GRIND YOUR FACE OFF

People throw around the term "once in a lifetime" quite a bit. Sometimes it's accurate, but more often than not it applies to something completely meaningless or arbitrary, like a late-night TV infomercial or a car sale. This was not one of those times.

Hmm, put the three (arguably) best grindcore bands of all time on one stage on one night? Yes, please. Everybody wins. Granted, as cool as it looks outside, the Brooklyn Masonic Temple isn't the best venue for this kind of sound. But if you're at this show, you know all the words already, right? The only real complaint was the odd "get drink tickets at one counter, then walk over to the bar table and get drinks" system. And how the hell do you run out of beer at a show like this?? This isn't some straight-edge hardcore show at the American Legion. Still, I must give praise to the cute bartender girl, because she gave me mixed drinks for beer ticket value.

I was going to do a standard show review and talk about which songs got played and how great the show was (and it was). But that's been done to death, and there's something I noticed around the web regarding this show that I wanted to address. Namely, all the hate. Whether it was people whining about the ticket price ($25) or how the Repulsion guys are dicks or actually saying this show was put together by a bunch of hipsters(!!!), I was amazed at the amount of snarky bitchiness. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth; I know we're in a recession and all, but claiming the admission price for this show was too high and the bands were selling out is the epitome of scenester bullshit. Hell, I've been more or less unemployed since November and I still managed to scrape together some cash to go. It was one of the coolest shows I've ever seen, no doubt. I'm amazed at how concerned people are at who else is listening to the music they listen to. For the record, and from what I could tell, this gig was relatively hipster-free, and even if it wasn't...who cares? Pig Destroyer blasting through Piss Angel and Loathsome destroys all that is false.

Decibel magazine and the people behind it continue to impress me, and I can only hope this is the beginning of more mind-grinding events. Keep it up, folks.