Close Combat Forever: A Conversation with John Vanacore

By: Erika Nunez, Photos: Gaby Davila Ortiz

On Monday night, local hardcore band, Close Combat, held their last show alongside Jivebomb, End It, and Angel Du$t. The sold-out show had Eagle Aerie Hall packed, the venue’s air thick from the late-spring heat. A few weeks earlier, we spoke to John Vanacore (musician, booker, graphic designer, producer, and zine artist) about his band’s send-off.

“I love my girlfriend,” Vanacore shared immediately, and “I’m a Virgo,” he continued—getting the important stuff out of the way. When asked to tell us a bit about himself and how he got into music, he took a thoughtful pause. Going as far back as the first grade, he said he was first introduced to Green Day, then bands like Saves the Day and The Get Up Kids. He shared with us a more specific memory that really kicked things off for him musically:

“How I kind of got introduced into, like, the world of hardcore or whatever… was the summer between middle school and high school. I was listening to the Saves the Day radio on Last.fm on my Xbox 360, and then Title Fight came on.. they quickly became one of my favorite bands right away.”

Vanacore described a tendency he has to obsess and learn everything about the things that capture him. Title Fight, being closely associated with hardcore, opened the door to that world for him. Months later, in October of 2011 when Vanacore was just fourteen years old, he attended his first show for a band called Dead End Path. Four years later, Vanacore would start a music-focused zine collective known today as Outlook (@outlookfanzine). 

“When I first started Outlook, it was October of 2015 with one of my best friends, Conner. Basically, we weren’t doing music or anything like that, but we wanted to contribute to the scene, or whatever, in our own way. So, we interviewed bands for the first Outlook issue, which was like eight bands and probably thirty-something pages. We would just sell them or hand them out at shows…” 

Vanacore explained how around that time, the people who were booking the kind of bands he was into fell out of it or moved away. In true Virgo nature, he decided he would just have to do it himself. “If no one’s going to do something you like, do it yourself is kind of my mentality.”  In July 2016, Vanacore booked his first show under Outlook. 

“The first show I ever did under it was a lot of fun… I brought this band called Free At Last [that] I really liked. I booked at this weird outdoor venue, like Naked City area, kind of where Hard Hat is. It was at this random garage and bands played in the parking lot. There [were], like, trains driving by the whole time. That was really cool because there was a good amount of people there… it was just a really good vibe and fun the whole time.”

Regarding his hopes for the future of Outlook, Vanacore voiced that he would love to see the smaller bands he books gain more attention. 

“It’d be cool if people took the initiative to see what else is cool out there besides what’s popular and support stuff that’s still growing or small… But at the end of the day, I’m happy bringing whatever bands I think deserve the attention here to give them a good time.”

With booking bands and being surrounded by so much talent and creativity,  you could say starting or joining a band can come naturally. The first hardcore band Vanacore was a part of was a band called Up Above, then Oversight, Acid Rain, World Tension, and finally: Close Combat. 

Close Combat was born in the summer of 2018 and held their last show this past Monday. “Yeah. R.I.P. Everybody’s so mad at me,” John laughs as he gets into how the band got started: 

“Nobody in our group was doing, like, a fast band at the time. So me and my friend Ian… started the band with our friend Jack, who was drumming on the demo. Me and Ian each wrote three songs for it. Bands that were influences were, like, Confront, Think I Care, Infest, and stuff like that. Fast hardcore and powerviolence type stuff…. Later, Jett and Gabe would also join the band.”

Vanacore went on to explain how after writing some of the songs, Ian suggested that he sing for the band. John opened up about how the music he was writing was heavily influenced by what he was going through in his life at the time: his dad fighting lung cancer.

“I was spending my whole summer dealing with that, helping him out, and my family out. So, that’s kind of what most of the lyrical content on that first release is about. And you’ll always see themes of breathing…”

Close Combat played their first show in August 2018 at The Garth which Vanacore describes as this weird, sketchy warehouse in North Las Vegas around where the dump is. He says, “There was like twenty people there and nobody cared, but it was fun.”

When asked about Close Combat’s ending, Vanacore described how the band wanted to take a step back from the project, but Vanacore prefers a more definitive ending to things. “I’d rather just celebrate an ending, I guess, than let it go off into the distance.” He explained how he had a lot of fun with the band and found their style to be unique to the hardcore scene. 

“It was fun to do a band [in] that style because nobody really has done that style of hardcore in a long time… in Vegas at least. A lot of Vegas hardcore is a lot of people liking heavy music and stuff like that… that’s always been the draw for a lot of shows. My favorite thing is playing shows like that and people being like what the fuck is this? And I love when people don’t get it, and I love people looking at me weird, and I forgot what your question was…”

I had asked John to talk about his feelings on Close Combat’s ending. “Oh, I mean, I’m sad,” he says smoothly, “but… I’d rather end this way than just be a thing where we’re just like oh, yeah, we just stopped doing it.” Vanacore reiterates how he prefers to celebrate and how Close Combat deserves a celebration.

And a celebration it was. Close Combat’s set this past Monday night was explosive and left an impact on not just the attendees, but on the other bands as well. Jivebomb’s lead gave it up to Close Combat and expressed bewilderment to hear that the band was having their last show. The lead singer of Angel Du$t claimed “Close Combat’s not going anywhere…” 

In the span of five years, Close Combat put out a seven-inch record and went on tour in Texas and throughout California with bands like Worn and Imprizon. “We made a lot of friends on those as well, but what felt like an accomplishment was how long it went and all the cool stuff we were able to do because bands in Vegas don’t really get out of town or anything like that often.”

“At the beginning of the band… not many people cared except for our close group of friends and a few people along the way… It’s cool to see how many people that we weren’t super close with just kind of grow to like the band over time and go off for us, or tell us hey, that was good, or buy our stuff or whatever. So, those are just all the things that I hold close when I think about and reflect… Seeing it grow, being able to do that much in five years, I guess, feels good…”

When asked if there was any chance Close Combat could be brought back to life, Vanacore said “For $10,000, yes,” and we all laughed. Although, he reassured us: “I’ll be playing in bands forever, I feel like. Whether I live here, elsewhere, or whatever. I just like to make music and hang out with people.” 

John Vanacore currently plays in Imprizon, Sentimental Fool, Final Blow, and Fading Fast. He also currently books local shows under Outlook, designs flyers, and produces one-page zines.

Here’s a playlist of bands John thinks you should listen to:

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