Don't follow the shadows

A couple weeks ago, I saw Overkill, Vader, God Dethroned, Warbringer, Evile, and Woe of Tyrants at The Rave. Since I’ve already reviewed half of these bands, I’ll try to keep this post fairly short and sweet. This was my first show in the basement, so I had no idea what to expect. It turns out that it’s very similar to the bar, but much larger, and the stage is higher up and has an annoying gate in front of it. It certainly didn’t stop the stagedivers during Warbringer, though! ;) Unfortunately, security was checking bags, so I didn’t want to risk taking any photos. I should really try to get photo passes for shows, but John from Warbringer was in front of me at the box office trying to get one for his friend, and they wouldn’t even let him have one. I should probably start an actual music review website with more professional reviews, so maybe I’ll have a good enough excuse to obtain one.

I hate to start this out on a bad note, but I wasn’t feeling Woe of Tyrants at all, and neither was the rest of the crowd. “Thrashcore” would probably be the term to best describe their sound, and I pray this is not the start of a new “core” trend. The band itself wasn’t too bad, except for some stupid crabcore moves, but I couldn’t stand their ultra-scene frontman. He had good stage presence and seemed like a nice guy, but I’m not about to show any mercy for all this shitty hardcore-fused pseudo-metal that keeps getting thrown in with actual metal bands. It needs to stop. I don’t listen to hardcore, metalcore, deathcore, or any other “core” that might be out there, so I’m can’t really comment any further on this band.

I saw Evile last month with Kreator, and they were just as entertaining and funny this time around. I actually liked their set list better this time because they played a more diverse variety of songs. The band was hanging out by the merch tables again after their set, but Elizabeth, Sam, and John had just arrived toward the end of Evile’s performance, so I decided to hang out with them instead. :p

Next was the band I specifically came to see: Warbringer! I can’t get enough of these guys! John, their vocalist, came out wearing a cheesehead that didn’t stay on for long as the band launched into “Living in a Whirlwind”. They played most of the other crowd favorites including: “Severed Reality”, “Prey for Death”, “Total War”, and finished their set with “Combat Shock”.

I’m not really a big fan of God Dethroned, and I’m still not after seeing them live. They’re pretty boring, but they had kind of a classic blackened death metal sound that was at least listenable. They also played for a really long time, and I have no idea why. I don’t even remember much from the second half of their set because while they were onstage, some middle-aged white trash guy who looks like a clone of Kid Rock decided to drunkenly fall over in front of me and burned my hand with his lit cigarette on his way down. The pain was so bad that it knocked the wind out of me and made my eyes water instantly. I’ve burned my arm on a 400-degree oven before, but this felt so much different and hurt much worse. At first I thought he had a knife and stabbed me, so I shoved him off of me immediately. My friends were freaking out because they thought I was going to catch on fire from all the embers from the cigarette that fell on me, but luckily I was wearing leather from head to toe, so I was okay. My hand didn’t fare so well, and it’s still healing as I type this. I had a pea-sized blister between my index and middle finger on my writing hand and couldn’t draw for a couple days, but the swelling went away fairly quickly and it scabbed over. I have a bad feeling it’s going to leave a scar, but that’s life. I just hope that guy didn’t drive home that night because he was really messed up. He also had the nerve to come back by me after the incident with a few more beers in hand. Ugh! He probably didn’t even realize what happened. Shortly after that, I saw some younger guys helping one of their friends out of the crowd who looked like he was having a hallucination. I really don’t understand people who abuse drugs, let alone use them in public. I’ll just be glad when the smoking ban goes into effect in July and I won’t have to worry about getting burned again at a show. Not smelling like death after the show and having watery eyes and a sore throat will be nice as well.

Vader was up next, and it felt like it took forever for them to set up. Once they finally started playing, it seemed like they only played a few songs in about fifteen minutes and then walked offstage. Everyone was chanting for them to come back out, but the lights went up and the crew started setting up for Overkill. This was the same day the Polish president and other Polish government officials were killed in the Russian plane crash, so I thought maybe they were upset about the whole ordeal. I was told at the Finntroll show last week Thursday from another fan that they had to cut their set short due to technical/equipment problems and that the band went up to the ballroom to watch HIM. Whatever the reason, I was really disappointed that they didn’t play much, since they were one of the main reasons my friends and I were at the show.

Overkill was phenomenal! They played for at least two hours, and didn’t show any signs of slowing down toward the end. They actually riled up the crowd more, closing their set with “Fuck You” after a great call and response chant back and forth with the crowd and advising us not to eat any of the emo kids after the show because they’ll give you diarrhea. XD Those poor HIM fans were completely terrorized by all the trasher dudes before and after the show! Anyway, Overkill’s light show was also absolutely brilliant! It included plenty of their signature bright yellow-green and some cool lightning effects. The strobe light had some great effects on the crowd, where most of the people in attendance were going nuts in the circle pit. Despite the annoying people in the crowd (especially all the bald, goateed middle-aged men who kept hitting on me), it was a great thrash metal show and a fun time hanging out with friends. Warbringer wasn’t so lucky because some asshole stole John Laux’s backpack that had pretty much everything he needed on tour in it.

Speaking of assholes, Terrence was there, but he avoided us because he’s mad I never got back to him about those Diamanda Galas albums and he defriended me on Facebook. I just hope I’m not on his hitlist or anything because Samer swears that he’s the kind of guy to go on a killing spree. All I can really do is try to stay out of his way and hopefully he’ll get past the whole thing because he was the one who approached me in the first place. I wasn’t so lucky in avoiding that guy from high school, but once my friends showed up, he left me alone. He wasn’t as annoying as last time before the show because he was with a bigger group of friends, and some of those guys had more in common with me, so I mainly talked to them.

After the show, Sam and Beth offered to drive John and I home so we all could go out to eat at one of their favorite cafes, even though it’s two hours round trip to my house from Milwaukee. Sam even paid for all our food! Each of us ended up with a delicious falafel pita and Turkish tea from Mona’s Turkish Shawerma House on the east side. It was the first time I’ve been there, but it definitely won’t be the last! The food is very tasty and also very cheap.

Photos of Overkill and God Dethroned are here. (I know…no Vader. :/ WTF?) Since my tattoo will be finished soon, I’m going to start saving up for that digital 35mm I’ve been talking about getting for years, and then I’ll see about getting a photo pass.