This blog specializes in heavy metal music and how it relates to Washington DC and the surrounding area. Featuring info on upcoming metal concerts in Washington DC, Baltimore and Virginia, as well as info on local bands, area concert venues, reviews of live gigs, and lots of give aways.
I just thought I’d let you all know about the kid friendly, all ages, totally free rock concert that I’m putting on at DC Brau brewery on Saturday, July 15th from 2pm to 5pm. I did one of these last year and people seemed to really enjoy it so I’m doing another one this year. Since most rock concerts happen way past bed times it’s a fun chance to bring the kids out to a rock show but these aren’t silly kid bands like Rocknoceros so even if you don’t have kids you can come out to enjoy the tunes. There’s also a Facebook event page I made here that you can invite people to if you want.
Here’s the details: I’ve booked two bands, Borracho and Hot Blood, to play from the brewery’s truck loading bay to the audience which will be in the seated outdoor area of the brewery. There’s no entry fee but there will be food available to buy (including vegetarian options) provided by Fred the Taco Guy, who we all remember from the metal shows at Atlas. DC Brau will have craft beer, hard seltzers and boozy smoothies for sale as well. I highly recommend bringing hearing protection (esp for the kids) and probably sunscreen as well. If it’s too hot you can always hang out indoors as I assume you’ll be able to hear the bands there as well. There’s also a Roaming Rooster (best fried chicken in DC) in the shopping center and outside food is welcome at the brewery, so you can bring your own food in if you want.
DC Brau is located at 3178-B Bladensburg Rd NE, Washington, DC 20018
If you have never been there before please note that it is located on the back side of a strip mall. There’s plenty of parking in the lot on the back side but your GPS will probably direct you to the front of the shopping center. When you get there just drive down the paved ramp to the back side of the shopping center (look for the DC Brau beer can sign, it looks like this). DC Brau is the only business on that side of the shopping center so park anywhere in the lot.
If you’d like to check out the bands ahead of time here’s a bit of info. Borracho (playing first) is a DC based three piece and they actually approached me this spring about doing an all ages show that they could bring their kids to and that’s what got the ball rolling. Their sound is along the lines of 70s era Black Sabbath mixed with 90s desert rock bands like Fu Manchu and Kyuss. They have a new album coming out on August 18th and you can listen to one of those new tracks below.
The second band to play will be Hot Blood. They’re a new band with only a three song EP that was released last month out so far. They’ve got more of an 80s party rock vibe and you can hear their entire EP below.
I was a guest on the latest episode of DCBeer.com‘s podcast, The DC Beer Show. I talk about the fallout from the sudden shut down (to the public) of Atlas brewery’s Ivy City location, how the local metal scene got involved with the local beer scene to begin with, and how we’re starting to get metal shows going at the DC Brau brewery! Click the play button below to listen or see the post on DC Beer here.
It has been some time since our last ticket give away on DCHM so I’m very excited to be giving away a pair of tickets to the Zealot R.I.P. show on September 22nd at DC Brau brewery with Loud Boyz and Asthma Castle (and a special secret guest band!). Along with the pair of tickets to the show the winner will also receive a Zealot R.I.P. t-shirt and a physical copy of the Zealot R.I.P. debut album The Extinction of You which is released this Friday, Sept 10th (purchase it here). The winner will pick these items up at the show, and a digital download code will also be included with the physical copy of the album. To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me what the last local show you went to was (anywhere in the DMV and it can be recent or before the pandemic) and on Thursday, Sept 9th at 5pm Eastern the winner will be selected from all valid entries using Random.org. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly when you enter so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that. If the selected winner hasn’t written me back within 24 hours another winner will be selected. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can purchase tickets here.
Zealot R.I.P. is made up of members of Pig Destroyer, Darkest Hour and Frodus and after much delay due to the ongoing pandemic, they’re finally releasing their debut full length album, The Extinction of You! This show at DC Brau will be an epic release show for the album! Support is provided by party rockers Loud Boyz, who always put on a wild live show, and Baltimore’s Asthma Castle, a sludge/stoner metal band featuring Adam Jarvis (of Pig Destroyer and Misery Index) on drums. I’m not allowed to mention who the surprise guest band is for contractual reasons but let me tell you it’s going to be big and you don’t want to miss their set.
This show is ages 18+ and please be aware that Covid protocols will be in place for this event and upon entry everyone will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result from the previous 72 hours.
Now check out these videos from the bands below and let me know in the comments what the last local concert you went to was.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but lately the worlds of craft beer and heavy metal have really been colliding, even more than they usually do. Last week the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) was held in DC. It’s a multi-day conference that is held in a different city each year and this year DC hosted it at the convention center. Craft brewers from around the country attend to take seminars and learn about new techniques and equipment they can brew with, as well as learn about how to better market their beer and other things like that. That’s great if you’re a brewer but for the rest of us CBC coming to town means a ton of side-events at bars and breweries in the area as our city hosts all these out of town brewers. Many breweries brought beers that normally aren’t distributed in our area but thanks to DC’s awesome beer distribution laws they can be sold in DC during the festival. That’s why so many bars had tap take overs from out of area breweries last week and so many of the specialty beer stores had beers from breweries that we never usually see around here.
