I have no idea how long the Seattle Tattoo Expo has been happening annually in Seattle, but I do know for as long as I can remember which may or may not only be as far back as 5 years-- the expo has always included a weekend of kick ass punk and metal centric after parties at El Corazon. The few I’ve attended prior featured the likes of Himsa, Posion Idea, Dwarves, and Zeke if memory serves.
The three after parties booked for 2010 are nothing less that fucking stellar to say the least. Tonight you have Tacoma legends Zeke along with the only band I’ve ever seen with actual wash board player-- pirate punk rockers, Throw Rag. Up and coming local hard rockers Spittin’ Cobras are also on tonight’s bill.
Saturday features avant-garde sludge duo Jucifer backed by the best local metal lineup pieced together in quite some time. You’ve got Lesbian, a band that has delved even deeper into the progressive metal abyss-- now playing the longest songs known to man. They are joined by Heiress, that of course is fronted by John Pettibone with Josh Freer on guitars-- both ex-members of the mighty defunct Himsa.
The two biggest draws of this show should be Great Falls and Roareth. Great Falls is the noise duo helmed by Demian Johnston along with his constant cohort Shane Mehling-- both long time purveyors of ear bleeding distortion locally. Great Falls has shown much promise since their inception earlier in the year, the only thing holding them back has been their insistence on using a drum machine instead of a real live drummer to convey their end-time message. Recently the band recruited ex-Jesu drummer extraordinaire Phil Petrocelli to fill the void. This will mark their first show with a live drummer, and something tells me an expert human drum machine added to the already crushing opening track on Great Falls’ first demo called “Hundreds of Child Soldiers” will be something massive.
Roareth is the brand new project featuring Aaron Edge. The band also includes in its ranks, Pam Sternin of Requin on guitar, Rachel Lynch on bass, and Ben McIsaac on vocals, while Edge himself is back strapped to a guitar after a short stint as the drummer for Tad Doyle’s Brothers of the Sonic Cloth. While Aaron Edge’s resume is super impressive on its own, check out the killer list of bands the members of Roareth have played in the past: Requin, Eshas, Shit Gets Smashed, Himsa, Aphiskkyu-Bot, Grievous, Iamthethorn, the Mark Sparkles, Hauler, Touch Me Satan, 976-Murder, Hellvetika, Tsuga. I have heard only great things about this band so far, and they have played only a handful of shows. This is as fresh as it gets.
Sunday is amazing as well. Badass local death metal acts Salo and Drawn and Quartered add support for Relapse record’s ‘Criminal Thrashers’ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, and legendary Virginian horror thrash masters Deceased, who make a rare appearance in town. This is a primo opportunity to check out the first band to ever sign with Relapse Records. These zombie lovers have been around since 1985 and have pretty much stayed on it ever since. 1997’s “Fearless Undead Machines” is my favorite album of theirs and still gets a needle dropped on it every so often. All I can say is Deceased is playing this weekend? Fucking Thrashtastic!
http://www.seattletattooexpo.com/
Words by Nik Christofferson
Hey - thanks so much for your comments. Please do say hello at the show. -Phil Petrocelli
ReplyDeleteEdge is also an ex-member of HARKONEN!!!
ReplyDelete