GRIEF, NOOTHGRUSH, CATTLEPRESS, GUERNICA, LOVE POWER ELECTRONICS, BUNCH OF OTHER BANDS, SATURDAY MAY 8TH, AT ENDLESS KNOT
we had horrible directions so we got there 2 and a half hours late missing guernica and everyone that went on before cattlepress. cattlepress was awesome, first time i saw them, i was quite impressed. then noothgrush went on and they were fucking fantastic, it was cool to meet gary in person as well. crushing shit, their set pummeled. then i went outside and mingled, acutually having fun at a show for the first time in a while, saw a bunch of friends i hadn't seen for a while, then fucking grief played and they were awesome as hell, i swear they get better every time i see them. their live show so blows away every recording they've ever done, it's not even funny, grief is just one of those bands you must experience live to understand the full importance of. it was one of the few shows i didn't want to end, i wanted them to keep playing for another hour, but they had to close the place down. yet i still didn't feel like going home, but for lack of anything better to do i did, but not before stopping at petes dorm to wish him a happy birthday via a message on his dry erase board
NEW ENGLAND METAL AND HARDCORE FESTIVAL, DAY 2, SATURDAY MAY 1ST, WORCESTER PALLADIUM, GWAR, OVERKILL, DEICIDE, GORGUTS, CRYPTOPSY, WARHORSE, VITAL REMAINS, DYING FETUS, MANY MANY OTHERS
this festival was the shit, it was thee best fest i've ever been to, mabey cos my favorite band was playing but anyway i went alone cos a certain person sold me out, but anyways i got there right before dying fetus went on and crushed everybody with their blast beat death/grind, pit got violent, and stayed violent for the majority of the day, due to stupid hardcore kids egging on the stupid metal head kids via a series of windmills and other retarded shit, ANYWAY, they were awesome, then i dipped to the 2nd stage to see warhorse kill shit, it was loud as fuck, i only caught their last 2 songs but they were long as fuck so it was like seeing a normal set by a grind band, then i dipped back to see vital remains, who were suprisingly alot better live than on the cd i have by them, i was surprised, then, what the fuck id i do then? i think i checked out the records, which were fucking amazing, i would have driven out to worcester just for the records they had at this thing, relapse had a table, century media had a table, earache had a table, hydra head had a table, countless other distros had tables too most of which had free samplers and other goodies, i was a kid in a candy store, finding tons of shit i'd been wanting for a while, then i saw the almighty reason for comming out there in the first place, cryptopsy, their sound wasn't as good as the last time i'd seen them, drums wern't loud enough, but they still killed shit and pleasently the crowd wasn't all that into them so i could get close without fear of being knocked out or some shit, after that i milled around a bit, intending to stay for deicide and overkill and gwar but i was getting too tired (i only got like 3 hours of sleep that day) and i wanted to meet up with my girlfriend at a party and i knew if i forced myself to stay my oppinion of this glorious day would be jaded and i didn't want to ruin it, i'd seen who i'd come to see, rocked out, seen some friends, and it was time to leave, but not before getting on the news (even though they didn't use that segment, but i DID get it on tape the next day)
ATOM AND HIS PACKAGE, THIRD PARTY, MC VEIGHS, VOLTRON, TUESDAY, MAY 4TH, AT THE ELVIS ROOM
this was the most successfull show i ever booked. it actually made money, and made me think "wow, booking shows isn't so bad when you actually get paid for doing it!", i now understand where promotors are comming from, i mean if you look at it like a job, it's a pretty fucking fun job, anyways so yea um voltron emerged from the 5 lions and played 5 songs, sloppier than on recordings but better than the one previous performance, the crowd was by and large not into hyperblast grindcore though some people did seem to dig it, but alas, atom and his package fans like synth pop, not big mean growly grindcore, so some people made fun of it, as can be expected, then third party stepped up and played pretty bad but had some fun and got their set done in under 15 minutes, at which point the mc veighs took the helm and pummeled out a 45 minute or so set of their spastic hardcore hits, ending with a masterfull cover of "breakin the law" by judas priest, then atom broke out his package and the place lit up, people came out of the woodwork and i saw one of the most amazing displays of crowd participation i've ever seen, atom is quite the showman for those of you who haven't seen him, he's a funny fuckin guy too, and his fans are devoted, i was proud to have booked this show, my best friends and girlfriend all seemed to have an excellent time, i did as well, despite being stressed out from the details of being "the man in charge of this show" and crap, but everything went well, the elvis room is really a great club to work with and i hope to book some more shows there. i found the trick, book a good band people have heard of in a club that people have heard of and then people will show up and you will make your money, a formula for success!
