My Pet Demon (CD-release) with Only Ash Remains, Pyad, and Barron [Welfare Records, Haverhill, 12/29/2007]

Though it was a little late -- I had Raise The Flag back before I went to Texas the last time, which was more than two months before this gig -- this release show was a lot better done late than never, and MPD and their support definitely rang out the old year in style. Of course, most people were either at the Bullpen's last show or watching the Patriots make history, but for those who were there, it was pretty damn cool.

It was wicked foggy getting up, but otherwise not real difficult; Welfare Records is easily reached by largely empty back roads from about anywhere in Essex County or southern New Hampshire, and is served by both a MBTA parking lot and a large public garage within two blocks, which is just another factor in why this is an awesome venue. Getting inside, this was re-confirmed: anywhere that has "DO NOT SWING ON THE PIPES: THEY WILL NOT SUPPORT YOU" signs posted instead of disclaimers about moshing being illegal is automatically a good spot for aggressive music, and the presence of little craters at boot and elbow level in the walls of the main floor area proper is definitely heartwarming. The house distro was a little punk-heavy (surprise surprise, as Welfare is, um, a punk and hardcore specialty store), but I managed to find a Scorn disc that I remembered from the radio station and never thought I'd see again, and also an oi comp that looked promising -- and for two discs for five bucks, there is a lot of room for error. As they do more metal shows and get more crossbreeding from the area's other underground distros (Y HALO THAR Oak Knoll and Pathos; Obscenity Cult seems to be OK at this point, at least going by the number of Psycho shirts on the staff), they'll probably start stocking more metal, but even as it is, it's pretty cool.

Eventually, the first band started, though this had to be accompanied by a bit of haranguing the other people to get on the floor; attendance was sparse for sports-related reasons, and there would not be a lot of moshing at this gig -- probably the least there has ever been at this venue -- but seriously, when the bands start, get on the floor and off the damn couches by the Golden Axe machine.

Barron [4/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, and there's probably a reason; what they presented was a fairly formative sound of dense thrash with a few more expansive touches, like mid-'90s Testament if they were somehow also Agalloch and Isis fans. Yes, this makes no sense, but this should probably be excused; this band seems to be just starting out, and as soon as they figure out what the hell they want to sound like, their songwriting should take that next step up. The technical riffage was competently done, but there weren't a whole ton of unique riffs, and the lack of experience in the writing department was palpable. These are common symptoms of new bands and underfinished material, though; as they rehearse more and get a stronger sense of their stuff, they'll definitely be able to push forward with stuff that's more differentiable and more self-contained.

Pyad [4/7]
Where Barron seemed to be just stepping out, Pyad seemed to be stepping back in order to step forward; this was one of, if not the very first, shows for them as a five-piece, and the new second guitarist didn't know all the material yet. This held them back to a degree, but it's easy to see that it will have a positive effect going forward. I hadn't seen them since like August of '06, but in that time, the whole band has greatly improved, and if they aren't as strictly experimental as before, they're a whole lot tighter, and are producing thrashed-up doom-death that will or ought to bring them to wider notice. This pretty clearly wasn't the optimum performance from this version of the band, but it was pretty decent, and the knowledge that they'll continue to improve as the new guy gets more worked in is really encouraging.

Only Ash Remains [5/7]
Next on the list, Only Ash Remains, doing, as those accustomed to South Central shows have come to expect, a set of decently executed, non-groundbreaking metalcore. They may not have their sights set on the Palladium, but they can be relied on for, as here, a half hour of highly listenable music, and the work that Mark has done in setting up shows in this part of the state is definitely laudable. Unfortunately, despite being the last band to start before the football game, they were short on a lot of their usual audience thanks to the Patriots' run at perfection, and as a result got next to zero crowd movement, which is kind of a shame, especially at a place like this. It was a decent set, and there would have been some nice chaos had the Patriots lost to the Ravens or someone and just been playing out the string for 15-1.

