Thursday, February 18, 2010

Howl, Iron Age, Skeletonwitch and Doomriders show

February 17, 2010:
The Great Scott showcased a strong bill of an (arguably) metallic-foundation last night, with such contemporary talents as Megasus, Howl, Iron Age, Skeletonwitch and Doomriders. Within minutes of the door opening, the show was sold out. Many of my friends encountered this problem and begrudgingly took the long bike (or walk) home without the sound of metal ringing from their ears. God. Bless. Willcall.

Unfortunately my schedule didn't allow me to see the first band, but according to Nate from Doomriders they were "awesome". I heard mumbles of disagreement from my pit-neighbors, but I guess that performance will remain unvisited.

ANYWHEW, the first band, Howl, hailing from Providence, RI, is a relatively new, sludgy-Mastadon esque quad of men and a babely fee-male bassist showcasing their new debut album, "Full of Hell," for all of New England to see. While I didn't feel compelled to go home and write "I love Howl 4ever" in my spiral notebook repetatively while playing their record before I slept they were definitely good, this new band is definitely on the list of "bands to watch" list.






Next, Austin-based and Bay-area inspired Iron Age played, which, according to Gavin, had recently undergone a metamorphosis in vocal stylings from a more traditional hardcore sound to a teenager botching black metal. The newest bandmember with pretty impressive hair insisted that the girls in the front row should get punched/kicked in the face, because that tends not to happen. Sure enough, within the next ten minutes of their set, I received a nice knot in my forehead from an undetermined appendage and one of my female neighbors also received the present of a punch to the face. She was very upset. Maybe from the eclectic mix of people in the crowd (and as a guy informed us from behind, 'what a very unmetal crowd' at that), he decided to do a plug for Graveland. Because he didn't think we knew who Graveland was? Or that they were good? Or that we factored how racist Rob Darken is into the auditorial merit of the band? Whatever. Iron Age, all and all, you were alright.





Skeletonwitch of Ohio established how positively serious they were about "thrash revival" with very elaborate bass drum decoration and a serious amount of cymbals. Their sound was consistent, so consistent, that a lot of the songs seemed to blend together. Which, yanno, is fine, if you're a firm advocate of the new-thrash wave that seems to be taking the metal scene by storm, but could have been really frustrating and monotonous for the unlucky few in the crowd that did not or would not ever own a Municipal Waste hat.






The headliner. Doomriders. Salem metal band that seemed less brutal then the rest of the bill but got more positive audience feedback than the four previous bands combined. Nate, feeding on the reinforcement, once dropped to the floor in a guitar-to-guitar face off Chris Pupecki. While the vocal levels were a bit lower than they should have been, the band seemed to engage the audience in a conversation that no other band on the bill could. Which is surely fitting, seeing as they were headlining and all. But even headlining aside, it was a pretty sweet set.







This definitely beats my normal Wednesday regime of catching up on Art History readings, consuming embarrassing amounts of Quinoa and finishing my book of the week.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I like your writing style Stephers. I was laughing at your witty commentary and you gave a good sense of what to expect from each band should I even go to see them. It seems as though you found a pretty good niche with music writing & photog. <3 Rox

Stephanie said...

Awh, thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. East-meets-west reunion in >12 days!!!