Open-and-shut case

When a band decides to end their run, the first question posed is, "Why?" Most times, the culprit is some sort of inner quarrel, whether musical or personal. When a band ends a 14-year run accented by sharp increases in success, the answer becomes more complicated.

Snapcase, a mainstay of the Buffalo music scene and international hardcore scene since 1991, will hold their final performance Saturday night at The Sphere.

2002's "End Transmission" marked a stray from the norm for the group, which had previously stuck to its hardcore and punk roots. Interestingly, as the title would suggest, it marked the group's final recording effort.

"We didn't approach it as, 'This is going to be our last album.' It was on our minds, but not definite," said vocalist Daryl Taberski, who was once a student at UB.

It would be difficult to say that "End Transmission" was wildly experimental, but it doesn't take much to displease an old-school hardcore fan. The album was a departure the group appreciated.

"For me, the band was not about making an album. It was about the live show," said Taberski.

"Playing the songs from (End Transmission), there's no faking, no trying," said Taberski. "It just comes out." The album hardly fell upon deaf ears, as the single, "Coagulate," made it to radio and MTV, but many in "the scene" rejected it as an attempt to placate the masses.

The scene today, however, is something in which Snapcase hardly wants to take part.

"The scene is all about things we were against, like doing drugs every night, having a manager, things that used to be unacceptable," said Taberski. Within the context of Earth Crisis and Strife and the rest of hardcore that came out of the early 1990s, drugs were off the list. Straight-edge defined the era.

The group's frill-free, buzz-cut-and-white-tee fashion sense and definite social agenda are aspects of the group that have influenced some artists of this generation.

But these musicians have been overshadowed by the styles and message, if there is one, delivered by the prominent musicians that occupy Snapcase's label, Victory Records, the biggest independent punk label in the industry. Taberski calls their messages "unimportant."

It is both this discontent with the current state of music and the lifestyles musicians lead that seems to be a driving factor in Snapcase's disbanding. Coming to the decision to break up has left the group with time to reflect on its legacy.

"All any of us really want is to be remembered like some of the important groups in punk and hardcore are," said Taberski, decisively. "I think Snapcase played a big part in 90's hardcore along with Earth Crisis and others."

"We used to practice," he said, pausing for emphasis before adding, "a lot. We used to practice for about four or five weeks before touring, five days a week, for two or three hours."

After such a period, it would be unnecessary to practice the day of a show.

"We saw bands that would use their sound check like a practice because they didn't practice enough. We never wanted to be like that, we were just dying to hit that first note," said Taberski.

In the past few weeks, in preparation for Saturday's big finale, the group has had reason for similarly extensive practice.

"It's been a while since we played a show. We're playing 21 or 22 songs, four or five from each album," said Taberski, speaking in a near-whisper from practicing the previous day.

"This show means a lot to us. I think it's going to be pretty emotional for all of us," said Taberski. "We have a lot of people we haven't seen in a number of years. It's going to be half-reunion, half-show."

Despite the end of Snapcase, one can expect to find its members in other bands in the future.

"I would like to do another band," said Taberski. He does expect to keep it on a smaller scale. "We don't want to do another band for the sake of touring 10 months out of the year."

The man who has been the voice of Snapcase since most students at UB were learning to read summed up his time with the group.

"Overall, no regrets."