My Pet Demon [6/7]
First: they did nearly all of the "real songs" from the new album, which included "La Maudite", which like the rest of said material is extremely kickass live.
Second: they went back and actually did "Self Destruct" and "Demons Are Forever" from their first demo, even though they normally assert that the first song does not actually exist.
Third: they did both "Fight For Your Right", which included Matt going out into the crowd and bodyslamming people, and "Rockin' in the Free World", which was again so thunderous and B-side worthy that you really have to check yourself and remember that it's by the same guy who wrote "Heart of Gold".
Fourth: they closed with a new instrumental that at this point seems somewhat half-written (several riffs seemingly dropped in from other recent MPD songs) at this point, but still fully badass.
Fifth: this band's guitarist/lead-vocalist has apparently changed his name to Kenny Pellmister. Either that, or he is a huge Chester A. Arthur fan. With facial hair like this, there is a fine line between awesome and hilarious, but when MPD is on stage, there's enough metallic power going that Ken can pull off the Lemmystache.
Though there were a few rough moments at the start, and a bunch of mood-breakers from people getting text updates on the Pats score between songs, this was overall an excellent outing in support of a really good album that ought to get these guys a little more noticed. They would have benefited from a denser and more active crowd, like about every other band here; the breakdown in "Between the Pages" demands attention, and then there's that monster section at the end of "What Would Jason Do". At this point, they need to think about opening their horizons up a little; there's few bands left on the North Shore or in the Valley that they're not going to draw well over, but Boston, as well as points south and west, is basically unconquered territory, and there are enough melodicish thrashish bands out there to get them early on a decent bill at a Metal Thursday or something. Even now, they're a bit of an odd act out musically, but opening for, say, Graveheart or Dreaded Silence would go a good ways to getting them into more of the right ears south of Lynn.

All in all, it was a good show, and though I had to bail basically as soon as MPD finished, there was still a positive to this: I changed into my Hoops shirt to go to a friend's party, and from that point on, the Patriots stopped losing and started to play kickass football. This is not a coincidence but a cause-and-effect relationship, so I will continue to wear a Scottish soccer shirt for all succeeding games until the Super Bowl or the magic runs out and they lose.

Only Ash Remains with My Pet Demon, Emily Russo, and the Haverhill P.D. Extravaganza [Haverhill Elks, 10/12/2007]

I got in about doors, but initially thought that the show was bagged or something, because there were originally five 'band' bands on this bill besides Emily's Mambo Kurt schtick, and when I got in, there was a total of one drumkit kind of set up, and a couple doods sitting around noodling on acoustic and lap steel guitars. Apparently, most of Broken Banner (those who were not also in Only Ash Remains) did not show up, and Even The Ground seemingly disappeared (their guitarist did show, and did the Sublime covers, but the rest of the band was not in evidence). So people slowly filtered in, and we drank beers and listened to acoustic-rock (from Broken Banner's bassist/Only Ash Remains's non-Mark guitarist) and Sublime covers and piano renditions of classic-rock hits and ate ten-cent Frostees (hails to Matt from MPD, who probably made almost as many fans at this gig by giving away ice cream that he got at ten for a buck as they did playing music to the people who didn't manage to get free foods), and watched the Red Sox knock the stuffing out of Cleveland. Nothing to argue about; the team was winning, the music was decent, and the company was as cool as could be desired, but if the Sox weren't on, this could have gotten old, boring, and ugly real fast.

Exactly why the first two bands mostly bagged is unknown, but at the risk of generating scene drama (which I hate more than death), there is the possibility that this was a "book us above the puppet show" incident; while Emily plays a good set, it's understandable that aspiring rock bands wouldn't want to open up ahead of her. Understandable, yes; reasonable, no, not really. If you're going to hang around in local music, you need to get used to promoters making weird decisions, and you really need to take and show up for any non-P2P shows that you can get.

Soon enough, though, the metal bands started.

My Pet Demon [6/7]
I know they've done better, which is why this one didn't go higher. Otherwise, wow. They opened with "Expiration Date", which was a good song before, and is light-years better now, a theme which is going to come up again and again with the Raise The Flag material. This set was kind of short, and almost all new material, the exception being "Ace of Spades", which they've been playing since about forever; hopefully, they'll be able to do a full-length set at their release show, as there's still a lot of good material from their earlier records. They closed with a somewhat surprising rendition of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World"; it's difficult in the normal course of things to see this tune as a metal song, but that's certainly how it came out here; we'll see if they end up B-siding it somewhere in the future.

