Stay Overview: Eyehategod Headline Rowdy Night time of Punk and Steel in Brooklyn (5/12)

Setting the Stage: The chilly rain didn’t deter New York Metropolis’s punk and steel underground from catching the second of two sold-out headlining exhibits by Eyehategod at The Kingsland on Sunday night time (Could 12th). A pizza joint/dive with a crusty live performance house within the again, the venue was an excellent spot for the loaded invoice together with hardcore legends Unfavourable Method, New York heavies Sheer Terror and Disassociate, and grindcore punks Phobia.

Located on the high of Brooklyn amongst Greenpoint’s eerie, remoted warehouses, it additionally serves as a centralized and important location for the native steel scene. Just like the close by Saint Vitus Bar, Kingsland’s excessive music exhibits are extra accessible to the various who journey from Queens. Subsequent to the venue runs the Newtown Creek, the epicenter of the infamous Greenpoint oil spill, through which over 17 million US gallons of crude oil seeped into the soil over years of haphazard processing. It was solely becoming that Eyehategod convey their NOLA sludge steel to such a locale.

Taking the Stage: NYC purveyors of grind Disassociate opened the present early within the night, startling the early arrivals, who stood far from the stage, maybe nonetheless sleepy from the wet day. The one one within the crowd with the vitality to match the depth of their music was a noticeably intoxicated Shane McLachlan of Phobia, who paraded in entrance of the stage in his personal circle pit, a drink in hand. “We’ve been on tour with this drunk motherf*cker proper right here,” frontman Ralphy Boy mentioned whereas giving McLachlan a loving pat on the pinnacle. “We’ve been performing some issues I assumed I had stopped doing years in the past.”

By the point Phobia got here on, McLachlan was a wild card, his pants falling down throughout soundcheck. However he held it collectively, solely falling over one time whereas nonetheless managing to not spill the PBR in his left hand. He completed the tune on his knees. The set was shambly in an endearing rock ‘n roll style and never the tightest Phobia efficiency of their lengthy historical past, however entertaining nonetheless.

The vast majority of the sold-out viewers arrived within the moments earlier than Sheer Terror took the stage. Beloved staples of the New York hardcore punk scene within the ’80s and ’90s, there was a big native contingent right here expressly for this set. With a hints of Celtic Frost and the postmodern anger and melancholy of Rev. Paul Bearer’s lyrics — which evoke the NYC of previous — there’s nothing fairly like Sheer Terror. The band placed on a masterclass of metal-inspired avenue punk, taking part in fan favorites like “Right here to Keep” and “Simply Can’t Hate Sufficient”. Paul’s candor and charisma flavored his stage banter. “Beautiful March climate we’re having,” he mentioned. “Thanks for approaching such a shitty day.”

For individuals who’d been there because the first act, the present was turning right into a marathon. Loads of beer was consumed, and lots of shoved down pizza slices to take care of for the period. The gang’s temperament turned risky by the point Unfavourable Method went on, and circle pit rapidly broke out. Photographers within the entrance guarded their backs and kit as moshers crashed round to a retrospective of the Detroit hardcore band’s notorious catalog, together with cuts like “Tied Down” and “Nothing” (one of many many tracks from the 1982 self-titled 7” that the band performed). Frontman John Brannon wore a everlasting scowl, thrusting the microphone into the group as drunk punks shouted his choruses again at him.

An environment of chaos permeated the venue by the tip of the night time. The mixture of our bodies and the collective merch from the 5 bands made it almost unimaginable to maneuver within the bar space, and when Eyehategod began, the disarray took over the live performance house. Seasoned, worldly performers, the NOLA band has seen its share of scuzz and sordidness — typically partaking in it — and gave the group a becoming set of filthy punk and doom steel that spanned their whole profession and recorded output.

“We don’t have a setlist,” vocalist Mike Williams admitted. “We’re simply making this shit up as we go.” Sooner songs such because the hardcore “Agitation! Propoganda!” got here early within the set, setting moshers into movement. A child within the frontline barreled into the mic, hitting Williams within the face. Unfazed, he positioned the mic again on the stand, shook his head with a wry smile, and continued. Any photographers dispersed, giving full reign to the physicality within the entrance row.

Because the set progressed and the moshers grew drained, Eyehategod delved into its patented sludge steel. The inescapable grooves of “Parish Motel Illness” and “Drugs Noose” had been hermetic and crushing, the viewers nodding and swaying to guitarist Jimmy Bower’s Sabbath-ian riffs. So versed in their very own materials, the band even began taking requests, the group shouting titles at Williams: “Clean! Sisterf*cker! Kill Your Boss!” All three Take As Wanted for Ache tracks had been performed, the latter closing a set that was definitively Eyehategod: huge in tempos, thick with vitriol, and delightfully debauched.

Pictures of Eyehategod, Unfavourable Method, Sheer Terror, Phobia and Disassociate in Brooklyn (click on to enlarge and scroll by means of):

All images by Jon Hadusek

Eyehategod Setlist:
Lack of Nearly All the things
Jack Ass within the Will of God
Parish Motel Illness
Clean / Shoplift
No one Advised Me
Agitation! Propaganda!
Sisterfucker (Half I)
Sisterfucker (Half II)
Drugs Noose
Three Black Eyes
Take As Wanted For Ache
New Orleans is the New Vietnam
Peace Via Battle (Via Peace and Battle)
Methamphetamine
Kill Your Boss