Tag Archives: new york

Shows: 5/23-6/19… And Beyond!

Posted by on May 18, 2013 15 comments

Listings are at Alternative Control’s discretion and may not reflect set order.  We do not attempt to list all shows at all venues, but we do try to include the good metal shows.  (And sometimes other shows that look cool.)  See something we missed? Want your shows listed? Leave a comment or contact us.

Local Metal and More

5/23

  • Sadplant, Pickpocket, and Big Mark T and the Double Barrels at Cherry Street Station in Wallingford
  • Michelle Riganese, Malcolm Tent, and Brute Force at Two Boots in Bridgeport Read more »

Maelstrom: Metal Never Dies, It Just Grows Up and Has Kids

Posted by on July 14, 2012 No comments

In the late 80s and early 90s, a young Long Island band named Maelstrom made waves in the northeast with their unique blend of thrash and power metal.  Inevitably, though, members went off to college, started families, and cut their hair, and Maelstrom joined the graveyard that so many good bands end up in.

But over twenty years later, Maelstrom has risen from the dead.

Inspired by an online review of their original cassette demo, founding members Gary Vosganian and Joey Lodes reformed the band as a studio project and put out the EP It Was Predestined in 2008.  This release gained great reviews from Blabbermouth and Metal Insider, and got Maelstrom named as one of the Best Unsigned Bands of 2008 by UK metal magazine Terrorizer. Alternative Control had the opportunity to interview Vosganian, Maelstrom’s vocalist, about the band’s reincarnation and plans for a 2012 full length album.  Enjoy! Read more »

Brutality, Beer and Bicycle Rides: A Review of Meshuggah, Baroness and Decapitated in NYC

Posted by on May 29, 2012 No comments

The night started early, perhaps a bit too early. My plans for taking an hour nap or so before heading to my buddy Danny’s place had failed. We were both a bit beat, trying to suck down a couple of beers to wake ourselves up. The only thing that kept us going was the prospect of seeing Meshuggah and Baroness completely tear up the Terminal 5 stage in NYC. Well actually, Danny admitted to not being much of a fan of Meshuggah’s music, but has enjoyed seeing them live in the past. I (as I’m sure most of you know) am a Meshuggah freak however, and the fact that Baroness was opening up for them pretty much sealed the ticket sale for me. Danny is also a Baroness freak, so there wasn’t any argument from him about going. Tired or not, we knew we were going to have a blast.

The excited concertgoers...

We took a train into the city around 5:30 and we arrived at Grand Central around 6:20, which is just amazing timing. Trying to get anywhere in Manhattan during rush hour is almost futile. Being that Terminal 5 is located right by the West Side Highway, we were faced with a conundrum. The subway couldn’t even take us close to the Terminal 5 location, and getting to the nearest stop would have required a few transfers. Being that the subway was probably like the battle for Helm’s Deep at this time, we didn’t feel like it would be worth it. Hitching a cab is also almost impossible, unless you’re willing to get into some serious fisticuffs with commuters. If pummeling old ladies and business executives over taxi rides is your thing, then I guess you would have been fine. Read more »

Kinda Famous Folk Metal Bands with Chicks in Them

Posted by on March 26, 2012 2 comments

I’ll admit it. If there’s a girl in the band, I’m automatically more interested. Yes, I know it’s the twenty-first century, ladies can do stuff now, etcetera, etcetera… And I realize that it’s the hands and the vocal chords making the music, not the genitals. (If you can play guitar with your dick, call me. Right now.)

But secretly, deep down inside, I still care more about your band if women are involved beyond just lugging cymbal stands and driving your drunk ass home from the show. And on a serious note, most metal is inspired by notions of rage and violence, and I’m intrigued to see how the so-called ‘weaker sex’ is infiltrating this genre.

Anyhow… One band-with-a-chick-in-it I heard recently is Arkona, a Russian group on Napalm Records. My friend Johnny Pluckman came across them on the internet and said to me, “Hey, you like bands with chicks in them. Listen to this.” Read more »

A Very Belated Concert Review

Posted by on March 14, 2012 No comments

A couple weeks ago, I kind of lost my shit at work and decided it was time for an escape.  Having wrangled one free ticket to the opening night of Corrosion of Conformity‘s spring tour, I headed to the Gramercy by myself to see them play alongside Torche, Valient Thorr, and A Storm of Light.

A Storm of Light, ft. Andrea Black on guitar -- 3/1/12

A Storm of Light, ft. Andrea Black on guitar -- 3/1/12

A Storm of Light, from Brooklyn, was up first — and y’know how my whole Valient Thorr thing started because of an interview with Andrea Black?  Well, guess who was playing guitar in this band… Andrea Black.  (Life is like a river, brahhhhhh…)  I didn’t enjoy A Storm of Light as much as Black’s old group Howl; both bands fall into the doom category, but A Storm of Light was convincingly depressing.  Describing themselves on ReverbNation as apocalyptic metal, they stood almost stock-still, playing cavernous riffs against a background slideshow of tsunamis and starving animals.  By the end of their set, I was ready to slit my wrists in the hotel bathtub just to avoid the impending nuclear holocaust…

And then Valient Thorr came on.

Valient Thorr, 3/1/12

Read more »

Interview with Graffiti Writer MONE

Posted by on March 2, 2012 1 comment

MONE is a New York City graffiti writer and Freight King who’s been in the game for over two decades, before it became the latest trend.  Starting out in the streets of Mount Vernon, New York in the late 1980s he progressed from bombing walls to painting freights in the early 1990s.  His pieces are recognized from coast to coast.  I recently had the opportunity to interview MONE about his graffiti work back in the day and the current state of street art. Read more »

My Lifelong Struggle with Metal Trivia

Posted by on February 20, 2012 5 comments

 

At work, we talk a lot about how important it is for students to have background knowledge of influential people and important historical events – in other words, “No, sweetie, Michelle Obama’s mother couldn’t possibly have been a slave BECAUSE THE CIVIL WAR ENDED IN 1865!”  I’m finding that background knowledge is also helpful in the realm of metal.

I’ve never been a music trivia person; I listened to the self-titled Sublime album on repeat from eighth grade ‘til college, but I couldn’t tell you half the song titles, or the even names of any band members besides Bradley.  And metal?  Forget it.  Bruce Dickinson’s a singer, right? Megadeth only has one “a” in it?  This lack of background knowledge gets me into some goofy situations editing a blog that is supposed to be about metal!

Valient Himself

Valient Himself -- Photo by Matthew Eisman

The latest situation began over a year ago, when I interviewed Andrea Black of Howl.  (BTW, she’s not in the band any more – plus one trivia point for me!)  At the time, they were on tour with Junius and Valient Thorr.

The interview went fine and I looked up those other bands on Youtube.  Valient Thorr seemed pretty cool – hard rock n roll, a hairy shirtless singer in bright red pants…

Seven or eight months after that, I saw that Jucifer was coming to the Heirloom Theater.  “Awesome!” I thought to myself.  “That band that was on tour with Howl!”  …Who I had mixed up with Junius, who by this time I thought was Valient Thorr. Read more »