Friday, June 7, 2013

"Creature Feature" Tour at the Oakland Metro, 6.01.2013

The Part in Which the (wall)flowers Arrive on the Scene

The "Creature Feature" Tour caused the (wall)flowers some upset. Moxie saw the words "Creature Feature" and was excited by the prospect of seeing the band of the same name. When we arrived at the venue, and learned otherwise, Moxie was a bit irritated, though determined to keep on pluggin' and enjoy the evening.
We had arrived late, due to the fact that Rory wasn't feeling 100% healthy, and the fact that the show started at 4pm, which our (wall)flowers decided was way too damn early. So, we missed the first few bands. (Note here that Kinnefret was passing out CD's when we arrived, so we will be doing a future review of the disc.)

Your ersatz author for this post, Rory, was pretty excited about the show, having had no previous expectations except "YEAH, METAL! \m/" So she felt it was a pretty good show.

Desecrater was the first band to play upon our arrival. They hail from San Jose, Rory's home town, so that was a big excitement. According to their MySpace page, Desecrater "will cause bones to break in the pits. Chaos will rise among those who hear the heavy sound that Desecrater will bring to all the metal heads that exist." This was found to be accurate, as the excited crowd moshed and ran in circles, as people in mosh pits are wont to do. A good time was had.

Next up, was Arsa. Rory loved the look of these guys. Being a sort-of fan of folk metal, she also liked their sound.Rory has a thing for tall, blondes with long hair. (Note to bassist: don't read too much into this.) Rory found them exciting to listen to, and fun to photograph. However, she is having a difficult time finding content to aggregate, so watch this space.
Cultural Warfare was pretty rad, and whipped the crowd into a right frenzy. Their music is unique and is, in their own words, "based on the concept of not being classified, labeled or categorized in any sub genre of the METAL scene."

It was around this time, bewtween bands, that Moxie and Rory both noticed some loud music-type noise coming from the larger area of the Metro. "What is this new curiosity?" queried our puzzled heroines. So we decided to investigate. We beheld an unusual scene, further described by Moxie, who witnessed the event to it's finale. Rory decided that she came to a metal show, and she'd be good goddamned if she wasn't going to be at a metal show. Besides, she figured that the headliner, Dreamshade, had come all the way from Europe, after all.
Thus, our champanions parted ways for the remainder of the evening.

The Part in Which Rory Finds Herself Alone

So, on my own, and with a substantially diminished crowd, I witnessed the next band, Enemy in Peril. I hoped that they wouldn't let the smaller audience deter them, and they didn't. They delivered their performance well, and seemed to have a good time, as did the remainder of the assemblage.


Then came Zombie Holocaust, a band which I am almost certain I have seen before. The band puts me in mind of Metalhead Hippies... peace, love, and metal. I'm pretty down with that. Lead singer, Ridiculous Nicholas Gomez, has a great energy and charisma. And, now that I think of it, I actually do recall seeing them previously, and remarking on the band's charismatic performance.


They somehow caused this to happen.



At long last,  Dreamshade, the metal band from Switerland, came upon the stage. They took a long time to set up and sound-check. It occured to me that perhaps Europeans have a different standard for time.
At any rate, I was still feeling really bad about the small crowd, but the band performed their brand of melodic death metal (of which I greatly approve,) and the spectators went absolutely nuts over them. Charismatic, lively, skilled musicians. Their performance had plenty of zazz. “Frighteningly Awesome Metal," is an apt description for this band. They definitely have a new fan in me, and probably quite a few others.

The Part in Which We Conclude
So that was how it went down in the smaller room at the Oakland Metro.
Stay tuned to read about Moxie's adventure.












there are more photos here.


Thursday, May 30, 2013

Decibel Magazine Tour, 5.17.2013, Oakland Metro

The Decibel Magazine Tour, sponsored by such names as Nuclear Blast and Metal Blade Records, was AMAZEBALLS. 

Although we missed the beginning of the opening band, Early Graves' set, we managed to get a good view of their amazing performance and to get some impressive shots. 

The second band, Cretin, put on a wonderful show as well, featuring a rare pair of death-metal performing front-women. 

Immolation was great, with, as Decibel Magazine puts it, "some of the darkest and most adventurous death metal the scene has ever heard." 

But the true chaos began with Napalm Death. Rory, our esteemed photographer, was slammed right up against the stage, where she stayed for the duration of the evening. 



The crowd were certainly an excitable bunch, and it became even more violent when Cannibal Corpse took to the stage. It was such a rush, it felt a bit like being a photojournalist in the trenches. Rory kept getting pushed around from the back and the sides (some tiny young woman with long hair was headbanging next to her, hair flying everywhere) so getting the pictures was difficult. In our humble opinions, this was a not-to-be-missed show!

see the entire photo album!