Just under a month late! Here's our 3,300 word crappy, poorly proofread, under-edited review of Gilead Media Fest that nobody will want to read!
Commentary by Rob in
fuckin' italics.
Let me start by saying that Oshkosh, WI is an odd place. I haven't spent a
whole lot of time in the Midwest and am an East-Coaster born and bred, so everything
outside of Chicago on this trip was a little surreal for me. I had been told by
everybody that Oshkosh was a college town. I can get down with that. I went to
college in a town where little else other than the school existed and had a
blast. So when we got there a day early and hit the bars Friday night I
expected kids running wild in the streets like I was used to from undergrad,
but found none. It was dead, man. Maybe it was because it was the end of the
semester, but Main St. felt like a ghost town to someone used to everything
being overcrowded. Regardless, we made our own fun, had some $5 Bell's Hopslams
(!!!), made our way to a house show, found out that the stereotype about
Midwesterners being exceedingly nice is very much true and learned a valuable
lesson, if you need a cab in Oshkosh you damn well better call one in advance.
"Buy the ticket....uhh...take the ride." That particular line echoed through my head as Pat, Zeke, and I embarked upon our adventure. Although our trip never reached anything close to Thompson-esque levels, we did indeed enjoy ourselves to the fullest. Oshkosh Wisconsin is the cheapest place I have ever been, to drink. $5 Hopslams, $3 shots of Maker's Mark, PBR's flowing like water. This was my wonderland! Culturally it wasn't as much of a shock as it was to my compatriots, having been in this part of the country before a number of times, but it is still quite refreshing to experience. People in the Midwest are just nice. I have to agree fully with Pat on the fact that Oshkosh is weird. As a "supposed" college town, there is no one there. We seemingly had full reign of that town for the weekend. Glorious!
Saturday
Unfortunately, the very beginning of the fest was running up against the
first game of the Caps/Rangers series, so I missed
Darger + Plague Mother
and
Arms Aloft, who I was looking forward to seeing while sitting at the
bar downstairs. The Caps lost, but there was far too much excellent shit going
on to keep us down. The first band I caught was
Aseethe, who, to be
honest, didn't blow me away. I won't lie I was pretty distracted by the fact
that a rad time was being had by all downstairs, so I bailed part way through
their set. I'll have to seek them out and give them another chance at some
point. Next up was
Protestant. I dig me some Protestant, who I've somehow
managed to never see live. So what did I do? Totally got caught up in
conversation with Rob and the drummer from Loss and missed nearly their entire
set, just catching part of the second to last and last songs. What makes it
even worse is that we met the guitarist from Protestant at the house show the
night before (the one who isn't the dude from Halo of Flies, sorry I'm terrible
with names) and talked to him a bunch throughout the weekend. I'm an asshole,
please forgive me.
Get Rad was up next. I literally just checked them
out the week before the fest, but really enjoyed what I heard, so I was looking
forward to their set. In perhaps the least surprising turn of events ever,
their brand of gang-vocal-laden, upbeat hardcore translates really well into a
live setting. Theirs ended up being the most straight up fun set of the fest.
Check these dudes out, especially if you’re a fan of hardcore in the vein of
Suicide File. Then, in probably the strangest back-to-back combo at the fest,
Hell took the stage. Maybe it was
because the only copy I had was a super shitty sounding vinyl rip, but Hell
hadn’t really grabbed me in the few years since I heard
I, which is odd since sludge isn’t IN my wheelhouse, it IS my wheelhouse.
Turns out that once again I am stupid as shit, because two riffs into their set I
was fucking blown away. Sweet merciful non-existent motherfucking christ were
they heavy. Now my dumb ass has to track down
I on vinyl. After the Hell set I hit the bar only to find Rob and our
buddy Zeke hammering nachos. As per usual, the topic of conversation turned to
the movie
Alien and Rob and I decided
we want to get tattoos reading “They mostly come at night…mostly.” Again I
found myself so distracted that I missed part of a band’s set, it was
Fell Voices this time. Of all of the
black metal bands at Gilead Media Fest, they were probably the one I was least
familiar with. While I heard people raving about them later that night and the
next day I can’t exactly say they were the greatest thing since sliced bread,
since sliced bread is still pretty fucking great.
