MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL » Will Butler

Wow, what a show! Shitstorm/The Kill/Noisear/DOC/Street Pizza/ATT in RVA 5/22/11

24 05 2011

Disciples of Christ (photo by Will Butler)

Most of my excitement leading up to this show stemmed around the fact that I chose to go to Chaos In Tejas (say hi if you see me there) over going to Maryland Death Fest. Both awesome lineups, but the possibility of seeing Lärm (canceled), Seein Red (canceled), Low Threat Profile (canceled), and Killing Joke (canceled) seemed to outweigh what MDF offered this year. Don’t get me wrong, Chaos in Tejas is stacked this year but, damn, did some amazing bands drop off. Well, the one major letdown was the fact that Australia’s premiere grindcore act, The Kill, would only be playing up in Baltimore for the fest I chose not to go to. To my belated surprise I got an invite on the internet to come see this show and I about ran circles around the room for joy, I could have kissed Mark Osborn on the lips for putting this together two hours away up in Richmond, Virginia.

I got a few Raleigh folks on board to come up with me and, surprises among surprises, I found out that my good friends Steveo and Andrea would be around and wanted to come with. Ended up being my awesome roommate Jace and the pair to head up. We rolled up in a leisurely Sunday style — ate some vegan all-you-can-eat buffet across the street, and prepared for a grindcore assault at Strange Matter.

First to play was Ancient Torture Techniques. I apologize for not having any pictures of them, I had thought to grab my camera out of my car a few minutes too late as I had a bird’s eye view and they started playing… plus, it appeared a friend or girlfriend of the band was getting video of them right next to me. Simone, the guitar player and long time acquaintance, had eaten all-you-can-eat buffet right next to us earlier in the evening but it didn’t seem to slow him down any, he was thrashing about the crowd as he played. The bass player did some cutting wood attacks with his bass and I was prepared to kick him back into his area if he got too close. The band shared vocal duties, had some yelling, screaming, and Simone threw back some of the Man Is The Bastard Cookie-Monster vocals. I’m 99% sure they are the only band that sounds like this in Virginia Beach, so glad to keep powerviolence strong up the coast.

Street Pizza (photo by Will Butler)

After ATT left the floor, RVA’s own Street Pizza started setting up on stage. Ironic band name aside, I had heard great things about this band and was excited about finally seeing them. I would have liked to have seen them play on the floor, but they delivered a tight set. Really quality grind-violence/powerviolence with songs that weren’t too short to be enjoyable. Caught a few pictures of the bass player singing with his eyes bugging out which made me laugh.

Disciples of Christ (photo by Will Butler)

Following the hometown heroes, Disciples of Christ, a.k.a. DOC, took the floor. I have an unfair bias towards this band, but for good damn reason. This was my second time seeing them and they were just as intense. Brutal blasting grindcore from DC featuring Nolan who is ex-Juice Tyme, young gun Tim, and Chris of Magrudergrind/Coke Bust/Sick Fix fame. Nolan played in the normal power-stance with his mic set up three to four feet from the ground and one leg dragged far back while playing and singing. All three of them sing. No fluff, great short set.

Noisear (photo by Will Butler)

When the show was first announced two or three weeks prior, they didn’t have Noisear listed as playing. It was a nice surprise to see them added into the mix. New Mexico’s grindcore outfit rolled up onto the stage with some funny looking death metal instruments but I was super stoked to see the guitar player wearing a Gate shirt. The band was noticeably more on the metal tip than the last set of bands but they tore through some songs like wet toilet paper. Not totally my cup of tea but I definitely liked them and I see them being a big hit at Deathfest.

The Kill (photo by Will Butler)

Holy crap. Holy crap? Holy crap! The Kill takes stage and I’m floored. I briefly and awkwardly met Roby, their guitar player, who I have been in contact with before, and felt like a weird fanboy taking pictures right under where he is playing guitar on a weird rolling set of stairs up to the stage. During their set my perch on the stairs almost got uprooted as the movable set of stairs I was on got moshed into a few times. Getting back to what’s important — The Kill. The Kill is Australia’s answer to Magrudergrind… super fast and blasty grindcore with no bass player. The played an absolutely perfect set and polished it all off with a Napalm Death cover.

Shitstorm (photo by Will Butler)

Last to play are my great old friends Shitstorm. I have known Ricky, Dub, Jon, and even their new bass player Eric, for about seven or eight years now. They consist of Miami locals, and I think Ricky is now an Atlanta transplant. The band plays super pissed off, primal grind and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them quite a few times. Actually, I drove two hours to the NC coast to see them play last summer, brought my camera to take pictures of them but left my camera battery in the charger. Lots of moshing in the crowd and Eric did some awesome youth crew jumps while swinging his bass behind his back so that he could get some height.

