To start off, Cris had gotten home from tour with his other band
Face of Ruin at about 4 am. I had been baby sitting his dog for the past couple of weeks, so I packed up my best bud Max (my dog) and Cris's spaz-oid german shepherd Doc into my little car and left for Milwaukee at 8 am! I knew I was in for a weekend of heavy, sludgy, doomy-doom-doom, so I kept the tunes on the drive pretty light. Well, I dunno, I guess they weren't "light" per say, but I pointedly didn't listen to most of the bands I was going to see at the fest. The ones I hadn't heard of organically anyway. I figured it would be way more fun to see and hear all these sick bands for the first time live.
(driving tunes: Ancestors-In Dreams and Time, Thrice, Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction, The Armed - Young and Beautiful, Battlefields - Agassiz, and a little Old Crow Medicine Show for good measure)
Just to get all this out of the way now, EVERYONE at the fest was amazing. Every single person I met ( except for 1 moron with a flip cam and way to much beer money) as insanely cool. From the crust punks, to the hippies, from the bar staff to the event staff, etc etc. Everyone was cool as hell. The environment was insanely open, there were no opposing security guards or dick-head cops across every corner, it was a great time in the company of great people. Now for the goods, although,
don't expect anything scathing, literally every band I saw was fucking awesome.
Day 1. Saturday April 28
Darger+Plague Mother
these guys were a perfect fit for opening this show. Gentle, slow building waves of sound. It felt very calming to watch, and really seemed to put everyone in a relaxed, open-minded mood.
Arms Aloft
These dudes came out blazing. It was quite poppy, but it was fun, and punk, and while this isn't my style, I enjoyed their set.
Aseethe
I love this band. It's my second time seeing them, and I'm bias, as their bass player Drew is Cris's twin. But seriously, this 3 piece makes rafters rumble. Heavy isn't really a good way to put it. I think I'd say IMENSE. They paint such thick layers of distortion and delay, etc etc. Their records rule, but live is where these guys really make you feel what they are doing. Plus, their art, the hand-screen vinyl, ugh, so inspiring to see a group be so creative with their output on all fronts.
Protestant
Get Rad
Unfortunately I had to make a trip back to the hotel during Protestant and Get Rad to let my dog do the deeds, but I was told both bands ripped.
Hell
These guys crushed. I came in about 1/2 way through their set I beleive. Super heavy, incredibly dark, just what a band called HELL should sound like. Plus, their latest vinyl release is one of the coolest 12 inches I have ever seen. Check out
Gilead Media's store.
Fell Voices
OH FUCK. This band smoothed out my brain. Think about black metal that is so fast, and so hypnotically unchanging, that you forget that you've been listening to the same riff for 7 minutes. These guys do that to you. That, and their drummer, who is already blasting 300bpm for 15 minutes on end, is the vocalist. Mic? Who needs a Mic?! This guy just fucking screamed over the entire band. SO GOOD.
Ash Borer
Ashborer was also completely insane. They roared through the most vicious and hypnotic black metal I have ever bore witness to in the live setting. Their sound was a caccoon of horror, in the best way possible.
Loss
Normally, I'm not a huge fan of funeral paced doom of this sort. Not live anyway, I tend to enjoy it more in the van on a long stretch of highway I guess. Either way, Loss was actually pretty fun to watch live. Despite some technical issues, they sounded pretty awesome (although I was all the way up front and directly in front of a 4x12). Loss provided the wind-down to the collective attendees after the previous 2 hours of pummeling hypno-black metal. haha
This website will now return to a semi-active/fully active status. We have a ton of stuff going on, which is why we have been basically silent for a month. So here's an update.
