Frail Reunites to Play Chicago, 30...

There aren’t many high school bands that disappear in the fog of time—but not Frail. They were a Philadelphia suburban straight-edge screamo band that erupted in the early ’90s and made an outsized impact on the underground, despite only being around briefly. The band initially came together in 1993 when they were all sophomores, and Frail burned brightly and intensely, disbanding in 1995, shortly after graduation. There, they released a series of 7-inches and EPs, toured the country, and created a legacy that still resonates in punks and screamo fan communities today.

Their sound—a fusion of metal-tinted guitar work and raw, emotional screams by vocalist Eric Hammer—was relentless and fierce. But Frail never conceived that their songs were either about expressing personal pain or promoting political ideals. Although they had shared left-wing politics and straight-edge principles, they were more interested in dialogue than doctrine, looking to create concerts that were closer to group debates than sermons from the podium.

They also broke up partly due to disagreement over straight edge, and the members went on to other musical activities (including highly influential Ink & Dagger) and scholarly pursuits. Nevertheless, despite their short lifespan, Frail’s music continued to be an inspiration for generations of screamo fans to come through the decades.

In 2024, the Numero Group rekindled interest in the band with No Industry, a compilation of 17 tracks drawn from their early discography—most of them rare or long out-of-print. Then, in February, Frail played their first show in nearly 30 years. The video is of a band who perhaps are too old for the all-ages chaos they once lived in, but who’ve ripened into finer musicians and no less committed to their songs.

Now they’re bringing that intensity to Beat Kitchen in Chicago. For anyone who contracted punk fever by way of its raw intensity and DIY ethos, this show is more than nostalgia—it’s a chance to re-solidify ties with the earliest days of a scene that never actually fragmented.