Will Butler (me) and Roby from The Kill (photo by Tim Mullaney)

I ended up talking to Roby from The Kill quite a bit before embarking on the trip home with my small NC crew. He told me about his four-year-old son that he misses, he told me that the drummer from Noisear got mugged in New York, and he ended up giving me quite a few kisses on my cheek. Legit awesome guy. Sorry to hear about the drummer from Noisear — hope they have better luck the next time they are up that way. In all, amazing trip. Thanks to all those who came with me, Mark for booking the show, the good RVA locals, and the bands…definitely the bands. It was a great small venue prequel to MDF for anyone going up to that, but it was just the amount of grind to get me stoked on life.

Enjoy some video that me and Jace Kuhn shot at the show:
Noisear
The Kill
Shitstorm

Scroll through all of the photos from the show here:

Disciples of Christ - Photo by Will Butler

Disciples of Christ - Photo by Will Butler

Disciples of Christ - Photo by Will Butler

Disciples of Christ - Photo by Will Butler

Noisear - Photo by Will Butler

Noisear - Photo by Will Butler

Shitstorm - Photo by Will Butler

Shitstorm - Photo by Will Butler

Shitstorm - Photo by Will Butler

Shitstorm - Photo by Will Butler

Street Pizza - Photo by Will Butler

Street Pizza - Photo by Will Butler

Street Pizza - Photo by Will Butler

The Kill - Photo by Will Butler

The Kill - Photo by Will Butler

Will Butler (me) and Roby from The Kill - Photo by Tim Mullaney

Besides being MRR.com’s premier show reviewer/photographer combo, Will Butler‘s claims to fame are To Live A Lie Records and Fastcore Photos (Issue #2 is almost out for those who care!). If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a MRR shitblogger!

May 24th, 2011 by Will Butler
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Priapus/Burma/Backslider/Nimbus Terrifix/Shit Horse in Raleigh, NC

6 04 2011

Sorry for the brevity of this review — life kind of happened as it tends to do. To skip a few steps of explanation, I ended up filling in playing bass for the band Burma for this show. It was on April Fool’s Day at the Kent Street House in Raleigh, NC…

Backslider (photo by Will Butler)

I got there nice and early after practicing with Burma for the first real time (the day of the show). I’m glad I was there early because I got to see Priapus play. Priapus is a tech grind band from Greensboro, featuring Kevin from Malebolgia. The band has the Discordance Axis-worshiping sound and almost sounds like a live Agoraphobic Nosebleed. I admit I left partway through their set to grab some equipment and get stoked to play.

Next was Burma with me on bass. I haven’t played in a band since I was 16 or 17, so it was good to do it again. Had no problem with the songs, having learned them over a two week time frame. To tell the truth, I keep getting them stuck in my head when I go to bed and wake up in the mornings, so I think I learned them too well. I was very lucid while playing so I can describe us surprisingly well. Drumming was tight; I don’t think I realized until we were playing how well Kane plays the drums… his drum fills perfectly led up to the endings of songs. I saw my roommate accidentally pull down part of the ceiling during the set. Matt, the singer, kicked a 24-pack out of someone’s hands who was throwing beer around on everybody. Here is a short video of the set, if you want to see my friend Patrick from Backslider haranguing me with his video camera:

Third to play was Backslider. I was hoping they’d have their new split out for the show, but no such luck. I also hoped that Pat would have the Mind As Prison/Disciples of Christ split out on his label. Those were not ready either. Bummer. What wasn’t a bummer was Backslider! Two-man power violence done up right. People were pretty still during their set. I don’t know if that is a bad thing, but it allowed me to get some great pictures in that small basement. Tight set.

Backslider (photo by Will Butler)

Nearing the end of the night, Nimbus Terrifix played. The band is ex-Dead Radical. They play a kind of orchestrated noise-violence. I think I was annoyed that I couldn’t get a good angle to take their picture. People finally woke up and got a bit crazy during their set.

Nimbus Terrifix (photo by Will Butler)

Last band was a local band called Shit Horse. They were a nice fresh sound after a night of hardcore. They were more of a psych garage rock band, I suppose you could say. They have a delightful front man who was being pretty funny the whole night, and wore a velour over-sized hoodie that made him look like he might be a boxer or an MC. During their set they had a girl in very little clothing, who was donning a horse head and a toy machine gun and dancing around in the crowd. Weird schtick but good music and something to talk about at the end of a good night.

Nimbus Terrifix and Backslider (photo by Will Butler)

Besides being MRR.com’s premier show reviewer/photographer combo, Will Butler‘s claims to fame are To Live A Lie Records and Fastcore Photos. If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a MRR shitblogger!

April 6th, 2011 by Will Butler
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Dropdead/Wasted Time/Cough/Ilsa

15 03 2011

Wow, what a show! is brought to you again this week by Will Butler of To Live A Lie Records / Fastcore Photos. If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a MRR shitblogger!

Ilsa (photo by Will Butler)

It has been a little bit since I’ve posted something for you fine folks. Of course, if you get the print version of MRR you can see my interview in issue #335 with the fine folks in DEVOUR. Speaking of a little bit of time, the almighty Providence grind/violence band DROPDEAD hasn’t played a show in DC in thirteen years! Well, on March 12th, 2011… all that changed when the band drove all the way down just to play DC and turn around and go back on with their normal lives.

