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.
Sunday
Sunday morning found us surprisingly chipper despite the
quantity of alcohol we had consumed the previous day and the fact that the
hotel breakfast featured powdered eggs. We caught a cab with our new Utahan
friends to the New Moon Café right around the corner from the venue for some
much needed vegetable action since everything we had consumed the previous 3 days
was deep fried, covered in cheese or both. Outside New Moon we met gent over
from Australia who was doing a U.S. fest circuit and ended up being one of the
coolest dudes we met.
By the time we made it to the venue Mania was already on stage. I hadn't heard Mania before, but I was aware that it would be one dude playing drums and singing and a laptop. The tunes were pretty decent and it was certainly interesting to see live. This dude should get together with the guy from Midnight and they would totally have half a band! Baby Boy was up next. I was looking forward to seeing their set but was only able to catch a few songs before my GI tract had other plans for me. I definitely dug what I heard however, as I'm generally a fan of post-hardcore. I then hit the bar for a quick libation and it was back upstairs for Sleepwalker. I wasn't huge on Fell Voices and not surprisingly I wasn't big on this either. It might be that the whole hypnotic/repetitive black metal thing just doesn't translate well into a live setting for me. I think I may just need to give some ear time to both of those bands and I might change my tune. A Scanner Darkly was one of the most anticipated sets of the fest for me since they were a band I never thought I would have a chance to see live. I absolutely love that EP, if you haven't heard it check it out, you can get it on the Gilead Media bandcamp page for free, I did a post about it here. I was not disappointed. A Scanner Darkly absolutely slayed and Adam did a killer job handling vocal duties. At a festival replete with black metal and doom, a little grind was just what was needed. After their set I heard a ton of people talking about how rad A Scanner Darkly was. Hopefully they'll receive an uptick in interest and Gilead will finally give their EP the vinyl treatment. Northless hit the stage next. Here we made a calculated decision. It was going to be necessary to eat at some point and the rest of the lineup was absolutely killer. It was decided to forgo Northless' set to get something to eat. In hindsight I completely regret this decision. Not only because they sounded awesome even from downstairs, but their set was one of the most pleasant surprises of the fest according to many I talked to later. If I could do it over again I would eat during The Body, who rule live, but I've seen. Hopefully Northless will tour out east at some point and I'll get to make up for my mistake. I headed back upstairs for Mutilation Rites. Those dudes fucking rule. Their brand of black thrash totally floats my boat and apparently it does so for many others because the 'bangers were out in full force during their set. I hadn't had a chance to hear much of their post-demo material at the time and much of what they played was off of their forthcoming album, but I'm looking forward to it. With the amount of slower and more atmospheric black metal at the fest, Mutilation Rites were a much needed kick in the teeth. The Body played next. They're always great and crazy loud live. Rob's probably going to gush over them when he writes his recap of day two, so I'll leave The Body to him. False was another band I was really looking forward to. I'd heard great things about their live show and they certainly delivered. I was towards the back of the hall for their set so I didn't have the best vantage point, but sure looked like people were going nuts up there and they sounded fucking great. "In The Key of Passive Suffering" was one of my favorite individual performances of the fest. After False we pushed our way up front for the band I was looking forward to seeing most, Barghest. Their self-titled is one of my favorite black metal albums in the last decade and I never thought I would have a chance to see them live. They did not disappoint. After Bargest, we didn't move an inch, staking claim to our spots in the front row and preparing for the pummeling which Thou was about to deliver. While Tyrant isn't my favorite Thou album, it does contain my favorite Thou song ever, "Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean," which Thou had never played in the handful of times I've seen them live. I honestly can't say I've seen anything quite like their set at Gilead Media Fest. Whenever I've seen them people have been into it, but this was on a completely different level. I was completely enthralled, managing to bang my head so fucking hard I thought my brain was going to come crashing through my forehead and being slammed about like I was at a Converge show. Un-fucking-real.
