Ok, so as I said, ridiculously good night. I've got my head slightly more together now (somehow managed to actually show up to work this morning) so I'll try and write a bit about it. I'm still pretty ruined, brain-wise, so forgive me if it's not my best work.
Shit only got really crazy towards the end when Nasum were playing, so if you only care about the best part, skip down to where i've written "the best part".
To get things rolling, I drank half a bottle of bourbon before I left my house. Good thinking, Bar. Off to a nice start.
Got to the show, and the first awesome thing that happened was I found out that not only would I get to see the two advertised bands (NASUM and PSYCROPTIC), but also on the bill were local boys CAPTAIN CLEANOFF and English trio DYSCARNATE.
CAPTAIN CLEANOFF came on first, and I was pretty psyched because I just discovered these guys last week, and I've been listening to their full-length which is completely awesome in every way. At this stage, I'd had about 2 beers, on top of the bourbon from before. They didn't get long on stage, it was only about 20 minutes I think, but they tore through a bunch of the tracks from their full length and sounded really tight and brutal. Then best of all, they announced they were working on a new full length and played a couple of tracks from the upcoming one. Sounded good. The crowd had barely built up and it was basically just me and like 4 guys up the front headbanging while everyone else hung back and chilled. After their set, I picked up one of their shirts for nice and cheap. Sick design too.
CAPTAIN CLEANOFF
Next come the English trio DYSCARNATE. I'd never heard of them before, but they introduced themselves as "All the way from England!" and started ripping into their songs. They had a nice, full-bodied death metal sound, which surprised me because I'm always a bit weary of metal three-pieces in terms of depth of sound. The songs were catchy and brutal, I'm definitely going to check out their albums and see if they're any good. The guitarist/singer had a really effortless growl, which impressed me. Where a lot of vocalists seem to be really working to get their growl out, this guy seemed to do it really easily. He was really into it too, he kept imploring everyone to bang their heads harder at every opportunity. The crowd still was pretty weak down the front at this point, but one guy next to me seemed to know all the songs.
DYSCARNATE
Next up was PSYCROPTIC, and by this point I'd had 6 or 7 beers on top of that bourbon from before, so I'm pretty wasted and any thoughts I previously had of not getting in the pit went right out the window. I got right up the front, where by now a nice crowd had gathered. Psycroptic fucking tore it up. They were highly professional, and had a really sick sound, heavy and brutal but crystal clear, you could just hear everything Joe was playing on the guitar. Jason is a way better vocalist live than on record as well, he sounded a lot more death metal for some reason. As I said, I was right up the front and Jason noticed I was really into it and knew the songs, so at one point he held the microphone to my face but I didn't know the words, so I just screamed at the top of my lungs as forcefully as possible. It sounded pretty intense, it seemed to get a nice big cheer from the people in the pit.
PSYCROPTIC
Then, finally, NASUM hit the stage. Oh my god. It was so loud, so fast, so intense. The pit went pretty insane, everyone was wasted and just shouting "NASUM, NASUM, NASUM" in between every song, and you could tell the band was simply loving it. I don't think they realised they would be this well loved all the way out in Australia. Keijo from Rotten Sound, who was doing vocals, asked us to start a circle pit and that got pretty crazy.
AND THEN THIS IS THE BEST PART
As the pit got crazier, and crazier, the whole atmosphere in the place had exploded and the band were feeding off it something ridiculous. Keijo couldn't help himself and he dived straight into the pit and just started singing and moshing and circle pitting with the microphone. Now keep in mind I've had over 10 beers now on top of the bourbon - so Keijo is standing right next to me growling into the mic and he's holding it with both hands. I grabbed it with both of my hands on top of his hands and brought it close to my face and just started wailing and screaming at the top of my lungs into it, and just kept going and would not stop. Keijo had this look on his face like "whatever, this is awesome". Then a bunch of other guys joined in, sticking their faces into the mic and just yelling and growling into it. The noise in the fucking place was
insane. The band were still playing away, just moshing and loving it. Keijo was laughing and moshing.
So then he climbed back onto the stage and I looked up and I noticed some guy had climbed up there and grabbed one of the back up mics and was just screaming into it. So in my condition, I just thought "fuck it, me too." I went to climb on the stage, and I couldn't quite make so all the people in the pit lifted me up. I got on there and then there was no mic free so I just started heandbanging and moshing like a fool. Then someone - I don't know if it was the band or security - kicked me right in the arse and i went back into the pit where no one caught me and I just hit the floor but I didn't get hurt.
That was more or less the end of the show, but the atmosphere in there was SO awesome that when they finished playing, they didn't even go off stage. I am shitting you not, they just put down the instruments and jumped off the stage into the audience to drink beers and mingle. I got to meet everyone, including the guys from the other bands, and I have some photos of that to share. I was super drunk at this point so I apologise for the quality of the photos.
Crazy, crazy, insane night. Even with all the alcohol, I'll never forget it.
Me with Jon from Nasum:
Me with Urban from Nasum:
Me with Jason from Psycroptic:
Me with Ben from Captain Cleanoff:
This last one is Keijo from Rotten Sound/Nasum licking my face!
Unfortunately you can't see it because I'm a stupid drunk.
