Apparently I looked a little out of place last night. Maybe it was the door guy asking me if this was really the show I meant to be at, or maybe it was the bartender asking if I was waiting for someone, but I think the main reason I felt this way was because multiple people in the crowd struck up conversations with me throughout the night.
Talking to random people at concerts is, by far, one of the best parts of going to a concert. It is what keeps me going to these random shows where I know nothing about the bands or the music. Last night was a prime example of me being engulfed in a sea of extremely excited, pumped up people and going from a lone wolf to part of a dysfunctional family that came together through the love of music.
The music last night was not my scene. I don’t get that far into the whole thrash metal/ black metal scene. I don’t understand it. I think it’s boring and slow and old sounding. I think the people that get deep into this scene are a bit strange and, honestly, the fans intimidate me. They wear jackets covered in patches with band logos that are impossible to read, steel toed boots, ripped up jeans… they look hard. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not the most inviting looking person, but crowds at shows like this make me look like a Valley Girl. I usually feel like a bit of a metal kid when it comes to everyday life, until I go to one of these shows, then I feel like nothing short of a lost pop-punk puppy.
Last night was the first time where I interacted with this unknown crowd and it helped put me at ease and made me appreciate this whole scene a bit better than I did when I walked into the unknown, and frankly terrifying, territory. The people who came up to me were some of the nicest people ever. They were curious what a girl like me was doing all alone at a show like that. It wasn’t that they were judging me like I feel at some of the pure pop shows I go to. No, it was pure curiosity and I got it, I stuck out like a sore thumb.
One of the first guys to sit with me was very blunt about his questions. “What the hell are you doing here? Are you lost?” he said with a chuckle. I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. I explained to him that I was a live music junkie and was writing for the blog. He continued to question me about my music tastes and explained to me that none of that music would have happened had it not been for the two bands that I got to see last night. He was excited and kept on talking up these bands. Because of him, I found myself getting super pumped for some bands that I had never heard of but that were apparently legends…. or at least according to this particular guy.
Another new acquaintance of mine came to sit with me in between acts. There were only two bands on the bill last night and the headliner, Venom Inc., was slowly getting set up. He asked me why I didn’t look excited. To use his exact words… “Do you know who the hell you’re about to see?! Get up to the stage and get stoked!” He went on to explain to me the importance of these bands. He continuously called them ” Gods among men” and “pioneers of metal”. He got frustrated when he didn’t get the excitement out of me that he had been hoping for so he bought me a drink and finished the conversation with , “I hope you pull it together and meet me in the pit!” I never made it to the front of the stage or the pit mainly because there was no pit and I had a great view from the table I had claimed at the beginning of the night.
Apparently it takes more than some legendary pioneers of metal music to get people to leave their houses in sub-zero temperatures (the temperature when I was driving to the show was literally -4 and that’s not even the wind chill!). Even though the crowd was small, they were humbled to be in the presence of such giants and godfathers in the metal scene.
So maybe these random people that came up to me were right, I didn’t know what show I was at and didn’t truly appreciate it for what it was. Regardless, it was a decent show and the music was pretty good. It was easy to tell that they were some of the first death metal bands in the scene just due to the fact that the music seemed so much less extreme than the death metal bands of today. That being said, you could tell from their sound that they have influenced many of the bands out there today. The way they presented themselves, the way they played, the riffs they played, the way the crowd reacted to every move they made, it all made it clear that these guys truly are the real deal.
Last night was not my cup of tea but the people around me made me feel at home and I ended up truly enjoying the surreal experience of seeing two more legendary bands in an intimate setting that many people across the globe would kill for.
Line Up:
Venue: The Turf Club
Sausage Fest Meter- There were maybe five females (and that’s counting the bartender)
Crowd Surfers- None
Stage Divers- None
Drunkards Taken Out By Security- 1- This poor guy was so freaking excited to see these bands that he kept shouting and yelling… he didn’t even make it through the first song of the first band before he was passed out on the floor in front of the stage.
Drink of Choice for the Crowd- Surly Coffee Bender
Average Age of Crowd- 35
Overall Score- 5.3 out of 10
Show on Deck- the Your Memorial show on Saturday!!!
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