karras, supermutant, fero lux, and some mediocre other bands i couldnt give a half dozen fucks about @ rockettown april 1 2011

its friday night, and you should be somewhere else. probably anywhere else. this is rocket town pompano. 

"rocket town, is a twelve thousand square foot non-profit entertainment facility on federal hwy consisting of a music venue, coffee bar, recreation and programming. "

the word as law

i copied that wholesale from one of rockettown's propaganda leaflets that litter the music venue snack coffee bar. im not sure what programming could mean, but i can only assume that this is a reference to some esoteric ritual involving christian ideology, creating tiny skateboarding Manchurian candidates for christ. outside attractive hypersexualized underage girls sit, smoking and drinking coffee, talking to the ripply gym rat dudes from next door. everyone is sidewalk surfing or popping wheelys. gnarly grindage on sublevel wicked. cube gleaming. parents are dropping their kids off. this place makes me want a drink. and a cigarette. ill smoke crack if you got it.

i debate paying the eight dollars to get inside. i only came to take pics and see enough of this place so that i could talk trash about it later. yea theres bands playing, but bands play all the time. ive seen that shit at least a dozen times. this is about a novel experience, rocket town peaks my curiosity. what could a chain venue, run by a corporate mega church be like? it boggles the mind really. i was boggled. i assumed that it would be vacuous and industrial. i assumed that like a mega church i would be hit up for money at every possible corner. being not-for-profit (but for the prophet) means alot of things. this could not be a capital enterprise. like christ once said in john 4: 34-38 (google it you pagan fuck), reaping the benefits of other's labour is probably some kind of sin (somewhere else it also says the devil may use the scripture for his own purpose, so guess who i probably am). 

rocket town mission statement

so i paid my eight dollars and went inside. i wondered how that would work, if this place is running not for cash and prizes, but for the greater glory of the lord and savior jesus christ of nazareth the lord god incarnate creator of the universe all the stars and nebulae why did they need my eight bucks? its just green paper. cant god stop asking for handouts already and get a fucking J-O-B like everyone else (i guess he already has a job, but is too busy sending curses on his family to do anything else). if you didnt get that reference, feel free to hit up rockettown and grab a bible por gratis because they have a stack of em at the door. i got one (i was out of rolling papers), along with a book on the wounds of christ and his end times revelation. so far rockettown is the most depressing venue ive ever been to. at least at churchills theres a clear message, if you fuck up at life you will be living in the double decker bus outside blowing punks and parking cars. thats a positive social message. thats rock bottom, and it dosent make me want to hang out. here theres some sweet cooze in the parking lot, salvation upstairs and popcorn to boot.

supermutant

i got some popcorn and watched the first band SUPERMUTANT. they actually ruled. i dont know why they were here, or why i was here but im glad they played. they thrashed, quick and heavy, powerviolence and grindcore. this was a band that when i was seventeen i would have been all over. i had hope, maybe this wasnt going to be so bad. 

hope may be the thing with feathers, and it might float, but quickly it would slip away to play air hockey. the next two bands were, well i guess i shouldnt say anything awful. that would be unchristian of me. i didnt even write the names down. mall metal. haircut core. 4/4 breakdowns. screaming and then singing. i had a conversation with someone about music, and he kept talking about thrice. last chance to dance was a phrase thrown around alot. kids throwing elbows and two stepping by themselves in the empty space behind the crowd. no touching. in between bands i played time crisis and air hockey. it wouldnt feel out of place if there was an animatronic christ in here that would reach down from the cross with handfuls of pizza. that would suck the tokens outta my pocket rather quicklike. 

fero lux

FERO LUX played as well. this is a band that practices. alot. and it shows. they were having fun. there was a dogpile. kids knew the words to their songs. damn impressive. if yr into fun, you might dig em. i dont even know what other bands they sound like, some kind of technical rock metal something something.  i hate describing music, click on their link. if you dont have the internet by now i think its time you moved outta yr parents basment in ouagadougou and joined the rest of the first world.

KARRAS is old. tired. and they sound very fucking pissed off. ive known everyone in this band for at least half a decade, if not longer. i feel a strong affinity for these guys in a weirding way. KARRAS is the only band that i could name thats from my hometown. maybe thats why they sound so pissed. so fucked up. every snare hit is a gunshot. everyone in the band wants to go home. they crack jokes about christ. say fuck at least twelve times on stage. they closed and were out of place. they have heart, and no hope, no feathers, no floating. they have a demo, and it sucks. go see them live, its worth it. eat chicken wings with them after the show. 

rock and roll is a divine gift from satan himself. his final revelation unto mankind, and his prophets Robert Johnson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Page, Dead, and Ozzy have all thusly decreed: thou shalt not rock falsely. all the best music is associated with the dark lord. pick one; Stryper or Black Sabbath. Scott Stapp or Kurt Cobain. Dave Mustaine or Kerry King. Munky or Head (sorry about the korn reference, but its hard to just bust out christians like that). i think the evidence presents itself. 