Not sure if anyone likes a show review to be more like a journal or not but I think it makes it more interesting, and I’m the one writing here so you’ll have to deal with it for now. The kids of BURMA, a local Raleigh band, were nice enough to let me tag along with them on the way up to the show. Had an entertaining ride up. We then caught up with (sorry this seems to be shout-out heaven right here) Greg from DEATHRATS who was nice enough to show us around town for an hour or two before the show. We went to Smash and Crooked Beats Records, and then by Sticky Fingers bakery so that I could get a killer vegan cinnamon bun and some coffee to get me amped up for the night, and so that I wouldn’t crash early because I woke up at 9 a.m. As we roll back to the house, Greg starts to flip out as there is a van parked in front of the house. He looks over at me and says something to the extent of, “Please don’t let me flip out — Dropdead is over at my house now.” Awesome nice folks, I had met Ben a few times before as he has toured down with bands and when Dropdead played Richmond for Best Friends Day a few years ago. A quick aside: when they played Richmond it was one of the most insane house shows I’ve ever been to… The show got moved from a venue to a house; the house’s basement ceiling got ripped down during their set and I was clinging to the water heater for protection.

Cough (photo by Will Butler)

Fast forward to actual show time. The show was at a church a few blocks from Greg’s house and even fewer blocks from Sticky Fingers, where we had gotten some eats earlier in the day. Really awesome setup for shows. ILSA went on first. This is the only band I had no idea about before seeing them. Pretty good down-tuned sludge/doom. I noticed one person in that band that I recognized but couldn’t place it at all. I later realized he was in a two-younger-kid grindcore band I had seen maybe four years ago in Baltimore called WYLD STALLYNS. I had always wondered what happened to people from that band so was excited to make that connection.

Aptly, COUGH followed. Sludge jams, back-to-back. I saw the band five years ago and the singer was too obliterated to stand up, so the new configuration of the band was a huge improvement. I tried my darndest to get pictures of the band to where they didn’t have hair splaying in their faces but didn’t have much luck.

Wasted Time (photo by Will Butler)

Next to play was WASTED TIME. The band rips every time. Slightly different than any band playing the night, but was somehow a perfect transition between the sludge and grind bands. I was standing at oh so the wrong place during their set and was about to get my camera smashed by a stagedive when the guy realized what I had in my hand and made a feline-esque leap right over my head. Later in the set I turned around and saw three different people holding their noses, people were in the pit crowd killing and freaking out really hard for the band. Later in the night I had the pleasure of meeting Mark and Alex for the first time, and got to say hey to the lovely Brandon as well.

Last was cherry on top of an already awesome show, DROPDEAD… lords of grindcore and purveyors of animal rights. During the whole set people were clamoring to share the mic with Bob as he was belting out song after song. I really don’t even know what to say that gives them justice. I felt kind of awkward as I was the only person on stage during their set but I had a bird’s eye view of the maniacs in the pit. I saw even more people holding their noses as if each person in the place was systematically punch squarely in the nose. I think they did their thirteen-year absence justice. Lots of video cameras — please do yourself a favor and lurk video sites for a recording of the set.

Dropdead (photo by Will Butler)

So I am one to harp on the good things during a show. There unfortunately were a few fights, mainly near the end of the night. Both Michelle from SICK FIX and Greg seemed to do a good job keeping things under control. I thought Bobby Egger from Headcount Records was about to jump in and break up one fight. I’m an outsider to things that go on in DC so I hope nothing was more serious than someone got hit wrong in the mosh pit or something.

My night concluded back at a house with DROPDEAD, eating the biggest piece of vegan pizza I have ever seen in my life. Amazing show, good town, good trip, awesome friends. Thanks to Chris Moore for putting the show on.

March 15th, 2011 by Will Butler
Comments : 13 Comments »
Categories : Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Short, Fast, and Loud 10 Year Anniversary at 924 Gilman

1 02 2011

Wow, what a show! is brought to you this week by Will Butler of To Live A Lie Records with photos by Sergio Amalfitano of Magnum XL Photos. If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a MRR shitblogger! Now, take it away, Will…

First off, respect goes where it is deserved. I love MRR, but I also love Short Fast & Load magazine. From the early days of Chris Dodge interviewing the likes of HERESY ten years ago, up to today where Jeff and Athena from Six Weeks picked up and kept the magazine running, this has been one of my favorite magazines, especially since it focuses on fast hardcore and grindcore.

I have never traveled to the West Coast for a show, figured 2011 was the time, and this was the show. I was a little bummed to see LOW THREAT PROFILE played a show in the area a few weeks beforehand, but I was secretly hopeful that they might crash the show and play. No such luck on that front, but they are playing Chaos in Tejas with LÄRM!