Sunday
Despite my dear friend Pat"s rosy disposition in regards to Sunday morning, I myself, was just a little worse for wear. In desperate need of vegetables, we sought them out and were triumphant in scoring our first and only "healthy" meal of the trip. We quickly downed our breakfast veggies and headed outside to make our way to our next stop. As Pat stated Troy (the Australian) was super nice and a hell of a story teller. After trying, unsuccessfully to score some more Hopslam's at Peabodys (What bar isn't open at 12pm on Sunday for Christ sakes!) we made our way to Electric Lounge. We immediately descended on the bar and ordered a few drinks while Mania was playing upstairs. I knew nothing about Baby Boy, the next band up, which is somewhat surprising considering I've been friends with the Thou boys for years. What I heard from downstairs was killer, but alas I was caught up in conversation and missed their set. At this point I physically pried myself of my bar stool and headed up to check out Sleepwalker. Comprised of members of both Ash Borer and Fell Voices, Sleepwalker's brand of post-rock tinged black metal was quite good, but not nearly as good as either's individual output. Next up was a band that I had only been introduced to recently (thanks, Pat). A Scanner Darkly, yes, yes, and more YES! Fronted by none other than the one and only Adam Bartlett (I do hope he continues to work with them because he seemed so natural),they tore it up. A.S.D.'s sci-fi theme grind was a welcome change of pace, simply awesome stuff. During Northless Pat, Zeke, and I decided it was nacho time again. We had to, they're that good! I know their set was awesome and a highlight to many, we did hear their tectonic shifting heaviness from downstairs, but we can't undo what has been done. Mutilation Rites were simply unstoppable. I agree 100% with what Pat has already stated about these guys. Ah...The Body. I'm not going to "gush", merely explain. The Body are not reinventing the wheel or "pushing" boundries. What they are doing, is pushing air, massive amounts of it. Chip's guitar set up can literally level buildings. The moment when he switches from clean to distorted is a truly physical experience. It's like being wrapped in a fuzzy blanket that continually punches you in the face and stomach while asking " You need anything? Drink, food, some money?". I love it. False played next and they killed it. A super assault of misanthropic black metal, False set out to tear the Electric Lounge a new one and they most certainly succeeded. We had now come to the main event, the one two punch of Barghest and Thou. What can I say about Barghest? What can I say about Thou? ...Transcendental. It was the finest hour and forty minutes of music I have witnessed in quite a long time. Planted right in front of the stage, letting the razor sharp riff of Barghest tear me apart and then the massive chords of Thou crush my soul, I could not have been happier. Full body bangover was eminent. It was the perfect way to end an already stellar weekend.
In summation, this was pretty much the best thing ever. I feel bad for those who weren't able to make it. Gilead Media Fest was a perfect combination of amazing bands, incredible people and an excellent venue. It was truly something special. I hope Adam does it again next year, though if he does I hope he a) books a few crappy bands or b) pencils in some extra time in between sets, because there was way too much awesome happening all at once and it was impossible to catch it all.
Ditto
By the time we made it to the venue Mania was already on stage. I hadn't heard Mania before, but I was aware that it would be one dude playing drums and singing and a laptop. The tunes were pretty decent and it was certainly interesting to see live. This dude should get together with the guy from Midnight and they would totally have half a band! Baby Boy was up next. I was looking forward to seeing their set but was only able to catch a few songs before my GI tract had other plans for me. I definitely dug what I heard however, as I'm generally a fan of post-hardcore. I then hit the bar for a quick libation and it was back upstairs for Sleepwalker. I wasn't huge on Fell Voices and not surprisingly I wasn't big on this either. It might be that the whole hypnotic/repetitive black metal thing just doesn't translate well into a live setting for me. I think I may just need to give some ear time to both of those bands and I might change my tune. A Scanner Darkly was one of the most anticipated sets of the fest for me since they were a band I never thought I would have a chance to see live. I absolutely love that EP, if you haven't heard it check it out, you can get it on the Gilead Media bandcamp page for free, I did a post about it here. I was not disappointed. A Scanner Darkly absolutely slayed and Adam did a killer job handling vocal duties. At a festival replete with black metal and doom, a little grind was just what was needed. After their set I heard a ton of people talking about how rad A Scanner Darkly was. Hopefully they'll receive an uptick in interest and Gilead will finally give their EP the vinyl treatment. Northless hit the stage next. Here we made a calculated decision. It was going to be necessary to eat at some point and the rest of the lineup was absolutely killer. It was decided to forgo Northless' set to get something to eat. In hindsight I completely regret this decision. Not only because they sounded awesome even from downstairs, but their set was one of the most pleasant surprises of the fest according to many I talked to later. If I could do it over again I would eat during The Body, who rule live, but I've seen. Hopefully Northless will tour out east at some