your pit, these bands are your peers, and this music belongs to you.  And, so is Sound and Fury.  Hardcore to the bone in spirit and in practice, Sound and Fury not only allows, but encourages hardcore kids to act like hardcore kids.  Stage dives, sing alongs, crowd surfing, head walking – the more the better, and it’s a beautiful thing.  I have never seen anything so breathtaking as the swelling tide of bodies that overtook the stage to swirl around Pat Flynn as thousands of people chanted, “Watch me rise,” in unison at the end of Have Heart’s headlining set, and I’m not sure I ever will again.  That wild moment, when an entire festival sang with one voice, when the stage and the audience met and became one, when boundaries fell away and we were all just hardcore kids lost and found together under the stars, those are the moments that mean everything, and Sound and Fury so clearly understands that.

With more than three dozen incredible bands performing over the span of two days, Sound and Fury weekend had more highlights than I could ever hope to mention, but everyone I spoke with experienced at least one moment that weekend that will stay with them for a lifetime. I was fortunate to speak with some of the fest participants and organizers about their fest highlights and memorable moments, you can click HERE to read more about that time Have Heart headlined the fest but forgot to book a place to stay and the unsolicited advice Patrick Kindlon received at the fest that he won’t ever use.  

Beyond the funny stories, there’s also the incredible memories that will last for a lifetime, the indelible imprint left on each of us when we come together to share the things we care about with the people we love. “The energy of those two days was unlike anything I have ever seen,” remarked See You Space Cowboy vocalist Connie Sgarbossa, who performed at the fest for the very first time this year, while Bo Lueders (Harm’s Way/Hardlore Podcast) couldn’t help but observe, “it’s absolutely incredible to attend something like S&F and see how far, literally and figuratively, this underground thing can reach.”  

Cosmic Joke’s Mac Miller really captured the spirit of the fest when he commented, “They don’t stack the bill with reunion sets, they put bands that are bubbling with hype and excitement towards the top and give them the chance to win.” That’s what it’s all about at Sound and Fury.  Not just featuring bands with a guaranteed draw, but putting on for ALL of hardcore, ALL of subculture. It is a community event where not only are you going to see your favorite bands,  but also the bands you just didn’t know were your favorite yet.

For one week in July, Sound and Fury brings the hardcore community together to sing and dance and scream at the top of their lungs, and they do it all on their own terms. Hardcore for hardcore, an inside job on the grandest of scales. Whether the highlight of your weekend was stage diving for Drug Church or screaming along with Have Heart, piling on during XweaponX or branching out with Kumo 99, I guarantee, if you were lucky enough to attend, there was a moment that will stay with you forever, a story you’ve told over and over again that never gets old.  Sound and Fury isn’t just a fest, it’s a feeling, one that brings us together, one that sets us apart, and one that keeps us coming back.  Can’t wait to see you again next summer. XO

Sound and Fury 2024 Photo Galleries:

All photos taken by

Ray Camacho | @punk_monk_ray