Only Ash Remains [5/7]
These guys started kind of slow, but were decent once they got going; unlike last time, either the sound was better or I was just standing in a better place, and I heard a little more Pantera and AAF-core in their metalcore sound. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this sound, but they had decent execution...until the plug got pulled.

Here comes those unintentional headliners; Indignation was supposed to top this bill, but a little after 11, the cops came in with a directive to turn down. This was not met with an immediate reduction in noise output, so the PA plug got pulled. Things snowballed from there; the cop pushed, Mark (the organizer and the guitarist in Only Ash Remains) pushed back, and the po-po called for reinforcements and shut the show down. This was, of course, bullshit, but hopefully the mostly temperate and restrained reaction will prevent this cool venue from getting shut down. This could be a blip, or it could be the beginning of the end; hopefully not, but local venues continue to go down for crummy reasons all the time.

This brings us to the moral of the story: because the police have, essentially, arbitrary power as long as they don't physically harm anyone, the right thing to do in a situation like this is to bite your lip and go yes-sir-yes-sir, then agitate for better police oversight after they get out of the situation where they might start the ball rolling to get the venue shut down. A good all-ages venue, especially with a bar, is worth more than any single set from any one band for what it contributes to the scene and the opportunities that it gives to local bands, and these do not grow on trees. There's Welfare Records in Haverhill now, but it's better if we have both Welfare and the Elks; the one does not make the other dispensible.

With that in mind, I'll wind it up with this observation from Philly thrash-punks Rambo (available as "Skate, Bike, Mosh" on their sweet LP Wall Of Death The System):
kids, experiment with drugs
there's nothing you can do
giving them nothing
is not a solution
bikes and skateboards and dancing at the shows
if we do not have these things where are we to go
we the kids, have found something to do
but it's always ruined by those without a clue

It's a little trite, but it's certainly true; if you kill off venues for physical activity and creative expression, you shouldn't be surprised when kids turn out sedentary, surly, dumb, and chemically addled.

My Pet Demon with Only Ash Remains, Indignation, Rend The Veil, Rohirrim, and The Turn [Haverhill Elks, 9/21/2007]

If you live south of Manchester and north of Lynn, between Route 3 and the ocean, you could do a hell of a lot worse than keep up with South Central, who put together a really good bill for this show and looks to have the right ideas and the right business sense to keep good music coming back to this venue, which has a lot of potential. A nice big room with all-ages admission and a full bar, the Haverhill Elks is exactly what the underground in the North Shore and the Valley needs, and for the next couple months, there's a really good show in about every three weeks.

I got in early due to some confusion about when doors was, but used the time profitably -- results to be seen in this space in October -- and got in as the bands were setting up.

The Turn [5/7]
I hadn't seen this band before, but was not tremendously surprised when they came out and played some hardcore -- albeit hardcore that would fit in well at a show where half the bill was composed with northeast-Mass metal bands. This means heavily NWOBHM-inflected, though probably from different influences, and while this probably makes them too poppy or "posi" for the xPunchxYourxFacex crew and the like, they played some decent music, especially starting off the evening's entertainments.

Rohirrim [6/7]
This was billed as a double-release show, but apparently MPD's CD hasn't got back from the production facility yet; hopefully they'll have them in by the next gig. Rohirrim, on the other hand, did have their debut record available, and did a strong job of advertising it with a really killer set. Despite the Wolverine mask that Brandon started the set wearing, their performance was mostly serious and thoroughly dialed in. Rohirrim are one of the few bands on this continent, at least that I've heard, to really get viking metal; most of the material they did in this one is best described as a slightly different take on classic Enslaved, though "A Grevious Gift" is heavily suggestive of Einherjer -- even the part that was announced as a break for people who really like Type O. They've come a long way since I saw them early this summer, and it's going to be really cool to see them at Welfare Records with a more extreme surrounding bill.

I got their CD, of course, but haven't listened to it yet; I've got a crapload of stuff to do before I go to Finntroll tonight, and Monday isn't going anywhere.

