|
|
Polluteme / Polluted Ezine / Music Reviews / The Underground Meltdown
Beatdown @ The Meltdown written by: Jacob Robison Every once in awhile someone grows enough balls to take a handful of the finest local bands around, rent out a building, and throw a killer bash. Russ Cantwell (Lil Pappy) of Lugnut Productions, along with the local hardcore band Flood, stepped up to the plate with his gargantuan testicles in tow and organized The Underground Meltdown, a seven-band metal orgy held on May 12 at the Jaycee's Building in Clarksville, Tennessee. Clarksville bands FSN and Flood, Murfreesboro's Gnosis and Abraid, and Nashville's End of Existence, Sub-Method and Malfunction Crew shared the bill on the day-long show. A couple hundred testosterone-driven metal fans showed up for what went down as being one of the best shows in recent memory (and I got the privilege of introducing the first three bands). On a more personal note, I would like to thank the hell out of whoever invented the wonderful pick-me-upper known as Yellow Jackets. If it weren't for those lovely yellow and black pills I would have passed out due to being tired on the drive down to Clarksville. Thank you.  FSN opened the show at around five o'clock (although I could be mistaken; I have absolutely no concept of time whatsoever). The four-man, one-woman band from Clarksville, Tennessee got the crowd pumped up from the get-go with their aggressive style of music. Vocalist Alexis Brown, guitarists Teads and J.J. Hankins, bassist Frank 'Stymes' Huggins and drummer Ben Ross clicked on all cylinders throughout their performance. The only technical difficulty that they encountered happened when Ben's pedal started fucking up on him; other than that their show went mistake-free. The crowd was a little bit bigger than the normal opening-band crowd, and several small pits broke out during their more intensely heavy songs. "Mind Fuck", the newest song from their set-list, was badass; this song got the best crowd response, and the band went fucking nuts playing it. By the time their set was over Alexis had re-injured her sprained neck (the injury originally occurred during a recent Battle of the Bands show in Nashville), so her mom ended up taking her home shortly after they broke their equipment down. That kinda sucked because we had planned on doing a full-band interview for the ezine. FSN did a helluva job of opening the show up.  The second band to take the stage was Gnosis, a four-man band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Vocalist Kevin Cole, guitarist Nick Brooks, bassist Brian Romano and drummer Kevin McHale got their set off the ground at around six o'clock or so. They had a setlist of nine or ten originals and a cover of "Seven Words" by The Deftones in their arsenal, and the foursome came ready to play their asses off. Sporting a sound that kinda falls into the rap/rock genre (although their newer material is losing a lot of the rap influence) a la Hed P.E., Gnosis got the crowd all kinds of riled up. Their performance was full of energy, with every member of the band giving it everything they had. Brian and Kevin were literally everywhere, from one end of the floor to the other. Kevin hit himself with the mic so many times that by the time their set was over the mic was damn near flat. Their performance provoked one of the biggest pits of the night as twenty to twenty-five people tried to kill each other. My favorite song that they played was "Anti-body". All in all Gnosis put on a helluva show and represented the Boro music scene with pride.  The second band from Murfreesboro in the line-up, Abraid, claimed the stage next. The five-man band - comprised of vocalist Tom Burns, guitarists Mason Dixon and Steve Ritchey, bassist Mark Anthony and drummer Preston Pickrell - began their assault on the Clarksville scene at around seven o'clock. They began playing to about fifteen people; midway through their first song the place was packed (everyone went outside to catch some air). They mowed through their set like a well-oiled machine, leaving a ton of bruised bodies in their wake. It seemed like the crowd didn't stop moshing for very long during their whole set, giving the guys onstage something to feed off of. Their set was full of energy (as usual). Unfortunately I'm still not familiar enough with their music to know the names of their songs, so I can't pick out a highlight. Well, except for their remake of Bad Company's "Feel Like Making Love". That was badass. They began the song by saying if 'you're born before '78 then you know who this song was written by, but if you weren't then we wrote it.' Funny stuff. Abraid is one of the most under-appreciated bands in the local scene. With the kind of talent that is in this band everybody should be talking about them. They simply rocked out. I munched on my third Yellow Jacket while the next band set up.  The first of the three bands from Nashville, End of Existence, laid claim to the stage next. The five-man band - vocalist Booger, guitarists Mikel and Doug, bassist Kenneth and drummer Matt (I forgot to get last names, and they only listed first names on their page) - kicked off their spot in the line-up at around eight o'clock or so after Russ introduced them. This was the first time that I've been able to catch a show by EOE, although I've heard a great deal about them. Pure unadulterated metal is the best way to describe this band. Their singer, Booger, reminded me of a little pit bull with the way he was pacing around and screaming; he didn't stop moving the entire time he was on stage, including between songs. Both of the guitarists, Mikel and Doug, showed off a lot of good riffs and talent throughout their performance. The rhythm section, Kenneth and Matt, laid down a solid foundation for the band's music for the rest of the band to feed off of. Seeing as how this was the first time I've been able to hear them, I am definitely not familiar enough with their music to know the song names. They impressed the hell out of me with their performance though. They've spent the past five years together as a band, and it was their chemistry and knowledge of each other that drew my interest. I can't wait to catch some more shows by this veteran band.  