It’s 3pm on a Sunday.
I imagine that most of America is doing something religious or family or sports-centric.
We are dressed in black, jetting down Sunset on our way to a metal show. This is our religion, it is our sport, and we are surrounded by our family.
I had been wanting to experience a Scion sponsored event since I first started hearing about them. As someone who has degrees in branding, this sort of corporate backed concerts seems to me to be the wave of the future. From friends who’ve experienced these events as both attendees and artists, I’ve heard nothing but good things. Well organized…the bands are taken care of (hotels! airfare! FOOD! imagine that!!)…it’s sad that these days that’s a novelty.
As we approached, our jaws dropped as we saw a line spanning the entire block and then some. The event was free, the bands playing are great…and people were taking advantage.
Luckily I know someone who knows someone, so we didn’t have to wait in that terrible line. Once inside, I was really shocked to see that, beyond a few scattered show focused pamphlets, there wasn’t an obscene amount of corporate branding.
After encountering what had to be the worst bartender of all time, we moved up to the stage for New Lows. Their frontman provided endless entertainment with his quips. He dove into the crowd a couple times, and seemed to be only barely caught. I dug their heavy hardcore sound, even though it was a bright, sunny 80 degrees outside.
After seeing Early Graves‘ set at Power of the Riff with new vocalist John Strachan, I couldn’t wait to see them again. Early Graves sounds like pain; while this set didn’t have the same aire of dispair that the POTR set did, it felt smoother and more machinelike. Strachan also kept the crowd entertained with his between song dialog…a stark contrast to the music but somehow fitting with the fact that it was 5pm and this was how we were spending our afternoon.
I split before Cro-Mags…I KNOW! But I had to proceed to my first Halloween activity of the month.
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