This Sunday, April 1st (no joke!) a local black metal band, Fuchida, will be performing live for the first time at the Black Cat of all places. The venue is mostly known for appealing to the indie rock and alternative scene and I’m hoping there is a good turn out for this show so maybe they’ll consider hosting more extreme metal bands. You might be thinking that there are already places for local metal bands to play live in this area but how many of them aren’t pay-to-play? This is a local metal act headlining a show at an area venue that doesn’t make them sell tickets or sign a contract that involves them giving the venue money. We should be supporting that, even if we don’t know what the band sounds like yet.

The following Sunday, April 8th, there is another venue in Washington DC that will be hosting a metal show that doesn’t usually have them. The U Street Music Hall is normally home to dance and techno music (sort of filling the void left when Nation closed). They’re hosting their first metal show on this Sunday night, the old school UK thrashers Onslaught and a band you may not recognize by name, Mpire Of Evil, that features two ex-members of the legendary Venom. Not only that but they even play some Venom songs in their set list (details of their first show on this US tour here). The venue is said to have a great sound system (you just know those electronica DJ guys are good at setting up speakers) and it isn’t very often you get to see 80s thrash metal in a club with a great sound system set up. And really, when are you going to get to hear live Venom classics sound better than this? One of the venue’s owners even posted to Twitter (here) that he’d like to see more metal shows at the U Street Music Hall so I hope a good amount of you come out to show it is worth it! To make this all even sweeter, DCHeavyMetal.com will be giving away a pair of tickets to this show next week, so keep an eye out for that.

Another thing I’d like to mention is that this month, March 2012, has been DCHeavyMetal.com’s best month ever in regards to total hits. You people who read this site, even if it’s just for the calendar, who spread the word to your friends, passed along the link of Facebook and Twitter, or even just stumbled upon it with Google, have made it worth all the work and time it takes me to run it. I don’t really make any money doing this (I do sell a few shirts here and there) and I refuse to put any paid ads on the site so if you’d like to donate a few bucks to the site you can send money via Paypal to the email address: DCHeavyMetal@Gmail.com Any donation is appreciated of course and will be put towards either making the site better or paying my way to get into more metal shows. Now, on to the photos…

I saw Jucifer back on Friday the 20th of January 2012 at the Black Cat and as always they put on a great show. This husband and wife duo truely live the lifestyle as they tour the country in their RV bringing their brand of sludge metal from city to city 12 months a year. And if you couldn’t tell from the mountain of speakers in this photo, they take the wall of sound thing quite literally. Be sure to see them next time they come through the area and bring ear plugs!

The next night, Saturday the 21st of January was a big night for Northern Virginia’s metal scene. One of the area’s biggest bands, King Giant, was having their CD release show for their sophomore album, Dismal Hollow. On top of that, this was the grand re-opening show for Empire, the new name of the venue formerly known as Jaxx. Not my best night of shooting photos but I mean, with a line up of Auroboros, The Crimson Electric, Borracho and King Giant, it would have just been wrong for me to not be drinking beer and whiskey all night. I shot a couple videos that night including the one below of King Giant playing Pistols And Penance off of the album. I also added a photo below showing some of the interior changes they have made at the venue if you haven’t seen them yet.

Tuesday the 7th of February found me at the Black Cat again, this time to see southern sludge metal band Hail!Hornet play on the back stage. There was a showing of the film Slow Southern Steel at the beginning of the show, a movie about heavy metal in the American south, but I missed that. The Atlanta, Georgia based psychedelic sludge band Zoroaster played after they did with a really trippy light show, and finally Hail!Hornet took the stage and killed it. They’re a band featuring members of Buzzov•en, Alabama Thunderpussy and Sourvein so you knew they were going to bring some great filthy sludge metal and they didn’t disappoint.

Now I’ve got to skip a few bands because I simply haven’t gotten to sorting all of their photos yet. The above image is of Dorthea Cottrell of the Richmond based doom band Windhand when they played at St. Stephen’s Church in Columbia Heights on Saturday, March 3rd. I won’t write much about that show here because I did a review of it covering all four bands who played it here.

