The Meltdown?/DIY Revival/1349 SHOW!!!
Those who were planning to see us or the other awesome bands and DJ’s at Flock Baltimore’s Meltdown Festival at The Bambou last night were probably disappointed at the sudden cancellation of the event. Which is understandable. Every band, vendor, promoter, employee, and financial benefactor worked their asses off to try to make it happen. Because we have had a history with Gambit, Commish, and the entire Flock team, I feel compelled to talk about last night in order to uphold their reputations and illuminate the brilliant community of bands we’re so fortunate to have come up around.
Around 5:30/6:00 or so, the promoters were frantically searching for a sound guy or a team of sound people to accommodate the 18 acts that were set to play. To make matters worse, the stage the metal bands were set to play was outdoors and it started to rain. So it was actually the culmination of two major inconveniences that harmed last night’s event. Gambit was lucky enough to have stumbled upon a lead (who will go unnamed for the reasons later to be disclosed and the fact that I don’t remember his name) who has sound equipment and can run sound. But, we needed to come to him in order to load his shit into a UHaul. Gambit found us by our cars and rather than our original diversion to make a trip to the package store for some 40’s, we chose to help him carry equipment.
For reference’s sake, The Bambou is located in West Baltimore (yes, that West Baltimore) and Soundguy was located in East Baltimore. So we hauled ass through the bowels of Baltimore city in order to meet up with Gambit and Soundguy (around 6:30 or so). Gambit split off to collect funds to compensate Soundguy while we gave Soundguy a ride to the UHaul, expecting to meet Gambit at the truck. After driving through Roland Park and almost reaching the UHaul, Gambit and Soundguy needed to meet to coordinate what was going to transpire in terms of compensation as well as coordinating time-management (the show was supposed to start at 7:00). When they came to the conclusion that it would require at least another hour of hauling shit in addition to a massive chunk of time eaten up, Gambit and the Flock team felt it would be unfair to push that many bands’ sets late or cut them, so the entire show was cancelled.
At 7:00 and in the face of massive disappointment, we hoped to arrange a DIY show at our practice space. I let the Hour of Reprisal guys know that we were going to try to set this up once we got back to The Bambou. At 7:30, I was unsuccessful at reaching our practice space’s landlord but Start The Scene had the same idea to throw a show at their space. STS was gracious enough to let both of our bands jump on, so we drove down to Millersville to play at their practice space, which was a shed in their drummer’s backyard. We arrived at around 8:20, after notifying as many people as we could that The Meltdown was cancelled but the show had shrunk to the three of us.
Life is a very inevitable set of circumstances all compiled into a duration of at least a few decades. I know that our very young ages don’t provide a substantial enough basis to prophesize our perspectives on the anomalies and circumstances that befall any person, but I’ve learned that through our 5+ years of activity that shit truly can happen and it takes not getting knocked completely on your ass in order to prevail through the bullshit. On behalf of all of us, we will forever commend Start The Scene for coordinating and setting up a show for three bands in an hour and a half span (music started at 9:00), not to mention working around curfews. At the end of the day, the grouping of all three of our bands was a perfect match despite how different each of us sound. Maybe it’s because of all of our roots in Anne Arundel County? Not sure, but last night was particularly special given the very close proximity to The Jam House (which is where we recorded Insanity Reigns) and its close proximity to The Priddy Music Academy (which is where the band started).
Anyways, it was awesome being amongst friends after a long time since we’ve played a show in Maryland that went off like that. In addition to the HOR and STS guys and girl, we’re very lucky to consider everyone at Flock Baltimore to be our friends. Circumstances like this usually cause bands to burn bridges with promoters and maybe we’re in better spirits since we got to play last night after all, but this is not the severance of our relationship with Flock. They’ve worked very hard over the years to create harmonious events where budding and seasoned musicians converge for a common goal, eliminating poisonous ego that usually befalls local shows (hence why every band at their shows plays for the same amount of time). Flock have had our backs consistently throughout the years when other promoters would look the other way, so we will forever owe them our gratitude as well as our friendship. As for Commish, who helped devise yesterday’s event as a birthday show, I have been in your shoes where a shitty set of circumstances can dilute the ecstasy of your own birthday. Believe me dude, it fucking blows ass to have a tainted birthday. But despite all of this, Area 52 will always have your back and everyone involved in Flock Baltimore’s back.
In celebration of last night’s miraculous recovery, we present you our complete live set from “The Shack” in Millersville. We got to showboat a couple of new ones as well as dust off an older one! I’m personally no stranger to DIY/house party shows, as they frequently occur within the social realm of music majors at The University of New Haven. However, I hope that last night can initiate a stronger DIY scene for upcoming and established bands in Maryland’s underground. If last night was proof of anything, it’s the testament of strength of all of our collective leadership and proof of our responsibility to provide a safe and fun environment for bands to thrive (ie: no one trashed the place or beat up anyone, it’s a rock show for fuck’s sake).
The good news keeps coming! We’re proud to announce that we’re among a fucking amazing roster of locals (which includes Bound By The Grave and Vermord) that are opening for 1349 at The Ottobar on Saturday the 30th!!! We’re honored to be in the company of such amazing artists and we have tickets for all of you in order to make this the raddest and most bad-fucking-ass show yet.
Let’s keep it alive, friends!
-Trip
