michigan meltdown, grand rapids michigan, 7/18/12

hey! im slowly rebuilding my music collection, the mediafire shit is up in the air, i have to file a counterclaim against a couple takedown notices....dumb shit.....anyways i promised a review of michigan meltdown and here it is! it was a hot wedsday when i went downstate 2 weeks ago. the southern part of the state is parched and everything was brown......luckily ryans house was easy to find....i parked a block down and walked back to his house, i was almost immideatly hugged by rorik (cloud rat) when i got there, it was awesome, the noise acts played in the kitchen while the bands played in the garage.....i missed the first noise dude sitting on the porch fiddling with my phone....anyways DSS (dipshit system, featuring members of positive noise/oily menace) set up and played a blazing set, dylan (their drummer) gave me a shout out during their set wich was awesome....fast furious simple hardcore the way it was meant to be....after their set violet flame played the second noise set in the kitchen....he was ok, but alot of these noise guys kinda run together and sound very same-y.......once his set was finished,republic of dreams played their set in the garage....these german dudes (featuring a member(s?) of louise cypher for those that care) know how to shread your ears with some noise drenched frantic hardcore in the tried and true reversal of man/makara vein....you really have to see these dudes to know how great they are......once their set ended it was back to the kitchen to see lucky bone do his thing....kinda weird, choppy video/noise/performance art.....he set himself apart from the other noise acts, but i still wasnt completely into it......then curmudgeon set up and played their set in the (by them hot and steaming) garage. if you dont know, curmudgeon are a furious female fronted hardcore band from the boston area...crusty and pissed are the bywords here, krystina is a hell of a frontwoman, just brutal and bludgeoning all around.....excellent people too.......then back to the house for peter j woods set.......IMO, he was the best of the noise acts........he put a eyeless ski mask over his face and rolled a ball bearing around a coffee cup while sitting there manipulating his noise devices.......the sound was nice and harsh, as this style of music should be.....a pretty nice dude too.......after  his set we all herded ourselves back out to the garage for old soul.........they are a band from mt pleasant that i had ben wanting to see for a while, and finally i did!  their sound takes me back to the early 2000s when alot of  "screamo" bands were dabbling in post rock and epic-sounding song structures.......old soul seems to have taken alot of cues from bands like neil perry and welcome the plague year and then added some black metal flavor over the top of said influences...very loud, big and clean sounding live.....one of those bands that has the potential to really move you......awesome dudes as well! with no more noise dudes doing their thing, we all milled around until cloud rat set up and started their set........if youve read this blog at all over the past year and a half, then you know i hold this band and the people in it in the highest esteem.....everytime i see them its intense and memorable. never close to dissapointing EVER........all killer no filler.......this time was no exception and in fact it was the most intense set ive seen them play ever.......for reasons partially necessity, partly choice, i was right in madison's face the whole set, that might be why i thought it was so intense, but then again, i dont think that really had much bearing on how i felt at the time and do now.......i cant say enough about madison or rorik, i love them both so much, its beyond words. devastating set that had everyone in that tiny little garage moving and going nuts. if theres one active band that i think you need to see, its cloud rat, yes, they are that crucial right now..........last but certainly not least, oily menace closed out michigan meltdown with 10 minutes of their patented environmentally aware grind.....thick and brutal, just the way it should be........kevin/dylan/travis are fucking A+ individuals in any book..........after the show i hung out with the old soul dudes and drank some tea......madison invited me to go to dinner with the rest of cloud rat/curmudgeon, but things got hazy and for whatever reason, i didnt end up going =(   you guys owe me a raincheck on that! (maybe swimming?) i hung out with my new freind lydia (shes in the rat storm shirt in the header picture of this blog) and we shot the shit for a while......then i ended up talking to kevin (oily menace) and his girlfriend (i forgot your name if you are reading this, im sorry!) for half an hour....hugs were exchanged and then i went back to my truck and drove up to big rapids to get my hotel room........all in all this was the best show of the year for me and i would drive 300 miles to be with my freinds again anyday of the week.......love you all!

peter j woods

 

republic of dreams

curmudgeon

old soul

cloud rat

oily menace.