NILE, SHIVER, RARE FORM, DISTRUST, AT THE ELVIS ROOM, TUESDAY APRIL 6TH
i finnaly heard distrust and everyone was right, they do suck, lame crusty hardcore trying to cross over to grind/metal but failing miserably, rare form were suprisingly ass destroying, thick ass metal with fast parts, shiver was shiver (i like them enough to put them on my comp so i obviously think they're good) and okay i talked all about the lame aspects of nile in my column so i'm only going to mention their actual performance which was nothing short of amazing, they had all the keyboard parts run through a computer sequencer and a midi rig set up hooked up to one of the guitars so that in the middle of songs he could strum triggering off the chorus sounds or weird middle eastern parts and such, the blasts killed me, since they play with bass drum triggers live as on record and they're fast as fuck so everything was loud and clear, they played all my favorite songs. they fucking kill.
GRIEF, NIGHTSTICK, SOME OTHER BANDS, AT THE MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS, SUNDAY APRIL 4TH
this was my birthday. and easter. and i didn't even go in for the first couple bands, when i went in nightstick played and they suck ass, i won't even go into them cos they don't deserve space on this site, grief however, were amazing, it always kills me when jeff starts screaming, after like 5 minutes of droning doom sludge the vocals kick in and you can't belive how much better this guy sounds live as apposed to on record. thick ass shit. slower than dirt. they fucking went off. it was a good birthday.
CRYPTOPSY, CONVERGE, WARHORSE, SOME OTHER CRAPPY xHCx BAND, CLUB INFINITY, SPRINGFIELD MASS FEBRUARY 28TH
okay warhorse were good but FUCK ALL THE OPENING BANDS CRYPTOPSY KILLS ALL, CRYPTOPSY WILL DESTROY ALL, YOU CANNOT FUCK WITH CRYPTOPSY!!!!!! THIS WAS THEE BEST SHOW I EVER SAW IN MY WHOLE LIFE, THERE ARE NONE HIGHER, QUIT YOUR SHITTY BAND COS YOU SUCK, CRYPTOPSY RULES, LEARN THIS.
PROPHETIC DISCLOSURE, GUERNICA, SOME NOISE BAND THAT I DON'T THINK HAS A NAME COS NO ONE EVER SAID IT
it took us like 3 hours to get there cos the directions were fucked up and then we climbed the like 5 flights up to the show and guernica went on first and sounded awesome, then chris leamys noise band went on and were way too fucking loud and then prophetic disclosure were awesome but used guernicas crappy drumset so the sound was compromised. i didn't sell a single 7" at this show.
ID, PROPHETIC DISCLOSURE, VOLTRON, SHIVER
MIT STUDENT COFFEE HAUS (BACK ROOM), SATURDAY OCTOBER 31ST (HALLOWEEN SHOW)
the mighty voltron kicked things off, the five robot lions formed outside and brought their drum machine fury in to play a mighty 2 songs, voltron doesn't have enough time to practice it's songs with fighting lotor and king zarkon and merla all the time so it was a bit sloppy. next the mighty maine grind kings prophetic disclosure stepped up and tore shit up (they said they played bad but they're fucking wrong). glen is getting handy at matching his blastbeats with double bass. expect good good things from the id/prophetic disclosure split lp. next was the might id, we were supposed to have our 7"s out by this show (the entire point of having the show in the first place) but ups still hasn't gotten them to me to i was a bit pissed. but we played good. and in corpsepaint too. then the mighty shiver busted out with their full 5 piece band and played an awesome combination of grind, death and black metal, reminds me of a more black metal version of omegaman, who are also awesome. then we all went home the end.
