Metal Fest Post Script

One thing I regret not squeezing into my review of Metal Fest: there were a lot of young people there. Significantly more than I’d seen in years past. Some who looked like they were at a metal festival and lots who didn’t. They especially showed up for the thrash and hardcore-adjacent stuff and populated the pits, and the overall energy of the festival benefited significantly. For the past however many years in Milwaukee, metal shows have generally been older, spaced-out crowds, a lot of black clothes, crossed arms and limp headbanging. Did kids somehow get turned onto metal in the past year?

Maybe a part of it is the evolving concept of the mosh pit. I recently learned that kids now start some form of mosh pit at practically any kind of live show they go see; maybe some of them heard the pits at metal shows are especially fun? But that would’ve meant a lot of chaotic dummies who didn’t know how to operate in a proper circle pit, and these young people mostly seemed to know what was up with very minimal policing (shout-out to the big dude in the Amon Amarth battle vest who’s been an informal pit steward at least the last two years of Metal Fest). Whatever the case, it’s cool to see so many kids coming out for an event whose target audience is still middle-aged dudes. History is important!

Local metalheads only got a single night’s rest before being summoned back to The Rave—technically The Rave II, which for Metal Fest (https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/two-days-at-milwaukee-metal-fest-metalcore-moshing-milwaukee-as-metal-mecca/) was the basement merch area. We walked in at 7:05 and Titan To Tachyons were already onstage. The New York jazz-metal trio has evidently added bassist Trevor Dunn, who guested on their most recent album, as an official fourth member; he could hardly be a better fit. In addition, Ni Maîtres (aka Gareth Turner) emerged to add some theremin on a few songs, an extra psychedelic edge for the already mind-bending atonal jams-n-noise. This was a rare bill where I was equally eager to see all three acts and the first did not disappoint.

We discovered right away that the fest-goers had apparently drunk up all the decent beer options; nothing but AB InBev swill was on offer Tuesday. Who knew Metal Fest actually classed up this place? The next band was the Melvins, whose last Milwaukee show had also been at The Rave II, opening for Boris that time (http://www.you-phoria.com/Blog/2023/September/on-ween-melvins-and-other-old-bands). I’m sure it was partially due to the absence of Dale Crover, whose spinal surgery forced him off the road for at least one whole tour, but that show was pretty undersold and kinda unmemorable. It had been an older, spaced-out crowd, crossed arms etc. etc. I’m not suggesting it sucked; still, imagine my surprise Tuesday night as The Rave II started filling up with young people leading up to the Melvins’ set.

Was this spillover enthusiasm from Metal Fest? Did these kids love it so much they couldn’t resist Napalm Death a couple days later? And here I had feared Metal Fest had sort of undercut this show, what with all the free tickets floating around…oh. Right. THAT’S why all these kids are here. Back when I was their age, The Rave would give out “free two-drink minimum tickets”, which was a misleading scam, but a relatively harmless one if you were already intending on buying adult beverages at the show. If you were an underage kid, there was nothing free about it. Now, the free tickets for Tuesday’s show did say “Must Be 21+ To Redeem”, making it almost the same deal as the two-drink minimum thing; in that case, maybe the people I’m calling “kids” weren’t as young as I thought, or maybe they actually bought tickets, or maybe the fine print wasn’t being strictly enforced?

Whatever the case, this was the highest-energy Melvins performance I’ve seen in ages. A mosh pit at a Melvins show?? Not like a REAL one, but still, a dedicated circle of people intentionally jostling against each other? I mean, this obviously indicates that the Melvins simply play too fast nowadays, am I right? It was sure great to see Dale up there again; two-drummer Melvins ain’t so bad, and Steven Shane McDonald from Redd Kross is probably the least demure bassist I’ve seen play with this band, particularly rambunctious on this night in fact. Also I really liked it when they did the first part of “Revolve”, then shifted into “Honey Bucket”, then finished “Revolve”. That was awesome.

A quick gripe: the tour is called SAVAGE IMPERIAL DEATH MARCH, and is named after a new joint release by Melvins and Napalm Death. How hard would it have been for some combination of the two bands to get onstage and at least do one or two songs from the album together? I can’t be the only fan who was hoping to catch a rendition of “Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck” or “Rip The God”, but it was not to be, at least at this tour stop.

The good-natured Melvins pit got turned up several notches for Napalm Death’s set. Clearly these were not the same kids from Metal Fest; they had no idea what the hell they were doing in there, flailing and zig-zagging and targeting each other, someone was liable to lose an eye or start an actual fight, yet it never quite got out of hand. As someone not inside it, it was fun to watch, and the enthusiasm wasn’t lost on the band. Barney Greenway, Napalm’s longtime frontman, seemed jazzed trying to keep pace with everything the crowd was yelling at him; he’s talkative as it is and given the group’s out-front anti-capitalism, anti-religion, anti-fascism messaging, the youthful crowd had him extra fired up.

Last time I’d seen Napalm was upstairs on the Rave’s main stage two years ago and they’d suffered from a poor mix (although it bears repeating that the main floor sounded GREAT at Metal Fest this year for almost every band I saw), so this was bound to be more enjoyable; in particular I was bowled over by the intricacies of Danny Herrera’s drumming, evidently a master of everything in the entire metal and hardcore spectrum. I was also impressed that the younger attendees knew the words to most of these songs; they played as much material from their 1987 debut as from their latest album (2020’s THROES OF JOY IN THE JAWS OF DEFEATISM), and nobody needed a refresher when Barney announced Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”.

This may read like a ‘the kids are alright’ piece; it’s really me feeling grateful that I can sometimes go see gen-x bands and not feel so old. There’s that ubiquitous joke about going to events where only old people hang out in order to ‘feel young’ and it usually goes over my head when people say that; if that’s the trick, shouldn’t this experience have made me feel old? So maybe I wasn’t the oldest person there; my point is, live music is interactive, not just a gathering of isolated people. Even if you don’t know anyone else there, you’re a part of it. I’m not saying you have to get in the pit or even dance; the idea is to be present, participate in the communal feeling, contribute to the group energy. When you do that, seeing a bunch of young people getting nuts will only lift you up; just ask Barney. It’s the just standing there in your own world that makes you feel old.