Show Review: Job For a Cowboy, Skeletonwitch, A Life Once Lost and Misery Index- December 17th in Philadelphia, PA

Last Friday, my good buddy and I made the trek up to the First Unitarian Church to catch the Philly stop on Job For a Cowboy's latest jaunt. Neither of us had ever been to the church before, but we had both seen JFAC in the past, so we were interested to see how everything would play out.

Trap Them was supposed to be the first band of the night, but they had to drop off the tour for reasons of their own, which was no skin off our noses. They're fairly lame anyway, and that just meant we got to see Misery Index that much sooner. While it seemed kind of unfair to have a band as accomplished and seasoned as MI play first, before all the younger bands, that didn't stop them from bringing the heavy. This marks the third time I've seen Misery Index, and thus the third time they've kicked their fair share of ass. When the grooves and blasts got going, they looked as furious as they sounded, plowing through songs like "The Carrion Call", "Traitors", "Conquistadores" and more with ease. A few people moshed, but for the most part the crowd stuck to the basic head banging and horn throwing. When they wrapped up, they invited anyone who was willing to help them break down their equipment, and this allowed yours truly to meet and chat with their drummer, one Adam Jarvis, who incidentally is a very nice fellow. Good on ya, sir.

Next up was A Life Once Lost, the one band on the bill that I knew would attract the dancers, and lo and behold I was right. I discreetly made my way to the back of the venue for these guys, and sure enough, as soon as the mandatory "What the fuck is up, we're A Life Once Lost, let's fucking do this shit" sounded, about three or four kids started hyping up by hopping around like kangaroos. As expected, their performance was energetic due to the relative simplicity of the music, and the only moshing that happened was the same handful of dancers doing their thing. However, no fights broke out, and as far as metalcore goes ALOL isn't that bad, plus they played the one song I knew/wanted to hear, so it wasn't that bad. I give them a solid six out of ten.

Alright, so now that we'd gotten the breakdowns out of our system, the next band on the bill was the complete opposite, brimming with solos and nostalgic thrash riffs. I had no sooner worked my way up to the front of the stage when Skeletonwitch started off with a bang, and I immediately got sucked into a small but dense and enthusiastic pit that just didn't seem to end. Needless to say, the crowd response for this band was extremely warm, and rightfully so. These guys are a perfect throwback to the glory days of metal, combining all the best elements of thrash and melodic black metal. It's all about beer, headbanging and Satan-worshipping for Skeletonwitch, and there was plenty of all three (which was ironic, seeing as the venue is literally a church basement). Good moshing, a few stage divers, shredding solos and enough windmilling hair to make anyone dizzy; these things are all in a day's work for Skeletonwitch. Bravo gentlemen, bravo.

Last but certainly not least, after taking their sweet time setting up and soundchecking, Job For a Cowboy dove headlong into their set and didn't look back once. Now I must admit, I don't listen to JFAC much on CD, but they are a whole different monster on stage. Despite a dismal performance at the 2008 Mayhem Festival, I have seen this band three times now, and they have since proven themselves to be one of the most commanding live bands I've seen in years. Although there were a number of hardcore kids present throughout their set, there wasn't a single flailing arm or spin kick, and the pits, stage dives and crowd surfing were nonstop. For whatever reason there was a fill-in for guitarist Bobby Thompson, and bassist Brent Riggs was completely absent. Fortunately this didn't really affect their sound or performance at all, although it was very difficult to hear Mr. Not-Bobby-Thompson's leads over everything else at times. Regardless, they powered through their set nicely, playing gems like "To Detonate and Exterminate", "Unfurling a Darkened Gospel", "Knee Deep", "Bearing the Serpent's Lamb", "Entombment of a Machine" (complete with everyone screaming like an idiot and loving it, including me), and closing with "Embedded". Incomplete lineup notwithstanding, it was a very solid, commendable performance. This particular tour is pretty much over and done with, but if you do get the opportunity in the future to see Job For a Cowboy I highly recommend you do so, I know I certainly will.

All in all this one is definitely going down in the books as a good show. From making new friends, watching said new friends get really drunk and proceed to buy and don Skeletonwitch booty shorts, laughing about throwing change into the pit for A Life Once Lost just to see what would happen, meeting various members of Misery Index, Skeletonwitch and Job For a Cowboy, and giving JFAC drummer Jon "The Charn" Rice money as a donation for weed (I made him very happy), I think it's safe to say we had a blast, and I can't wait for the next one.

-The Baby Killer

The Baby Killer's Take Part II: Brutal, not Br00tal

Below you'll find another well worded rant from writer the Baby Killer. It's not about hardcore dancing necessarily, but it's definitely worth a read. Think of this as part two in introducing him as a writer. I insist you read on.


