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Tonight: Carcass

March 7, 2016

Carcass is a name that bears a lot of weight in the metal community. One of the pioneers of technical melodic death metal and grind, the band hit their stride most infamously with their seminal album, Heartwork; a daring display of brutality and harmonized chaos. After breaking up in the mid-90’s the band reformed roughly ten years later, and have since released Surgical Steel, a worthy album to add to their worshipped catalog. Tonight see’s Carcass on a rare Buffalo visit as they visit the Waiting Room, along with highly touted locals Gas Chamber and Rochester’s Blurring. This is one of those rare “I can’t believe they’re here,” show-of-the-year candidates. Certainly one of the most talked about metal shows in recent years. My advice: Get there early; tickets could sell out, and you don’t want to hear your friends talk about what a memorable time you missed out on either.

Today: Cold Blood MMXV

January 17, 2015

Good fests come along once in a blue moon, and, with respect to our lovely little wintry wonderland, are somewhat of a anomaly here in the Queen City. Oh sure, you have your Veggie Fests and Decency Rallies, but Buffalo is a “what have you done for me lately” kinda place. We are blessed in that sense. Buffalo breeds the toughest and the most dedicated. Not quick to rest on their laurels, the movers and shakers of the scene embody the DIY ethic that has made punk and hardcore the most significant form of underground music in the last 30 years. Case in point: Cold Blood MMXV, a 17 band first-run fest featuring some of the best and most rippingest (fuck a vocab) in local punk and hardcore (and a bunch of out of towers too) brought to you by Josh Smith, owner of Black Dots and Melody Seymour from[...]

Tonight: CAGES

January 10, 2015

“Vivipary” is the name of both CAGES‘ new album and a biological condition. Vivipary, because I am sure you wondering, means “development of the embryo inside the body of the mother, eventually leading to live birth.” Thanks, Wikipedia. I could clumsily try to walk you through how that process is mirrored on CAGES’ Vivipary, but I’d rather just ask you to sit with the image: the embryo growing inside the body, morphing from a distended hunk of cells into a semi-translucent thing with eyes into a fetus as alien as it is human which is finally, agonizingly brought into into a cruel and arbitrary world, a crying hunk of flesh covered in the primal slime and detritus of birth (and that’s if the embryo is lucky!). To me, that’s not a bad analogy for CAGES’ music. It’s beautiful and powerful in the terrifying, inhuman way that nature is. It pertains[...]

Tonight: Peterwalkee Records Fest – Day One

September 5, 2014

Labor Day marks the symbolic end of summer (of course the powers that be have decided to attach a stigma to a holiday celebrating the labor movement), but as long as there are festivals and gatherings, I like to think that there’s still a little warmth in our bones. And if the good times have to end, Peterwalkee Records Fest is a worthy last gasp. The two day festival kicks off tonight at the American Legion hall on Amherst Street. Admittedly, I’m not an expert on every single band on the bill, but to my ears the first night is the heaviest. We’ve got: Male Patterns: breakneck-yet-catchy punk from Albany JOHNS: dark, anthemic blend of punk and pop (but not pop-punk) Dead Unicorn: noisey powerpop from Kingston centered on the impending nuclear apocalypse Cruelster: speed up The Marked Men, piss ’em off, make it awesome and from Cleveland Resist Control:[...]