So on to the show…

I was quite jet lagged after a seven hour flight into the Oakland/SF/Berkeley area. My friend Ziggy and I hit up Amoeba first, after that we found a restaurant run by a vegan cult to eat at, then headed on to the show with our friend Javad in tow. Following a pack of people off the BART train we eventually meandered down the bike path and over a few blocks and we were at the longest line of punks I’ve seen in a long time. Our small group got absorbed by a larger group which contained a Miami’s friend which was an awesome and odd coincidence. Bummer his band’s last show was the beginning of this year — RIP MEHKAGO NT.

Iron Lung (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

After some stint of time waiting in the longest line ever, we were inside just as DHC is about to go on. I was fairly busy people-watching and getting my bearings on where I was for probably their whole set. I bobbed my head some, but didn’t really register that this was the first band I had ever seen play on the West Coast. After the set I realized I was standing right behind Shawn from CAPITALIST CASUALTIES and excitedly talked to him for a little bit. Sorry DRUNK HARDCORE, wish I gave your band a little bit more of a chance but my own hyperactivity is a wicked mistress.

Next up was IRON LUNG. I have historically been out of town anytime they had played near me in the past five years until I saw them for the first time in 2010 at Maryland Deathfest and they wowed me beyond wow. Super excited to see them again. I met Mike from HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH for the first time and he was right up near the front. I ended up stuck between him and a guy with a fancy camera, that is where I was when all hell broke loose as the band ripped it up on stage. I tried snapping a few pictures on my crappy digital camera but was bumped and knocked into camera man to my right a little too much for my liking. Killer set by the band — no witty banter like at MDF but I was impressed and happy.

Athena from Voetsek (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

Next to play was VOETSEK, a supergroup of a band including Ami Lawless who contributes to SF&L zine and is the front woman of the band, Athena of Six Weeks on bass, Peter of POPULATION REDUCTION and also a cooking column in the zine, and finally the very courteous Scotty Karate from Tank Crimes Records. The band (don’t hate me) is super sloppy live, but that is really what I’d expect from a bunch of punks playing thrash metal. There were some killer guitar sweeps, I can respect that!

PLUTOCRACY went on next. They were having some sampler issues, but once they got up and running they delivered. The fact that I hadn’t slept in almost a full day was catching up to me but I enjoyed the band. Don’t know how often they play but I’m pretty sure it is a rarity. One guy in the band had his mic cocked upwards, Lemmy-style!

LACK OF INTEREST were the second to last band of the night. I’m not sure what was up, maybe my sleepy stupor, but LOI didn’t really deliver for me. I was super excited to finally see them and just kind of ended up being a sour taste in my mouth. If you disagree with me or you’re in the band, just go with the jetlag excuse — I had probably been awake for 24 hours at this point. Just wasn’t feeling it, was bummed! I feel better about missing MDF this year now.

BRUTAL TRUTH went on last, and my dear sir Rich Hoak, you’re going to hate me, your band was the only band I missed play at the fest. I needed rest and we needed to catch the only way we knew back, which was by way of the BART, and its last departure was 15 minutes from leaving us stuck to try to figure out the 1am bus route. We booked it out of there without an eyeful of their cowboy-hatted front man.

Rest rest rest rest. Woke up and just bummed around San Fran and found foods to eat and ran into the same 303 Miami clique from the day before in the downtown area. They were on their way to Haight Street and we had just come from a brewery my friend wanted to check out, where I got a delicious homemade ginger beer. Pretty sure we went out seeing the sites all wrong, but we both knew what we were in store for that night and needed a nice simple day.

Population Reduction (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

We knew about the mega-line from the night before and got there quite a bit early. Neither of us wanted to miss a band play. When we got in there I found some nachos and non-meat taco meat to eat on to tide me over for the night… very nice of the Gilman folks for giving out some food for us! POPULATION REDUCTION took the stage. I really only know the band because their label has been nice enough to send me free copies of their CD in the past. I didn’t know they were a two piece. The highlight of the set was when they called for Dave from PLF to take the stage and sing. Dave is a man among men and I had never seen him sing sans a guitar. He belted out the song and I remembered him hunkering down to bellow into the microphone. The band finished their set sans Dave. Two-piece bands are great!

PLF (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

A band who I cannot say more great things about took the stage: PLF came from Texas to bring the grindcore laced with thrash mayhem to the city of Berkeley, and the mayhem was indeed brought. My little bubble of insecurity of being out of town was popped by their onslaught. They played for a surprisingly long time but the more the better in my opinion. Frank and Dave never go wrong in my book — really the perfect two-piece grindcore band. For as long as they’ve been a band they deserve any praise they get. Hell, I think POPULATION REDUCTION has been a band for ten years even, so quite a good set of veteran bands were gracing the stage tonight.

Despise You (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

Moving on, the almighty DESPISE YOU took the stage. They killed song after song after song. Instead of me describing it in detail, I did take select videos of them while they were playing, you’ll want to check these out. This was my third time seeing them, one time was a secret show, and they preformed just as well as the secret show they played the year before!

