Thursday February 17th saw the likes of the illustrious Eyehategod come to the Sonar in Baltimore. And what an epic show it was! Supported by fellow doomsters Cough and a slew of local grind acts, the sludge-masters themselves tore up Baltimore that night.
---
First up were Cough, a super-slow stoner-doom outfit from Virginia. Though a bit out of place, Cough really set the mood with a grimy, lurching performance. The members all looked super-baked (as evidenced by the heavy odor of quality marijuana lingering by the stage) and the bassist's furious scream had my buddy Adam shaking in his Valentine's long-johns (or maybe it was the creepy guy in the Testament shirt who followed us around). Bottom line, Cough were fucking heavy, and their finale, a performance of "Ritual Abuse" off of the 2010 album of the same name, was absolutely devastating.
---
Next came Surroundings, a local hardcore / powerviolence act that opened a can of whoop-ass on an otherwise unsuspecting audience. (After a set of Cough, who wouldn't be out of it?) Their punk-ass fury really got the momentum going for the aural violence that was about to be unleashed further in the show. Not to mention their vocalist seemed to change his shirt every time we saw him that night.
---
Strong Intention are another local act, but these guys -- now featuring the bassist from Cattle Decapitation -- are of the face-ripping brutal grindcore ilk. The fat guy especially rocks hard on his axe and with his throat; we even got him to take of his shirt and wave around his floppy man-titties.
After the band goaded the audience repeatedly, I and the crew who I was rocking out with manned up leapt up on stage and made our own personal moshpit with the badass musicians gracing our ears in malevolence at the end of their set. We all got free shirts because of it too!
---
Then came Magrudergrind. Holy shit, what a spectacular performance. All the members were as psyched to play as we were too see them. The energy of their rampage was like being jolted by 100,000 volts over and over. Can you say best moshpit ever? I got kicked in the fucking head by a guy crowd-surfing! So good. I just wish they would've played "Bridge Burner"!
Behold the madness!
---
I've never been too big on Misery Index, but they're good. Their performance had the audience going wild -- there was even some ass hardcore dancing! Damnably visceral death metal it was.
---
And then, finally, the legends themselves! Eyehategod!
Is it me, or did they all look like they had just gotten out of rehab? Mike Williams looked as burned out as ever and I swear every member was mad high. (And we all thought Cough reeked of pot. Ha!)
Eyehategod did their thing, playing their old-school tunes without missing a beat. Opening with a flawless rendition of "Blank", these Southern drug fiends thrashed pretty hard for a sludge band. After begging for "Sister Fucker" for 15 minutes, we finally got our wish and I just went nuts (that song is my jam, yo). They were fantastically vile and brutal in that drunken, angsty way only a mad Cajun could manage. Again, the energy was amazing and it was really something memorable to have seen these guys tear up my home town.
---
The next few days were wrought with immense soreness, but nothing a little purp could't fix.
And the concert only cost me 20 bucks, for 6 bands!
No comments:
Post a Comment