The Leatherneck Club, a Marine veterans' hall that moonlights as an all-ages club on the weekend and special occasions, has become a haven for fans of hard-core music. Here the crowd responds to the raucous music. Photos By Leah Parr/R-JENERATION At the Leatherneck Club, an all-ages club, fans of hard-core music let loose on the dance floor. A drummer gears up for another hard-core show at the Leatherneck Club. Kids are showing up in droves, to listen and dance to the music.

"If I wasn't in it, I'd probably be the most ignorant person ever," Nick Pitaro of "sociopolitical" death metal band Misericordiam said.

Pitaro is a 20-year-old veteran of the hard-core music scene, having been in it since he was 15 years old, and almost too "old" for the scene.

Hard-core music is often characterized by distortion pedals and screaming. Most fans consider it a lifestyle rather than just a musical preference or genre.

"I love the music. It's all about that. I was in a band when I was 15, always tried as hard as I could, and finally it's paying off," Pitaro said.

The name for his band comes from the Latin term, which means an argument that appeals to pity.

The hard-core scene, which has its roots in the early '90s, is probably at its prime or downfall, depending on who you talk to.

"People want to be a part of something. Hard-core is an underground subculture that people are running away to escape the teenage stress," Pitaro said. "There are newer kids that are joining into this scene, but the ones that are doing it for the trends will eventually go away."

It has become a trendy place for people to find acceptance when they'd be turned away from other places.

Hard-core was originally a sort of hiding place; a place for people to belong. For some, it has turned into something else.

"Some kids will go to shows just to be seen," said Basic High School senior Pat Galbraith. "They come to say they've gone to the show, but really don't even care about the music.

"They care about buying the T-shirts, just to say they've gone to the show. A lot of the people base it on how you look."

While interest in the hard-core music scene seems to be gaining momentum, not everyone is happy about that.

"The scene is getting pathetic. Most guys just care too much about the look. It's not about the music anymore to them," said Schuyler Roberson a senior at Basic.

Whatever the reason for the interests, fans think the hard-core music scene serves a greater purpose.

"When you hear the word hard-core, it's not even just a genre or just a subculture. It's an outlet for kids," Pitaro explained. "It's a human condition to want to be accepted, and to feel as if your part of something. Kids want to feel the same things as other kids.

"The shows that I went to when I first started in the scene were in two car garages with geeks, nerds and punk kids for audiences."

Hard-core is just now becoming popular after years of being a misunderstood and put down subculture.

On the local scene, bands such as Lynch Thy Beauty, Destruction of a Rose and Folsom have inked record deals.

The Swankhouse and Boneyard are two of the most popular venues for this type of shows.

Fighting has always been associated with the harder music genres. The popularity comes from personal conflicts and the "dancing" consists of windmill kicks, punches in the air, and two-stepping. The type of dancing that most people wouldn't consider acceptable, is the only thing that these kids know.

"I don't know how to dance," said Robert Reott, a junior in an independent study program. "Slow dancing is the scariest thing in the world to me. Hard-core dancing is the only dance I know how to do."

"It is for fun. Guys dance because they're looking for a good time," Pitaro said.

"Sometimes people take things too personally, and that's when the fights start to happen," Roberson said.

Because of the nature of the dancing, getting hit or punched is not an uncommon thing.

"You'll see people complain about being kicked, but they have to take it all with them," Pitaro said. "People that have been in the scene for a long time feel the need sometimes to weed out the people that are corrupting something sacred to them."

The violent nature of hard-core music and fighting has caused a few venues to close.

"People make mistakes. They realize their mistakes. But this shouldn't be associated with hard-core music," Pitaro said.

Most of the fights are "one side with people not knowing much about hard-core, or the other side not thinking with a rational mind," Pitaro said. "There is going to be positive and negative energy in everything.

"Being in this scene, it taught me to be who I am today," Pitaro said. "I gave my life to hard-core. Instead of being the average drone worker, and going to college, I decided to do something different with my life. I believe it is a teen way of letting feelings out, a so called therapy."