The tone of the title of this post probably indicates where I’m heading here, so let me try to ramble on about some context first. I’ve been to more than a handful of festivals besides MDF, which I’ve attended each year since 2003 when it was held at a dump called the Thunderdome and the headliners were Devourment, Suffocation, and Sublime Cadaver Decomposition. I remember the year where they tried to have the fest in White Marsh at the House of Rock and how that venue wasn’t very good. I remember watching Baltimore City Curfew cutting off Dismember the first year at Sonar. I also remember the headaches that resulted from the fest growing to two venues, then outside stages, years of “security” that was more dangerous than drunk festival attendees, including the near riot that happened when Venom had their set cut by city curfew. I’ve also been to each edition that has taken place at the Edison Lot (literally, a parking lot just beyond the Inner Harbor of Baltimore) as well as the two other venues a solid hike away.
Other festivals I’ve gone to include those large and corporate
(Ozzfest, Mayhem) and those smaller and more DIY (Ohio Deathfest, New England
Metal and Hardcore Festival, etc.) It’s basically a guarantee that when
organizing a festival, with so many moving parts and expenses that concert
goers don’t even consider (imagine hiring a lawyer to process visas so your
favorite international bands can come play or having to pay for liability
insurance in case something crazy happens at your festival; that’s just tip of
the iceberg!) you can pretty much expect Murphy’s Law (not the punk band…) to
manifest itself. Someone you wanted to see will cancel at the last minute. A band
you really looked forward to will just have a terrible sound mix and you’ll be
completely let down. Beer vendors will charge too fucking much for a can of fermented
piss drippings and you’ll discover that nearby parking options cost an arm and
a leg (festivals usually do happen in a city, after all.)
Underground metal festivals have a way of seducing fans. They
promise lots of great bands, often obscure bands you’ll never see on tour or
otherwise see unless you attend. You get lured in, forgetting all of the
headaches that come with attending a festival; once you’re there you bitch the
entire time about the assorted first world inconveniences like port-a-johns and
unanticipated expenses and Mother Nature. Yet if the lineup of bands mostly
delivers, and you get to run into enough friends, you tend to forget that and
when it’s all over you’re all too excited to do it again next year.
At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Of course, sometimes promoters have a habit of using social media
irresponsibly and showing fans what they really think:
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| The neat thing about the internet is that with a simple screen shot, stupid yet enlightening comments publicly made on social media live forever even after the comment thread is deleted by the poster who a few hours later realized it was a bad idea and makes them look bad. |
Important note: that wasn’t directed at me personally but at group
of festival goers who were initially just complaining about beer prices. I have
worked my way thru university as a manager for a company where I engage in
sales and customer service. I have felt frustrations with complaining customers
countless times. You don’t condescend them publicly. That usually gets you
fired, or at least tells people who are buying your product or service that you
don’t give a fuck about them or their experience with said product or service.
As someone sells stuff for a living, I can tell you if you let people know you
don’t give a fuck, they will look someplace else for that product or service.
If you need to vent, at least do it behind closed doors to a coworker or
friend… or if you’re going to use social media at least use a personal account
and keep it private and vague.
If you really care about the product or service you produce, you
present a good face to the public no matter how pissed off you are at them
sometimes.
The organizers of MDF can set whatever price they deem to be fair
for the festival they’re providing the public. Though M and I often grumble at
the fact a 3 day weekend will set us back as much as a grand (tickets, beer,
merch, parking, food, gas…remember it’s for 2 people) it’s more of an annoyance
than an actual hardship and we end up begrudgingly paying for all of it. After
that comment from the promoters, M decided she’d only buy a ticket off of
someone who was selling theirs to prevent MDF from getting additional ticket
sales. I can’t say that I blame her; I ended up attending 2 days solo. Which
was fine; my ticket was already previously paid for so I was going to make the
most of it.
So about that...
