Crustcake has the 'most metal' weekend ever, in Philadelphia

by theseseans and crustcake gerf; photos by Bill Shouldis

Hey everyone, sorry we've been MIA for a week-- we avoided computers like the plague during the Thanksgiving holiday and we feel mucho refreshed. Thanks to turkey, beer, and football for making last week a smashing success. Before we shunned the digital realm, however, we took a trip to Philadelphia to mingle with the likes of Decibel and Relapse and to take in all the sites and sounds of the one-time capitol of the US. And by sites and sounds, we don't mean old ass buildings and cracked bells, but rather bars, bars, bars, record stores, and loud metal shows. And bars. We drink a lot.

The biggest surprise from crustcake’s weekend trip to Philadelphia? Our new favorite band is from the NYC borough we call home, Brooklyn. Tombs play black metal with a working class feel to it; there’s hardcore-punk attitude to Tombs’ sound, but to spout off about genre crossing would be inappropriate. In short Tombs are yet another American band to take black metal into new territories, and to do it well.

Before Tombs floored us at Decibel’s awesome 50th issue party/show Sunday night, there were other metal activities to attend to. We made the trip down to Philadelphia in large part because of Decibel’s party, but it made for a great excuse to see their offices and get a chance to meet their staff. Everyone was extremely welcoming and gracious, not just on Friday but throughout the weekend, making sure that we got the most out of our trip.

From Decibel, we jumped on the subway and headed out to Philadelphia’s other important metal mainstay, Relapse Records. Again, our hosts at Relapse were welcoming and friendly; it was great to put faces to some familiar names. Publicist extraordinaire Betsey Cichoracki (aka our concierge) even went so far as to give a fantastic list of bars, museums, record stores, and venues that we just had to check out while we were in the city. This all led to too much money spent on vinyl, and being way too drunk way too early in the evening.

Friday night we went over to the 1st Unitarian Church to catch Baroness, Coliseum, and Minsk, a tour that we couldn't have been happier to co-sponsor. The venue didn’t have fantastic sound but we were drinking beers and watching a metal show in a church, all things considered, that was pretty fucking awesome.

We didn't get any photos, but BITPOM was at the Hoboken show.

Minsk:




Coliseum:





Baroness:






More photos can be seen here.

Earlier that day at Relapse, Coliseum drummer Chris Maggio expressed disappointment when he was told how fast they had played Thursday night in New Jersey. "Ryan will be really bummed about that," he said, "we've been trying to slow down." Their performance Friday night displayed no visible or audible restraint whatsoever. After Minsk drew the crowd in, Coliseum blew them away with a set so fast it often seemed that the band was struggling to keep everything together. While this may not be what the band wants to project every night, it was certainly a performance worth witnessing. Their entire set seemed on the verge of falling apart, and it certainly kept the crowd entranced.

Baroness' set displayed their usual awesomeness; they are one of the most consistently incredible live acts we’ve seen. Always bringing energy and top notch performance, not to mention how strong their material is.

Sunday’s Decibel party started out with dinner and drinks with the staff, before heading upstairs to take in the show. Tombs opened and absolutely floored us, followed by Made Out Of Babies. The Babies performed excellently, despite Julie's being a bit under the weather. Clearly concerned with how she sounded, Julie constantly apologized to the crowd and ended up cutting a few songs from the set. We think that she sounded fine-- a little rough sure, but still rocking. During the group’s set Julie did manage to put forth a tremendous effort, we imagine she must have felt awful to have to pull songs from the set.

A Life Once Lost came on next, executing their “Meshuggah-lite” material rather flawlessly. The crowd clearly loved the chance to take in a small show with the hometown band.

After the show, we had to catch a 2am bus ride home (which turned into hell on wheels as Greyhound was vastly over-booked for their final bus of the night resulting in lots of delays, an additional bus being needed, and us not getting back till 5:30 in the morning, awesome), so there was nothing else to do but enjoy a few final drinks with all of our new found Philly friends. Luckily before we left, Tombs tipped us off to a “secret show” Monday night back in New York with them and Coliseum (Coliseum played at a much 'truer' tempo Monday night, thankfully). Oh and fucking Laura from Kylesa was at the Decibel party too!!! Awesome!

All in all, we saw Tombs twice in two days, Coliseum twice in one long weekend, Baroness, Minsk, Made Out Of Babies, and A Life Once Lost. We traveled via bus, subway, train, car, foot, and trolley. We met some great people who work their asses off in the name of metal. Whether it was Decibel customer service guru Mark Evans standing in Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian's office, arms in the air, pontificating about what the many different numbers and lists mean on the white boards Albert uses to plan issues, or Betsey taking the time to give us a full tour of Relapse’s headquarters, we felt welcomed into a great metal scene.

It was one hell of a weekend.