Thanks Baltimore, this crow is delicious. Saturday February 11, I witnessed a lively and robust metal scene at Overlea Station. Mike Dee did not dissapoint with his annual Drinkin With Lincoln Fest. Things started off with a really cool up and coming grind band called Universal Remonster. These guys have been hitting it pretty hard paying their dues opening up shows for awhile now. This was probably the best I'd seen them play. Really fun band, and cool guys to hang out with too. Next up was a band I've been really impressed by. I first saw Drunk Monk this past Halloween at The Baltimore Free Farm. These guys are doing something really interesting and I've found them to be the most enjoyable local band I've discovered over the past year or so. They play an instrumental doomish surf/psychobilly style that is truly hard to explain without doing them an injustice. You really need to get out there and check out Drunk Monk if you have not yet done so. The always impressive tech/prog metal awesomeness of Balor's Eye was to follow. These guys are another band I get pretty excited about seeing. If you haven't seen them, you're missing out. My band, Shakeface, played next. I don't feel comfortable critiquing from the opposite side of the stage, but I'd love to hear what anyone in attendance had to say about our set. Now, at this point I have to address the food at Overlea Station. During a long show like this I had to take a second to sit down at the bar and enjoy a meal. I've been raving about the cheeseburger at this place for a long time now, and true to form that's what I got. My girlfriend got a crabcake sandwich, which was god damn amazing. If you go to a show at Overlea, make sure you take a break for some food. I didn't really see Lifetime Shitlist play, but they sounded good and they must have done something right. When I returned, an already good show had really come alive and become something I hadn't seen in years. It was perfect timing that Fuck U All was just coming on. You should already know who these guys are if you follow metal in Baltimore at all. They fuckin' killed it! It was a blast, people were into this shit like it was 1998 or something. Top honors of the night have to go to the awesome crowd that showed up and participated in this. Weed is Weed came up after FUA, I was loading my equipment out by this point as it was getting pretty late but if you dig some slow stoned out jams, give them a listen. Closing the show out was Mike Dee's band Monger. I didn't see much of this but I heard Mike was wrecked, so it had to be fun, as it always is when Mike takes the stage. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I really needed to witness a night of carefree metal partying.
It's been awhile since my last post. I've kinda been thinking about the blog and how I'd like to revamp the format. Covering shows is awesome but it makes the show a little less fun for me when I am worrying about how I will have to account for every second of the show. It makes shows feel more like work than a good time. In the future I will still be covering shows, but only the noteworthy sets. I'd also like to keep a running list of upcoming shows that are worth going to, so if you have a show you think people need to know about please feel free to email me here. I'd also like to open up topics of discussion and get a little more positive feedback and involvement from anyone who reads this and has an opinion to share. Interviews with local musicians will be another thing I'd be open to doing, so again just send an email if you'd like to be featured. I can't always get pictures and videos from shows so it'd be much appreciated if anyone who does get them could send them to my email. I'll also be mentioning an album or two you should check out. This time, I'd like to recommend Throwdown's 1999 release "Beyond Repair". It pretty much got me started in wanting to play music. I hope you'll find some inspiration in there as well.
The discussion topic for this edition is something brought to my attention by the bass player in Shakeface, Ed Vaughan. It's the rampant misuse of Facebook as a promotional tool. There is a lot of good that can come from Facebook and social networking in general, but as we saw with Myspace, if you overdo it and become annoying and trite... it will bring a collapse to the entire system. I'm not sure what compels bands to take the cheap route of like-whoring on facebook but it's fucking lame. If you are on facebook begging people to click some stupid button just so a worthless number you obsess over will increase you are cheating yourself. Get off your computer and go hand out some sampler CD's or fliers for your next show. You do have shows and recordings to promote right? Or is it just a brand you're pushing? People go to shows to hear music. They will be far more receptive to your spam when it's directed at the right audience and done in person. People get on facebook to do a lot of different things, but most of the time checking out your band is not high on the list. If your friends like your band, they will hit that like button on their own. They'll share it because they want to. They'll be at shows where they can be reached by other similar bands. Stop being lazy and expecting everyone to promote you, take advantage of the new faces at shows you play and have a conversation. Make some friends even. Superficial "likes" will get you nowhere. Even worse, you don't even have an accurate read on whether or not what you are doing is working because you haven't let that number climb naturally. Like-whoring is a lot like taking steroids, you might appear to be bigger and better. But you know in your heart you cheated, took the easy road and ended up with tiny balls. Make real life connections, they are far more valuable than you could ever imagine.
Next time I'll have a fresh list of shows for you to get out there and go to, my experience this past Friday night at Baltimore Free Farm's Zombie Prom, an Interview with Bryan and Paul from both Butcher's Hill and FUA, my thoughts on the pros and cons of Maryland Death Fest and what album I've been listening to while I write. Thanks for reading, hope you check back for the next one.
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