PHOBIA, ID, GUERNICA, PROPHETIC DISCLOSURE
SOME GUYS BASEMENT IN ALLSTON MASS, SATURDAY AUGUST 22ND
we opened (id) and had amp problems up the ass and it took way too long to fix everything to the point where we could play one song all the way through, then we played a crappy fucking set that was sloppy as fuck and i appologise to anyone who witnessed it and plead with you not to give up on us, then phobia fucking tore down everybodys skulls with the most intense basement performance i've ever seen complete with band jumps crowd shouting and moshing, truely epic, they played for about 45 minutes, then guernica gave the shoutouts to everybody and gave the ass kicking to everybody via a pounding ass motherfucking set that floored me, their new song is awesome, getting more technical, then prophetic disclosure ended the show by (to quote dan from guernica)"anhilating every ounce of decency your mother ever instilled in you" and they played amazing and got an awesome crowd response (not that they don't usually, just that they got the response they deserve for once, and for once didn't play first). it was awesome to see phobia and guernica and prophetic disclosure, and it was even fun to play, even if we did suck, since we hadn't played together since our last show. the next one we have is like, metl bannana in october. a ways away. mabey we'll have some more songs by then. and our 7" should be out.
QUADILIACHA, THE 914, SOME CRAP ASSHOLE BAND, UNHOLY BMX, ID, PROPHETIC DISCLOSURE
LAWRENCE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, LAWRENCE MASS, SATURDAY JULY 25TH
prophetic disclosure get my vote for best band from new england and this performance was nothing short of radical, they fucking rule and get better every time i hear them play. then we played really good and then unholy bmx was fucking realy loud and the show got shut down and we made more money off it getting shut down than from the people who showed up (all 10) cos they gave him $200 back instead of $100 for renting out the hall and quadiliacha and the 914 cancelled anyway so we got all the money beteen 3 bands and the dude who set it up but pete broke some assholes bass drum head so we had to fork over most of it to that kid so we could "do the riht thing". this show rocked.
NO LESS, DEADBODIESEVERYWHERE, GUERNICA, UNHOLY BMX, ID, JOE JACKSON TRIO
LAWRENCE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, LAWRENCE MASS, MONDAY JULY 20TH
i played this show tonight and it was awesome despite (surprise!) no one being there (about 5 kids who wern't in bands), but that can actually add to the show given the wack ass crowds going to shows lately, anyway, joe jackson trio kicked things off, playing to us and jay from agoraphobic nosebleed/japanese torture comedy hour/unholy bmx/etc. then some people showed up and we played a ripping set if i do say so myself (jay recorded it on his digital 4 track onto minidisk if you want a copy i can probably get you one), then guernica fucking bludgeoned, then unholy bmx did his noise for a while to break shit up, then dead bodies everywhere fucking went off, and ended up punching a celing tile in half, which pete (from id) later repaired with duct tape and a pizza box like the mac guyver that he is, then no less killed shit and blew out my amp head.
ASSHOLE PARADE, GUERNICA, WORLD WAR
SOME KIDS BASEMENT IN ALLSTON MASS, SATURDAY JULY 11TH
world war are pretty boring and were very drunk and thought we all wanted to hear every song they knew. they were wrong. guernica played the best set i've seen by them, fucking brutal, and then asshole parade ripped shit up, got everybody moshing in this little tiny basement by jumping into people repeatedly, fucking epic.
MORBID ANGEL, VADER, INCANTATION, CRAPPY HARDCORE/METAL BAND
THE PALLADIUM, WORCESTER MASS, TUESDAY JUNE 30TH
the first band sucked. incantation was awesome but dispite every 3rd person in the place sporting their shirts, they got a lackluster crowd response and kept saying hillarious cliche things like (in scandinavian accent) "this is a fucking death metal show, MAKE SOME NOISE! what are you a bunch of posers?" then the almighty vader played one of the most incredible live sets i've ever seen, i was weary of the death metal moshing boneheads so i tried to stay out of the way of the pit cos i know vader is sick live, but then a cool pit broke out so i went in and it lasted for about 2 minutes before it became a battle royal with fists flying and i got popped really fucking hard in the mouth and it totally fucked me up (i know the kid didn't aim for me though) and the inside of my mouth was all fucked up and bleeding and is still hacked up and healing (a week later) and my shoe came off and i caught it mid air and was trying to back out to put it back on but kept getting pushed back in, but then i managed to get it on and taste the blood in my mouth and then the set ended and i sat down for morbid angel who were amazing. the end.
