Tom's Töp 10 Concerts of 2022

2020 seems like a long time ago, with the world coming apart at the seams and one of the few things we tend to take for granted is our ability to do what we want with our free time, one of those magical things is being able to go to a concert with like-minded individuals and experience music live. This immersive experience which I missed from March of 2020 through the fall 2021 edition of Decibel's Metal Beer Fest was a long time, something sorely missed, as my closest connection to live music was sharing memories with friends via late Friday night Zoom conferences conducted through March of 2020 and every week thereafter until this recent Maryland Deathfest, where the aptly named Heavy Metal Happy Hour got to be an in-person event as it was eventually intended to be.

Chicago Open Air 2017 Preview... With Some Thoughts!

Last year, the first annual Chicago Open Air Festival arrived, featuring mainstream metal bands like Rammstein, Disturbed, Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Breaking Benjamin, and Slipknot, alongside heralded underground bands like Carcass, Deafheaven, Gojira, and Meshuggah.  It was an interesting and pretty decent - if unspectacular - mix of metal that a lot of folks have heard alongside bands that hover in more extreme territory.  Also Hollywood Undead was there, which throws my perception of the whole thing off a bit.  I didn't make it to the festival last year, but I did catch the sterling aftershow featuring Carcass and Deafheaven, which was excellent.  Obviously a giant, open air metal festival in my backyard is something I want to support and attend, so I was eagerly awaiting news on this year's lineup.  Last week, the festival organizers announced the lineup for the second iteration of the festival, to be held at Toyota Park in Bridgeview (just outside Chicago) July 14th-16th.  Would the festival bring in more underground bands?  Would early-2000s alt-metal continue to headline?  Would 2017 be the year that puts COA alongside Maryland Death Fest or Southwest Terror Fest in the pantheon of American Metal Festivals?

Concert Review - Steven Wilson (Park West, Chicago, IL June 4,5 2015)

Since we had achieved the unimaginable by interviewing Steven Wilson in-person just over two years ago, Durf and I were determined to not miss him again as he came through Chicago late last week for two shows at Park West.  While we unfortunately fell short in terms of landing another interview, we were lucky enough to catch both shows between the two of us.

Check out our thoughts and some pictures of the show after the break!

Deafheaven Concert-Goers: Please STFU

<rant>

This past Friday, I ventured to one of my favorite venues in the city of Chicago, Bottom Lounge, to check out San Franciscan black metal outfit Deafheaven.  I had seen Deafheaven play once before; a sold out show at Subterranean, another Chicago venue who hasn't seemed to grasp the positive impact of air conditioning.  Thus, seeing Deafheaven play at SubT in the middle of summer when the place was packed to the gills was not very conducive to a pleasant concert experience.  However, Bottom Lounge had never steered me wrong before so I was convinced that my ideal live Deafheaven experience would be fulfilled.  It surely was and then some. The band played all of their latest album, Sunbather, in its entirety and even threw in a brand new song that was pretty solid.  Along with George Clarke's piercing screams, the guitars and drums were thunderous.  The band couldn't have performed any better, IMHO.  However, there was something amiss, which had nothing to do with band. Rather, all the ire I eventually accrued over the course of the evening was aimed towards my fellow concert-goers.

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Roads To One Small Venue

 It's been too long since a WDILF post has graced the pages of Brutalitopia, so it is making another triumphant return bringing, as always, a live clip that's well worth watching.  Today's American black-metallers are making their WDILF debut.

Check out who it is after the break.

 

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Revolution......Engage

First off, let me wish all of you out there a happy Friday the 13th!  It shouldn't be to hard to decide on what kind of movie marathon you should take part of today.

This weeks WDILF post comes from my recent, but not so surprising, metalcore obsession.  As the title may suggest, I'm certainly not pulling from any obscure bands here.

Check it out after the break. 

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Board It Up!

We apologize for again being inactive.  It's certainly been a busy past couple of months for everyone here. We're hoping to be able to post more content more regularly soon.  But until then, how about another WDILF post?!

Check out what live clip I have in store for you guys after the break.