11-22-13
Richmond, Virginia – Kingdom
Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, Ramming Speed, In Defence, Unsacred
As I type this, we are traveling from Virginia to Ohio, and it’s snowing like fucking crazy… I have not missed the Midwest whatsoever. Last night we were in Richmond, Virginia, as direct support for Municipal Waste… what an insane night. My hand is busted from an ill-fated stage-dive while holding a video camera (still worth it), and I’m exhausted from lack of sleep and this damned cold I caught a few days ago. Needless to say, I’ll keep this short and sweet.
We got to Richmond around 4 PM yesterday, loaded our gear into Kingdom (fucking awesome venue, by the way), and immediately went to the 3rd floor to locate our designated cases of beer and water. I ran intoLandphil from Municipal Waste up there, and we wandered down into the alley to drink beers and listen to KISS in the Ramming Speed bus. Landphil told us stories about traveling through Europe and crazy dudes who blink each eye independently, and after an hour or so we went back into the venue to catch the first band, Unsacred—catchy blackened thrash with elements of death metal.
In Defence went on next, and absolutely destroyed the place. The venue is expansive, with an upper balcony that looks down on the stage and main level, and from there I was able to film and photograph their entire set, complete with epic circle-pits and excellent crowd participation. Ramming Speed was amazing as per usual, and Toxic Holocaust fucking slayed—they are definitely one of those bands that performs exponentially better in larger environments, and seeing them perform in front of the 100+ people who had packed into the venue was incredible. The moshing and circle-pits didn’t stop the entire set, and everyone was energetic and ready for Municipal Waste to play.
Municipal Waste went on around 10 PM, and holy hell did they bring the place down. I haven’t seen such a large, consistent mosh pit in years, and there were a few pretty nasty fistfights between the “I’m not content to mosh, I need to throw punches and kick people in the face” dudes, and the regular thrash-heads who just want to mosh and have a good time. They played for the better part of an hour, and Kevin Alter, Ben Crew and I all took turns stage diving (hence the busted hand as I type this). As their last note was struck, people flocked to the stage to high five and shake hands with the band, and I went upstairs to recuperate and gather our merch together.
We loaded out shortly after the show was over, then headed to a corner bar (I forget the name, which speaks volumes to the quality of their beer.) The guys from M.W. came out and had a few drinks with us, along with the guys from Toxic Holocaust, Ramming Speed, and several other unexpected appearances—the drummer from GWAR showed up for awhile, and a member (who shall remain nameless) of Ghoul hung out with us as well. I talked with Tony Foresta of M.W. for a bit, sang along to crappy Metallica songs with Ramming Speed and Toxic Holocaust (holy fuck, Phil is hilarious,) and we partied reasonably hard before heading to our designated hotel for the night.
We saw some dude clad in an Oreo Cookie jacket trying to pick a fight with another guy in the parking lot outside, and waited for the scuffle to break up before leaving. Matt Sexton was kind enough to provide us with a free hotel room for the night, and we all crashed out immediately after flopping down inside our room.
I’m about ready to fall asleep again—this sickness, for the thousandth time, be damned—so I’ll wrap this up for the time being. Check out the In Defence band page, or my personal Facebook page, for more ridiculous photos and videos from the last couple of days. Thanks for reading; I’ll update again within the next day or two. Cheers,
-Matthias Joyce
for more photos, videos, etc: www.facebook.com/matthiasjoyce
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