Nashville band Sub-Method took the stage next. Vocalist Nathan Ells, guitarist Tyler Bloomfield, bassist James Harvey and drummer Noah (I don't know his last name; someone email me and fill me in please-tribal@polluteme.com) began playing at around nine o'clock. They definitely had the crowd interested as upwards of seventy-five to eighty people crammed as close as possible to the band in order to hear them; they didn't disappoint. The foursome was definitely on top of their sound throughout their set. The only thing that I didn't like was that Nathan sang with his back to the audience for the majority of the time they were playing; other than that, Sub-Method had a damn-near perfect set. Nathan, Tyler, James and Noah were united as one big musical machine throughout their set. They broke out some new material that went over really well with the crowd. People went nuts during "Pulse" as one of the biggest pits of the night broke out in front of me. From out of nowhere bodies started flying and people started scattering. It was cool as hell. That was definitely one of the highlights to their set as well as the entire show itself. Sub-Method put on a killer show and had the crowd in the palm of their hand all night long.  Playing sixth in the seven-band line-up was Clarksville band Flood, a four-man hardcore band in the vein of Soulfly. Vocalist Mark Slaughter, guitarist Chase Seay, bassist Taylor and drummer Jason Payne kicked off their ass-kicking at approximately ten-o'clock or so (I'm probably way off in my time-guessing. Besides, who really cares anyway?). I don't remember Mark picking up his guitar and playing at all, a pretty big change for Flood. I could have missed something though; I was in fear for my life several times (not really but it sounds good). Almost immediately after they began their set the moshing started, and it didn't stop for a long time. They played everything off of their latest CD "Tripwire", as well as "Piss Ant" from their first CD and a couple of new songs. But the highlight of their show happened midway through their set when a massive pit broke out. Lil Pappy was moshing, as well as a few G.I.'s. To make a long story short, somehow one of the GI's got tangled up with Pappy and started punching him. Next thing I know there were ten to fifteen people all piled up and punching each other; basically just going to town on each other. Mark and Chase both threw their instruments down and came running to join the fun and protect one of their own, along with Malfunction Crew's singer Adam Jennings. After a few tense moments and some cussing, the pile was broken up and Mark and Chase both went back to their instruments and tried to finish their set. But the GI kept talking shit. Words were issued between Mark and the GI, so finally Mark said "Let's do this shit now", threw down his microphone and walked towards the prick who was going out the door. Mark and Adam, followed by at least fifty highly pissed off people, walked outside where the dude was hanging out by his truck. Nothing much came of the whole situation; everybody went back inside and Flood finished their set, while the soldier got in his truck and left. But that was some highly intense action. Only at a Flood show could that shit happen. It definitely made the highlight roll.  After calm was restored and Flood ended their set, Russ announced that Malfunction Crew was going to give a surprise performance during the after-party. Meaning that all people under the age of eighteen had to leave; that left around thirty something people for the Crew to play to. After setting up all their equipment and getting a quick sound check, the six-man band from Nashville was ready to kick some ass. Vocalist Adam Jennings, guitarists Beau Hudson and Clay Green, bassist Wes Kemp, programmer Jesse Freeland and drummer Chris Vondrak got the show going at around…you know what? Fuck it. I don't know what time it was when they started to play. Who the hell cares anyway? All I know is that one of the baddest bands around kicked so much ass in such a short period of time it wasn't even funny. Adam began by saying "Long live sloppy garage metal"; then the band proceeded to blow the thirty-something people away. They only played five songs, but those five songs were enough to leave one helluva impression. Midway through their set Clay and Adam dropped their pants and played the remainder of the show in their boxers, and to be honest I'm glad nothing flopped out. That would have sucked big time. Malfunction Crew put an exclamation point on the day's events, closing out a day of metal madness with an intense five-song set. This was one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. All seven bands were highly talented, and the crowd showed up ready to jam out. FSN, Gnosis, Abraid, EOE, Sub-Method, Flood, Malfunction Crew…seven bands, seven different sounds, one single day for five bucks; it doesn't get any better than that. Lil Pappy did a helluva job at organizing the Meltdown, and in spite of the GI incident the show went off without a hitch. The acoustics inside of the building were awesome, and each of the bands played their hearts out. I can't wait till it happens again. |
|