On Tuesday March 13th I found myself at the 9:30 Club to see California thrash act Warbringer and Floridian power metal band Iced Earth. I had been given a photo pass for that show, though for some reason it was only valid for Warbringer’s set. To add to my frustration I was feeling sick and while it was cool too see Warbringer play on a bigger stage, I just wasn’t up for Iced Earth by the time they played. When Iced Earth’s new singer, Stu Block of Into Eternity fame, started making juvenile sexist comments about giving the shocker to the women in the audience I decided I’d had enough and took my infected self home.

I’m skipping over talking about an excellent Dysrhythmia show I saw in Baltimore here but I wanted to mention last night’s Alcest show at DC9. They put on a excellent performance of a set list made up of mostly their new album’s material. It did go on a bit long I thought, but it was still a pretty great experience. The lighting was pretty dim though making it hard to take photos, and the fog machine was jacked up the entire show making it even harder to get any great shots. Because of this I decided to make some animated gif images from some of my series of shots. I did see Alcest open for Enslaved in September last year so you can see some higher quality images of the band I shot by clicking the gif if you’d like.

Well, that’s all for now, thanks for reading DCHeavyMetal.com and if you’d like more updates on things like when local bands are making announcements or area venues and media have things to say about metal be sure to check out DCHM on Facebook and Twitter (your choice, I post most things to both). Keep it metal everyone and remember, support the scene you’re a part of!

Because giving away tickets to see Rammstein and Iron Maiden/Alice Cooper this week just wasn’t enough DCHeavyMetal.com is giving away a pair of tickets to see Iced Earth and Warbringer at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday 13 March 2012. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post below telling me which song you’d like to hear one of these bands play at the show. If you need help you can see both bands’ discographies here and here. Make sure you enter in a valid email address you check regularly when you submit your comment so I can contact you if you win, though it doesn’t need to be in the comment itself. On Monday, March 12th at 4pm EST the contest will close and I’ll select a winner at random (using Random.org) from all the comments below to win the pair of tickets. Don’t be a jerk and enter multiple times or I’ll disqualify all your entries. And please don’t enter if you can’t make it to the show!

This concert will be Iced Earth’s first show in the DC area with their new vocalist, Stu Block, also of Into Eternity. In October 2011 the Florida based band put out their first album with Stu, titled Dystopia, and it has gotten good reviews from both fans of the band and critics. It seems like Stu was the kind of change the band really needed. Support on this tour comes from one of the hottest bands of the modern thrash metal wave, Warbringer. They come from Southern California and have been shredding people’s faces off everywhere they play. If you don’t want to wait to see if you won you can get tickets to this show from Ticket Fly for $25 here. Now check out the latest music videos by both of these bands featuring songs they each released late last year and enter the contest in the comments below!

Filed under: Contests, Nightclub 9:30, Power Metal, Thrash Metal Tagged: 9:30 Club, Contest, Contests, Iced Earth, Nightclub 9:30, Warbringer ]]> http://dcheavymetal.com/2012/03/07/iced-earth-ticket-give-away/feed/ 71 Metal Chris Iced Earth at the 9:30 Club http://dcheavymetal.com/2012/01/23/lamb-of-god-ticket-give-away/ http://dcheavymetal.com/2012/01/23/lamb-of-god-ticket-give-away/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:27:25 +0000 Metal Chris http://dcheavymetal.com/?p=4671 ]]>
Richmond natives Lamb Of God are headlining a show at the 9:30 Club this Saturday the 28th of January 2012 and DCHeavyMetal.com is giving away a pair of tickets to one of you lucky readers of the site. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post below telling me what heavy metal band you’d really like to see headline the 9:30 Club next. Make sure you enter in a valid email address you check regularly when you submit your comment so I can contact you if you win, though it doesn’t need to be in the comment itself. On Friday, January 27th at 4pm EST the contest will close and I’ll select a winner at random (using Random.org) from all the comments below to win the pair of tickets. Don’t be a jerk and enter multiple times or I’ll disqualify all your entries. Do be awesome and tell your friends about this contest.