Ash Borer took the stage after Fell Voices and goddamn did they
slay. Their set ended up being one of the highlights of the fest for me. Ash Borer’s
riffs reach Weakling levels of epic at times, which is just about the highest
compliment a black metal band can receive in my book. I caught the drummer
outside after their set while grabbing a smoke and had an awesome conversation,
nice dude that one.
Loss closed out
day one of the fest. Unfortunately they had some sound issues that delayed
their start and the guitarist’s absolutely inhuman lows were pretty much
inaudible, but I still enjoyed their set as they ran through some of my
favorites from
Despond and it appeared some of the crowd did too, but there seemed to be fewer people there for Loss than Ash Borer. Fucking people, man.
Saturday
Considering the amount of alcohol consumed the previous evening, peeling ourselves out of bed seemed like a daunting task, fortunately it wasn't. I can say that I was pretty fresh and minty, excited about the day to come. When we arrived at the venue it was like heavy metal summer camp. Seeing people that I hadn't seen in quite a while and making all kinds of new acquaintances, was totally rad and a welcome benefit to the proceedings. The first person I ran in to was Kim Kelly. Many of you know her and those of you who don't should! An absolute sweetheart of a human being. She was always a champion of my previous band and a very welcome face. So I ended up talking to Kim for quite a while which caused me to miss Darger + Plague Mother completely. But what I heard from downstairs was quite interesting. Next up was Arms Aloft who I also missed, I know. I actually wanted to check them out but got caught up in a lengthy conversation with Jay and Tim from Loss (one of many that day, both excellent dudes by the way). Finally pulled my self away long enough to head upstairs with Pat to check out part of Aseethe's set. They were good but not mind blowing. I returned downstairs to hang with my buddy Matt and all of my new & old friends. At this point I was starting to loose count of the amount of drinks I'd had. Not to say I was sloppy, just happily maintaining. I, AGAIN, missed a full band set. Protestant was a band that I was totally looking forward to and missed it. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I only caught a bit of both Get Rad and Hell's sets. Totally impressed by both! I headed back down to the bar before the end of their set to grab another frosty PBer. There I encountered one of the most glorious things the Electric Lounge had to offer...their NACHOS! Jesus H. Christ they RULED! Once I finished that ridiculous plate with Zeke, I headed upstairs to check out Fell Voices. I truly enjoyed the black metal meets The Body vibe these gents had going on. Not so much sound wise as vocal wise. Any band that can project their voices without the use of amplification has my vote. Simply punishing stuff. Ash Borer was up next...and FUUUUCK were they unstoppable! As Pat stated previously their set was an absolute highlight of the fest. Back downstairs for another beverage and then it was time for the mighty Loss. If It hadn't been for the damned sound issues with Mikes vocals Loss would have been the set of the day for me. Regardless of shitty sound they laid down some seriously doomed out melancholia for the close of day one. Epic.
Somewhere in there we met a couple of excellent dudes from Salt Lake who
ended up being our drinking partners for the remainder of the fest, a farmer
from Arizona, a guy and his girlfriend who gave me a tape of his band after I complimented
his Rudimentary Peni back patch and tons of other rad individuals including Kim Kelly who I had somehow never met despite her knowing approximately half of my friends. After things
wrapped up we headed over to Cranky Pat’s with members of Thou, The Body
and other festival attendees, where I watched 25 or so metal kids absolutely
destroy the pizza buffet while I was busy wishing their crust didn’t have lard in it. Fuck
me and my life choices (not really, who the fuck uses lard in their pizza crust anyway?). Eventually Rob and I caught a cab to the
hotel and I passed out drunk, lungs screaming from the number of cigarettes I
smoked and vowing that I would catch at least the majority of every band’s set
on Sunday.
Cranky Pats for the third time in two days! Definitely the best of the trips. Sharing a table with Chip and Lee from The Body was a treat. Chip extolling the virtues of his beloved Dr. Pepper while the hordes descended upon the pizza buffet like ravenous beasts, was a great way to end the night! I have conveniently erased all memories of trying to get a G.D. cab in Oshkosh.
Check out our recap of Sunday after the jump.