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| Disgorge (from California, not Mexico or whereever else, though they are fronted by the most swole hispanic dude ever.) |
Thursday I decided to see the caveman death metal show at the
Baltimore Soundstage. Highlights were basically every band that played
(Infernal Revulsion dropped, then Malignancy cancelled at the last minute) but
Visceral Disgorge, Waco Jesus, Dehumanized, Disgorge (USA) and Severe Torture
all delivered great sets. I skipped on Putrid Pile (aka one lonely man and his
drum machine) for dinner, but I did have the misfortune of coming back in time
to see Jungle Rot, who complained about the backline they were provided by the
organizers and the festival itself…it came across as they thought they were
rockstars that should be praised for playing “old school” death metal. Fact:
Jungle Rot sucks. Not because they’re “old school”, but because they play
boring-as-fuck music. You wanna hear good “old school” death metal; I picked up
records by Blood Freak and Embalmer while at the fest. That’s good “old school”
death metal. Jungle Rot is just a bunch of boring lunkheaded garbage performed
by entitled old men. Overall though, it was my first time at Soundstage, and I
thought it was an enjoyable experience.
Friday was the day M was interested in, so we managed to get to
the Edison Lot in time for the very end of Centinex’s set. November’s Doom was
an odd choice for a 4pm slot, but they sounded pretty solid. Unfortunately
Sinister cancelled because of flight/immigration issues, and Gruesome filled in
their set. Highlights this day included everything about Wormed, hearing
Paradise Lost play an old school (re: mostly death/doom) set (they played “Pity
the Sadness”, holy shit!) and catching The Haunted with Marco back on vocals.
Truth is, nothing about any of the bands that played this day disappointed.
The unfortunate social media post by the organizers came Friday
night, so M was adamant she would only buy a ticket second hand for dirt cheap
because she rightfully decided the organizers didn’t deserve her hard earned
money. Something about it not being worth the asking price relative to the
marginal rate of substitution or meeting her personal utility function or blah…I
dunno. That’s what happens when you cohabitate with an Economics major =D
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| Deranged being all brutal and shit. |
Anyhow, that meant that since I wasn’t being forced to operate on
Brazilian time, I was able to arrive early enough to catch Demonical, a second
set by Gruesome, and most importantly, Deranged. I’ve been a fan since some
chick I used to hang out with told me to buy their “Plainfield Cemetery” album
from the old Tower Records in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. Yeah, that long ago.
Anyhow, those guys put on an astoundingly brutal set of raw Swedish death metal
that made standing outside roasting under a 90 degree sun in a black asphalt
covered parking lot entirely worthwhile. Atrophy and Tulus I could give or
take; Hirax was pretty good energetic thrash, but the highlight of the day was
witnessing Hail of Bullets with their new vocalist, the legendary Dave Ingram.
With all due respect to Martin Van Druen, their previous vocalist, Ingram takes
that band to another level. His growl is a tremendous fit for the Hail of
Bullets sound and his stage presence is off the charts.
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| Yet another band where Dave Ingram replaces the original vocalist. |
After witnessing
Impaled Nazarene’s set, I decided that since I didn’t give a shit about Exciter
and I honestly never listen to Nuclear Assault (I have a copy of “Handle With
Care” sitting on my shelf…collecting dust…); I ventured over to the Baltimore
Soundstage to see General Surgery and Haemorrhage instead.
That walk sucks; the walk between Soundstage and Edison Lot is
just about 20 minutes, which means you have to miss part a band’s set in order
to traverse between venues. So in order to see the headliner at Edison Lot, Testament,
I was obliged to walk out of Haemorrhage’s set a few songs early. Which was a
huge mistake; Haemorrhage was brilliant in their goregrinding glory. By
contrast, Testament suffered from an awful mix that sounded thin and “tinny.”
Chuck Billy, the fat man with skinny bird legs, sounded okay but his generic,
rehearsed stage banter was annoying to me in the same David Vincent of Morbid
Angel was a few years earlier. When I realized I could’ve just walked to Rams
Head Live and saw Grave Miasma instead; I felt like a total fucking tool. The craziest
thing about Testament being such a letdown beyond their awful sound is that the
sheer amount of talent on that stage…Gene Hoglan, Steve DiGorgio, and Alex
Skolnick are all in that band in 2016. Those are ace fucking players. What the
hell?