Lamb Of God is touring with The Acacia Strain, Too Late The Hero and Make Like Murder. This will be one of the first concerts of Lamb Of God’s tour to support their new album, Resolution, which is coming out January 24th! The doors open at 7pm for this show. Normally I’d post a link to where you can buy tickets but as you can see here this show has now sold out. If you slept on this one now is your last chance to get tickets. Now check out this animated video for their song, Ghost Walking, from the new album.

Saturday’s show is Puscifer performing live at the Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University inside the District. It’s a seated show but don’t worry, I’ve got a pair of tickets reserved that one of you is going to win. Puscifer is the name of what is essentially Maynard James Keenan’s solo project that he plays with when he’s not busy with Tool and A Perfect Circle. This is their only area stop on the Conditions Of My Parole tour. The opening act is Carina Round, a British singer and guitar player who has brought her band to the US to open on this tour. If you can’t wait to get tickets or the contest is over when you read this you can buy tickets for $45 from Ticket Master here.

Sunday night’s show is headlined by one of the biggest metal bands out of that huge Georgia metal scene, Mastodon. This tour’s stop at the 9:30 Club is going to be their first area show in support of their newest album, The Hunter, and will be the first time people around here will get to hear any of those new songs live. The middle band is The Dillinger Escape Plan, a metalcore band from New Jersey and the concert will be opened by Portland, Oregon’s stoner act Red Fang. If you don’t want to wait for the contest to end to be sure you can get in to this show you can buy tickets now from Ticket Fly for $30 each here.

Choice One

On Wednesday the 21st of September the West Virginia based Karma To Burn is coming to the Rock & Roll Hotel. Karma To Burn is an excellent sludgy stoner band and they play a lot of instrumental songs, though some have vocals. To make this show even better, DC’s own Borracho will be opening. They are an excellent stoner act that you should be sure to check out if you haven’t already. Borracho recently put out their first LP titled Splitting Sky and this show would be a great chance to save on shipping and pick it up after seeing them play live. Local act King Giant was supposed to play this show but due to an injury to one of the band members they have had to cancel their appearance at this concert. If you don’t win or you just can’t wait, you can get tickets to this show here for $10.

Choice Two

On Friday the 23rd of September the brand new 2,000 person capacity Fillmore in Silver Spring will host its first ever metal concert! British metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon headlines a night of some of the best core bands coming from the UK and Australia such as Parkway Drive, Architects, While She Sleeps and Deez Nuts. And come on, if you win you can spend all week telling people you won tickets to see Deez Nuts. The Fillmore will have just opened on September 15th so this will be the first chance to destroy the place with some insane mosh pits! If you don’t win or you just can’t wait, you can get tickets to this show here for $23.

Choice Three

Kyuss Lives! is the name of the reformed version of legendary stoner band Kyuss featuring all the original members of the band except Josh Homme (he’s busy playing with super group Them Crooked Vultures these days). So now the band has Bruno Fevery on guitar but what’s really exciting is that they have been working on a new album and, assuming they play some of that on this tour, this show will be the first chance this area is going to have to hear new Kyuss material in over 15 years! To make things even better Texas based doom masters The Sword and Atlanta’s Monstro are opening. This show is on Saturday the 24th of September at the 9:30 Club and you know it’s going to be awesome. If you don’t win or you just can’t wait, you can get tickets to this show here for $30.

But this isn’t just a post about thanking you guys and patting myself on the back, there’s more stuff coming up too. I’m proud to announce that I will be giving tickets away to some upcoming metal shows at the brand new Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland. You can find out more about the venue that is about to open in one of my recent posts here. The first metal shows at the Fillmore that I’ll have ticket contests for will be Bring Me The Horizon, Yngwie Malmsteen and Between The Buried And Me with Animals As Leaders. Assuming they do well I’ll be giving more tickets away to more metal shows there as well so be sure to tell people about the contests when they’re posted. If those bands aren’t your thing though don’t worry as I’ve got some other free ticket give aways coming up for shows like Gwar and Kyuss with The Sword at the 9:30 Club and Cavalera Conspiracy and Karma To Burn at the Rock And Roll Hotel. Stay tuned to the site for more details on all these give aways, there’s a lot coming up in the next few months and if there’s one thing I love doing with my site it’s giving away stuff to readers of my site.

