Welcome to PHILLY MASS METAL! Keeping the Philadelphia area loud and proud.
Hey all you thrashers and grinders out there. You are reading the first post of a brand new blog, PHILLY MASS METAL, devoted solely to Philadelphia-area metal fans of all walks – if you love that loud, pounding abrasive music that none of your wimpy friends can understand, you are at the right place.
I am Bobby Olivier, a junior at The College of New Jersey (about a 40 minute drive from Philadelphia) and your guide through loads of raging riffs and all that is dishonorable in the world of heavy metal music.
This blog will feature the following:
- Metal experiences shared by metal fans from TCNJ and beyond.
- As many Philadelphia-area (student or not) metal bands I can find.
- Listings of upcoming shows in the area, and reviews of those bands playing nearby.
- My favorite Philly show of all time
For this inaugural post, I am going to talk a little about a few of my experiences at metal shows in the Philadelphia area.
NO FEAR ENERGY MUSIC TOUR: THE ELECTRIC FACTORY: February 2007
This show changed my musical preferences forever. Killswitch Engage was fresh off their release of Daylight Dies and headlining 2007’s No Fear Music Energy Tour. DragonForce was gaining popularity with the release of Inhuman Rampage, and oddly enough that was the band I was there to see. Chimaira was just about to drop Resurrection, an awesome album in its own right and He Is Legend, the misfits of the tour opened the show.
For those of you who have not seen shows at The Electric Factory at 7th and Willow just after the Ben Franklin Bridge, it is the perfect venue for a metal show, and my personal favorite – I really need to go back. The floor is a good size, not too small, but small enough where you have a solid view from anywhere, and for those who only want to drink and lounge, a 21-and-older upstairs balcony keeps the less daring safe, but still with a good view of the stage.
After fighting the venue’s less-than-desirable parking situation, a few friends and I got there early enough to see all four acts, but arriving later may have been a better idea. Only a few die-hards were there to see He Is Legend, and besides Chris Daughty’s more malicious look-alike on guitar and a lead singer who licked the cymbal stand, there wasn’t much else to say about He Is Legend, who was booed throughout their set.
Next was Chimaira, who for my friends and I stole the show. We were maybe 8-10 fans deep from the stage at this point, and once Mark Hunter started screaming, The Electric Factory was moving. I only visually remember bits and pieces of the set, due to the fact that I was trying not to become part of the sweaty Philadelphia floor. What I do remember is Hunter’s eyes – this look like every word he said was exact fact, something my friends and I all noticed.
During Chimaira’s set, I suffered my first metal-related injury when I was kicked in the head by a crowd surfer. It comes with the territory though. After spending roughly 30 minutes trying to maintain my balance, DragonForce was a nice break from madness. Yes, the guitar work in all of DragonForce’s ridiculously over-the-top songs is some of the most intricate playing I have ever witnessed, but none of it, thankfully, was mosh-worthy. DragonForce drank beer through bendy straws while playing, which is great, and they were not nearly as sloppy on a live stage as I thought they would be, simply because there is so much room for error in their songs.
Before KsE came on, we got some much-needed liquids and stood a little farther away from the stage, while our friend Doug ventured closer, only to return with a bloody nose and headache from the chaos that Killswitch would create. Were the pits and walls of death any crazier than other shows I have attended since? No, not really, but this was my first real metal show, and seeing KsE, as well as Chimaira, and the power they possessed through this loud, abrasive form of what many cannot tolerate was all-encompassing.
KsE played a good chunk of its songs off 2004’s The End of Heartache as well as the then brand new Daylight Dies. Surprisingly, they didn’t play many Alive or Just Breathing tracks. Howard Jones was fantastic, and I’m pretty sure Adam D. had his cape, so all was well and although I was not very familiar with Killswitch Engage before No Fear, I went home, gained back my hearing, and became familiar very quickly.
BOTTOMLINE: This was my first real hardcore metal experience, and I haven’t looked back since. Everyone has that “first concert” memory, and here is mine, so hopefully readers can relate. One of the real purposes of this blog is the fact that no one really knows what its like to go to shows and get thrown around, until you do it, and metal shows produce some of the best concert stories of any musical genre, so I look forward to interviewing more fans (I have a few lined up) and hearing their tales of loud music, bloody noses and of course, a great story to tell their less metal friends.
Please feel free to email me at olivier6@tcnj.edu if you have something to contribute. Bobby
