Obituary, Broken Hope, Decrepit Birth and Jungle Rot - September 19th @ The Zoo

I want to keep this write-up short and sweet, but so much mirth was had at the Obituary show. I was absolutely giddy with excitement as I walked right into the venue to meet some gear loaders I knew before the show. I could see Jungle Rot on the other side of the room, but I was too shy and excited to say anything. Bearing banana bread, I giddily went to Kickboxing to let off some excess excitement and after a thorough sweat, I was ready to go for some much needed live Death Metal.

I have never seen Obituary live, and now that I have, I could probably rot happily in the ground. But first, I want to talk about Jungle Rot- The first time I heard them was when they were here earlier in the year with Deicide. I was so thoroughly impressed with their no-nonsense groove and tone, I had to literally buy five of their CD's- well, at least to sell to Winnipeg if they missed them. Kill On Command is a fucking classic, and I recommend anything off their catalogue as far back as their first release Skin the Living. They fucking pound! But enough about their recordings, as for this time's live antics... some personnel at the Zoo or under Cory's supervision completely ruined the microphone levels and the stage was dark up until Dave Matrise had to fucking say something so they could get some lights turned on.  However, I could only care about the lights a little bit, since I was too busy moshing so much of the time. I almost never mosh, by the way. Let this be an indication as to how fucking awesome Jungle Rot are.

After their set and some time during Decrepit Birth's set, I caught up with David and offered him one of the loaves of banana bread I made, which he accepted, but only after he let his stomach settle. It was actually surprisingly difficult to get rid of that entire loaf of banana bread. We chatted for a long time, and Dave was pretty fed up with the politics of the music industry, especially in touring. Jungle Rot had no place opening, but they know they're no Obituary. He also told me that they were following the Morbid Angel tour, but they're always behind by a few days. What's the point of that? Either way, Jungle Rot said they'll be back in the studio for another album in January, and will be touring again soon after, so stay tuned for an interview with those guys!

I'm going to skip Decrepit Birth, because they're just too proggy brutal death metal for me. Does that make sense? Impressive musicianship, but nothing that captivates me too much. Keep it simple, keep it brutal is my new mantra. Now how about Broken Hope? The best fucking thing about Broken Hope was Chuck Fucking Labossier of our city was the vocalist. The man is a legend in his own right, and I nominate him to be the new mayor of Winnipeg. He represents everything that's kind of all right about Winnipeg- the metal scene, bicycle enthusiasm, good humour, dope smoking... Chuck is great and down to Earth, but fucking talented at the same time. I would say I wish he were my Dad, but Chuck is a big kid himself, in his own words, and wouldn't really be a great Dad. But he is an amazing front man. Keep up the killer tunage, sir. Go check out Eyam or Psychotic Gardening as well as wishing him luck as he tours with Broken Hope for the rest of their Canadian dates!

Now here's the interesting part... Obituary... They played everything I'm sure everyone wanted to hear... Turned Inside Out, Stinkupuss, Chopped In Half... They just really nailed it. And from my end of things doing some photography, I could really tell that John Tardy is a serious and professional vocalist. He doesn't fuck around, and he expects everyone working the gig to not fuck around either. They were a pretty amazing band to see, and Donald Tardy is a really cool guy *faints*. I am going to cut the crap now, and just post what you people wanted to see... PICTURES!