Thanks to everyone who has made this past two years of hard work all worth it. It’s you, the fans of heavy metal music in this area, that make this site what it is. DCHeavyMetal.com has no plans of slowing down any time soon and I look forward to many more years supporting the area’s community around the music I love! Stay brutal everyone.

The Summer Slaughter Tour is coming to Washington DC this year and this wouldn’t be DCHeavyMetal.com if I wasn’t giving away tickets to this heavy concert! They’re coming to the 9:30 Club on Monday, August 15th, 2011. All you have to do to enter to win is post a comment below telling me which of the 10 bands on this tour you are the most excited to see play (they’re listed in the paragraph below). One winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries to win a pair of tickets to the concert, awesome! Make sure you enter in a valid email address you check regularly when you submit your comment so I can contact you if you win, though it doesn’t need to be in the comment itself. Don’t worry I won’t add you to a list or anything, I hate spam as much as you do. On Friday, August 12th at 5pm EST the concert will end and I’ll select a winner at random (using Random.org) from all the comments below to win the pair of tickets. UPDATE: I’m going to extend this one an extra 24 hours, so you have until 5pm EST on Saturday August 13th! If the winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours I’ll pick another winner. Don’t be a jerk and enter multiple times or I’ll disqualify all your entries.

This year’s Summer Slaughter Tour is making it’s only area stop at the 9:30 Club on this Monday afternoon in August. There’s a total of 10 bands on this tour, but what really makes this show special is that two of them are a couple of local bands I know you have heard of before, Darkest Hour and Dying Fetus! That’s right, they’re both on the tour and are coming through with headliners The Black Dahlia Murder and White Chapel. If that wasn’t good enough there’s Six Feet Under, which is the current band of original Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes and also features Terry Butler on bass who played in Death on the Leprosy and Spiritual Healing albums. There’s also the video game themed metal band Powerglove who will be doing some sort of half time show. I’m not sure what that entails but they tend to wear costumes that are some sort of cross between Gwar and 90s video game characters. But that’s not all, there’s also several other bands, namely: As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Within The Ruins. This show is going to be big! If you can’t wait for the contest to end or if you don’t win you can get tickets from Ticket Fly for $24 here. Doors open really early for this one, 2:30 pm in the afternoon so be sure to bring a few dollars for food as the evening goes on. The 9:30 Club has a full menu and there’s also several local restaurants within walking distance along U Street that you can hit up as well. There is re-entry, just make sure you get your hand stamped to get back in. If you’re still not sure which band to pick just check out this video which is a short sampler of all the bands on the tour.

Filed under: Contests, Death Metal, Local Band Info, Metalcore, Nightclub 9:30, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene Tagged: 9:30 Club, As Blood Runs Black, Concert, Contest, Contests, Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Heavy Metal, Metal, Music, Nightclub 9:30, Oceano, Powerglove, Six Feet Under, Summer Slaughter, Summer Slaughter Tour, The Black Dahlia Murder, White Chapel, Within Ruins ]]> http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/08/08/summer-slaughter-ticket-give-away/feed/ 27 Metal Chris http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/07/29/queensryche-ticket-give-away/ http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/07/29/queensryche-ticket-give-away/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:04:33 +0000 Metal Chris http://dcheavymetal.com/?p=3823 ]]>

Here’s another ticket give away for readers of DCHeavyMetal.com! This time you can win a pair of tickets to see the old school power prog metal band Queensrÿche play the 9:30 Club on Tuesday 9 August 2011 with opening act The Voodoos. To enter just tell me what song you’d like to hear Queensryche play from their albums in the 80s. If you don’t know any of their songs from back then, you can see their discography here (just click an album title to see it’s track listing). I’ll randomly select a winner to get the tickets from all eligible entries at 5pm EST on Friday August 5th 2011. Be sure to use a valid email address you check regularly when you enter (the email address does not have to be in the post itself) so that I can contact you if you win. If the winner does not respond within 24 hours I’ll pick another winner at 5pm the next day. And don’t worry, I won’t put your email on any lists or spam you, I hate that crap too. Don’t be a jerk and enter multiple times or I’ll disqualify all your entries. If you just can’t wait to get your tickets or the contest is already over when you read this, they’re available from Ticket Fly for $35 each here.