Capitalist Casualties (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

CAPITALIST CASUALTIES took stage. I think all these guys are great, the singer Shawn is nice, Jeff does SF&L magazine with Athena and runs a killer label, I don’t really know Mike at all, and Heraldo is a super sweet guy from Denver who also plays in CATHETER and runs Bad People Records. I was stuck behind the worst person ever for their set… goddamn. This dude was towering over me and had a video camera and every type of finger ring imaginable. I’m not much of a shit talker but I don’t care if he reads this, he probably knows he is the huge douchebag who is flipping out filming the band while throwing his video camera all over the place to the point where I could see half of what he was recording was black because he was thrashing around too much to keep the camera pointed at the band. Maybe he is the endearing superfan — take it as you may. I moved up and out of the path of the mega camera arm guy and snapped off a few videos. Say what you may, CAPITALIST CASUALTIES always puts on a solid show… even when Shawn fell through a roof before MDF and sang either in a wheelchair or on crutches they still killed it with energy. Someone got wrecked in the pit during their set and I accidentally ran across the video of what happened here.

I had my fingers crossed on the next band. I was hoping for no more disappointments for the fest, as I had never seen FLAGITIOUS IDIOSYNCRASY IN THE DILAPIDATION (FID) before and had no idea what to expect out of the all female Japanese grindcore outfit. First surprise, white guy on guitar… what? He apparently lives in Tokyo and he went crazy on stage during their set. The singer did some cutesy dance moves and girly singing in a few songs but the rest of the time was belting out horrifying high pitch screams mixed with the most brutal, guttural growls I’ve heard come out of anyone’s mouth. I always seem to compare the band to MIND AS ASIAN, but seeing them live they became their own band in my head. They killed it. Highlight of the two days for me. Here is some video I took of them.

FID (photo by Sergio Amalfitano)

The band to conclude the fest was BASTARD NOISE, aka Eric Wood’s ever evolving ex-MAN IS THE BASTARD/CHARRED REMAINS band, this time taking on Aimee from L.A., of PROGERIA fame. She (wo)manned the noise devices and added screams. Wood and Connoly on their respective bass and drums. I think she had some kind of crazy glowing LED ring/noise device? The band itself took forever to set up and lethargy set in… also the couple dry humping behind me didn’t help, but I was ready to cut and run for the 1 a.m. bus. Had a good wait for the bus, ran into two really nice folks from Dublin, and heard about their travels to the fest and what things are like in Ireland.

Really and truly this fest was mission accomplished. Cheap flight out there, free place to stay (much thanks to Javad, Sarah, and George for putting up with Ziggy and myself), much vegan food was eaten, new friends were made (nice to meet you Marco from Fedup, Mike from HOD, Sir Scotty Karate, Sergio from ACxDC, nice Dubliners, a girl named Paris from PDX, etc.), old friends were high-fived, there were new people for me to hate on as well (no names mentioned), and just a huge thanks to Jeff, Athena, and of course Chris for doing an awesome zine that spans ten years and will continue hopefully at least another ten. I highly encourage you to check out the 10 year anniversary zine + 10″… it is a good read despite an unfortunate slew of errors in spelling and duplicated content… think they might have had to push this out faster than normal for the show. Until next time, fine MRR people, don’t think I’ll have anything as epic to talk about until maybe the Dropdead/Magrudergrind show in DC, and then of course Chaos in Tejas. Until next time — distort Berkeley, distort Raleigh!

February 1st, 2011 by Will Butler
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Natural Law/
Dystrophy/Trapper/Dethroned Emporer/Burma

4 01 2011

Wow, what a show! is brought to you again this week by Will Butler of To Live A Lie Records / Fastcore Photos. But why let him hog all the glory? If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a MRR shitblogger!

Parking lot after the show

Perfect timing for a slightly out of town show… I had Friday off for New Years so a show an hour away wasn’t a stretch. This was originally going to be in a Raleigh basement but due to some roommate issues it got moved to a Greensboro show space called CFBG. Word is that the place is a dance studio, and it had some cool artwork up. Appears to be a business where the owner is nice enough to have bands come play.

Matt White of Burma (photo by Will Butler)

Technical difficulties caused a short delay… I think a PA needed to be brought or found or set up and a large bass cab was set up for vocals. BURMA went on shortly after. They share members across Raleigh and Greensboro so they are a perfect band to have already been booked to play in Raleigh and to also play this night in the other town. They pumped out some jams to room of smiling faces. I think I must have been spoiled by Matt’s antics at their last show when he went off.. tonight he wasn’t as energized and bloody, although a guitar was swung fairly close to his head a few times. There were shouts for a Minor Threat cover but alas no cover. The great thing about Minor Threat is the fact that is really hard to ruin their songs, they are both solid and sloppy, so I always enjoy seeing one covered.