-mcl

hellmass live @ churchills pub

HELLMASS has been described as black metal.

i find that description unsatisfying. this is the sound of satanic lust pouring forth at midnight.  the secret rhythms of santeria and voodoo. pagan drums and feeble screams emanating from little haiti and little havana. though there is nothing small about this.

miami is an interstitial space with a crossroads culture. it strides the gulf between the united states and latin america, europe and africa.  where all the good drugs come from. its that somewhere between bogota, new york, amsterdam and LA. the end of the fucking earth. summed up in its sex, violence and otherness. miami isnt like florida. hell it isnt even like America. its devoutly catholic in the bible belt. jazz in a klan state. hard fucking on extacy in a state which outlawed sodomy.  this aint orlando: always antiseptic with rolly coasters and happy, friendly yet never fucking rodents;  miami is all fuck, all the fucking time.

enclosed is a cover of the greatest songs that the genre has produced. visually it is  me being unable to figure out my camera. that is why its sideways. i may have been drinking.

mcl

Torche/ Post Teens/ Thunderbeast/ Ether @ Propaganda, Lake Worth March 26th.

Torche/ Post Teens/ Thunderbeast/ Ether @ Propaganda, Lake Worth March 26th.

what is time? i dont think anyone really knows for sure, its most likely the physical manifestation of the cooling down of the universe. atoms sliding towards entropy and the next big bang. my cells dividing and dying. the tides washing in and out, yr teeth erupting and evacuating. time is an affront to all human senses, a constraint which i, as a rational enlightened child of the 21st century (and a chronically unemployed individual) am unable to fully grasp. i mean what the fuck does 10 PM mean, how the fuck do i determine when something like that is happening? its mass hysteria it is, the product of post-enlightenment industrial lunacy. i mean people dont still mark the turn of seasons with human sacrifice, so why the hell should i have to get places "on time"?

so i was late is what im saying, and i missed the first band ETHER. and 80% of the second. but whatever, you probably weren't even there, so cut the shit.

i had 'missed em' but i didnt feel like i was 'missing' them. id played with ETHER in miami only weeks ago. they were loud, with a neurosis vibe. i feel exceptionally qualified to talk about this band because one time in college i had tried ether ((C2H5)2O) because of a girl i met on myspace. twas a worldwind summer affair where we drank a bottle of warm Jagermeister in the empty fountain in front of the washington square arch, and groped each other in central park. really thinking back on it, her and i huddled in my dorm room huffing stinking ether off a handkerchief was a high point in what i wish i could say was the strangest relationship that ive ever had. i developed a stutter and for weeks i couldn't smell anything. had i fallen in love ? (no i had just passed out). hell, what is love anyways but a kind of chemically induced stupor? i doubt most people could even tell the difference. shit most people wouldnt know what love was if it broke into their house, sat on their chest and slowly choked while they slept (essentially that's what it feels like to be in love).

i have nothing but good things to say and fond memories about ETHER. listen to them. theyre probably out there somewhere on the electric pornography sharing device you call the internet and they won''t disappoint. unless yr a chronically disappointed individual, in which case i really could not imagine that ETHER's black sunshine could illuminate your dismal, dismal life.

lateness dictates making up for lost time. i had to start shmoozing immediately, shaking hands, bumming cigarettes and using my powers of being a total creepazoid to get inside. i wouldnt pay, nay i dare not pay. i had too much love and respect for the bands inside to sully their art with the changing of money. i was mr. plus one, everyone's best friend and confidant, the dude with no money (except to buy beer of course). i made  quick with the high fives and avoided eye contact with everyone.

THUNDERBEAST was on stage, playing a buzzy dirge which oozed forth out and over across the crowd. i felt lost in the drone. Propaganda (which also plastered the walls, a recursionist wet dream) was dark, but very un-empty. it was a real show, with real jerks playing real jerk music for other jerks. something you dont see everyday (just weekends). THUNDERBEAST doesnt have a demo, not yet they told me, but itll be out soon and someone will assuredly get one to me somehow.

POST TEENS were tight, the tightest punk band ive seen in a long while. this was the last night of their tour with TORCHE and these Gainesvillans played a quick 15 minutes without dropping a thing. it was old school, primitive and starts and stops were all in synch and i was impressed. very impressed. well, as impressed as any cynic could ever expect to be. featuring members of ASSHOLE PARADE and held down on drums by TORCHE's rick smith, they prove once again that florida still cranks out some awesome bands. culturally Florida may be stillborn but hopefully the world has forgotten about limp bizkit by now, and we can start making amends for jersey shore miami before Quetzalcoatl returns and crushes us all in 2012.

TORCHE was, as usual, transcendent. the right mix of thick evilness and pop hooks. people were moving and touching, dancing even. a woman apologized for dancing on my shoes when she should have asked me to dance (not that i know how to, but itd be nice to get asked every once in a while HINT HINT IM LONELY). TORCHE's great strength is that ability to reach across genre lines and draw a diverse crowd ,punks, hip kids, hipstars, hoopsters, boopsters, fucktards and fuck rags, the ladies, the gays and the straights all moving a way highly offensive to the swine morality. without compromising heaviness TORCHE has established themselves as the doomiest pop band around, and no english language description or semantic derivation really captures its essence. i suggest using the electronic pornography sharing device to check them out, though i assume you probably already have (unless you live in a fucking barrel somewhere, in which case im impressed by your technical prowess/ability to mind read the internet). they have also just added a second guitar player, and theyve attained a great fullness now that they are once more a four piece.

things ended, a simple consequence of beginning. people began to file themselves away. a friend told she had found love in the arms of another woman and it didnt feel like being choked. i postured and talked about booking shows that i knew would never happen & shook hands with people i barely knew, but have known for years. i left and made south, to another bar. like noah i watched as people ducked two by two into the bathroom to do coke. these people were winning. i had learned to love losing.

-mcl