ASSUCK, REVERSAL OF MAN, FRODUS, SOME OTHER BANDS
SAFE AND SOUND, ROCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE, FRIDAY JULY 3RD
i woke up and went over my friend andys house and picked him up and then drove for an hour and a half to rochester new hampshire, finnally found safe and sound, talked with assuck and helped them in with their stuff and got directions to the other shows and stuff, hit up the walls inside the place, saw frodus (good good good), got front and center for assuck, they played and these asshole crusty kids kept displaying the fact that they were 50 feet tall from the booze by fucking with everyone and throwing punches randomly in the pit, then during the 3rd song this fucking kid kept windmilling me and i got sick of his bullshit so i pushed him away harder than usual and as he was falling he grabbed onto my shirt and pulled me down with him and then this other drunk kid punched me about 5 times in the head while i was trying to get the first kid off of me and while i fell he kicked me and then by the time i got the first kid off me the bouncers had the kid on the other side of the room and were throwing him out and he got in his car and took off before i could fuck his ass up, i saw the kid vaugly and he was not big and i totally could have kicked his ass, and by how little it hurt when he punched me i could tell he wasn't going to do too much damage to me, but anyway, the owner of the club promptly ended the show after said suckerpunching so i drove an hour and a half to hear assuck play 2 and a half songs and get punched in the head by a weakling. and to that kid if he reads this, if i ever, EVER fucking catch you anywhere, i don't give a fuck who you're with or how much i get fucked up by them, you are getting your fucking ass kicked and that's that, i don't give a fuck about the "sorry dude, i was drunk" excuses or whatever, you are fucking dead. belive that.
ASSUCK, REVERSAL OF MAN, FRODUS, JENNY PICCALO, LOCUST, ATOM AND HIS PACKAGE, TOO MANY OTHER BANDS AT A 3 DAY LONG FESTIVAL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN CONSOLIDATED INTO 3 HOURS OF GOOD MUSIC
THE TIN CAN FULL OF DREAMS FESTIVAL, LAWRENCE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, LAWRENCE MASSACHUSETTES, SATURDAY JULY 4TH
okay, i hate emo bands more than ever after being subgected to this fest for one day, 14 bands played that day, i liked 5 of them, for those of you keeping score, thats 9 crappy bands, actually 8 crappy bands and 1 crappy "punk rock comedian". welp, we left 3 times that day, the first time we went to a pool party my uncle was throwing, that was fun, a couple hours later we came back for about an hour, then we left and got food and jolt and then came back and saw more crap, then we left and had band practice for about 2 hours, then we came back and caught the last jenny piccalo song and i was pissed i missed their set, then the locust played and it was awesome, they played in front of the stage on the ground and everybody swarmed arounb them and the people behind the first couple rows stood on chairs so it was like a huge swarming mass of people that sloped down to the center where the band was, truely awesome, then we saw issac ramos, the "punk rock comedian" who should have just fucking shot himself onstage because he was that bad, i mean, it's a pretty lame idea to begin with but, imagine the worst case scenario of a "punk rock comedian" playing a festival while about a billion people from all over the country are waiting to see assuck and the locust play, needless to say he sucked and he bombed and then he started to make un of people in the audience and then he bombed even more and then i went outside cos i couldn't take it anymore (apparently alot of people couldn't cos there were alot more people outside) then i came back in and saw atom and his package and it was amazing, i was floored by his performance, then reversal of man played and andy liked them alot and then assuck played, it was cool cos nobody punched me at this show and the pit was big and wide so you had room to dance, but assuck slept about 10 minutes the night before so they were pretty tired when they played (after waiting like 12 hours from the time they got there till the time they went on to play) but it was still good and i was glad i got to see them play a whole set. and then the day was finally fucking over.
