Saturday night’s show was scheduled to start at 7 p.m., but as usual, the first band was still setting up when I arrived at 8:15. Heed the Omen, one of the opening acts, had cancelled, which left a lineup of four out-of-town metal bands. There wasn’t a lot of variety on the roster; every single one was a five-man band — two guitars, one singer, one drummer, one bass, no women.
.
The first act was Solidarity, a fun, slightly punk-ish metal band from Wisconsin.
.
With an exuberant, bouncing, shouting style, Solidarity sounded a teensy bit like the Beastie Boys. Hopefully they won’t take that as an insult.
.
The second band up, Suicide Silence from California, started their set off with samples from Family Guy and then went straight into the screaming. They encouraged headbanging in the audience, which is great, but they pushed it to the exclusion of all other forms of music appreciation. There were several fans of hardcore music dancing in the back in a flailing, kicking style. “Come on up here,” the lead singer mocked them. “You don’t have to take karate lessons. You just have to bang your head.” Some people kept dancing anyway, but many stopped. (More on this later.)
.
Suicide Silence: Heavy metal concert or shampoo commercial? You decide.
.
Despite his lack of flowing locks, the short-haired lead singer still banged his head with the best of them. I tried to sqeeze my way to the front to get a better shot of him…
.
Wow. I’ve been body-slammed more than once in my day, but being punched was a first. My camera and I went flying — separately. Instead of a great photo of Suicide Silence’s lead singer doubled over howling, I got this. I’m rather bruised (I’d post pictures of my knees, but leg pics are way too MySpace for my style) but, fortunately, my camera is just fine.
.
It was Boston band Diecast’s first time in South Dakota. Like many bands do, they urged the audience to come closer to the stage. Unlike many bands, they did it in an original way: “There is a bear at the back of the bar, and we haven’t caught it yet. Move to the front for your own safety.”
.
Diecast also headbangs with gusto, and they have the credentials to prove it: their video for “Face Away” just premiered on MTV2’s Headbanger’s Ball on Nov. 18. You can stream the video at mtv2.com (scroll down a bit). It’s also on youtube.
.
The lead singer of Diecast had that Pantera roar, but he threw in some real singing too.
.
They looked good, but the sound was rough — and it wasn’t their fault. Much of Diecast’s performance was plagued by a weird screech. It wasn’t until the set was almost over that the cause was determined: the drummer’s microphone was broken, and some mechanical bit inside was complaining.
.
Suicide Silence, Diecast (above) and Sworn Enemy are on tour with Sepultura, a legendary metal band from Brazil. The Venue 8 couldn’t afford to book Sepultura, so Rapid City only got the opening acts. The full show went on Friday in Denver and Sunday in Fargo.
.
Diecast’s guitarist was really into the music; his face seems curiously peaceful for such raging sound. The band’s final number was a cover, which the audience chose by shouting for one of three choices — Slayer, Pantera or Bon Jovi. I screamed for Slayer, but Pantera won. I’m pretty sure the people rooting for Bon Jovi were joking.
.
The last band of the night was New York-based metal act Sworn Enemy.
.
It was another band with a Pantera-style scream. Technical difficulties with the bass abounded, but Sworn Enemy plowed through their set anyway.
.
I kept my distance from the mosh pit, sticking to photographing at the far right and far left of the stage where I wouldn’t get trampled. There weren’t that many people in the pit, but boy, were they ever enthusiastic.
.
At the far right of the stage was this guitarist.
.
And the guitarist’s sweet guitar.
.
Guitarist at far left…
.
And his sweet guitar. “ROCK” is tattooed across his fingers; I initially thought it said something that would render this photo unpostable, but no, he just likes to rock.
Sworn Enemy’s set was cut short by even more technical difficulties, and the show ended prematurely. Clearly the audience hadn’t had enough — they repeatedly called for one more song as the band dismantled the drumset and unhooked the mikes. But there were no encores.
And now, back to Suicide Silence’s comments on dancing. Encouraging headbanging is fine, but why call out people dancing differently? Jack, a local hardcore fan among those dancing, met with Suicide Silence after the show and asked them about it. He’s going to write about that conversation on his MySpace page later this week, but in the meantime, let’s discuss it here.
It seems to me that Rapid City’s scene is too small to split up into genres; for example, if hardcore fans were alienated from metal shows, attendance at metal shows could drop so much they would be unsustainable.
What do you think? Is there room for everybody at the headbanger’s ball?