It's cute how people listen to some silly mainstream band like Atreyu, In This Moment, Bring Me the Horizon or something to that effect and think just because they listen to bands that have distorted guitars that they're "brutal" and that they have some semblance of a clue what metal is. Now, I'm not usually an elitist by nature, I'm normally pretty carefree. It's your right as a person to like whatever you want to like, and I try not to deride people for liking something that I don't, but seriously, this shit's gotta fucking stop.

Less than a day after the Mayhem Festival came to town this past summer, I noticed an outpouring of stupid preppy bitches ranting on their Facey-Spaces about "fucking shit up in the pit at a Lamb of God show my friend took me to at the Tweeter Center". Don't kid yourself slut, you were there to see Atreyu or Korn or Rob Zombie. You're just trying to look tough for your friends because, for some inexplicable reason, metal is rising in popularity, and you're subconsciously trying to stick with the "in" crowd. You want a real metal show, with pits that make even me nervous, someone who regularly attends them and has received more than his fair share of lumps in the process? Try moshing for Cannibal Corpse and see if you make it out alive. You want real metal bands, not trendy, flash-in-the-pan bands that are only popular because Hot Topic jerks them off? Try going to some shitty bar in south central Bumblefuck to see the underground bands that bust their asses trying to get their name out, and are willing to play at midnight on a Tuesday to seven other people, because those seven people are the real fans. They're the people that go to shows because they genuinely love the music and want to support the bands in whatever small way they can, not because everyone else is going to be there and there are a couple bands playing that you like because you saw one of their videos on MTV2 or some shit. Try going to shows for bands like Short Bus Pile Up, Gutted Out, Lethean, Cerebral Bore, Jungle Rot or some other band that you've probably never heard of. The tickets are cheaper, the bands are exponentially more talented, and the whole experience is so much more gratifying, because you know that you're contributing to something far more intimate and special.

The underground is where you'll find the true talent, the bands that are doing what they're doing because they truly love to, and are putting their blood and sweat into it because it means that much more to them. In other words, as cliche as it might sound, don't pay attention to the mainstream bands and stick to the underground. Mainstream bands are a given, and more often than not they end up becoming stagnant, boring and watered down, because the labels and industry executives find out what the general public likes and stick to it until the next big trend (aka "cash cow") comes along. The underground, unknown bands will always be the ones who never compromise or falter, and the fans who support those bands and go to the shows at the bars, fire halls, Elks lodges, church basements, etc. will always be the truest of the true. In fact, metal itself should never have been allowed to become mainstream in the first place.

Metal has always been about rebellion, individuality and anti-establishment mentalities, so becoming mainstream contradicts and undermines everything that metal supposedly stands for. It feels great to know that you like something that few others do, but now all of a sudden every fourteen-year-old girl with black hair and boy problems is wearing a Slayer shirt even though they only know "Reign In Blood" because they played through it on Guitar Hero. Sure, "Funeral Thirst" was and still is a great song. Sure, Job For a Cowboy has some pretty cool songs, especially in their more recent albums. Hell, I even like a good breakdown once in a blue moon. However, the point is the popular has now become the norm in metal, and as a result the lesser-known but undeniably more talented bands that I listen to are now frowned upon by the same exact people that claim to love metal. If you love The Black Dahlia Murder and Job For a Cowboy and Whitechapel, what's wrong with Necrophagist, Suffocation or Cannibal Corpse? Those guys are direct influences to the mainstream acts, without them they wouldn't exist. If you're so hard up for deathcore and breakdowns, why not listen to bands that have a great groove but are still brutal as fuck, like Dying Fetus or Abominable Putridity? And if you love those stupid clean auto-tuned choruses so much, why not listen to bands with naturally gifted singers like Dimmu Borgir or System Divide? For Christ's sake, ICS Vortex sang opera before he got into metal, he doesn't need any vocal processors, he's already got a beautiful, powerful voice that sends shivers up my spine.

In closing, what I'm ultimately trying to get across is that if you want to feel special, go out of your way to check out the underdogs. Every single day, I feel empowered, because I listen to music that is there for me no matter what, music that tells me I can be as strong and powerful as I want, as long as I stand my ground and never surrender, and these posers are actively eroding it out from under me. You think you're metal? I'll see you in the pit at the shows for Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Skeletonwitch and/or Deicide. Keep an eye out for me, I'll be the one caving your skull in with my boot.


How do you guys feel? Agree with the Baby Killer? Disagree? I know I completely see where he's coming from, but I actually love Lamb of God pits (see http://moshrebellion.blogspot.com/2010/10/sick-breakdowns-to-mosh-to-pt1.html) and am a surprisingly big fan of Rob Zombie. Weigh in below...