Thoughts from night two of Matchitehew Assembly:
Bone Awl stole the show. Just awesome. The only band to play an encore in the two days. Left everyone with very sore necks today, I imagine. Anyone with a chance to see this band should absolutely do so.
Maledicere was the biggest surprise. Despite being just a two-piece, and playing at about 8 pm, they ruled. They only have some tapes out there, but this is certainly a band to look out for. Kind of like Hate Forest, but benefited from a great drummer, and more rhythmic variation. The guitar tone was fantastic. Intense, aggressive black metal.
I felt pretty bad for Krieg. It was well after 2 am when they began their set, and a big chunk of the crowd had left after Bone Awl. It was very late, and those who did stay were either tired out from Bone Awl, or were just plain tired. They didn't take very much time to set up, understandably, and their sound was rather pedestrian and ordinary. Songs mainly came from the last two albums. It was not a real long set.
Apparently Rusted Shut, whoever that is, got into a fight amongst themselves. I wasn't real interested in whatever they were playing, or Air Conditioning, or Aborted Christ Childe. That was coffee break/social time for many. Some fight broke out outside, which was uncomfortable, since all sorts of things were going on that shouldn't have, and having the cops come by would have been rather bad.
Volahn and Ashdautus played back to back, and many people were not sure which band was which, since they shared a few band members. The latter band was pretty good. They had some DsO type dissonant stuff going on. These bands were 5th and 6th to last, and they each played about 40-45 minutes, which would explain why the event ran to 3.
