If you’ve never caught a Drain show, you have got to rectify that as soon as possible. The Santa Cruz hardcore punk band just lays waste to every stage and crowd they encounter. Recently, Aftershock Festival attendees found this out when the band took the most pit from a benign saunter right into an epic brawl in just a matter of seconds.
A clip of the band’s set made its way onto social media, showing just a portion of their performance at the 2026 Aftershock fest in Sacramento, CA on Oct. 3. In it, frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro counts down to a wall of death run, which results in two sides of the mosh pit just hauling a** at one another and—to quote the great philosopher Waka Flocka Flame—”go hard in the motherf**kin’ paint”.
Things got WILD in the pit
Fans went head-to-head during a mosh pit at Aftershock Festival in Sacramento!
#916 #sacramento pic.twitter.com/cHjyOKf8zK— 916 Today (@916today) October 7, 2026
As the crowd tears into itself, Drain chugs along, riffing like madmen with Sammy C. serving as ringmaster. Serendipitously, behind them on the stage, their banner reads: “Drain is NOT responsible for anything you do in the next 30 minutes.”
I’m not a lawyer, but imagine that would hold up in at least small claims court.
Drain represents a bright future and present for hardcore music
Drain has technically been around for more than a decade. It’s really been within the last six-ish years, however, that they’ve made a huge impact on the hardcore scene. In 2025, they dropped their third album, …Is Your Friend, to widespread critical and audience acclaim.
Shortly after the album was released, Ciaramitaro sat down with Revolver and shared some insight into the record. Specifically, he shared the story behind the title.
“This kid just asked me this the other day,” he quipped at the beginning. “He was like, ‘Dude, I just bought California Cursed, your first album, and in the liner notes it says “Drain is your friend.” Then 5 years later, that’s the name of the new album. Like, was that [always] gonna be called that?’ So, I told him the story.”
“I’m trying to formulate how this works,” Ciaramitaro continued. “I guess [it’s about being] the change you want to see. I’m not a street kid. I don’t do graffiti. I’ve never held a gun. I’ve never been in a fight. I don’t really embody [a lot of] what I [see] in hardcore. So, it was like, ‘What feels real and right to me?’”
“You know, for every band that’s out there talking about certain things, using that kind of [violent] imagery,” Ciaramitaro went on to share. “Not all of them are walking that walk. And that’s OK! But [when Drain were starting out, there] was a show [and] all these guys were in front of this backdrop [that said] ‘Seattle is your enemy’ or whatever city it was. And we were like, ‘Damn… that’s cool, if that’s how they really feel.”
The band decided that they wanted to make a backdrop that said “Drain is your friend,” and that’s just what they did. “We’re just gonna be ourselves, and I guarantee there’s a lot more people like us out there, too, you know,” Ciaramitaro added. “And that’s been the M.O. It’s OK to be a good person. You don’t have to be hard.”
Photo by Medios y Media/Getty Images
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