The Black Dahlia Murder, Hate Eternal Played B.B. King's; Dead Meadow Played Bowery Ballroom

Well, we all knew last night was going to be an action-packed adventure, but when all was said and done the evening far exceeded expectations.

I met up with crustcake photographer extraordinaire Jesse Angelo over at B.B. King's in wretched Times Square around 9pm expecting only Decrepit Birth (the first band of four) to have played so far. Instead, headliners The Black Dahlia Murder were already on the stage. So we had evidently missed technical death metallers Hate Eternal and ball-grabbing, NWOBHM-reviving 3 Inches of Blood...

[The Black Dahlia Murder]

After chatting with Axl and Vince of the mighty MetalSucks.net (who've written a fantastic review of the show), we learned that Hate Eternal had been delayed and the plan was to have them play later in the evening. Well, The Black Dahlia Murder finished their set (tight as ever, including new drummer Shannon Lucas, formerly of Boston's All That Remains) and still no sign of Hate Eternal.

The lights go up and the house music kicks in and the disappointed, worn out crowd begins to file out when, lo and behold, Erik Rutan and co. pop up onstage, still wearing their jackets, horns in the air. What's left of the crowd quickly rushes back into the pit and shortly Hate Eternal are delivering a haphazard (much of the equipment they used belonged to TBDM including the drumkit, with which young Jade Simonetto seemed to be having a little difficulty) set of technical Florida death metal.

[Hate Eternal]

Being that the night was still young-- by that time it was only 10:30-- I cut out after only two songs in order to make it down to Bowery Ballroom for Dead Meadow. (I'll make it up to you, Hate Eternal, I swear!)

[Dead Meadow]

Dead Meadow's dreamy, riffin', pot-smokin', psychedelic rock was the perfect way to follow up a death metal show. They played a slew of tunes off their forthcoming Old Growth LP as well as some oldies, check out Life's Bathroom for some (dark) photos and a gushing write-up.

Besides all that, A Place To Bury Strangers played their soon-to-be-released-as-a-live-album show at Death By Audio. Comments on BV are all positive.

[MP3] Dead Meadow - "What Needs Must Be"
[MP3] The Black Dahlia Murder - "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse"