While waiting I went on a short walk on the trail next to my house to abate my feeling of constantly being confined to my cubicle or my room. I just HAD to be outside for a little bit.Upon returning to my house, however, I came across a semi-rotted cat skull that still had fur along the jawline. The fur was white and grey, the kind my missing cat Michael Jackson had. Something about the pattern of the colors told me these were the remains of a different cat, but that might just be hopeless wishful thinking. The signs point to the worst. Poor baby.
After munching down a pretty hefty piece of spinach and pepper pizza I told KP to come get me.When we arrived at the warehouse the first band, called Braineater, was already playing so we went inside. As I crossed the thin crowd the singer guy was imploring people to start moshing, which is a major pet peeve of mine, but the lead guitarist came back came back with some self-deprecating humor ("maybe we're just not very good") that evened things out. Braineater is yet another throwback death-thrash band like the many Riff Haus regulars in the SoCal scene right now. The whole band is pretty good at flipping their metalhead hair in circles like they were from the 80s; that should tell you all you need to know right there. The drummer was playing so fast at times that he seemed to fly off course, but the power with which he was hitting those things more than made up for it. They're fundamentally a speed/thrash metal band but they excel at incorporating death metal tinges in their songs, particularly slower rhythmic passages like Suffocation pioneered. In fact the highlight of their set was when they 'pretended to care about the bassist,' who did main vocals for a song that blended very adept blast beats and other black metal-esque elements into the mix. Partway through the set the main frontman put down his guitar and they did a pretty cool cover of "Police Truck" by the Dead Kennedys. Always cool to see bands cover something outside of their immediate genre. Unfortunately, the microphone kept cutting in and out during their set - a constant problem with the current P.A.at The Dial - and it was clear that the band was upset about that. Overall Braineater was a pretty dope band, especially for playing a style as beaten-to-death as thrash metal is.
After the set we went out to the front table area so KP could smoke. He's been trying to quit the habit using an e-cigarette, but he's still partaking in the real deal fairly often so I don't know how well that's going. The topic at the table was the relatively new Dial membership card system. Navis remarked that some people thought it was cool they get a Dial or Not Punk pin upon signing up, while others feel like, "this is a $2 pin." I can kinda see both sides.
Next band up was DVT, which is short for 'Devastation,' but I will never call them that out of deference for the classic German death metal band that has had that name for like 30 years. Like, how are you gonna name your band without doing a quick Google search to see if its taken? This isn't the damn 80s anymore when there could be 2 Agent Oranges and 2 Anthraxes playing different styles of music in different countries without knowing the other existed. Even if it was a relatively unknown or up-and-coming band who had the same name that would be a bit of a problem (fuck The Gravities from Minneapolis, I don't even need to hear a song from them to know that I hate that band...fucking 'ies' at the end of the name, that's fucking ridiculous, learn to spell you same-band-name-as-mine-but-spelled-differently bastards) but having the same name as a prominent, legendary band, that's just a straight-up faux pas.The kids in DVT have been in metal bands before and follow the current scene too, they should know better. Jus saying.
Beyond the name DVT is an okay band, although clearly confused as to what they want to be. Right out of the gate, they transitioned from a dub intro to a DRI-style fastcore song to an Unseen-style street punk song. Later in the set was a song that sounded nearly exactly like the song "All Fall Down" by Good Riddance (which vocalist Maui started off by fist-pumping and attempting to start an "OI!" chant - ugh) and a pop-punk/ska song without any trace of the grit they seem to be going for in the rest of their songs. Theoretically, all these style are all part of the same basic family and shouldn't clash too hard, but something about DVT's approach seems jumbled and almost insecure, like they can't decide who they are. The strongest song of their set was called "Cancerous," another fastcore song that the lead guitarist did screechy vocals for and which ended in a pretty convincing breakdown. They also threw in a capable S.O.D. cover at the end of their set which elicited a 3-person mosh. On the whole, DVT is alright when they're going for the fast/skate/Cali-core sound, but they fall back on anthemic street-punk vibes more often than not (the drummer had a goddamn Global Threat T-shirt on) and that's just not my bag.
Again I went outside and chatted with the table people in between sets. Navis was relating that he had dropped his phone directly into a glass of wine the night prior and was currently experiencing the problems associated with such a problem. I definitely understood the predicament, as I myself have gone through probably 30 phones in the last 5 years, at least 2 of which fell victim to my jubilant sprints into the Pacific Ocean during beach trips. Electronics are a bunch of bullshit anyway. If they're gonna be all weird when we go to the beach I guess they were never really my friends in the first place.
