This past Saturday, I hopped in a van with Frank and a few of our homies and we drove down to Philly to attend the Decibel 100th Issue Anniversary show. Here are my vague recollections from that drunken evening.
After meeting up with our friend Mike Wohlberg for a quick bite, we arrive at the Union Transfer, and begin to park our car. We hear shots, and look at a gas station across the street from where we are parking, and see sparks coming out of a truck. Are those gun shots? Maybe the truck isn't starting? We see a man emerge from the back of the pick-up truck with a BMX bike, and he fled the scene immediately.
Moments later, the entire Philadelphia police force arrives at the scene. We later learn from a few fellow attendees that the truck was actually being shot at by another car. We didn't even get to the venue and we were already experiencing a drive-by. Decibel Magazine goes all out for their parties.
We arrive to recieve our limited edition Pig Destroyer flexi and hear the final few songs of Evoken's set, which sounded great.
We greet a bunch of friends and catch Tombs' set. Tombs sound as great as ever, and this is my first time seeing them as a four-piece and they sound way larger this way. Municipal Waste brought the party next and the pittage was intense. Philly certainly knows how to rage. They blast a bunch of confetti at the end of their set, cementing their status as the official party starters. They brought out Tomas Lindberg to do a cover of SOD's "United Forces" and I somehow missed it but they got dB Editor and Cheif Albert Mudrain to crush a beer bong!
During a set change, we talked past Liam of The Dillinger Escape Plan as we went to partake in some greenery so as to get "proper" for the next bands.
Tomas Lindberg of At The Gates was at the event DJing and made sure to come up on stage and reveal to the crowd the next lineup for the Decibel Magazine tour which will be Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death and Immolation. That's a sick-as-fuck lineup for this summer.
At this point, I was quite toasted but do remember being approached by videographer David Hall of Handshake Inc who was doing a documentary on the night's proceedings and Decibel in general. I then remember being thrust into a very bright room and David interviewing myself and Frank about Decibel's impact on us and metal in general. I hope I wasn't too slurry!
Repulsion slayed as Repulsion does. I then went outside to have a smoke with my buddy Bob from Relapse Records who would not stop talking about a killer band he just heard of named Gordon Bombay. He said their live show was unmatchable, with crazy pits and flying V's everywhere.
The stage was set, and I was perfectly intoxicated to witness Pig Destroyer. After a great introduction by the mighty Ian Christe, author of Sound of The Beast, Pig Destroyer came out and burned the place down. Well, figuratively. Unfortunately, it seemed like some technical problems prevented PxDx from delivering at their fullest, but it was still a powerful performance.
This is where things get blurry for me. I do remember seeing Baroness' John Baizley come up, in a surprise appearance to introduce Converge and talk about how much their music meant to him during his recovery process. It was a very touching speech and thankfully, a clip of this made it onto Youtube.
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Converge are absolutely unfuckwithable live. They are so powerful, I couldn't help but headbang. They played a great set and even brought Baizley back out to help them out with guitar on the track "Coral Blue"
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The night was over by 1am, and we started heading back to New York City. Decibel Magazine delivered a great show and a fun time was had by me and many others. Here's to another 100 issues (and then some!)
