Municipal Waste – Napalm Death – The Dwarves – at House of Blues – Los Angeles, CA

There comes a show every year where despite being sick with the flu and having a fever in the triple digits you find yourself head banging with hordes of friends to the unholy sounds of whichever rad band is in town that night. Never one to turn down a bitchin time, I found myself at “that” show this week, and instead of one sweet band setting the place off, there happened to be a full bill of 5 bands set to go in for the kill!

One of the most talked about shows of the last few weeks finally rolled into town and burnt a black cross over the city as thrash masters Municipal Waste, grindcore gods Napalm Death, hardcore Punks The Dwarves as well as Exhumed and Attitude Adjustment  put on a show that attendees will be talking about for a long time to come. Everyone was there in full force that fateful Wednesday night; the old metal heads from the 80’s, older Punks as well as the new school Punks, teenagers and of course everyone in their mid to late 20’s who fit somewhere in between.
Leather, denim, skulls, spikes, studs and boots seemed to be popular as well as dyed and bleached hair. Evil was in the air as every band that night had something very similar but very different to offer to the large crowd that gathered nice and early from the get go.

As great as Attitude Adjustment and Exhumed are things really didn’t get too nutty until The Dwarves hit the stage. Their lewd and perverted style of Punk rock hit the right chord and had the crowd going ape shit till the very end of their fast paced set. There were no moments of on stage nudity or any other G.G. Allin like incidents, though perhaps next time! Vocalist Blag Dahlia is sounding great as ever and we can only hope The Dwarves swing through LA again more sooner than later as headliners on their own tour.

Soon after the Dwarves blistering set came Birmingham England’s own Napalm Death who had a huge amount of the crowd cheering them on for most of the long changeover. Their time on stage seemed a bit longer than every openers thus far and with every minute they made sure that fans were getting their moneys worth of grind. Newer era Napalm saw its fair share of playage, though older material owned the heart of their fan base and when an older song was played the crowd certainly reacted like it was the last show on earth. It must be noted that covering “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” by The Dead Kennedy’s really hit the mark with the Hollywood crowd, especially older Punks. Napalm Deaths vocalist even made a few remarks about our recent US election, it was expected and welcomed as he said unkind things about loser Mitt Romney.

By the time Municipal Waste hit the stage the crowd had survived a few hours worth of music and were warmed up for everything The Waste had to spew their way. Without hesitation the Waste sent the crowd into a frenzy with tracks off their latest release “The Fatal Feast” out on Nuclear Blast Records. Their comedic breakneck tongue in cheek style always goes over so well with the local crowd, and the capacity reached House of Blues crowd was no exception. The proper concert began to resemble a heavy metal house party with no parents in sight! It was then that security had its hardest time on the main floor. Many fans handled themselves accordingly and dove off whatever fixed item there was to use for maximum hang time, unfortunately though it resulted in many fans getting escorted out by the strict guards. Bummer!

Most of their set did go over without any incidents or any crowd commotion other than one of the gnarliest pits you could imagine to take place in 2012, you’d swear you were in the 1980’s judging by the looks of things. Tracks off earlier releases are what most fans were familiar with and fans got an ear full of thrash as Municipal Waste played their full arsenal of back catalog hits. For some extra fun they even managed to throw in a S.O.D. cover in for good measure, the place was a madhouse!

They ended the show with confetti cannons littering the House Of Blues and everyone in it as they ripped through an hour and 10 minutes of pure thrash metal mania. Municipal Waste were there to fuck things up and that is exactly what they did Wednesday night and we were glad to be apart of it. We’ve watched them grow from playing bars to small clubs to mid sized clubs to the House of Blues now, one can’t help but feel that this band is on the rise and setting their sights on big horizons. We are stoked to say that we support Municipal Waste and look forward to them coming back through LA whenever that may be again. Face The Waste!

-Louie Bones-
Big Wheel Staff Reporter

 

 

 

 

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