BROOKLYN, NY—This was one of the most metal shows I’ve ever attended. In fact, being pretty metal, I would say it was probably even too metal for me.
It certainly ran too late for me. Being a New Jersey denizen in Brooklyn (I’m so New Jersey, I don’t even refer to Brooklyn neighborhoods, I just say “Brooklyn” like a geographically challenged tourist.), the “triple-headline” bill which also featured Brutal Truth in addition to Pig Destroyer and Repulsion didn’t see Brutal Truth get onstage until after midnight, and so I skipped their performance, which I’ve heard was respectable from reliable sources.
But in all honesty, the bill seemed backwards. Repulsion, the grindcore heroes of yore from Flint, Michigan, who were apparently pissed off about where they were in the ‘80s (Flint ain’t gotten any better since), opened the show. Being that it was their first show in New York City ever, despite being touted as one of the most influential grindcore bands of all time, they were the band worth waiting to see.
And it seemed the crowd agreed. While the show was homogenous in terms of fans (if you like any one of these bands, you like all of them), it did seem as if people siphoned off after Repulsion’s long set, though it’s hard to tell with the high smoker-to-non-smoker ratio at shows like this.
There was a humorous old school grind attitude mixed in with the usual New York heavy metal literati crowd (I can only imagine over half of the crowd was on a guestlist). Waiting patiently at the door for a drinking wristband like a well-behaved showgoing citizen, I witnessed two guys dressed like they were bad apples from Dazed And Confused, full on patched jean jackets, just bypass the front door bouncer altogether muttering about “Fuck this waiting in line bullshit.”
Pig Destroyer, if I must admit, was the band I was there to see, not being an aficionado of Repulsion and therefore impressed by their set but having no expectations. After their set, I feel like I did a bad job experiencing the show. Sitting back by the bar was really no way to see it, having first cut my teeth on Pig Destroyer at the edge of a pit and thinking they kicked all kinds of ass several years ago, my older, more jaded self at the edge of the room missed out on the fun.
And it was that older, more jaded self that couldn’t stay up to wait around for Brutal Truth. But as the start of the Blackened Music Series, I couldn’t think of a more metal show to be at that evening.