Tom Murphy and Greg Bueno of Dystrophy (photo by Will Butler)

Following Burma was DYSTROPHY. I was really hoping this was the Cali thrash punk band who put out We’re Nice Kids, but it turns out this Dystrophy still rules AND also contains my friend Matt Thompson… quite a pleasant surprise. This Dystrophy is a NJ area death metal band. Lots of riffage which had quite a few people jumping around and getting wild. They played a solid long set and even covered a Death song.

Dethroned Emporer (photo by Will Butler)

This next band I had never heard of before, but based on their look I was highly interested. DETHRONED EMPORER took stage (took floor). The guest vocalist during the Dystrophy set is on drums and their singer as the guy I noticed wearing a Cryptic Slaughter jacket earlier in the night. His guitar setup was super loud and crunchy on sound check. Later on I noticed he has two instrument cables coming out of his guitar and each cable was connected to a different head connected to the same stack. I talked to him later as I was super curious and he gave me an overly technical answer that I forget most of, but I know he was running each pickup to a different amp head and he mentioned taking off his volume pot and running 1 Ω out to overdrive the whole rig I believe. The sound of this two piece death metal band was more familiar to me than the previous band, they obviously draw a lot of influence from early grind. They had a few parts containing what I call the mince beat… that really awesome slowed down grind beat that Agathocles is known for.

Lee Milsaps of Trapper (photo by Will Butler)

Second to last band that played was TRAPPER. Their second guitar player was nice and talked to me earlier in the show and I was in kind of a quiet mood so I felt like a douche, so I wanted to make sure to get some good pictures of them. The band hails from Charlotte and the other guitar player helped make the whole show happen at this venue. Trapper had a definite hardcore sound but did have some darker guitar tone which was crunchy at times and I noticed sludge influence. I spent most of their set trying to get a picture of the singer who wouldn’t slow down… lots of bounding around and bending backwards. Some of this stuff falls off my radar as I write it off as Bridge 9/Converge type jams… in actuality they are probably more along the lines of Doomrider or Nails… definitely not bad for a local area band.

Natural Law (photo by Will Butler)

The final band is one I had heard so much about but had not actually heard, NATURAL LAW. The fine folks from Double Negative talked about them in high regards and Ira wouldn’t shut up about their Slump EP, so I was excited to see them. The band shares members with Black Kites and seems to be a scattered New England/DC crowd. Their bass player lives with two members of Deathrats I later found out. The band played non-stop hardcore jams that definitely gives a nod to Double Negative but with its own originality. I think this is where my ability to describe music drops off. You really should just track down their demo or 7″, not many people will be disappointed.

: Trapper (photo by Will Butler)

: Dethroned Emporer (photo by Will Butler)

: Jacob Allen Cook and Max Feldman of Trapper (photo by Will Butler)

: Natural Law (photo by Will Butler)

: Brian Lutz of Burma (photo by Will Butler)

: Peter Brown of Dystrophy (photo by Will Butler)

: Christophe Bequet and Brian Lutz of Burma (photo by Will Butler)

: Matt Thompson of Dystrophy (photo by Will Butler)

: Natural Law (photo by Will Butler)

: Dethroned Emporer (photo by Will Butler)

: Kane Conwell of Burma (photo by Will Butler)

January 4th, 2011 by Will Butler
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Chest Pain/Thieves/
Buy The Steak/Old Painless

28 12 2010

Hey! Welcome to the third installment of our new show review feature: Wow, what a show! This week is presented again by Will Butler of To Live A Lie Records / Fastcore Photos…

Rich Lombardi of Old Painless (photo by Will Butler)

Since this show was about three months ago, a lot of the nuances have melted out of my brain. That being said, I’m going to keep this short and sweet. This was a surprisingly good show, full of some bands you probably have never heard of (and at the time I had yet to hear). So here is what went down in the dingy basement of Dregg’s Grotto in Raleigh on September 18 of 2010.

The first band to play was OLD PAINLESS. Their first show ever was the night before, when they played in Greensboro at Legitimate Business and opened for Nails. Let me say, holy crap, what a second show! Rewind to a couple months ago. I’m friends with their drummer Rodney and we were eating at Chubby’s Tacos. He was telling me about the new band he just started with Josh Dobey, Rich Lombardi (from Cloacal Kiss and The Sawtooth Grin), and Alex Taylor (from Stripmines). He dropped the word grindcore on me and my heart sank a little bit. I’m a fervent lover of grindcore, but any time I’ve heard that genre referenced in NC, it just means watered down Discordance Axis style music to the point it is just sped up metalcore. This was definitely not the case. Very technical grindy parts, lots of of super fast blasts (Rodney is a world class drummer), and I really enjoyed Rich’s stage presence.

Thomasina Mancini from Buy The Steak (Photo by Will Butler)

After Old Painless, BUY THE STEAK took the stage (well, took the basement). I had just started to see these folks come out to shows so it was cool to see their band. Female-fronted thrash metal from Garner, North Carolina? Fun band. I remembered thinking their guitar player, Logan Holloway, looked like an old man in the hat he was wearing. Unfortunately, I think you can add this band to the list of short-lived, defunct bands from the area.