Queensrÿche is a progressive metal band from Washington state and this is their Washington DC area stop on their 30th Anniversary Tour. The band still consists of four of the original five members, so you can bet they’ll be playing some of their old material for this anniversary tour. Unlike many bands from the 80s, they weren’t forgotten once the grunge wave hit in the early 90s because these guys were actually writing music with some substance to it. The fact they’re playing large venues like the 9:30 Club shows that the band still has a strong following, even after all this time. They just finished a string of gigs in Europe opening for Judas Priest on their farewell tour and now they’re coming to the states to headline. Enter the contest in the comments below then check out this recent backstage video interview with Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate.

Filed under: Contests, Nightclub 9:30, Power Metal, Progressive Metal Tagged: Band, Concert, Contest, Free, Free TIckets, Give Away, Heavy Metal, Metal, Music, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Queensrÿche, Tickets ]]> http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/07/29/queensryche-ticket-give-away/feed/ 48 Metal Chris Queensryche at the 9:30 Club http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/05/18/bullet-for-my-valentine-ticket-give-away/ http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/05/18/bullet-for-my-valentine-ticket-give-away/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 15:30:56 +0000 Metal Chris http://dcheavymetal.com/?p=3403 ]]>

Here’s another ticket give away for readers of DCHeavyMetal.com! This time you can win a pair of tickets to see the Welsh metalcore band Bullet For My Valentine play the 9:30 Club on Tuesday 24 May 2011 with opening act Halestorm. To enter just tell me what your favorite metal band from the United Kingdom is in the comments at the bottom of this post. I’ll randomly select a winner to get the tickets from all eligible entries at 5pm EST on Sunday 22 May 2011. Be sure to use a valid email address you check regularly when you enter (the email address does not have to be in the post itself) so that I can contact you if you win. If the winner does not respond within 24 hours I’ll pick another winner at 5pm the next day. And don’t worry, I won’t put your email on any lists or spam you, I hate that crap too. Don’t be a jerk and enter multiple times or I’ll disqualify all your entries. If you just can’t wait to get your tickets or the contest is already over when you read this, they’re available from Ticket Fly for $30 each here.

Bullet For My Valentine is a thrashy metalcore band from Wales, a country that is part of the UK. They’re known for their aggressive guitar riffs paired with catchy vocals. They’ll also be on the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Tour this summer, though dates for that haven’t been announced yet. Even if they do come around to Jiffy Lube Live as part of that tour, they won’t be playing a full headlining set like they will be here at the 9:30 Club. The opening act is Halestorm, a Pennsylvania based formed by brother and sister Arejay and Lzzy Hale. The doors to this show open at 6:30 so the concert will probably be done pretty early. The 9:30 Club will post more accurate set times the day of the concert on their website. Now, check out the video below for their song Bittersweet Memories from their album

The first show I was headed to was at Firehouse in Fairfax, Virginia to see a little known band from New York City called Meek Is Murder. Their debut album, Algorithms, wasn’t even out yet and I went into this show with no idea of what to expect of them musically. When I got there apparently none of the bands had arrived yet, so there was a bit of down time before the first act started. They were a local grind/experimental act named Gradius, I suppose after the old video game. They opened their set with an instrumental song I liked a lot. They all seemed to switch off doing back ups but the lead singer of the band was their drummer. He kept making faces the entire set while still pumping out some crazy beats and screaming too. They put on a highly energetic set and I didn’t mind the wait so much by the time they were done. Next up was the touring act Meek Is Murder. These guys were really something! I didn’t know what to expect but they played short songs with outbursts of raw brutality with some dissonant parts tying it all together. They seemed to play several songs all back to back and since I was not familiar with their material at all, it was hard to tell where one song ended and the next began, but that was ok, it worked well that way. There weren’t a lot of people there to see these guys, but it didn’t matter, they put on a killer show. The guitarist/vocalist Mike Keller was running around all over the place and at times I thought he might fall into the drum kit. The set ended a bit abruptly but it was certainly the highlight of the night for me. The next band to play was local grind act Drugs Of Faith. I had seen them play before, but the trio had a new bass player since then. Their set was about the same as I had remembered them, typical grind with a political bent. It wasn’t a bad set, but it was pretty hard to go up after Meek Is Murder that night. They did ask who was going out to the Dropdead show the next night in DC, which of course I already had my ticket for.