Moxiebeat was next up. I very much enjoy this band. A couple of the dudes, the main guitarist and the bassist at least, used to be in the band Dogs Of Ire, a Riverside-based hardcore band from the mid-2000s whom I discovered during my senior year in high school. I had written to Ethospine Records (which I believe they operate) at some point in 2005 requesting a catalog or a sampler CD or something, and in response they sent me the full-length gatefold CD release of Dogs Of Ire's album "Sterile Thoughts From The First World." At the time my experience with 'hardcore' music was pretty limited to 80s or 90s stuff, or the metal that people called hardcore in the early part of the 2000s, so the stuff on that DOI CD really threw me for a loop. I had heard Converge and Botch and stuff like that before so the concept of 'experimental hardcore' wasn't entirely new to me, but their stuff was so much more cerebral than other stuff I had heard to that point.
It's been 8 years since then and Moxiebeat embodies much of what I had loved about DOI.The first time I streamed their track "Art of the City," I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was reminding me of but it was something specific, and then when I learned the DOI connection it all came together. The very unique style of art-core that band played has carried over to Moxiebeat, if maybe a bit more amplified in a very literal sense. Moxiebeat is fucking LOUD. I had never worn earplugs at The Dial before (probably should have when Whirr and Nothing played) but I opted for them on this occasion. Both guitarists and the bassist do vocals that crash in and out of each other at seemingly unpredictable intervals, adding to a sense of paranoia but not necessarily incongruity. There are 'atmospheric' guitar elements strewn throughout the songs as well as in the between-song interludes, but its not distracting or overwhelming. There's not an overriding focus put on the pedalwork, instead the flourishes become meaningful additions to the song. Also refreshing is the prominence of the bass guitar in the mix and the interesting things being done in that realm; many bands, heavier bands in particular, don't make a very clear distinction between "bass parts" and "guitar parts played on the bass" but Moxiebeat utilizes the instrument as an entity of its own. (Random tidbit: For whatever reason the bass guy has his microphone set up at like, chest-level, so he crouches down to scream. It's kinda funny-looking.) Overall this is a very good, unique-sounding band that I imagine are effortlessly capturing what many other contemporary bands are aiming for and not quite achieving.
When their set ended I went to the warehouse lobby and looked through a little distro box of vinyl records that was on the merch table. KP came up and looked at stuff as well, coming across a 7" by some band called Retard Strength that had an image of Mike Tyson yelling over his fallen opponent. That gave us both a good laugh. I also came across a split 7" featuring the band Los Sobrios Emputados, a Los Crudos-type Mexican-pride punk-core band whose demo CD I got in the mail years ago and never heard of again. The dude sitting next to the merch table, who turned out to be the vocalist for Death Crisis, remarked that they had recently toured with them or something, and I just thought it was cool that they had done stuff past that initial demo. Some bands never do.
Bridgejumper was the next band, a heavy hardcore band with chalky, chuggy full chords and lots of stoner/sludge-style repetition. They have a female vocalist, which was not immediately obvious when I listened to their EP beforehand. They were pretty cool but didn't really do much for me, featuring nary a fast part and relying far too heavily on riffs that are cool the first 4 times but aren't nearly as dope when repeated for 12 measures. The final song in their very short set started with a pensive From Ashes Rise-style intro part that went way too long. Their ride cymbal sounded like a hi-hat.
There was a group of 4 or 5 bro-core looking dudes who came inside only for Bridgejumper, looking like they were about to start moshing, but they never moshed. I think they left before Bridgejumper's short-ass set was even finished. It's like, whats the point in even coming out to the show? Similarly, most if not all of the thrash kids from the first two bands and their crews had left by the end of Bridgejumper. It's a bit disappointing when the 'local support' leaves well before the out-of-town headlining bands have even played, taking all their friends with them, especially when there are constantly cries about the local scene sucking or whatever. Like, don't bitch about people not coming out to your shows when you yourself don't stick around to watch the groups you play with. It's karma.
After the show was over KP and I helped coil up the cords and cables and I went and bought that Retard Strength 7" from Death Crisis's distro. I don't know why I felt so compelled to give them $2 for a 7" of some band I had never heard before when I don't even own a record player of my own anymore, but I was fucking sold on that album art. We listened to it a few days later and it turned out that it was a split 7"; Retard Strength was on one side and the other side was CFL, which stands for Concrete Facelift. Those bands have way cooler names than songs, I'll just leave it at that.
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ReplyDeleteYou should interview DVT, you'd be surprised :O
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