**NOTE: This review is extremely long and mostly relating to personal experience. If you are merely looking for the setlist,
go to setlist.fm, the New York set's on there. Thanks**
So where do we start. From the beginning, I guess. Woke up early Sunday morning and packed my shit. The unlimited dining halls weren't open yet so I bought an egg sandwich. We had to be at the bus stop at 10:45, and at 10:30, he still wasn't responding to my phone calls, so I went to to his room and woke him up. Turns out his phone fell off the side of the bed. He got ready in less than 10 minutes and off we went.
Long-ass bus ride. Nothing much to speak of.
We arrive in Boston and walk around the town. Beautiful fuckin' place, I'll tell ya. WE make an obligatory stop into Newbury Comics. Very cool store. Too bad I'm not interested in buying CD's anymore, though.
We go into the Best Buy right outside the bus stop we're supposed to meet his friend and I dish out 20 bucks on some Musicians' earplugs, as I had lost my old ones.
We meet his friend and take the bus over to his apartment. We chill there for a bit then we board the subway once again. They get off before me for The Cheesecake Factory and I continue on.
I get lost several times along the way. I expected this. I'm pretty much incapable at doing anything that requires any sort of independence and common sense. When I get to the Wonderland Station I forget how to get to the Wonderland Ballroom so I wander around aimlessly for about 10 minutes. Finally I give up and ask a bus driver right outside the station how to get there. It's literally right on the other side of the station. Nice.
I get in there and a grindcore band called
Fresh Kill is playing. I catch 5 min of them. They sound very much like Brutal Truth.
Next local band called
Haxen comes up. They play black metal/blackened thrash metal. Quite enjoyable.
Third local band called
Blessed Offal comes on. They have a very large crowd. They switch between thrashy black metal and absolutely crushing death-doom. Great performance. I talk to the singer afterwards, awesome guy.
At this point I am getting restless so I finally ask some guy I had been talking to briefly for about 2 minutes if he can get me a PBR. He seems a bit creeped out but whatever. I down that fucker fast, and boy, did that get me drunk (I hadn't eaten anything substantial since 9 am that morning). The fourth (!!) local band called
Naczherer comes on. I don't really know what they played, probably some sort of black/death metal. I was having too much fun to actually pay attention to the music, but I had a blist.
Finally
Infernal Stronghold comes on. It is already 11:15 at the pooint and I'm pretty worried I'll miss most of Absu's set. But Infernal Stronghold lifted a huge finger at me and said “Fuck you!”My god...one of the best live bands I've seen, ever. I've listened to these guys before, but not enough. Thrashy, crusty black metal. Very sloppy but they sounded the best of any band that night. By this time I was only slightly tipsy but they were by far the best band of the night.
Then
Absu came on at 12:10 or so. At first I am unimpressed/underwhelmed. This is fortunate for me, as I have to catch the last train at 12:30 anyways. But, unsurprisingly, I stand on the wrong side of the platform and miss it. Then I think I see another train coming but my daily pass randomly decided to stop working so I frantically bought a 5 dollar ticket. I get to the platform, and I hear the conductor screaming “That was the last train.” Fuck.
I walk back to the venue and notice taxis in the parking lot. This is convenient for me. But I decide that if I'm gonna catch a cab anyway, may as well try to catch the rest of the show. I walk up, realize I lost my ticket. He says “didn't you have a wristband or x's on your hand?” I say no, I just got a small ticket stub thing. He says he can't do anything for me. But then he says to me, this was a 21+ show. I say I'm 19 and they let me in, even after meticulously looking at my ID for like 10-15 seconds. He goes inside to talk to someone. A couple minutes later he comes out and says I'm free to go in. Sweet!
I had noticed at this point that Absu sounded absolutely FANTASTIC right outside the venue in the small hallway where I paid for my ticket, Inside...meh. I had had my earplugs in before this and the bands sounded great. Not this time. They sounded a little better without earplugs in but there was too much reverb for my liking, so I kept them in. I expected myself to be blown away by Proscriptor but he seemed pretty human on stage, just a really fast drummer is all. The last song they played as an encore was something from 'Baratharum: VITIROl,' I think it was "Involution of Throns" or "Evolution of Horns." Pretty sweet.
Intially they announced they were playing 90 minutes but they cut it down to 55, which I assume is because of the shitty promoting. Seriously, who the fuck puts 4 local bands on a 2-band touring lineup? The show started at 7:30 and ended at 1. That's way too fucking long. Also, I assume that a lot of people who went to the show took the T to get here. The promoter had promised me on Facebook that the show would get out in time for me to catch the T but obviously he was wrong. So, anyways, at this point I was freaking the fuck out. The first cab I try doesn't accept debit cards. My phone is dying, so I ask the guy from before if I can use his phone. I'm on the phone for a while and I can barely hear my friend, but I manage to get the address... I think. I try the next cab and that one does accept debit cards, but as the driver tells me, they don't always work. Mine doesn't, and so we drive to the nearest ATM. This guy seems like a nice fellow, and he repeatedly says he won't leave me here alone in Revere (for those of you aware, it's one of the sketchiest, most dangerous shitholes in the country, or at least I've heard anyways), so when I find out I'm only able to withdraw 20 bucks, I sheepishly tell him the problem. He thinks over it for a several seconds then says he'll still drive me because he won't leave me alone. I am grateful.
We talk a lot during the ride. He is a very outgoing, funny guy. Then he asks about the address I gave him. I try to clarify but I don't really know anything, so he calls my friend and gets the details. Apparently I am much farther than he thought, and this cab ride would probably be between 45 and 60 bucks. I feel really bad but he's fine with it, he just say he'll pick someone else up in the city afterwards. When I get to my friend's friend's apartment, I run inside and grab 23 bucks from my friend. Thee guy's thanking me profusely for it, which I don't understand, as I thought I should be the one thanking him. Seriously one of the nicest, most thoughtful guys ever. If I ever have a son I may end up naming him after the cabbie. Seriously, that was soo considerate of him to do.
Anyways, I got like 2-3 hours of sleep last night before we took a cab to South Station. My friend didn't have enough money, and somehow I lost my debit card. Fuck. This cabbie wasn't as nice, but like he said, there wasn't really anything he could do at this point. We both feel like shit.
On the bus ride back now. I am hungry and thirsty as fuck and I feel exhausted and just in general not too swell. That was an experience.