Saturday the 12th of March I headed to another venue I hadn’t been to before, St Stephen’s Church in Columbia Heights in Washington, DC. The headliner was the famous 80′s vegetarian power violence band Dropdead. Though I knew who they were the real reason I was there was to see some of the excellent local talent that was opening. Ilsa started the show off with a short but powerful set of their death/doom metal sound. It was a bit odd seeing them on such a big stage, but they pulled off their set really nicely. Their vocalist, Orion, still hardly looked at the audience, instead keeping his back to them most of the show. At least he didn’t puke anywhere this time! I’m pretty sure they played the same set on this night as they had when I saw them at the Corpse Fortress a few nights before (read about that here). The next band to play was Richmond’s Cough. They’re a doom band that really just crushes. They’ve got some very slooow parts that are just heavy as hell and they put on a really fun show too, lots of super slow motion headbanging. Great stuff and you like doom you should really check out their latest album, Ritual Abuse, if you haven’t already. The next band to play was a hardcore act that I was totally unfamiliar with named Wasted Time. They sure got the crowd going nuts instantly and there were big mosh pits and stage divers the rest of the night when they played. They weren’t really my thing though, just seemed like standard hardcore that didn’t stand out to me, but I’m no expert on the genre anyways. Apparently there were a few fights at the show during and/or after their set, and before the next band performed a woman who was helping to run the event told everyone that if people were drinking, doing drugs or fighting that shows would not be allowed to continue at the church. Someone else came up and gave a speech about voting for gay rights in Maryland and then finally DC’s best grindcore act, Magrudergrind, hit the stage! I’ve seen them a few times, including at Maryland Deathfest last year, but this was the best set I’ve ever seen them play live. They were even more energetic than usual and the band seemed like they were trying to outdo the audience at being out of control. Vocalist Avi Kulawy even did a stage dive into the crowd at one point (video of that below), eventually getting thrown back onto the stage just in time to start screaming into the mic again. The intensity was broken up once in a while between songs and Avi would talk about political issues, tho he didn’t make anything sound too preachy. In the end it was a great set and my favorite of the night. Next up was Dropdead, who was pretty entertaining but again, not really my thing. The vocalist was constantly moving about on stage and doing things with the mic cord, simulating hanging himself with it and swinging it around like a helicopter over the audience and other things like that. The songs were high energy and the audience seemed to eat it up, but I ended up leaving early to grab a (non-vegetarian) bite to eat.

Sunday the 13th of March 2011 was the ninth and final day of my Metal Marathon, but I had a double header lined up, and this time the venues weren’t just blocks away like they were on the first day in Richmond. First I was going to see Trap Them and Gaza play at Jaxx. The actual headliner for the show was The Red Chord but I didn’t care about seeing them and was going to see Apocalyptica at the 9:30 Club afterwards. The 9:30 Club had two concerts that day too, so the Apocalyptica show’s doors didn’t open til 10pm and there was also an opener. But I’m getting ahead of myself, first I got to Jaxx to see the new band To The Teeth open the show at Jaxx. I’d been meaning to catch these guys and I’m glad I finally got a chance to. Not really sure how I’d define them exactly, sort of a thrashy hardcore band (but not the chugga chugga breakdown kind) with some death metal elements in there too. They were pretty good for such a new band, I look forward to catching them again and recommend them to anyone reading this. The next band was another local act, this time a grind band named In Hell With Traitors. They had three members, a vocalist, a guitar player with fake blood dripping down his face and the drummer/backup vocalist who was wearing some bloody surgeon scrubs. They were ok for grind, they certainly had their violent outbursts and brutal riffs and all, but in the end they didn’t really stand out a whole lot to me. They were a good opener for this show though, and Gaza was up next. Gaza had been on the schedule as the second to last band but I guess Trap Them was going to play after them. Their singer is a very tall and lanky guy who seemed to pace around the stage like a caged daddy long legs. He had a suit tie wrapped around his head and enjoyed making lots of jokes about Christianity between songs. At one point he jumped off the stage without his microphone and walked around, not in the audience but behind them, while yelling out “there is no future in this” over and over. I’m not sure if that’s how one of their songs is supposed to start or if he was just spazzing out, either way it was something I hadn’t seen before. Gaza was good live, but next was the real reason I came to this show, Trap Them. Their latest album, Darker Handcraft, is just totally awesome and one of the best metal albums I’ve heard so far this year. These guys came out with a fire raging that never left during their entire set. They have some kick ass songs with various levels of brutal, catchy and just plain aggressiveness in each one. They were not easy to watch and just stand there and shoot pictures of. I really wanted to be running around smashing shit during their entire set (the Jaxx staff should be glad I was carrying cameras!). Their vocalist, Ryan McKenney was going nuts the entire show and even climbed one of the amp stacks during the set and continued to bark out vocals from up there. The drummer was getting so pumped he’d actually stand up during parts of songs while still playing and never missing a beat. The tunes were great, the performance was great and the energy was awesome, this was definitely one of the best sets I saw on my entire Metal Marathon. Sometimes you get lucky and catch a band when they’re at their peak both performance wise and with their material, and this was one of those concerts. When they finished I resisted the urge to run down the street kicking trash cans and instead headed out to get some food and then made my way to the 9:30 Club.

