FALLING OUT

Falling Out might be considered Halifax's first Straight Edge hardcore band....or you could argue that was the previous band featured on here, Spent. In any case, FO were short lived, only played a few shows, but still may be able to lay claim to that title. Morgan Carpenter reflects back on those simpler times, before everyone hated each other. Read on


Falling Out began on the heels on Snot Party’s existence and just prior to Envision’s birth, which would have been around 1998.  Steve and Lance from SP had decided to form a straight edge band with Nathan Doucet (from By Any Means, later Useless Solution) and Keith Porter (later Useless Solution, Led By Regret).  Steve wanted to be the frontman, Lance stuck to drums, Keith played guitar and Nathan on bass.  I (Morgan) came on as a second guitar player most likely out of convenience because the practices were happening in the same basement as the SP practices.

Falling Out live @ The Box, Cole Harbour?

Halifax was never a hotbed for the straight edge scene, but in the late 90’s, it was probably about the hottest it has ever been.  The Falling Out songs fit right into the trends in hardcore of the time, but by today’s standards are very bland and by the numbers.  The band couldn’t have existed any other time and be taken with any degree of seriousness. Even then it was marginal.

We had about a set’s worth of songs and recorded a demo with Phil Clark (from Equation Of State, AV) at the newly opened Pavilion in it’s first incarnation.  There wasn’t a huge amount of shows played, and those that were were solely in the HRM.  The most memorable for me was playing the basement show at Food-Not-Bombs-hat-girl’s house (a girl who wore a hat with a FNB patch on it, but that no one had ever seen at Food Not Bombs) in Dartmouth, which was probably the summer of ’98.

Flyer for one of the band's rare shows

Falling Out didn’t last long, and was barely a blip on Halifax’s radar.  Like most straight edge bands, inner quarrels and edge weakening eventually brought it all to an end.  Ironically, Steve and I had a falling out, and I quit the band.  The same reasons brought Snot Party to an end at the same time.  Once I was gone, Falling Out didn’t last much longer (I don’t believe there were any shows afterwards).  This was probably partially because I poached Nathan and Keith to start Useless Solution (with Gerry from Snot Party).

Shortly after Lance started Led By Regret with Keith, and eventually started The Plan.  Nathan kept doing By Any Means and started Useless Solution with Keith and I.  In addition to Useless Solution, I started Envision around the same time with Ian Hart, and quicky started other bands like Shrine Of American Martyr, Coleridge, joined Existench, etc.  Steve was playing bass with By Any Means for a short time before leaving, which I believe ended his musical tenure.

The Falling Out demo had 5 songs (I believe) and sounds okay at best.  You can hear a miss-mash of influences in there, from chugging Victory Rec stuff, to a-tonal Ebullition style minor chords - all very typical of the time.  The demo cover is terrible, even by straight edge band standards.  We covered ‘Impact’ by Chain Of Strength, which was probably the biggest crowd pleaser.

Exactly zero members of Falling Out are still straight edge today.


Now watch some videos of the band live:






DOWNLOAD THE DEMO HERE:
FALLING OUT DISCOGRAPHY (aka 6 songs)

Or just giv'r a listen here: