Mar 12 & 13 @ The Asbury Park Convention Hall – Asbury Park N.J. |
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What a weekend! And this coming from someone who wasn’t even able to spend the entire weekend there! I did arrive early for Saturday’s shows but by the end of the night, somewhere around midnight, I was dead on my feet. It was an exhausting event to say the least but anyone who attended Friday or Saturday or both, could not have left disappointed. The March Metal Meltdown, brought to the East coast by the same promoters that have successfully been presenting the annual Milwaukee Metal Fest each summer was a rousing success. Hyped since nearly the beginning of the year, the Meltdown featured well over a hundred bands total and a number of guest MC appearances from prominent adult film stars as Jasmine St. Claire and Brittany O’ Connell among others as well as Friday evening wrestling matches from such talented ringmasters as The Pitbulls, Ace Darling and Devon Storm—don’t worry, I’ve never heard of them either. So rather than go on about something I unfortunately missed due to my tardiness, I will briefly conclude what I did see as it was more than enough to make it one of the more memorable experiences of my rock and roll life. For anyone who’s never been to Asbury Park, N.J., believe me, you’re not missing much. The town, in a sad state of affairs for a number of years now, is only an empty shell of what it used to be back when The Boss first popularized it… now a desolate and barren wasteland that’s been left to rot on its own on the beachfront. The Convention Center itself is not the prettiest or well groomed of venues, but understandable considering its only occupancy is when a major event such as this takes place all too infrequently. Once inside, it’s easy to get lost, and my friends and I did just that in trying to follow along the list of bands playing at which particular stage. There were three of them inside—The Paramount Theater, which was perhaps the warmest of the building, the Convention Hall, and the area directly down the center on the main floor just as you’d walk into the entrance. That particular area, the smallest, held up for mostly acts reserved for the Relapse Records label and was well attended for most of the day. Some of the more extreme acts took their place there and played for not an overwhelming number of onlookers but a rather tenacious bunch. It was easy to get confused being that there were bands playing in all three separate spaces simultaneously. The thing to do was to skim down the schedule, locate your favorite bands, try to catch them, then quickly move on to the next. Inside the main area were several vendors and representatives from various media. Attendees could spend a good deal of time searching for T-shirts, CD’s, magazines, or anything they could think of related to their specific area of musical interest. How loud did it get? I don’t know, my hearing still hasn’t come back yet. Having never been to such a massive music festival, I have to hold aside any major criticism as I’ve nothing to compare this show to. But I will say that the staff or organizers might have done a little better job with allowing people to go in or out. Basically anyone who wasn’t associated with the press or media was not allowed to leave the building and expect to get back in. Why? So that the vendors and food service could make a killing I suppose. There was a bar upstairs that served Bud and Bud Light, and understandably that was the only allowable area for drinking. I’m a little regretful that I think I spent a little too much time up there—but I had my reasons though none of them had to with getting a good load on. I was there to cover a few acts in particular which I did, get some good photos, which I tried my best to do, and to mingle and make a few contacts—we’ll see. Regarding the bands themselves, the list we were originally provided with was surprisingly accurate. Only a few scheduling glitches and overlapping performances threw our timing off somewhat. The set up basically was, any band that wanted to play was responsible to sell off 20 tickets at 50 bucks per for both shows—or in other words, pay a grand. For some, this turned out to be a fiasco as they literally got up there, played two or three songs and were gone. Talk about your fifteen minutes of fame! The Paramount Theater is where most of the big boys came to play. Many of today’s heavy hitters such as Candiria, Madball, Hatebreed, Puya, Biohazard and Sepultura were featured on this main stage, and not surprisingly the most well attended. Biohazard and Sepultura actually were the “headliners” and capped off the evening. I couldn’t tell you specifically about either of them because I was over at the old folks stage in the Convention Hall to see such grandfather acts as Riot, for the first time, and Anvil. Toward the latter part of the evening, there were many acts of the eighties, or as it was billed, “The Return of NWOBHM” playing in the Convention Center, though if you go down the list of the bands they spoke of like these last two, you kind of wonder what they were thinking. But yes, there were definitely a few fitting that bill such as Blitzkrieg, Jess Cox of Tygers of Pan Tang and Raven. Of significance over at the Relapse stage, Cryptopsy, Vader, and Napalm Death drew the biggest crowds and “white noise” never sounded so good! Fans who were expecting any sort of visual shows to go along with the concerts were poorly mistaken. There simply wasn’t time but for them to play. And play they all did, loudly and effectively. Sure, there were a few disappointing last minute cancellations and a few bands that should have been there that weren’t, but all in all, this was all anyone could have expected and then some. Now this is from a strictly musical standpoint mind you. How anyone felt about a day earlier, I can’t be sure but from what I heard from those who were there, it was well worth dropping down the fifty bucks for both days. Yes, it certainly looks as if the promoters made the right call in formulating this metal extravaganza and yes, the music still does have plenty of life left in it. Analytical fans will not be obliged to call this festival specifically “metal” as there were several different styles of heavy music all represented there at once. That was really the cool thing. As diverse as the crowd may have been and the bands that presented themselves, it was a complete unification of heavy rock and roll both old and new and it seemed to get along well together. Anyone who missed the Metal Meltdown will undoubtedly get the chance to catch it again next year, as I’m sure the promoters will be looking to out do themselves and create something even larger. All indications are that the Asbury Park Convention Center won’t be going anywhere for a while and in fact is probably going to be in the same condition a year from now as it was when we left it a few weeks ago. Review by Vinnie Apicella. |