This is the last show review from 2010, a year that saw fewer bands than previous and more local than national/touring stuff, mostly because it seemed like I was on call forever and didn't make it to NEMHF and NEDF took the year off. Still, looking back, I count 32 shows, including this one, which is just a little short of three a month -- and I was guaranteed to be out one weekend a month dreading support calls. Still pretty good, still room for improvement with 2011's dismal start -- especially with two DIY 'fests' on the two coming weekends that I should hit at least part of.
Update: missed Bobfest entirely due to various stuff, will probably miss No Life due to being on call again. soitgoes.csc.
Anyways, so like usual for Born of Fire nights, I got in a little early relative to actual start and had the time to get some beers in and hang about a little before things really got going. This community bit is a significant upside to this concert series (the other one, from my perspective, is that it's not nearly as long a drive as going to Worcester for Metal Thursday), but it comes with the necessary debit, of course, of only having two bands on the bill. Fortunately, most of these shows feature two really good bands, which is of course why it's still going despite the other options in the region for heavy music on Thursdays. Long may this continue; it's a lot better than when I was living in Dresden and the question was "is there a show anywhere in this state this month".
Living Void [5.5/7]
Despite the borderline-obsessive following of Revocation that is probably pretty obvious from these pages, I hadn't seen this band before; most of this is a lot of bad luck, but also comes down to the fact that they're a grindcore band, and I go to a lot fewer grind shows than metal shows. As grindcore goes, though, this was wicked, wicked solid; heavy as fuck, and pretty much as diverse as you're going to get in the genre. This is probably helped by being a five-piece as much as by Anthony being in the band; the creativity is coming pretty much across the board, and the second guitar widens the range of complexity that can be introduced while still keeping to the grind framework. Good stuff, worth seeing again, maybe worth making the actual effort to go to grindcore shows for.
After picking up their demo -- more solid stuff -- I talked a bit with Anthony, who mentioned that the new Revocation album was at that point significantly underway, and that they'd be doing some dates with Atheist at the start of March. This information, back in December, wasn't for general dissemination, but that's not what held this writeup back, past the announcement and into the time where those shows are actually happening. That's all pure laziness; had this gotten out earlier, there'd've been a retardedly oblique allusion here rather than the direct statement, because seriously, keep schtum when people ask you to.
Composted [6/7]
Despite extensive pre-show rumors, there were no Jello pudding products in attendance here, either alcohol-infused or otherwise. There were plenty of "signed" photos of Mr. Cosby, though, and five guys in sweaters doing, before the slam started, uniquely bizarre and verfremdend dances to the Cosby theme. Most of the sweaters came off during the performance, because O'Brien's has the stage lighting set conveniently at head level since the point of rock'n'roll is boiling your hair under a heatlamp (ok, also because they actually raised the stage in the renovation but couldn't do anything about the ceiling), but what this mostly served to do was to emphasize that most of what Composted does, and even most of their humor, comes from the actual music rather than the antics surrounding it. On that musical front, they just keep improving; there were a couple songs in this set that didn't make the cut of the recent split with Boarcorpse and Scaphism, but are just as strong as anything else they've done, and "Sausage Cathedral" now has a drop-in intro fully as funny as the "sausage cathedral is made of sausage" bit that Mark's introduced it with in the past. This is how you do a band with jokes rather than a joke band, and because of it, most people will probably take more Composted gigs with fewer average antics rather than elaborate costume productions and Composted not playing as often.
After Composted wrapped up, it was time to hike on back, this time without bread in my cleats. Good time, good show -- just not so good on the timeliness of getting this written out.
There's only one show writeup, from last week, in the pile to get cleared out, which is good because Master is tonight, Metal Thursday is tomorrow, and there's a couple non-show posts that are also due to go in when I get the time to make it happen. Almost up to date.
