Those of you who read me regularly probably know that I am an unabashed fan of thrash metal. I especially love the classic 80’s stuff, but I’ve been getting into some of the newer bands too. This stacked lineup gave me a chance to see one of my old favorites in Exodus, and one of my new favorites in Power Trip. Adding legendary death metal unit Obituary to the mix was just a nice bonus. The tour was being billed as ‘Battle of the Bays’ (San Francisco vs. Tampa), and the show was on Tuesday September 26th at the Intersection in downtown Grand Rapids.
There was supposed to be another opener, but for some reason they were unable to join the tour until the next day. Obituary tweeted the set times earlier in the day, and Power Trip was supposed to go on at 7:30. I was flying solo but meeting up with an old friend who was coming later, so I was not interested in being too early. As I was getting ready to take off, I saw that the venue had posted Power Trip’s start time as 7:00. This changed the leisurely nature of my drive into a race and a frantic hunt for a decent parking spot. In the end, Power Trip started at 7:15 and I was able to catch a half hour of their 45 minute set.
I’ve had Power Trip’s new album Nightmare Logic on a pretty steady rotation since it came out earlier this year, but this was my first time seeing them live. The Dallas quintet has been through Grand Rapids as openers at least a couple times, it just never worked out for me to see them. Their combination of classic thrash, crossover and hardcore is as powerful live as it is on the record. At one point, one of the guitar players was having technical difficulties. The singer, as well as the rest of the band, didn’t seem to know how to fill the down time. It was a little awkward. Power Trip more than made up for it with crushing versions of “Firing Squad” and “Manifest Decimation” to close their set. It was also nice to see them draw some fresh blood to this mostly old man metal show.
The big room at the Intersection holds about 1500 people, but I don’t think it ever got half full. It was probably closer to a third. It wasn’t an amazing turnout, but it felt respectable for a Tuesday night. People were stacked several deep right in front of the stage, with a huge empty spot in the middle of the floor for the on again off again pit. The rest of us stood in a big semicircle to form the back perimeter of said pit. It was mostly a devoted, denim vest with patches kind of crowd. I also noticed that most people were drinking PBR. Is that a metal thing now too?
The music playing right before Obituary hit the stage was interesting to say the least. As the lights dimmed and the appointed time drew near, we first heard “Whisky Man” by Molly Hatchet. I assumed it was due to the Florida connection. Then came “Snortin’ Whisky” by the Pat Travers Band. I guess it was the whisky connection. Anyway, Obituary’s music stood in stark contrast to their Southern and boogie rock influences. They started off with a slow and crushingly heavy instrumental groove. They were more than five minutes into their set by the time singer John Tardy joined the procession.
I’m not really much of a death metal guy, but I do have a handful of Obituary albums. I also have a lot of respect for them. The Tampa five piece is one of the founding fathers of the genre. For 30 years, they’ve been cranking out the type of songs that inhabit your nightmares. Somehow, this was my first time seeing them and enjoying their dark imagery. The thing that I like about them is that the vocals are harsh and guttural without ever venturing into Cookie Monster territory. I really enjoyed their 60 minute set, although I only knew a couple of the oldest songs.
By now, I was continuously distracted by the large but sparsely populated pit. Constant vigilance was necessary to avoid getting smashed into, or worse yet, getting your beer spilled. There were a couple of those super annoying guys that were trying to get those of us around the edges to participate. There was even one poor hipster that appeared to be skipping. Around and around he went, getting what was undoubtedly a ton of cardio. It was definitely one of the least macho slam dancing styles that I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to witness. There’s no skipping in the pit kids!
Exodus was still using the cool zombie apocalypse backdrop from their 2105 Blood In, Blood Out LP. They played the title track from that album early on to a great crowd response. The other bloody title track, “Bonded by Blood”, got an even more enthusiastic reaction a little later on. I couldn’t help but notice that band leader and guitarist (and sometimes Slayer guitarist) Gary Holt was wearing the same black ‘Kill the Kardashians’ T-shirt that he wore when Exodus played the same venue with Testament a couple years ago. I hope he’s washed it since then. Speaking of guitars, they almost sounded a little thin after the downtuned madness that was Obituary.