By Andrew Bansal
July 25th 2014, The Echoplex, Los Angeles CA: Richmond, Virginia crossover thrash legends Municipal Waste have been inconspicuous over the past couple of years as they’ve laid low, allowing members to partake in other bands and projects. But they flew out to Los Angeles for a one-off gig at the Echoplex, put together by Pabst Blue Ribbon and DoLA. The show was limited to people aged 21 and over, but thanks to the beer company’s sponsorship, the ticket price was brought down to a mere $6 with RSVP. Considering the amount of PBR that gets chugged down at metal shows nowadays, it only seemed a matter of time before the company took notice and started supporting events such as these. The line outside the venue extended through the block and around the corner, the atmosphere was festive and with the added bonus of Venice punk ‘n roll cohorts The Shrine as support act, it promised to be quite the party.
The Shrine took the stage at 10 PM for a fine 35-minute set that aptly warmed up this crowd for the headline act. The trio of Josh Landau (guitar/vocals), Court Murphy (bass) and Jeff Murray (drums) looked fresh, sounded great and delivered the goods once again, focussing heavily on material from the new album ‘Bless Off’ with as many as seven songs off of it, ‘Whistlings Of Death’ being the only older tune included in the set. They began all guns blazing with the scorching ‘Tripping Corpse’ and ‘Worship’, slowed it down a notch in the middle, and ended strongly with neck-breaking tunes like ‘Hellride’ and ‘On The Grind’, closing it out with an extended jam version of ‘Nothing Forever’ during which Josh dove into the crowd a few times even while he played his guitar solos. The action in the pit was intense during The Shrine’s set with plenty of moshing, surfing and stage-diving. They’re the kind of band that fits as easily with a Municipal Waste crowd as they do with the likes of Red Fang, and kudos to the organizers here for putting them on the bill because one couldn’t possibly think of a better choice for a support act at an event such as this.
The Shrine links: facebook | instagram | bandcamp
Set List:
01. Tripping Corpse
02. Worship
03. Whistlings Of Death
04. The Duke
05. Hellride
06. Bless Off
07. On The Grind
08. Nothing Forever
The beers were flowing, the party was in full swing and the crowd was in readiness for the Municipal Waste onslaught which started promptly at 11 PM and obliterated this place over the course of the following 50 minutes or so. With a 22-song set that spanned excellent selections from their entire 13-year career thus far, Municipal Waste truly treated this gig as a one-off show, giving it their all and playing like there was no tomorrow, and were rewarded with an equally wild response from their loyal fans. Early on in the set, songs like ‘Headbanger Face Rip’ got the crowd yelling along with fists held high, while other old gems such as ‘Beer Pressure’, ‘Terror Shark’ and ‘Sadistic Magician’ kept the mosh going at full speed as the number of stage divers was increasing by the minute, some audacious enough to go up on stage and steal the alcohol kept there for the band members but later put to shame when called out by vocalist Tony Foresta. With the anthemic ‘Born To Party and ‘The Art Of Partying’, Municipal Waste brought an end to an insane performance, leaving fans drenched in beer and sweat.
Through the experience of playing shows for so many years, ‘Waste have clearly perfected the art of performing in front of rowdy, uncontrollably energetic audiences, knowing exactly how and when to dodge crowd surfers and stage divers. Each member knew his place on stage, and at no single moment during the set did the on-stage gear suffer damage from stage divers. It was just incredible, so much so that one has to see it to believe it. But even for them, the highly charged atmosphere here came as a bit of a surprise considering it was a 21+ show. “This is the craziest 21+ show I’ve ever played”, said Tony Foresta, and I absolutely concur. Not only that, based on the fair share of shows I’ve seen at this venue, this one undoubtedly ranks number 1 as the wildest the Echoplex has ever witnessed.
After this show I realized what was missing from my life during the past three years; a Municipal Waste concert. The world can never have enough Municipal Waste, and here’s to many more beer-fueled shows and thrash-filled albums from them.
Municipal Waste links: facebook | twitter | instagram
Set List:
01. Intro
02. Unleash the Bastards
03. Mind Eraser
04. Headbanger Face Rip
05. You’re Cut Off
06. Authority Complex
07. The Thrashin’ Of The Christ
08. Beer Pressure
09. Thrashing’s My Business… And Business Is Good
10. Drunk as Shit
11. Sweet Attack
12. Wrong Answer
13. The Fatal Feast
14. Black Ice
15. Terror Shark
16. Guilty Of Being Tight
17. The Monster With 21 Faces
18. The Inebriator
19. Sadistic Magician
20. Born to Party
Encore:
21. Pre-Game
22. The Art of Partying
Echo/Echoplex links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
DoLA links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram