may 05th, 2025
(this one is a lot more personal-narrative than show summary because it's ripped from my blog)
the train ride from my parent's house to the city was interesting. i brought my headphones to my parents' place with the intention of fixing them up (a plastic piece that helped hold the right side in place broke back in february), but i left them in my dad's car when he picked me up the night before, so i was left with a pair of earbuds that only played in one ear. i picked my seat on the train off of where my singular earbud would block out the maximum amount of train noises, but it wasn't totally foolproof. a group of boys, presumably high school seniors on a skip day, spent the entire two hours of the train ride scrolling through random women's instagram pages and arguing over how attractive they were. while trying to ignore that situation, i locked in drawing, and i was quite happy with how the portrait i was working on was coming along by the time i was getting off of the train. once i got to grand central, i took two subways to get to the part of brooklyn where the show would take place in, and i was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the cars. when i visited canada last year (montréal once, toronto twice), i remember hearing tons of "this is so much better than the new york subways", so i was expecting to hate it here in comparison, but the new york subways really aren't that bad! when i first got back above ground, i was immediately greeted with an event flyer for sexual exhibitionists, and right above that was a flyer for a 200 lb cheese wheel eating contest. i walked ahead for a block and saw a building covered in mural-sized posters for the five nights at freddy's movie. this could not have been a more appealing part of the city to visit.
i got lunch at ichiran! i don't doubt that they're probably mid in japan, but in new york city, i love them. i'd eaten at the midtown location once and the times square location a few times, but never the brooklyn one, so i was excited to see the differences between locations. i briefly got very nervous when i could see the tables and no solo dining area, but after i put my order in on an ipad near the door, i was shown the sort-of-secret corner where the solo booths were. despite this being the one ichiran with group tables in new york, this was my first time actually eating there alone. i'd been talking to joel about the spot, and he mentioned wanting to bring the band there, but i wasn't going to press too hard about it so i was fine with dining solo. i ordered the same thing that i always get: ramen with extra rich broth, extra firm noodles, scallions, garlic, pork slices, and no other add ons, with a side of their marinated pork and a cola. this was the quickest service i think i've ever had at any ichiran, and everything was so much More than usual - i couldn't finish my broth because it was too rich! i was thoroughly impressed. after my meal, i indulged in a little nonverbal music blasting walking time, since i knew i wasn't going to be able to pick the music i listened to or comfortably not talk to anyone very soon.
i got to the venue about 10 minutes before doors were supposed to open. it was at the wood shop, which is part of a group of like five venues, all next door to one another and all owned by the same company. i had no idea where i was supposed to wait. eventually, i saw a group of greasy looking dudes in shirts that my mom wouldn't let me wear around the house (i complimented one of them on his malignancy tank top) and figured they probably knew what was up with the show location. i was right - they were one of the bands playing! i talked with them for a bit, then the security guard, and then the other people who joined me on the line to get in. the show was initially doors at 6, music at 7. it got bumped up to doors at 5:30, music at 6. the bands hadn't finished sound check, though, so none of us got let in until 5:52. besides the people who i'd talked to while waiting to get in, no one in the venue was remotely familiar to me. i just kind of nervously stood near the stage and fidgeted with my necklace until the first band started to play, which was just before 6:30.
first band up was moonwaves! they said that this was their first time playing live with their current lineup, but i have no idea how different this one was than the previous. their music was pretty alright, but they gave me a similar vibe to renesans's performance back in january - octaney, and with the intended stage presence of a larger band that just does not match the crowd's energy at all. everyone in the band seemed quite good at what they do, but i could see them performing better in other niches. corniness aside, they were good. after their set, i peeked over at nailed shut's merch table and saw jake! we ended up chatting from the moment i got to the table to the moment the next band started to play, which was especially nice because he was the member of the band that it was most difficult to tell whether or not he liked me up until this point. but he looked genuinely excited to see me, and was happy to keep conversation going when there were multiple points that both of us had outs. it was nice :) i ended up learning that the band Was planning to go to ichiran before they were asked to meet with a touring manager over lunch - and yeah, i'm not gonna be salty over them choosing a possibly career-changing meeting over lunch with a fan. i'm very excited to see if anything comes out of that meeting.
second to play was the red mass ritual. they were the most death metal-ly band on the bill, looking back at all the sets. i really enjoyed their energy! the members all moved quite a bit, had visibly nice chemistry with each other, and came together to make really pleasant music. i appreciated the frontman's call and response/chanty bits that got the crowd involved, as they noticably got other people in the room more interested. i was starting to feel the heat catch up to me in my black shirt tucked into black pants, so i wasn't as physically active as i wanted to be, but i still had a really nice time with them!
after most of the crowd emptied out from the main part of the floor, joel walked his equipment up to the side stage and noticed me chilling after i'd drank some of my water. i learned that his only times in new york city ever have been when he's played shows, which was baffling to me. when he had to dip out to help with the rest of the band's equipment, owen said hi to me! he and i talked about finals season and the like; his partner was finishing up their last semester of uni and i was adjusting to the responsibilities id have in the fall as radio station president. while we talked, asher came up to us to show a crude stick figure drawing he made of himself and joel, which prompted me to grab my sketchbook and show off my art of the band. i'd drawn portraits specifically of asher and joel, and had the drawing in progress from the train ride featuring the full band. his first words upon seeing the art was "holy shit, dude, this is sick! can you draw me kissing joel next?" which i laughed at a normal amount in the moment but lost my absolute shit over internally for the next few hours. partially because the statement itself is one of the funniest reactions i've ever seen someone have to my art, and partially because i did not expect to be on chill enough terms for him to make those kinds of jokes with me. he asked to show my sketchbook to the rest of the band (jake and mason were missing, but the rest of them and their partners were super impressed)!! asher and i continued to talk one-on-one about my fanart, and i showed him this site and my more cartoony fanart. at every single stage of the conversation, i expected asher to express some sort of discomfort or straight up tell me to stop what i'd been doing, but instead, he kept praising the fanwork, asking to take pictures of my art and let him bookmark my fanpage so he could check in on it regularly. i felt like i was going to faint, though maybe that was from the heat of the room.
band number three was cranial damage! these were the guys that i'd talked to outside before the gig!! they were the second most moshy band on the bill which was a pleasant surprise. i took a gnarly couple of kicks to the torso, though, and i wasn't able to lock in on the music as much as i wanted to after getting hit since i was more focused on how my body was feeling about it. thankfully, no evil stomach cramping like i expected to get from it! i did have to kind of stand on the sidelines though which was a bit of a bummer. still a very nice set though :)
after they were done, asher and i went back to talking. he showed me the music videos the band had been working on (apparently, there's a video for every track on their new ep, and it's all part of an interconnecting storyline.. this literally could not be more me-bait. i'm so fucking excited about this) and it took so much self restraint to not ask for the google drive file featuring the demos for the ep with the videos. we were standing near the stage, so when the next band set up their display for the screen on the back wall of the stage, asher and i both just kind of stood there and watched it for a little while together, appalled. when we started the conversation back up, we talked about shows - my friends are looking to get their band booked with nailed shut in albany over the summer, but considering that nailed shut has a show about an hour south after fall semester starts again and i want to offer my apartment as a space for bands to crash or keep their things in, i feel like i should book it closer to the other show. i don't know. i have a lot of things to figure out.
next up was graveywhore. i don't really remember their music at all, but i was kind of cocomeloned by their stage display - there was a reason why it made me and asher pause in our tracks mid-conversation. it was a compilation of mediocre woman porn (to be fair, all porn of women is mediocre to me, but like this was especially mid) and clips of over-the-top gorey scenes from horror movies. all of these gifs were noticably sped up, and starting to get tired from the heat, my brain was struggling to process each clip before the next one began. i think my biggest frustration was that the horror clips went by much faster than the porn clips, so you had much more going on in a much shorter timeframe which made it all the more difficult to comprehend the kills. by the time the set had concluded, i felt like i'd experienced a fever dream without actually going to sleep.
after them was slamwich! this was my second time catching them live. i like what they do on an objective level, but i don't go out of my way to listen to their music often - i like them more live than in the studio. this set was even better than my first time seeing them! they got everyone moving despite the physical state we were in, and i seriously cannot emphasize enough how good they sound live. i took a couple of video clips, and somehow, the quality was even better on those ?? they are a beautiful mystery to me.
and lastly, of course, my boys in nailed shut!!! they played the same set as they did in january, and it was really exciting to be the one fan in the room who knew the words to their unreleased tracks. i took way more video than usual when i see them (since this was the first time i didn't have a buddy to film for me) by balancing my phone against one of the speakers. asher jumped from a ledge that was solidly 7 or so feet in the air, half of the band members were shirtless by the end of the set, i couldn't tell what wetness on me was sweat and what was water that'd been poured or spit out. it was glorious. i was very impressed that after seeing them five other times, this was my first show of theirs with (seemingly) absolutely zero technical difficulties! i wanted to linger and chat more with the band when things were done, but i was sweaty and tired and disgusting and there was just enough time for me to make it to the train so i'd be in bed before 1 am, but only if i rushed. asher was very sweet and handed me a setlist before i left.
the train back up north was far less eventful. i tried to keep working on the group drawing, but it was a struggle to keep my reference image available without totally zapping my phone battery. i also ended up doodling a 30-second sketch that was maybe two steps above a stick figure satisfying asher's request to see himself kissing joel. as soon as i sent a picture of the doodle to him i was terrified that i'd taken the bit too far, but he found it funny after all! it was absolutely pouring rain when i got back, so physical exhaustion aside, there was no way i wasn't getting an uber. my driver was in a tesla that i guess he was renting or borrowing ? and he complained the entire time about how the self-driving refused to shut off. i don't blame him for complaining - the sensors for the self-driving were noticeably thrown off from driving at night in the rain. we were uncomfortably close to the car in front of us, and the car loved to suddenly jolt up in speed every time the driver tried to take the wheel. i did my absolute best not to have a panic attack in the car, and i did a decent enough job at masking my hyperventilation. being so utterly frazzled and now feeling covered in sweat, possibly asher's spit, and rain water, it was very physically difficult to fall asleep. i ended up finally knocking out at around three in the morning. this show was head-rush after head-rush, and i couldn't have had a better time.