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| Wombbath. I don't really have anything clever to say about them but their vocalist liked to go on LOOOOOONNNNGGG rants in between songs. |
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| The guitarist from Desaster might have had the most impressive skullet at MDF. |
M found “someone willing to sell his ticket cheap in exchange for
crack money” so on Sunday she returned with me. Sunday featured Wombbath (great
when they just played instead of the on-stage chitchat), Desaster (dirty
blackened thrash; my first time hearing them…good stuff) and Bongzilla (replace
Eyehategod’s heroin and I guess that’s what you get?) I could have done without
Interment…they suffered from just being a bit boring live. Incantation played a
unique set as a three piece for most of it; one of their guitar players had a
family emergency. In a cool moment, old vocalist Mike Saez (played on The
Infernal Storm) joined them on stage for a few songs, which all sounded awesome
as fuck. Incantation took lemons and made lemonade on a miserable, rainy day. The
reunited Demolition Hammer followed with a brutal, ferocious set.
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| Incantation and friends! |
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| Demolition Hammer wasn't a band I ever thought I'd get to see live, and to think MDF only booked them after Destroyer 666 cancelled....probably should have headlined instead of Testament! |
I didn’t hate Satan or Venom, but presented with the alternative
of seeing two bands I like a lot more in Phobocosm and Mitochondrion, the
decision was obvious so I went to Rams Head Live (at this point, M
decided she’d rather buy a ribeye and a margarita at Cheesecake Factory than
buy a $40 dollar ticket for 2 bands…) Phobocosm played an intense set of
doom/death that fans of Disembowlment and Incantation could get into.
Mitochondrion followed that with the best set that I witnessed all weekend.
Just absolutely vicious and breathtakingly brutal yet atmospheric death metal. If
Mitochondrion comes to your town, you stop what you’re doing, donate blood if
you have to so you can buy your ticket, and you go.
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| You could go see a cartoon band like Venom who sings about being in league with satan, or you could see Mitochondrion, the band that wrote the actual soundtrack to hell. The choice was obvious. |
With nothing else that could follow that, I tracked down M and called it a weekend.
My final observations were that I managed to see almost nothing but great bands all weekend (Jungle Rot and Testament excluded.) The merch tables, particularly Sevared and Deepsend Records, had quality items for purchase. The beer in the cooler in the trunk of my car stayed sufficiently cold enough that the excessive beer prices and poor selection inside of the Edison Lot complex were a nonfactor for me personally. The rain on Sunday was a welcome respite from the scorching heat of Friday and Saturday, which left me a bit red. That was the good part.
The bad part was the sheer expense of attending so many days of the festival, and the price/value calculation of what I was seeing for what I got. Truth said, only a handful of the bands I saw were bands I hadn’t seen before (Mitochondrion, Phobocosm, Demolition Hammer, Deranged, Desaster.) Between tickets, parking fees, beer, and food, the festival has grown to a ridiculous scale in its cost. To suggest that the organizers are doing what they can to control costs ($68 bucks a day plus $20 bucks to park your car got you into just the Edison Lot; the 4 day all venues pass I was fortunate to acquire from a friend who couldn’t go retailed at a whopping $302 bucks) is laughable. Even after accounting for the exchange rate, tickets for the gold standard of metal festivals, Wacken Open Air, are cheaper. Of course, European festivals have advantages in logistics and border controls; international bands playing the United States have to deal with expensive airfares and USCIS. Still, the point is that MDF is charging a lot for their product relative to other festivals that also compete to attract attendees. Other US festivals may lack the sheer number of high profile bands of the level of Mayhem and Venom; but festivals like the Las Vegas Deathfest are delivering bands like Disavowed that are significant within their niche genre (which incidentally, is the subgenre of metal I spend the most time listening to in 2016.) That’s what MDF is competing against. What MDF has had to its advantage for me personally was geography; it’s about an hour drive from my door step to the fest.
However, when the promotors appear to have such a cavalier “take it or leave it” attitude towards fans who WANT to support their festival and who WANT it to succeed each year….maybe it’s not surprising that at least to my eyes, this was the least attended MDF in several years, even going back to when they held the fest at the old Sonar complex. It seems certain that just like in previous years, next year’s tickets will increase again another 5-10% for a lineup that’s more or less the same as this year in terms of profile and name recognition. That’s faster than the rate of inflation. If the promotors don’t respect their patrons any more than that, and can’t discipline themselves on controlling their ticket prices, then this will be the last time I make the effort to take the weekend off or drop the coin. I’m not going to say I’ll never, ever go again, or anything like that. But unless I see a “holy shit” band like say, a reformed Acid Bath, on the bill, I’m not going to make an effort to be there either. There’s just too many other festivals that want my money too
