11-20-13
Newark, Delaware – Mojo’s
Toxic Holocaust, Ramming Speed, In Defence, Traitor, Bad Coke
Right now Blake Charlton from Ramming Speed is playing Mario Kart on SNES next to me while Jonahand Kallen sew their pants together… Ramming Speed is fucking awesome. Last night was absolutely the craziest night of tour so far—I don’t even know where to start
We got to Mojo’s in Newark, Delaware around 5 PM, and immediately upon getting out of the van Kevin Alter jumped into a dumpster and started pawing through some of the thawed, expired food within. He picked out some kind of pot pie with an expiration date of November, 2000, and moments later Ben Crew had cracked it open and taken a bite—only to promptly spew it all back out in a violent bout of dry-heaving. Blake appropriately followed suite by eating several crab cakes that were at least 5 years old, which to our amazement he managed to chew up without barfing.
James Claypool and I went to a co-op next door and got some delicious vegan sandwiches, and after that we went back to the venue to sit around and bullshit with Ramming Speed and Toxic Holocaust. The local bands performed, and both were pretty sweet—Bad Coke laid down some crusty, pissed-off power violence, andTraitor delivered a crossover blend of melodic, progressive thrash.
In Defence took the stage next, and as always, Ben Crew turned a regular show into an insane mosh-party, complete with dudes choking each other out in the pit, an exorbitant amount of Delaware jokes, a failed high-kick attempt (Ben held his hand up and someone attempted to Crane-kick it Karate Kid style, only to promptly flip backwards and eat shit), and a bunch of other insane antics. Ben threw the mic at me at one point, and I did a few lines from ‘The Police are Fucking Rad’ while he picked up some hardcore dancer and threw him into the crowd. Their set ended with Ben shouting “thank you, New Jersey,” and I had to rush back to the merch table to sell loads of shirts and vinyl to their eager fans.
Ramming Speed was amazing as usual, and Ben and Jimmy moshed around in the pit with helium balloons attached to their belts. Ramming Speed is a damn good band at getting the crowd involved no matter what, and their vocalist Pete Gallagher’s energy on stage is palpable and infectious.
Things really started to get crazy once Toxic Holocaust took the stage—they played razor-tight, and their stage presence is consistently demanding and powerful. I had spoken to Joel Grind before the show about doing guest vocals for ‘Nuke the Cross,’ and after the first verse of the song I jumped up on stage and grabbed Phil’s microphone. I did the 2nd and 3rd verse of the song, and got picked up to crowd surf almost immediately during the 2nd chorus. Being up there with Joel, Phil, and Nick was honestly a personal highlight in my career as a metal vocalist, and even though I was sick with a sore throat and shaky with beer-fueled adrenaline, I did the lines pretty well, and left the stage feeling impossibly excited and euphoric.
After the show, things started to come off the rails. Ben Crew, who rarely—if ever—drinks alcohol, drankan entire bottle of Apple Pucker in under 30 seconds. He ran around high-fiving people for a few minutes, drank some lady’s Jack and Coke out of her hand (and was swiftly kicked in the balls hard enough to drop him to the floor), then calmly walked outside, opened the front door to the venue, and puked EVERYWHERE. I stood around filming him barfing for about thirty seconds before nearly puking myself from the sound/visual of him spewing Shrimp Po’ Boy all over the sidewalk. He handled it like a champion, and was sturdy-footed enough to help us load out minutes later. Ben is one of the nicest, most knowledgeable dudes I’ve ever met, but man is he a crazy motherfucker sometimes.
In Defence and Ramming Speed traveled to Baltimore, Maryland around 1 AM, and partied at the house of Jane Vincent from Curse before falling asleep in heap on her floor at 4 AM. I am going to sign off now, and work on some of these ridiculous videos of Ben chugging Apple Pucker and Blake eating stale crab cakes, but I will update again soon. As always, thanks for reading.
-Matthias Joyce
for more updates, photos, videos, et cetera: www.facebook.com/matthiasjoyce
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