point and I'll get to make up for my mistake. I headed back upstairs for Mutilation Rites. Those dudes fucking rule. Their brand of black thrash totally floats my boat and apparently it does so for many others because the 'bangers were out in full force during their set. I hadn't had a chance to hear much of their post-demo material at the time and much of what they played was off of their forthcoming album, but I'm looking forward to it. With the amount of slower and more atmospheric black metal at the fest, Mutilation Rites were a much needed kick in the teeth. The Body played next. They're always great and crazy loud live. Rob's probably going to gush over them when he writes his recap of day two, so I'll leave The Body to him. False was another band I was really looking forward to. I'd heard great things about their live show and they certainly delivered. I was towards the back of the hall for their set so I didn't have the best vantage point, but sure looked like people were going nuts up there and they sounded fucking great. "In The Key of Passive Suffering" was one of my favorite individual performances of the fest. After False we pushed our way up front for the band I was looking forward to seeing most, Barghest. Their self-titled is one of my favorite black metal albums in the last decade and I never thought I would have a chance to see them live. They did not disappoint. After Bargest, we didn't move an inch, staking claim to our spots in the front row and preparing for the pummeling which Thou was about to deliver. While Tyrant isn't my favorite Thou album, it does contain my favorite Thou song ever, "Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean," which Thou had never played in the handful of times I've seen them live. I honestly can't say I've seen anything quite like their set at Gilead Media Fest. Whenever I've seen them people have been into it, but this was on a completely different level. I was completely enthralled, managing to bang my head so fucking hard I thought my brain was going to come crashing through my forehead and being slammed about like I was at a Converge show. Un-fucking-real.
Sunday
Despite my dear friend Pat"s rosy disposition in regards to Sunday morning, I myself, was just a little worse for wear. In desperate need of vegetables, we sought them out and were triumphant in scoring our first and only "healthy" meal of the trip. We quickly downed our breakfast veggies and headed outside to make our way to our next stop. As Pat stated Troy (the Australian) was super nice and a hell of a story teller. After trying, unsuccessfully to score some more Hopslam's at Peabodys (What bar isn't open at 12pm on Sunday for Christ sakes!) we made our way to Electric Lounge. We immediately descended on the bar and ordered a few drinks while Mania was playing upstairs. I knew nothing about Baby Boy, the next band up, which is somewhat surprising considering I've been friends with the Thou boys for years. What I heard from downstairs was killer, but alas I was caught up in conversation and missed their set. At this point I physically pried myself of my bar stool and headed up to check out Sleepwalker. Comprised of members of both Ash Borer and Fell Voices, Sleepwalker's brand of post-rock tinged black metal was quite good, but not nearly as good as either's individual output. Next up was a band that I had only been introduced to recently (thanks, Pat). A Scanner Darkly, yes, yes, and more YES! Fronted by none other than the one and only Adam Bartlett (I do hope he continues to work with them because he seemed so natural),they tore it up. A.S.D.'s sci-fi theme grind was a welcome change of pace, simply awesome stuff. During Northless Pat, Zeke, and I decided it was nacho time again. We had to, they're that good! I know their set was awesome and a highlight to many, we did hear their tectonic shifting heaviness from downstairs, but we can't undo what has been done. Mutilation Rites were simply unstoppable. I agree 100% with what Pat has already stated about these guys. Ah...The Body. I'm not going to "gush", merely explain. The Body are not reinventing the wheel or "pushing" boundries. What they are doing, is pushing air, massive amounts of it. Chip's guitar set up can literally level buildings. The moment when he switches from clean to distorted is a truly physical experience. It's like being wrapped in a fuzzy blanket that continually punches you in the face and stomach while asking " You need anything? Drink, food, some money?". I love it. False played next and they killed it. A super assault of misanthropic black metal, False set out to tear the Electric Lounge a new one and they most certainly succeeded. We had now come to the main event, the one two punch of Barghest and Thou. What can I say about Barghest? What can I say about Thou? ...Transcendental. It was the finest hour and forty minutes of music I have witnessed in quite a long time. Planted right in front of the stage, letting the razor sharp riff of Barghest tear me apart and then the massive chords of Thou crush my soul, I could not have been happier. Full body bangover was eminent. It was the perfect way to end an already stellar weekend.
In summation, this was pretty much the best thing ever. I feel bad for those who weren't able to make it. Gilead Media Fest was a perfect combination of amazing bands, incredible people and an excellent venue. It was truly something special. I hope Adam does it again next year, though if he does I hope he a) books a few crappy bands or b) pencils in some extra time in between sets, because there was way too much awesome happening all at once and it was impossible to catch it all.
Ditto
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