Wolves in the Skeletonwitch Room (Part 1)

I had a great end of the weekend/start of this week. Sunday night at Thee Parkside in SF Skeletonwitch played and Monday night at Slim's Wolves in the Throne Room rocked the house. I'm going to start my recap/review (...whatever) with Sunday night.

Four bands were lined up to play Thee Parkside that night. Only two really rocked. The first band were unsigned and to tell you the truth, I didn't catch their name. Everyone in the band looked like 80s thrashers, so I was looking forward to some good shit. Hey, remember when I said everyone in the band looked like 80s thrashers? Yea? Well, everyone except the singer. He looked like one of those emo/scenester douches. Thus my friends and I began referring to them as "Unfortunate Haircut." The instruments were fuckin' great, but the singer was VERY out of place. (On a side story, Metal Beard saw the singer outside after the set, Unfortunate Haircut singer attempted to pick up a chick via asking her if she "needed a piggyback ride." Her reply was "uhhh...no..." To which Unfortunate Haircut shot back: "well, if you need one, I'll give you one...") ...Moving right along...

The next band was the hardcore band Trap Them. Only about 10 people in the audience were digging them. I felt the singer had a terribly misdirected energy and stage presence. At one point he jumped off stage and ran into the audience. Everyone simply got out of the way and was looking at him like "what the hell is this guy doing?" At this point the singer realized only 10 people were digging it and he returned to the stage.

Next up were Saviours. This is where the show started to pick up. Finally some good quality metal. I recommend checking Saviours out HERE. After they owned the stage, it was time for the headliners to take over.

Skeletonwitch had a stage presence I haven't seen in a long time. They owned the crowd. Everyone in the band looked like they were having a fuckin' great time. Vocalist, Chance Garnette had expert audience interaction. He'd hold the mic to some of the front row thrashers for them to sing along with him. His crazy antics quickly got everyone having fun. I cite his interpreting movements to cymbal crashes: a lightning bolt hitting his chest, riping his chest open and then pulling out his own heart and holding it above the crowd. Yea, this was a fun fuckin' show.

When their set was over, the crowd still wanted more to which Chance replied in deathmetal growl: "WHY THE HELL NOT!"

Stick around for part 2

EDIT: I've since discovered "Unfortunate Haircut" is actually called "At Our Heels"