I got to the 9:30 Club a bit later than I wanted, but I still found great parking right by the venue and got my photo pass set and went into the show before they started playing. There was a three song limit for the photo passes, which means us ‘pro’ photographers have to be out of the photo pit when the third song is over. That’s kind of annoying but I think I got some great shots anyways. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen Apocalyptica so I had an idea of what to expect, a cello based band that plays metal covers as well as some original material (some with a vocalist, some without) and a few classical pieces as well. This show’s setlist was just that, with the original material focusing on the latest album, 7th Symphony, and a few singles. They had a different guy singing for them now, and there were only three guys playing cellos, they had four when I’d seen them in May of 2008. The band is nothing if not showmen, and they love posing for the audience as well as throwing their hair around like a helicopter, picking their cellos up over their heads and various other things to really get the crowd going. The main thing I’ve always liked about these guys are their covers. They played three by Metallica and two by Sepultura. It was funny how the audience all sang along to Apocalyptica’s version of the Metallica song One yet when they played the next song, Refuse/Resist by Sepultura, everyone seemed to stare blankly, haha. The show was entertaining, even during their original songs, which are the ones I tend to be the least interested in. After getting kicked out of the photo pit I shot several videos (Apocalyptica is one of those cool bands that doesn’t mind fans shooting video of them at the 9:30 Club) and I even shot their entire encore set, which you can see below. The show ended late but it was a great way to end my 11 metal concerts in 9 days Metal Marathon. My car broke down, I hitched rides to other cities, but I still made it to every show! I hope you guys have enjoyed it as much as I have on this adventure, it really was a fun experience not just going to all the concerts, but meeting people and overcoming the shit life throws at you to get to every concert. Perhaps I’ll do another one sometime, but until then you can enjoy these selected videos from the final three days of my Metal Marathon. If you like the photos scattered throughout this entry you can find more of those on my Flickr page, I even made a special set just for the Metal Marathon concerts here and I’ve got a lot more videos on my YouTube page here. I’m a bit behind on my reviews and calendar right now, but keep an eye out for an Agalloch concert review next. Stay metal everyone!

Filed under: Concert Reviews, Doom Metal, Firehouse Grill, Grind, Hardcore Metal, Jaxx Nightclub, Metal Marathon, Nightclub 9:30, Washington DC / Maryland / Virginia Metal Scene Tagged: Apocalyptica, Band, Concert, Concert Review, Concert Reviews, Cough, Dropdead, Drugs Of Faith, Gaza, Gig, Gradius, Heavy Metal, Ilsa, In Hell With Traitors, Magrudergrind, Meek Is Murder, Metal, Music, To The Teeth, Trap Them, Wasted Time ]]> http://dcheavymetal.com/2011/03/22/metal-marathon-the-final-3-days/feed/ 0 Metal Chris