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Battlecross, 03/02/14, Bogart's, Cincinnati, OH

3/3/2014

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Last night I braved the invisible 9" of snow and made my way to Bogart's for the venue's first decent metal show in recent memory. Unfortunately, only 35 minutes of the show was devoted to metal. Battlecross, the thrash quintet from Detroit, made the most of those 35 minutes, though. After three unbelievably awful opening acts, I was ready to get my face melted and I'm happy to report that today I no longer have a face and my neck is shredded beyond its limits.

I've been following Battlecross for over a year now, ever since I saw them open for In Flames last February. They now have two solid melodeath/thrash albums under their belts, but the live show is where these guys truly stand out. Battlecross is a group of old-school road dogs and it seems like they are out on tour more often they are not. They just wrapped up their first European tour last week and now they're back on the road in the States for a solid 3 months. I'm guessing that the grueling touring cycle allows for these guys to continue to operate on stage as a well-oiled machine.

Culling mostly from their most recent offering, War of Will, the Detroit thrashers dug into the trenches and delivered an absolute monster performance. Duel lead axemen Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala shredded their faces off and kept the windmill hair going on for most of the set, which is always fun. The two are at their absolute best when they lock in on a melodic interlude. I'm honestly not sure who's even drumming for Battlecross these days, but he held his own, pumping out insanely fast double bass beats throughout. Frontman Gumby Gunther has learned how to own the stage and he's become one of the most powerful voices in modern thrash metal. I don't know how he coaxes those low roars out of his impossibly thin frame. Don Slater is one of the most ridiculous bass players out there right now, and his stellar album work is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his ferocious attack. The bass wasn't very high up in the mix, but just by watching Slater, you get the point. He's non-stop and I have no idea how he manages to hit all the notes with his wild playing. He's an absolute force of nature, and worth the price of admission alone.

Unfortunately, Battlecross was not the headliner and this was not even a metal show. Their set was cut to an unconscionable 35 minutes, closing out with "Push, Pull, Destroy", the breakthrough hit from their first Metal Blade release, Pursuit of Honor. I'm not sure how Battlecross ended up on a tour full of weak emo bands, but they absolutely owned the stage and I hope they'll be back on a better tour and with a longer set sooner than later. Only about a third of the already sparse crowd was there specifically to see Battlecross, but they were the vocal majority when the band was on stage and I think that speaks for the thirst for live metal in the Tri-State area. I know I'm ready for more. Let's make it happen.

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Dead Meadow & Electric Citizen, 2/21/14, Northside Tavern

2/22/2014

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How does Cincinnati's buzziest rock band celebrate a new record deal?  By blowing a national touring act off of the stage. That's how.

Fresh off of their announced record deal with LA's EasyRider Records, Cincinnati's Electric Citizen took the stage last night at Northside Tavern, opening for stoner/psych underground legends, Dead Meadow. Based on crowd reactions, there was no question who the near capacity crowd turned out to see.
Taking the stage just before 11:00, Electric Citizen played a solid 40+ minute set, blasting out doomy, witchy tracks from their upcoming debut album one after another, with very little banter in between. I've seen Electric Citizen live a handful of times and I have to admit that I was never really impressed before last night. Maybe they were always the victims of poor sound or maybe they just hadn't solidified their set yet, but they always came off to me as Joe Schmoe Rock Band. Not last night.


The guitar and bass tones were as heavy as I have ever heard from these guys. They've finally got that 70's doom sound down pat. I was very impressed with the bevy of Sabbathian riffs bursting out of the Orange amps. In addition, frontwoman Laura Dolan seems to be gaining more confidence and stage presence with every show. I've never listened to any recordings from these guys, but I recognized nearly everything they played last night, just from seeing them live a few times. Their stuff is just that catchy. I'm looking forward to watching this band grow.


After a bogus 30-40 minute break, the night's headliners, Dead Meadow, finally took the stage. The LA psych-rockers sounded great, other than a few unbearable volume swells. Unfortunately, good sound only goes far. I'm not familiar enough with Dead Meadow's catalog to know whether they were playing new stuff, old stuff, deep cuts, or whatever. What I do know is that they were more interested in jamming for their own entertainment than in entertaining the crowd. The crowd that was once as thick as the dope smoke filling the Tavern's back room began to filter out 15 minutes into Dead Meadow's set. If you're going to try to pull off some extended jams, you'd better be melting my face or crushing my skull, not just aimlessly widdling. Even when the jams stopped and Dead Meadow tried to pull off something resembling a song, the vocals were just too effete and indie-like for my taste. I seriously almost fell asleep standing up. I had to bail after 45 minutes to ensure that I didn't fall asleep at the wheel on my way home. I had to resort to listening to crappy black metal on the commute just to get my heart rate above 15 beats per minute.


One other minor qualm: I don't want to complain too much about a free show, but would it kill Northside Tavern to book another band or two for these shows so they can get started around 9:00 and keep things moving? 30-40 minute breaks between bands is absolutely ridiculous on a local level.


