real blood and large chunks of meat

On friday I was feeling pretty much like burning shit down. Like a buzzard having a mirage. You know how it is, this whole existentialist angst/thinking about bullshit/being a downer. So I decided to do one of two things, or both, despite the fact that i had to go to work the next day, like a rube. The first was go to a loud rock show. The second being, drink until I couldn't feel feelings anymore. Being low on cash I couldn't make it to the Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost show, it was like 40 bucks. I couldn't make it to the Behemoth show because it was sold out, there were some other kick ass bands playing but I don't remember who they are right now. All I know is that Watain had to cancel, which was too bad since word on the street is that in addition to fucking rocking their last show include real blood and large chunks of meat. That's metal as fuck. Thus I decided to go check out the show at Subterranean, Raw Nerve, Ceremony, The Ropes, and Divine Right. I'm not saying it was the lamest show of the night, because it turned out really to be exactly what I needed.

I got to Milwaukee and North surprisingly fast. Almost too fast. My original plan was to go drink at Estelle's while waiting for the doors to open, but the bar opens at 7, which was the time doors opened at Subterranean. So I ended up standing in line. Last time I was standing in line at SubT it was for the Wavves show, talking to some kids and smoking some pot with one of them, good times. This time I just looked at the general drama of North and Milwuakee. Door opened and everyone trudged, handing their cash or presenting tickets, then getting their bags checked out by some other, the final dude was in charge of putting on the 21+ wrist bands on people. He said, "This wrist band will allow you to get back into Subterranean AND get wasted." I said, "Good deal." Subterranean is a pretty cool place, I haven't been there a lot, I've been there at least twice. You know how it is. I walked around and checked the merch table then I went to get a beer. It was freaking cool that they had 3 dollar Point Pale Ale drafts, which was delicious.

Divine Right came on first. What's up with that name? It sounds like a pro white power band, even though Divine Right totally isn't. They played a solid, enthusiastic set that would be perfect in some basement show. The crowd wasn't digging them, but I liked them. Good stage presence, but not even close to being loud enough.

The second band on was The Ropes. While they started up I was hanging out on the top floor of the place and getting down turn got hard because everyone else decided to go down as well. While they were heavy and finally loud, I didn't dig them a lot. They played some standard, "Open this pit up! etc" hardcore, which I don't hate, sometimes I love it, but they just didn't do it for me. The audience loved it though and the pits and rowdiness started up then. I continued to have beers.

I heard about Ceremony through a really unlikely source. Fucking Rolling Stone magazine. Weird huh? I was having lunch at the pizza place I like by work and was flipping through RS because I didn't feel like looking at New York magazine. What caught me was their name. At first I thought it was going to be some kind of downer electronic band, or at best a retro style metal band. RS described them as something ridiculous. Whatever the hell you call the music Ceremony plays is sorta pointless when they are bringing it on stage, and brought it they did. They were beautifully loud and played fucking good. Ceremony fucking Killed. I didn't love their slow stuff but maybe it's because it's not like straight up stoner/doom metal style. Everything else was great though. Huzzah's all around.

The last band of the night was Chicago's own Raw Nerve, playing their second to last show ever. They were pretty damn good, but seemed a little sloppy compared to Ceremony's uber tightness. Raw Nerve's set was energetic all around, everyone was jumping off stage and moshing like a bastard. Raw Nerve rocked some frantic freak out hardcore punk that night. A good farewell I thought, but I didn't go to the house show, which I'm sure was ridiculous. After the show I ended up hanging out with one of my friends and having a few beers with them at their crib before going home.

At first I was feeling some trepidation about going to the show, like maybe I should've gone for a walk or stayed home. I wasn't feeling IT all day. Just it in general. The cool thing about going to loud as hell rock shows is that I usually end up feeling a lot better about everything in general. It really boils down to if someone falls down in the pit, people will pick them back up again.

I didn't have any money to get a tshirt or a cd, but I had just enough to get a cool zine, Potential Friends #3. It's your standard size photocopied zine, focused around HXC and whatnot. The coolest thing about it is that it's packed with stuff, lots of pictures, lots of words, according to the maker #3 is half the size of the usual, wow! Totally worth the 2 bucks

I was suppose to go to another show on saturday but my friend who wanted to go up canceling, which was lame because I like going to weird things with my friends, but ultimately it was fine with me because I'm not even sure when I got to bed on friday night. I'm pretty sure the show was at Reggie's, some ludicrous sounding steampunk thing. Ah well. Plus I was slightly zombified after work on saturday, so maybe I wouldn't have been fun.