Aside from exotic beers at Churchkey, Meridian Pint, Jack Rose and other places with CBC related events, there were a couple of metal shows during CBC week as well. DC Brau’s 6th anniversary happened to be during CBC week so they put together a one off show with Baroness at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday, April 12th. The band put on a great performance and played many old songs since 2017 is the 10th anniversary of their first album. I had a photo pass and got to take a few shots right up front and you can see them below. Click here to see the full set on Flickr. I even made a couple into animated gifs!
The following night, Thursday the 13th of April, I put on another metal night with my partner in crime Brewer Will over at Atlas Brew Works. We had live metal bands, concert ticket give aways, a lot of great beer and a ton of fellow metal heads in attendance. The Denver based black metal themed brewery Trve had three guest beers on tap and Atlas had some of their most “metal” brews pouring as well including The Emprosator, a doppelbock named for a Russian Circles album, HaSaWoDo, a saison named after the Bongripper album Hail Satan Worship Doom, and their collaboration with Champion Brewing made for Decibel Magazine, the Decibeer DIPA. Lots of brewers from outside the area (in town for CBC of course) stopped by including the gang from Metal Monkey Brewing in Chicago and Jester King in Austin. Lord, Cavern and headliner King Giant all put on excellent performances and you can catch a bit of each of their sets, and hear the guys in Lord and King Giant talk about their gear and rigs, in the below video that Guitar Guru Network posted on YouTube, shot entirely at the event. If you just want to see to the parts of the video with the bands performing live then skip to when Lord starts at 16:20, Cavern at 24:11 and King Giant at 46:25.
When CBC ended the beer and metal collision continued! On Monday, April 17th, another metal show came to Atlas Brew Works. Canadian black metal band Thantifaxath headlined the venue with local support by Myopic and Sickdeer. After talking to one of the mysterious and anonymous members of the band, I came to find out that he was also a beer brewer by trade! It was a really good turn out for a Monday night and Thantifaxath put on a hell of a show too. Below is a short clip I shot of them at the show.
However the biggest beer and metal event ever held is going to be in Philadelphia this weekend when Decibel Magazine holds their first ever Metal & Beer Fest! This isn’t just a fest with some metal bands and some random breweries, Decibel has done a really good job of finding metal bands with ties to beer and breweries with ties to metal for this festival. For instance you’ll notice Khemmis is on the bill. Their drummer, Zach Coleman, is a brewer at Trve, which also happens to be a brewery pouring at the fest. Then there’s Panopticon on the bill, a band that masterfully blends black metal with bluegrass and has only ever played live once before. The band’s sole member, Austin Lunn, is also a brewer at Hammerheart Brewing in Minnesota, which is named after the classic 1990 album by Bathory. Municipal Waste is also on the bill and their drummer, Dave Witte, while not a brewer does find employment at the Ardent Craft Ales brewery in Richmond. Cigar City Brewing will be at the fest pouring their beer Divine Blasphemer, a smoked porter named after a Municipal Waste song.
There will be plenty of other beers with tie ins to metal at this festival as well. DC’s own Atlas is bringing HaSaWoDo, the aforementioned Bongripper tied in beer. Three Floyds, a brewery that has made official beers for many metal bands including Amon Amarth, Municipal Waste, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary, will be bringing their Permanent Funeral pale ale, named for a song by Pig Destroyer. Burnt Hickory Brewery will have their beer Charred Walls Of The Damned with them, named after the metal super group of the same name. Mikkeller, a brewery from Denmark, will have their Mother Puncher beer with them, named after a song by Mastodon. Trve is bringing their Nazareth IPA, named after the lyric from the Sleep song “Jerusalem.” Dave Mustaine of Megadeth will be at the fest on Saturday pouring his A Tout Le Monde beer from Unibroue (specifically from 5pm to 6:30 and 8:45 to 10). As you’ll notice some of these bands, like Sleep, Municipal Waste and Pig Destroyer, are actually playing the fest! Along with the bands like Khemmis and Panopticon that actually have brewers in them, this fest really is something special. It’s not a metal fest with lots of beer. It’s not a craft beer fest with some bands playing. It truly is a beer AND metal fest. To say I’m excited is an understatement, this is a festival for my two favorite things! I’ll be attending the fest with a press pass so check back for my coverage after I recover from what I can only imagine will be the bangover of a lifetime. This is all thanks to Adem Tepedelen, the guy who writes the excellent column Brewtal Truth in Decibel that covers the intersection of beer and metal. He is one of the first to focus on the relationship between beer and heavy metal music and without him this fest would probably never have been conceived in the first place.
If you can’t make the fest don’t worry! There’s still a lot of metal and beer tie ins to come. DC Brau has announced that they’ll be brewing another batch of their Savor The Swill beer, brewed with the guys in local band Darkest Hour (and named after the DH song “Savor The Kill”) that will be re-released this summer, including at the Darkest Hour concert at the Rock & Roll Hotel on July 14th (details here). Also, Thou and Cloud Rat are playing a show at Atlas Brew Works on June 26th (details here). I’m not sure what else is to come but as the worlds of metal and beer become more intertwined you can bet on one thing: metal heads that are craft beer lovers have a lot of good things to look forward to!
