The Deal: Five local bands and some roller girls entertain small crowd.
The Good: Concord’s Stella Kidd played some good old-school metal that had a hint of grunge mixed into it. Singer Limy had one helluva stage presence, though his vocal styling took a little too much from the James Hetfield playbook. Shelby’s Sister Trish kept the crowd entertained with a harder edge. Guitarist Tony Greenway knows how to put on a show, though vocalist Roger Carter was usually difficult to understand with his clenched-teeth singing style in most verses. Charlotte’s Withstand played their own edgy rock and their set included an interesting metal cover of “Another Brick in the Wall.” Singer Todd Brown spent a little too much time sticking his tongue out at the ladies in the crowd. Unionville’s Tribe of More got the most spirited crowd reaction as a mosh pit swirled about. The entire band appeared comfortable on stage; like seasoned vets. Charlotte-based trio Steel Standing played a solid rock set, though it seemed like the small crowd of about 100 had thinned out by then.
The Bad: Though the show didn’t live up to the hype — one brief roller girl demo, no dancers/acrobats or easily seen piercers/tattooing — I expected more of a crowd for the event. Fights aren’t fun, either. You have to respect a guy defending a girl who had her skirt pulled up, but when it came to physical blows, it was a little too much. Steel Standing suffered as much as the guy who was punched, as most of the crowd cleared out.
The Verdict: A good showcase for local talent. A little “rough around the edges,” but isn’t that what metal is supposed to be?
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.
The show kicked ass! Every band was on their A game. Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of dancers but the two chicks that did come with the rapper dude were hot… the roller girls were very cool, yeah they did just one demo but they skated around during the show and that was cool… I noticed some of the scheduled artists flaked but that’s the NoDa way I guess… the one dude doing caricatures was awesome and the fangsmith ruled… I saw the bus for tatooing/body piercing outside… I heard the health department shut the tatooing down for lack of a permit but no biggie, this was really about the music to begin with… for a Thursday night, it was a damn good showing! Even John/Amos’ was impressed. Big shows aren’t easy and Wendy from Deadgirl Productions East did a great job with this. I look forward to her continuing these showcases, much like the Technonomicons. It was nice of CL to break away from the usual trendy stuff and scope out the down and dirty heavier scene. Hope this didn’t scare them away… the metal and hard rock scene is a staple of the Charlotte scene. I encourage everyone to get out there and check these bands out!