Rodney Finch from Thieves (photo By Will Butler)

Next was an awesome surprise set by THIEVES, who wasn’t slated to play this show. I’m pretty sure this only happened because my roommate kept chanting for them to play since all the guys happen to be at the show, so they borrowed equipment and played a raging quick set. Their bass player Ben loves to do quirky things at every show he plays… I remember him wearing a full ’80s workout getup, he wore a suit once, and I think he even wore a bear costume at one show. Since it wasn’t scripted, I think he decided to sit down in the corner and played bass while sitting Indian style against the wall to add to his repertoire. On to how they sounded: They sounded awesome. Super fast and thrashy hardcore. Rodney (yeah, the same one who drums for Old Painless, sings for Thieves) got up in my face a lot while I was taking pictures. Thieves was definite ON this night.

Matt Needles of Chest Pain (Photo by Will Butler)

Last to play was CHEST PAIN. All I knew beforehand is that they were a powerviolence band. That could mean a number of things to me… much like my thoughts on grindcore above, but I had high hopes because they are from Texas. I had corresponded with Matt from the band a few times but had somehow never heard them and couldn’t find any music online. I was very positively surprised with their style of visceral and blasting powerviolence. Any band who has a shirtless singer with a gauntlet on is good by me. I also remember the guitar player bending backwards so much that he looked like has about to snap his back and Matt ended up chomping his bass strings at the very end.

Quite a night for a show when I didn’t know what to expect.

Why let Will hog all the glory? If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com / with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a bona fide MRR web shitworker!

: Chest Pain (Photo by Will Butler)

: Alex Taylor of Old Painless (Photo by Will Butler)

: Buy The Steak (Photo by Will Butler)

: Chest Pain (Photo by Will Butler)

: Nick Troutman of Thieves (Photo by Will Butler)

: Chest Pain (Photo by Will Butler)

: Matt Neeldes of Chest Pain (Photo by Will Butler)

: Ben Mullet of Thieves (Photo by Will Butler)

: Chest Pain (Photo by Will Butler)

: Rodney Finch of Old Painless (Photo by Will Butler)

December 28th, 2010 by Will Butler
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Kakka-Hätä 77/Acid Reflux/Burma

21 12 2010

Hey! Welcome to the second installment of our new show review feature: Wow, what a show! This week is presented again by Will Butler of To Live A Lie Records / Fastcore Photos, but why let him hog all the glory? If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a bona fide MRR web shitworker! Now, back to Will…

Acid Reflux (photo by Will Butler)

The first cold snap hit hard in November, well as cold as it will get randomly around then in North Carolina. I got sick as hell for a few weeks and hardly went out around that time. One exception was a show on the 13th that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. I’ll admit to being lame and I was not actually familiar with the band from Finland. I had seen their name before because it is proudly displayed on the front of a MRR that lives in my bathroom. Anywho, I had managed to see Acid Reflux a town over about 3/4 of a year ago and was really excited about seeing them again. I really like bands with little to no Internet presence. So on to the actual show… It was a bit cold, so I was bundled up.

Kakka-Hätä 77 (photo by Will Butler)

KAKKA-HÄTÄ 77 played a solid set. Very clean and snotty punk. People were getting into it, and I was having fun and taking pictures with my ADHD-addled brain. Next up was ACID REFLUX. I talked to them after the show and found out that this was their last tour as a band! So this was my second and last time to see them play. Everyone raged extraordinarily hard for them and I was pretty surprised at the number of people who knew their lyrics and were shouting along. Ira, who booked the show and put it on at his house, was going insanely nuts the entire time and I couldn’t help but laugh at the faces he was making (see the upper-most picture). Sparklers were affixed to their guitar while playing for some reason, the band must have stopped through South of the Border. After Acid Reflux played, the place emptied out before the last band. Unfortunate, but I think the reason this happened was the fact that the last band was supposed to be a surprise band and all the out of town bands had already played.

So next and last up was BURMA. They are a group of younger kids who were X’ed up and seem to play a sort of hybrid Converge/Infest style. The mic got decimated during the Acid Reflux set so Matt just ran around stomping and screaming as loud as he could. He somehow punched his own face so hard he was bleeding at the end of their set. Drumming was on point. The night concluded with Acid Reflux running around shooting off fireworks and I think they all antiqued each other with face-fulls of confectionery sugar. All I was thinking at this point of the night was that I had to get out of here before I had to put up a rowdy band at my house, and that I actually had a really great night full of some varying styles of music. Distort Raleigh!