ASSUCK, REVERSAL OF MAN, JENNY PICCALO, THE LOCUST, SOME OTHER BANDS
THE SPACE IN WORCESTER MASS SUNDAY JULY 5TH
the space in worcester mass sucks, it's a run down ex hair salon or some shit and the sound sucks and the floors look like they're going to come apart at anytime and it seems to attract drunk people, but it was good to see the bands again one last time for the year (assuck seems to come often now, which makes me very happy). locust was awesome, i got to see jenny piccalo and i was floored and i saw my hommies in guernica who hooked us up with cans of food to get in for a buck off. assuck played much better and seemed more with it but the crowd got pretty violent when they all started moshing but i wasn't in the pit cos i'm getting sick of it and i was there with my girlfriend who was seeing assuck for the first time (it was my 6th) and i wanted to share the moment with her cos it's real like that. so assuck rocks my world and i love that fucking band and they rock go see them cos they're still on tour for the next month and a half and shit.
GRIEF, GUERNICA, JOEJACKSONTRIO, ID, AND PROPHETIC DISCLOSURE
CAFE ECLIPSE, CONCORD NEW HAMPSHIRE MAY 3RD?
this is one of the 2 or 3 greatest shows i went to all year and it was even cooler cos i played it. prophetic disclosure opened and were sick as fuck, this was their first show and in my mind they were better then anybody and are my new favorite local band, totally fucking fast shit, they're a 2 piece and both of them sing, the fucking drummer does low growls while doing double bass and shit, totally incredible, check this band out, then we (id) played our best live set to date and i'll leave it at that cos i don't want to toot my own horn, then joejacksontrio had some guitar trouble for about half an hour but then finally got it resolved and rocked the partay with their stop start powerviolence blastbeat/mosh part-core, and then reining underground brutality masters guernica (known to some as lesion) played the first set i've seen them play in about a year and a half and fucking blew me away and the mini mosh pit began (there were only about 10 people at the show that wern't in bands), and then the mighty mighty grief played their last set with pete cassin from the mc veighs on drums (pete's going to school in pittsburg next fall and tim from anal cunt joined grief now) and it was awesome, i didn't sleep the night before cos i work 3rd shift and had to be at the show at like 11:00am so by this point (about 7:00 or 8:00pm the next day after playing a show and moshing for guernica) i was pretty tired and i drifted in and out of a doom slumber to griefs set and it seemed the appropriate thing to do, i mean, you can't mosh to them so you might as well fall asleep to it, you know, i mean, it's really fucking cool to wake up and their's grief, playing a show, right infront of you. aces to everyone who was there and to christian and cafe eclipse for letting us do the show.
BLACK ARMY JACKET, ORCHID, ENTROPHY, AND SOME CRAPPY EMO BAND HAMPSHIRE COLLEDGE, AMHERST MASS, SATURDAY MARCH 28TH
we got there at 7:30 cos it was suppsed to start at 8:00 and we didn't know how long it would take us to drive there (i heard it was 2 hours away but made it in just under an hour and a half) and there was nobody there. around 8:10 we went back and there was only people just getting there that were running the show, at about 9:00-9:30 the first band went on but i was outside and only caught the end of their set, that band is will dandy from clean plate records band orchid. i really can't say what they sound like. then entropy played, their singer was amazing, AND he had a cold so i'm wondering what he sounds like normally. the music was medium paced deathy grind with a thick guitar sound and a couple fast parts, but mostly chugga chugga prodding mosh parts, i thought they were good though, then an emo band played and i'll sum up their performance like this: they have found their safety note and don't like straying from it much. then the mighty black army jacket played and i finnally got to see them, they are alot better now with dave witte from discordance axis on drums (one of thee best drummers in the history of the world), and their new stuff which should end up on an lp they should be recording soon is amazing and totally blows away their old stuff. on top of it all i got to meet b.a.j. in person and they are wicked nice (as it is rumored they are).support this fucking band.