It was awesome to see Electric Citizen take the next step and put on a dominating performance. Congratulations again to those guys on their new deal. Hopefully the next time they play with another psych band here in town, they can headline and we can get the boring shit out of the way first.


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Three Bands, Three Venues, One Night...Not Happening.

2/10/2014

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After two weekends without a noteworthy local show, the Tri-State area was presented with a smorgasbord of concerts this past Saturday night. Siren topped the list of 5 metal bands playing at Backstage Café in Covington; Moonbow was playing the V-Twin after party at Mainstay Rock Bar downtown; Electric Citizen was bringing their brand of psych-rock to the stage at The Comet. Being an ambitious fake journalist, I attempted to catch at least one band at all three shows. I failed miserably.

On top of all of the live music Saturday night, I was also hellbent on watching the UC/SMU game at 7:30. I knew from previous visits that Backstage Café had TVs and I figured that Mainstay and The Comet would be way too hip to show something as pedestrian as college hoops, if they even had TVs to begin with. Thus, my night began at Backstage Café.

One of my favorite things about Backstage is the lack of ear-splitting volume during live performances. Whether this is due to insufficient equipment or a merciful sound guy is up for debate, but it's nice to be able to watch a game and listen to heavy metal bands at the same time without being deaf for the next 3 days. However, it would be nice if those heavy metal bands were worth listening to. Now, I'm not going to slam bands by name on here. This blog is about celebrating heavy metal in all its glory. If you are curious about unnamed bands, you can find the relevant info for yourself.

That being said, the evening's opener was by far the worst band I've ever seen live. I can say that with authority because I am an expert on shitty bands. My old band None the Wiser was the shittiest band in the history of Cincinnati, so I know these things. These guys made None the Wiser look like The Beatles, or at least Loverboy. 40 minutes of halting, rappy, industrial metal straight out of 1997...absolutely horrifying. Isn't it too soon to start a wave of retro late-90's bands? I hope so.

The second band of the evening was a decent thrash outfit but I don't think the singer's microphone was ever turned on, which is a shame. Those guys deserved better. They sounded pretty good, from what I was able to hear. For those of you unfamiliar with Backstage, the sound guy kind of stands behind a wall and peeks out at the bands from time to time. Maybe he was unaware that the band even had a singer. Or maybe the $250 sound system just couldn't keep up. I'm not sure what was going on, but it would've been nice if the sound issues happened during the first band's set.

By this point, UC had finished up getting destroyed by SMU and I noticed that Siren, the only band on the bill that I wanted to see, was not loading gear on stage for the next set. I decided to make a quick trip across the river to check out the happenings at Mainstay Rock Bar. For some reason I assumed that Moonbow would be headlining the show at Mainstay, but I walked in at 10:00 to find them mid-set. After watching 4 or 5 songs, not to mention 10 minutes' worth of the singer lauding the band members' personal achievements, I was bored to tears and decided to head back to Covington for the Siren set at Backstage.

I arrived back at Backstage just in time to catch Siren in the midst of their opener. I'm not sure how these guys landed on a bill with so much sub-par metal. I was not familiar with Siren's sound prior to the show, but I can only describe it as epic Power Metal with death and doom influences, so they pretty much nail all of the best aspects of heavy metal in one shot. I really enjoyed the Matt Barlow-esque vocals on top of the monstrous riffs that the band kept churning out. The drumming was fantastic. I'm not a drummer, so I don't know if the guy was technically sound, but I never notice drummers and I noticed this guy. Unfortunately, some of the guitar solos were lost to the poor sound. It wasn't a flawless performance, by any means. It seems like Siren is still putting everything together, but I think they're definitely a band worth keeping tabs on. I'm not aware of any other bands playing pure heavy metal like that in the area. We have enough bad death metal in town, so this was a nice change of pace. Also, they had very nice, professional banners on stage, so I assume they're in it for the long haul and not just a side project.

The next band up had those giant rings that stretch one's earlobes into cartoonish proportions. I wasn't aware that this was still going on in 2014. Maybe they used the same time machine as the first band. Also, they were under the mistaken belief that they were in Cincinnati, not Covington, so I had to bail in the middle of the first song. If you have two singers in your band who don't play an instrument, you're doing something wrong.

I couldn't get ahold of anyone that knew what was going on at The Comet, so that was enough for me for one evening. I wasn't going to drive up there just to find out that Electric Citizen had already played. I had already witnessed enough mediocrity and bad basketball for one night. Besides, EC  has another show coming up this month, so I'll catch them then. Plus, I'm old and midnight is pretty rough these days.

The moral of the story is that I need to start coordinating my live music schedule better instead of saving up three weeks worth of shows for one evening. As always, I'm happy to post show dates and/or reviews for anyone who tips me off to something going on locally. My calendar is looking pretty sparse for the rest of the month. - JO

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