Burma (photo by Will Butler)

Acid Reflux (photo by Will Butler)

Even more photos from the show!
(click to enlarge)

: Kakka-Hätä 77 (photo by Will Butler)

: Burma (photo by Will Butler)

: Acid Reflux (photo by Will Butler)

: Burma (photo by Will Butler)

: Kakka-Hätä 77 (photo by Will Butler)

: Kakka-Hätä 77 (photo by Will Butler)

December 21st, 2010 by Will Butler
Comments : 1 Comment »
Categories : Photos, Show reviews

Wow, what a show! Corrosion of Conformity in Raleigh, 12/11/10

13 12 2010

Hello readers! Welcome to the first installment of a new regular feature here on maximumrocknroll.com. You may know Will Butler from his label/distro To Live A Lie out of Raleigh, NC, or you may have seen his awesome pics featured on our Monday Photo Blog a while back. Well, he (and hopefully others to come) will be treating us to show reviews and rad photos for your enjoyment and inspiration. If you take photos and like to write about punk shows (or if you and a friend wanna team up to do this) drop us a line at webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com with a sample review and pics, and maybe you too can be a bona fide MRR web shitworker! Now take it away, Will…

Double Negative (photo by Will Butler)

Double Negative, Devour, with surprise guests Corrosion of Conformity at Dregg’s Grotto, Raleigh, NC, 12/11/2010

So I’ve been initiated into the MRR website gang at the very right time as of now. I’ll tell you why… A secret show!

Kevin Collins of Double Negative
(photo by Will Butler)

Well, not really a secret show, but a secret band playing an all-ages house show. The show was billed as Double Negative and friends. I would draw this out and make it nice and mysterious but I’m pretty sure the reason you’re reading this is because their name is in the title of the post. Corrosion of Conformity was indeed slated to play a low-key house show with Double Negative and Devour. Holy shit. When I saw COC play two months ago at King’s it was packed, cost me $12, and everyone stood around while the band played on stage. Tonight had none of these expensive, drab, and impersonal elements.

I showed up at a time I thought was going to be a little late, half on purpose and half because my record label work is neverending (like the story… nah nah nah, nah nah nah, nah nah nah). I arrived right on time for DOUBLE NEGATIVE to be loading gear into the dank basement of Dregg’s Grotto, and in little time they were pounding out fast blasts left and right. There was one brand new song, I later found out is titled “Do the Writhe,” which was a slower jam that I liked a lot. They belted out about four other new songs, newer than the Daydreamnation LP. Good quality set, people were singing along to the older stuff. I thought Kevin was pouring Four Loko on himself at one point but then realized it was just water form a SIGG bottle. Overall solid set. Double Negative doesn’t have off nights.

Reed Mullin of Corrosion Of Conformity (photo by Will Butler)

Next was CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, playing second just in case cops came to the house. The band is now back to their Animosity-era three-piece lineup, which consists of Woody, Mike, and Reed. Their set is a little hazy in my brain since I was somehow simultaneously taking pictures, recording HD video with my fancy new cellphone, and recording audio. Unfortunately the audio didn’t record for unknown reasons. Things I did pick out: perpetual raging out, killer hair whips by Reed while drumming (which in turn whipped me when I moved from the front row to the back of the room), and dudes from Double Negative with huge smiles on their faces. Yes, they played “Technocracy.”

Woody Weatherman of Corrosion Of Conformity (photo by Will Butler)

After their set, since I was right behind their drummer I chatted with him for a second. I assume people who have been in bands forever… aren’t exactly jerks but are kind of weird when you compliment them. I patted him on the back and said they sounded great and that I had seen them previously. I was greeted with some fancy handshake work and kind words back. Later on I said a similar positive remark to their guitarist as his arms were full of equipment and he promptly stopped and was super excited as well. Another two notes here: (1) they played a free/donations suggested house show, and (2) they didn’t set up merch. So all this compounded on me thinking these guys are just… well, there isn’t a better word for this, but they are sweethearts. Sure, they didn’t have to drive too far, as they live in the conjoining areas, but none of the hype or 28 years of being a band has left these guys greedy or full of themselves.

Upon telling my friend Hank that I was probably going to write this up, he told me that any good show review includes quotes from the night. So this quote of the night is per Hank Williams (yes, that’s my friend’s real name!) quoting someone else at the show who said, “This show is like a colostomy bag of mayhem.”

Dave Yarwood of Devour (photo by Will Butler)

DEVOUR went on last. The place thinned out a bit, not in a bad way but in the perfect-amount-of-people type of way. I think they were having mic problems because at some point I realized I couldn’t hear any of Cody’s vocals. Mic issues seem to be a curse at Raleigh house shows. Another side note: the soundboard they were using said “Wiley PTA” on the side. Up till then it was sounding awesome… I hope we didn’t kill some poor school’s sound system. Devour held their own after following a crushing set from COC. Scathing, disjointed, dystopian psycho-blather. Notes of interest: Daniel did some cool delay-pedal guitar loops between songs, and Dave was wearing a really cute argyle half-turtle sweater.

Reed Mullin of Corrosion Of Conformity (photo by Will Butler)

I’ll leave you abruptly with this… This year has been a great year for music for me. As far as local house shows, this might take the cake for 2010. It is a good toss up between this and the Coke Bust show. It is 3 a.m. and I have 277 photos to edit through… goodnight!

Click here to see Will’s video of the COC set.
[And here are some more of his pics from the show — click to enlarge]