Rend The Veil [4/7]
I'm not much of a hardcore fan, but I do know what a clipped amp sounds like, and I can accordingly say with a fair degree of confidence that this set would have done better and been better received if they guitarist hadn't had his amp clipped out too high for his speakers. Personally, I thought it sounded terrible in several spots, and good when he was using settings that did not get the signal mutilated, but if he actually likes the clipped-over tone that they opened and closed with, more power to him. The band played a decent set of by-the-numbers HC, and seemed a little disappointed that a giant arena opened up in front of them with no one to fill it. They probably do much better and have much better crowds when they play with all hardcore bands instead of half-hardcore, half-metal, but that's a hazard of them playing shows like this -- and doing shows like this without getting more of the doods who saw them with Killing Kings the previous night to come over and support.

Another reason that a huge void opened up is the presence of ninjas. When you have a metal pit, as happened during all of the metal bands on this gig, and get mostly doods pushing each other around, more people will jump in. When you have three guys throwing spin kicks and doing somersaults, your pit will be those three guys, and if they get tired or go get a beer, nobody will go in the pit, because they don't want to get kicked in the face. The way to fill in a pit like this is either a) don't book bands that draw ninjas or b) draw more ninjas if you're going to going to book HC bands that play dojocore. The idea of splitting a bill half-hardcore, half-metal, is a good one in the abstract, but you need to draw more hardcore fans to make it work, or book different bands so that the ones who come will also go in the center, unafraid of losing teeth.

Indignation [6/7]
It's moving by fits and starts, but in this set Indignation played, if I remember correctly, more originals than covers, which is a definite step forward for them. I've written elsewhere about the unique way that this band has developed from hardcore into power/thrash metal, so it may not be necessary to repeat; what should be repeated is that if you're in the area, this band is not to be missed; mostly for the music and the pure power of their delivery, but also because one of their sets is probably the only place in the world that you're going to see girls grinding on each other to somewhat obscure Megadeth songs (yes, most casual fans don't know "Tornado of Souls", and yes, that's an injustice, but we have to deal). They went back to their oi! roots on their last song, but through the whole of their set, there wasn't really anything that wouldn't appeal to both the hardcore and metal audiences in attendance, which is how it should be.

I got a sticker from Justin of their PBR logo, and I'm uncertain what to do with it; it'll probably go on the men's room wall at the Palladium early at the Municipal Waste gig next week. The HC-rooted thrash revival is the people who need to hear Indignation who haven't yet, and a Peeb logo over the john is the way to catch their eye.

Only Ash Remains [4/7]
This was the promoter's band, and the cynical out there might conclude that the sole reason that they got on the bill was that the guitarist was the one who set it up; this fortunately was not the case. Their set consisted mostly of run-of-the-mill metalcore, but it was executed strongly and with a proper sense of itself, so nobody there who was into this style of music could have been disappointed. I'm not crazy about it myself, but the execution was solid, and they definitely deserved their slot.

My Pet Demon [6/7]
Though they got cut off at the end by a little bit, this set still kicked a lot of ass. As mentioned, they didn't have CDs available yet, but they did play a bunch of stuff off the forthcoming record, which still seems to be as cool as anticipated. "Raise The Flag" was killer, and got a nice pileup from the crowd; their blues-based thrash attack meshed well with the surrounding hardcore lineup, which bodes well for future gigs here, especially the next on the slate, on the 12th. They closed with a novel change, putting Kenny on drums to bring Matt out for vocals on "Fight For Your Right", and didn't give in to the few voices needling them to play old stuff -- which they're probably quite glad to let slip out of memory.

All in all, a cool gig, and I'll probably be up again in three weeks. I wasn't able to get MPD on disc, but all this means is that we'll have to wait a little longer to get the new stuff -- some of which hasn't been done live yet -- and visually confirm that I got into the thankslist.


This weekend, I also incidentally dug up the remaining portion of my old cassette tapes for review and potential posting; in addition to typical juvenalia like Silverchair's debut and Diabolus In Musica (which doesn't suck as much as advertised), this includes Medieval's only label recording (AFAIK) and a first-run copy of The Number of the Beast. Rare and out-of-print stuff may be converted and up here; all in good time, and probably after November. I've got two rather ambitious projects lined up for ~130K words estimated, and not only will this kill the whole month, going through the research materials will take most of October as well.