Photo Gallery: Cruz De Navajas / False Figure / Raw Breed / Devil's Den / Mentira at Awful House

Sharon of Cruz De Navajas

Kansas City received a combined international post-punk package and Middle America hardcore gig on the muggy evening of May 30. As skilled and authentically dark as both Mexico City's Cruz De Navajas and Oakland's False Figure were, the night's real winners were fans of the city's most blistering new hardcore band. Cruz's drum machine gloom and False Figure's fog machine covered -- and slightly less rigid -- offering were no match for several new tracks from Devil's Den performed in one of the group's most urgent sets yet.

Raw Breed, a new Denver hardcore band, made its first visit to Kansas City worthwhile, but its chunky, two-step mosh moments felt dispensable after punks had a chance to witness the flaming, no nonsense chaos of Devil's Den and the refreshing ingenuity of Mentira, the night's first band.

Full photo gallery here.