My trip to Worcester - Summer Slaughter Tour!

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892 Posts

August 01 2010 09:17 GMT

It has all started with Animals as Leaders - I've been listening to them since a few months ago, basically my mind was blown from the very beginning. A buddy of mine, who's an avid fan of prog metal and everything Dream Theater, has become pretty crazy about them too, probably because he had to endure it daily. As lazy as I am, I didn't even care to find out whether they might be performing in the area or not, but my buddy did - and that was one of the best ideas that has ever come to his mind. Turned out they were a part of some Summer Slaughter Tour in Worcester!

When I checked the line up I couldn't believe it: how about Decapitated, All Shall Perish, Carnifex, The Red Chord, Cephalic Carnage, The Faceless, Vital Remains, Veil of Maya, Decrepit Birth, Animals as Leaders and more in one show?! I never even thought about seeing half of those guys, but all in one night? Fuck, we bought the tickets online and patiently waited. Btw my buddy wasn't all that enthusiastic about it, besides Animals as Leaders every other band scared the shit out of him, yet he decided to man up and be strong for once.

So here we go, July 31, rough awakening after a day of work and a night of drinking. This is my face, freshly shaven but still a little damaged from a 4 hour sleep.

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We decided to take a bus to the Palladium (a concert hall) since we apparently wanted to "get shitfaced" (which never really happened, but whatever, I didn't mind sleeping on the bus). It turned out that Worcester is some ghost town from Fallout, bus can only get there through Boston. So we rode it to Boston first, hour and a half in traffic.

Here we are crossing the Sagamore bridge, bye-bye Cape Cod.

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Hi Bawston!

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We had about 30 minutes to get something to eat so I went with what I thought was foolproof - a cold Italian sub. Not sure how but DiAngelo's managed to fuck it up - shit was drenched in vinegar and hot relish, onions weren't top shelf either. We each ate a half and dumped the rest. Doesn't look nearly as nasty as it tasted though.

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Okay, we finally arrive at Worcester. Walked out of the bus at 1 - nobody was around for as far as you could see. 1 pm on Saturday and the town seemed empty. What the fuck?

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Everything inside the bus station was closed (besides the bathroom). Look at how empty and sad it was.

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So we walked around trying to figure out the directions we'd printed, finally approaching the "Main Street". It was just as lifeless as everything else. The Palladium was right near, some cool kids were already hanging out at the building. We didn't want to just go there and suffer, so we found some "Irish" pub across the street and chugged a few beers. The bartender was smoking hot, I give her that. She actually took this picture for us, imagine a 10/10 girl behind this camera attractively smiling and nearly touching it with her heavenly boobs.

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We tipped her well, walked out and noticed that the line has already started to circle the building. Fuck, this was actually the back of the building.

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It was moving along relatively fast, if it wasn't for the sun baking my head after all those beers I'd be completely happy right there and then. We got in, someone was already warming up on the stage. Definitely chugged a few more to get on the same level with the rest of the crowd.

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The crowd was nice, I totally loved them. Mostly younger people, some were borderline underage (or underage? I don't know), mostly 18-25, another third was older guys, 25-35ish, some old timers too. A lot of girls came which kind of surprised me, some really hot ones too (sorry didn't take any pics). There were plenty of scene kids as well but they didn't annoy me much, I hung around the pit the whole time.

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After finishing our beers my friend and I jumped right in and started to violently headbang and jump around. The sound wasn't right the whole time until the end of the show (last 4-5 bands sounded great) but it's all about the atmosphere. I couldn't talk after my first hour in there, instantly killed my throat (somehow my buddy kept growling and screaming, people even started to get excited around him).

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Rawrrrrrr

Here we tried to take pictures but it was recording a video LMAO such idiots!

I loved the amount of moshing and slamming in the pit, basically it went non-stop for 8 hours straight, it was crazy. Some guys were kicking air, some were swinging their arms around, pushing etc. (people that went to these kinds of concerts before will definitely know). I jumped in and battled it out for a few songs screaming and throwing elbows around while running in circles and then retired, I was soaked in sweat and exhausted. Big props to everyone who did this throughout the night, it's just crazy. Here's a video but just like another one it doesn't have the sound (plus you won't be able to see anything anyways lol)

(LMAO I almost closed this blog with all the unsaved content while trying to copy the link, I don't think I would've lived past that)

So we stayed wild throughout the night, kept drinking and dancing. Animals as Leaders killed it, even though not that many people responded well (because everything else was well.. death metal at it's finest). But some people cheered real loud and I've seen guys buying their t-shirts. They put on a great show, too bad no one even recognized Tosin Abasi when he walked through the crowd near the entrance. Not like he was one of the only few black dudes there lol.

I got myself their shirt too right when we had to leave (only 15 bucks). Our bus was the last thing that connected us with the civilization so we had to make sure we get on it. So yeah, we missed both the headliners - Faceless (fuck my life) and Decapitated. It's okay, I was exhausted either way. We got there at 3 and stayed until 9.30ish, who knows how much longer it lasted after. I must say, The Red Chord and All Shall Perish put on a beastly show, I've never seen this many crowd surfers and moshers at once in my entire life.

So this is what I looked like after.

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Some dude played sc2 on his laptop once we got to Hyannis at around 1 am, I couldn't talk anymore so I thought fuck it. Sup dude, maybe you read TL?

It's 5 am and I'm finally done writing this. What a night out.

JohnColtrane

Australia4813 Posts

August 01 2010 12:34 GMT

you missed decapitated ? man :C

looked like alot of fun, thanks for the story and the pics News

MrHoon

10183 Posts

August 01 2010 12:44 GMT

ooo I can't believe I missed this gem!

By looking at the pictures, seems like you had a blast haha!

Humbug

United States264 Posts

August 01 2010 12:45 GMT

Good to see you enjoying your summer, unlike myself :x nice pictures :O I don't think I'd be able to survive a concert like that though...lol Thanks for posting

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892 Posts

August 02 2010 22:21 GMT

Yeah, had a great time for sure, when I went to bed I kept constantly hearing blast beats and some distant growling until I passed out. I even checked my speakers - it was only in my head.

I forgot to write about some of the funny things I found in Worcester, like artificial grass sporadically sprayed on the ground near the roads (kind of looks like a shitty carpet, the color wasn't even natural, was bluish-green. No idea how often they use this around the US, made me lol pretty hard) and a bathroom with no stalls and no lock at a huge bar, would I really want to take a shit in front of 5 people using the urinals?

Resized some pictures and fixed a couple of errors, I'm glad you guys liked the material