DC Brau is turning 6 this month and to celebrate they’re bringing Baroness to the 9:30 Club on Wednesday, April 12th! Not only is DC Brau one of my favorite local breweries but they’ve also got great taste when it comes to music! To help them celebrate we’re going give away not one but TWO pairs of tickets to this show to the readers of DCHM. To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite Baroness song is (you can see their discography here if you need help). Then this Thursday, April 6th, at 5pm EST two winners will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries. Each winner will receive a pair of tickets to this awesome show! Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that. If I haven’t heard back from the winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can get tickets from Ticket Fly for $30 here.
Baroness is a band that puts out chromatically themed albums that are consistently full of great riffs. In 2012 they suffered a terrible bus crash while on tour in Europe and several of the band members were injured. Despite this the band has continued on and still puts out great music, not to mention their killer live performances. They were even nominated for a Grammy in the best metal performance category this year. This is a one off show that is not part of a tour and Baroness has no other shows this Spring. Openers Trans Am are a DC based band formed in the early 90s. They’ve changed styles many times over the years, once harDCore, once synth based, sometimes instrumental, but they’ve always kept things fresh with a high level of experimentation. Now check out these videos below and leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite Baroness song is!
If you’ve ever been to one of our heavy metal nights at a brewery then you definitely know that we here at DC Heavy Metal love craft beer almost as much as we love metal! When DC Brau announced that their 5 year anniversary celebration was going to be an outdoor metal show we started counting down the days! On Saturday, April 16th the parking lot area at the brewery is going to be fenced off and a stage is going to be set up with a killer line up including The Sword, Kvelertak, Torche, Serpent Throne and locals Loud Boyz. In addition, the brewmasters at DC Brau have teamed up with the brewers at 5 different breweries to make 5 special collaboration beers just for this anniversary show! We hope you are as excited about this line up of excellent bands and beers as we are and so we’re doing a special give away for this one. One of you lucky DCHM readers will get a pair of general admission tickets to this very event and another one of you with even better luck is going to be getting a pair of VIP tickets to the event (you must be 21 or older to win the VIP tickets)! To enter: just leave a comment on this post telling me which band you’re most excited to see at this show (if you don’t know any of them check out the videos at the bottom of this post). On Friday, March 25th at 5pm EST the contest will close and I’ll pick two winners at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries. The first winner will get the pair of general admission tickets and the second winner will get the pair of VIP tickets. If you are under 21 please specify so because I will not be giving the VIP tickets to a minor but you can still win the general admission tickets. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that. If I haven’t heard back from a selected winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random.
And what exactly do the tickets get you? The general admission tickets will get you into the event where you can watch all of the the bands perform, buy beer and food and generally have a great time. The VIP tickets include all of that as well as access inside the brewery for a VIP-only bar, catered barbecue, complimentary unlimited beer, and guaranteed access to all the collaboration brews. If you don’t want to wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this then you can purchase tickets either at the 9:30 Club box office (to avoid fees) or online from Ticket Fly for $45 (GA) or $200 (VIP) here.
Now, here’s a little bit more about the bands and those special collaboration beers. The Sword is a groovin’ doom metal band from Austin, Texas, and they’ll be headlining this show. Kvelertak is a high energy rock/metal band from Norway that incorporates elements of punk and black metal into a unique sound that is all their own and they’re known for their wild live shows. Torche is a band from Miami, Florida, and they call their heavy yet catchy music thunder pop which actually makes perfect sense when you hear them. Serpent Throne is an instrumental stoner band from Philadelphia and they’ve got a ton of sick riffs. Loud Boyz are a local party rock band that formed from the ashes of the party thrash band Warchild. That’s a pretty sweet line up, but lets not forget those 5 exclusive collaboration beers. Cigar City in Tampa, Florida is known for making one of the best stouts in the world, Hunahpu Imperial Stout, so I’m pretty excited to see what kind of big stout they’ve cooked up with the DC Brau guys, a beer they’ve named The Wise And The Lovely. Alexandria brewery Port City‘s collaboration with DC Brau produced a dunkel, which is a German style dark lager (dunkel is the German word for dark) and while it won’t be a heavy as the aforementioned stout this beer, Zehn von Zehn, will surely be quite refreshing. They aren’t all dark beers though, for example the collaboration with Sun King in Indianapolis, Indiana is a double IPA brewed with rye and named Ripa the Dipa. The collaboration with Austin Beerworks in Austin, Texas is an India style lager (so expect it to be more hoppy than most lagers) named Celestial Garden. Last but not least the collaboration with St. Louis based Perennial Artisan Ales is a Belgian style saison with rose hips and hibiscus added to give Pink Pallet Jack a pink hue.
OK I know I’ve been more wordy on this post than my contests usually are but there’s a lot of info for this event! If you’d like even more info you can check out the official Facebook event page for it here or go read DC Brau’s announcement post here. Now check out these videos below and tell me which band you’re most excited to see on April 16th at DC Brau’s 5th Anniversary Celebration!
DCHeavyMetal.com 