Forum.RttP{Grief/Magrudergrind in Baltimore last night}

So for whatever reason, I decided to make a five hour drive out to this show. Possibly because I thought I would never get a chance to see Grief again a while ago, possibly because it's fucking Magrudergrind opening for them and they never get old, possibly because it's a chance to be up north again if only for a shining moment. Anyway, the show was in a warehouse and actually reminded me somewhat of Olneyville shows. Bunch of hot sweaty people taking up all the space inside a dirtball room, quarterpipes on the sides of the walls, a cheap ladder serving as a rudimentary set of stairs to an upper level. But it was a type of environment I hadn't been in for ages and it felt good.

First band I saw I believe was called Marrow. They had two guitarists and no bassist. The vocalist was wearing a Ghoul shirt and the drummer was wearing an Exhumed shirt and basically...that's what they sounded like. Very Razorback-ish. I was pretty impressed.

The next band was Oak. Extremely doomy, their set was only two songs. The lights were shut off and candles and incense were burning. Slow slow slow, but with the occasional short blast beat part. Basically like taking Khanate, giving them deep growling vocals, and adding the occasional death metal part maybe like old Carcass. When I saw these guys a couple years ago in Providence, I thought they were boring (and also not fitting for the show they were on) but this was the perfect night for them.

After a band that I didn't really watch played, Magrudergrind was up next. The first obvious thing to note about this set was that Avi had a broken foot. No, he wasn't doing high jumps all over the place but he was still thrashing around, belting out the high screams, all that shizazz. The set started off a bit rough since RJ's guitar was having a bit of technical problems, but afterwards things moved smoothly. The pit very rarely got to the point where it was circular, but people were pushing each other all over the place. There was an encore consisting solely of the title track to Rehashed, after which point Avi announced "You guys gotta stop wasting your time on us and listen to the real music like Grief." Okay, whatever you say dude.

Sooooo, Grief came on. Being a warehouse show, by this point everyone was pretty trashed. PBRs and packed bowls were all over the place (though not in me since I was lame and sober and went to this alone, if anything I guess that means you get your elaborate review). People were falling all over each other. I guess you could say it was kind of like being at a Lightning Bolt show. The stage was so low and the building was so packed that it was easy to just fall on top of the band. The microphone got knocked over several times. Guitars became unplugged on more than one occasion. Giant waves of drunk and high doom fans were bursting upon the masses of the crowd like tidal waves in a hurricane. The set was maybe six songs or so, but they were all long and all ripped. The music was heavy as fuck and when it was over, I felt satisfied.

There were cops outside at the end of the Grief set. People were saying everyone should stay inside. I simply went out the door and around the building on the side the cops weren't blocking and just left. This was the part I knew would suck. Maybe if I had eaten more I wouldn't have felt so compelled to pass out in rest stops so often (which became especially evident after how relatively alert I was when stopping to get breakfast) but I didn't arrive home until about 8:20 in the morning. I was shaking like I had just walked into a blizzard in nothing but boxer shorts for half an hour by the time I got to bed, but was it worth it? Hell yes. Here's to hoping I can unfuck my sleep schedule by the time the weekend is over...