Rosie Metal Night #5 Review!!

Hey everyone, as you may remember, I finally made it to a metal night at The Rosie, and this is my review, along with three videos! That's the only topic for this post, but I have some big news coming tomorrow as well, so stay tuned for that! Let's begin with a quick insight into The Roosevelt Hotel itself, as this is a venue I've previously never been to for a concert. For much of the time it's been around, it's been seen as a country bar, and it sort of has that feel to it inside, with wood paneling on the inside and sort of a rustic lodge sort of feel to it in ways. I've heard people in the past call it a dive, but since Chad LaRoue's gained control, he's been working on cleaning it up, and I got no dive feel out of it at all. Kinda reminded me of what would happen if Coch's Corner & Foggy Notions were put into a blender. It also turned out to be smaller than I expected it would be from photos, with a more straight and narrow setup, but it was warm and inviting, and it's an overall nice venue!

First thing about the concert itself that I'll mention is that the lineups we see announced by promoter Rich Moreland on the metal nights' Facebook page are actually in performance order, not the usual method from headliner down to opening bands. So where he listed this band first, it was to designate the first band performing, not the headliners, and that band is State of Misery! And before anyone asks, no, there was no second guitarist during their set. The rumours suggested it, but they're either just rumours, meant something else, or the second guitarist isn't ready yet. This was the first time I've ever seen State of Misery live, and I have to say, I'm really impressed! Witha mostly original-centric set, these four young musicians cranked out some heavy and very brutal death/grindcore songs, and deserve lots of credit! You can tell they've been working on this stuff and getting it ready for the stage! Steve "Sykcy Ace" Rhodes really stands out for me, with diverse and very capable death growling and a solid stage presence, and Ray Cowan's guitar work is very promising, I look forward to hearing more from him! Kevin Dorazio and Nick Kainula were solid all night on their respective instruments too, I can't complain too much! It's hard to, they didn't make many visible flubs, and have good chemistry on their originals!

I also like their sense of humour, which came through especially with an original song about what happens after sleeping with a Smurfette. I'll let you connect the dots. My only real complaint is that they should pick more covers that suit Steve's vocal style. The Lamb of God covers ("Ruin" and "Now You've Got Something To Die For") were awesome, but I don't think "Cowboys From Hell" by Pantera fits their sound or how Steve sings. Other than that, I was really impressed with State of Misery, who surely have a bright future if they keep on with what they're doing!

The middle band was WinkStinger, and first off, kudos to Jonas Gasperas for his Soldiers of Misfortune sweater and to Jesse Cook for his mermaid costume! That's right, I said mermaid costume. Now, I wasn't there to witness this, but WinkStinger's set at the first Rosie metal night in November didn't exactly go off without a hitch, and was widely panned for things I won't get into here, especially since I didn't witness them. Well, from what I've heard, I can safely assume that this concert completely redeemed them for November, as they were awesome! They completely stole the show based on crowd reaction, including crowd surfing! Yes, Nik Deubel from The Bear Hunters & Dan Souliere from Bring The Fallen were crowd surfing, how often can you say that locally? WinkStinger busted out an energetic and extremely heavy set of originals like "Chudnugget", "Fuck The Rest", and "Cheese Grader Face" among many others, and the crowd responded very well to every song! Alan Wells continues to impress with his high pitched brand of screaming, very original locally! Resident merman Jesse Cook was awesome on guitar, as was Jason Ladouceur, even if he was kinda off to the left of the action. Ryan Sherman's bass work was solid all night, and Jonas Gasperas' drumming continues to impress!

WinkStinger even got extra time to perform from the promoters, which is a solid sign, and a possible indication of the looser atmosphere being maintained, and they capitalized with lots of crowd interaction and their own sense of humour, as seen on some of their newer songs like "Poop"! WinkStinger's extremely heavy and fast brand of music definitely stole the show, but there was more metal in store!

The headlining band was local grimecore trio Shit Liver, and let me say this off the bat: If you're among the people who don't like Shit Liver or don't get them, and are wondering why they're headlining, remember that they have a good fanbase who were there enjoying themselves. That, and I imagine Rich is planning metal night lineups on fairness to all bands, not constantly on local prominence only. That said, they put in an entertaining set to close the concert that accomplished exactly what it set out to do. As I said in November when I first saw Shit Liver live, they are rather polarizing, and you either like them or you don't. There's no in between. But at the same time, this is what they want to play, and they play this grimy and crusty brand of death metal rather well. Why should you rank them on a scale that doesn't accurately describe their goals? I find that guitarist Josh Penno is probably the most diverse of the three band members in terms of vocal talent, being able to growl and scream pretty well, where bassist Mike Kyle and drummer Matt Baic both sound brutal, but don't shake things up as much vocally. Their setlist of covers and originals was dirty and to the point, but succeeds at capturing that vibe, and they got some moshing going!

Not a bad set, and it's cool to see them get a headlining opportunity like this! I think it'd be cool to see them cover some more mainstream songs in their style and grime them up, but their originals work pretty well for this style, and their devote fan base couldn't ask for different! Also, I thought it was hilarious that Josh' setlist was on a reciept, just thought I'd add that too!

Overall, this was a very entertaining night of metal, and huge kudos to Rich Moreland and Chad LaRoue for putting these metal nights on! Just cause The Rosie's not downtown doesn't mean it's not worth hitting, and there's a lot of quality bands coming there every two weeks, so you guys should definitely hit these! I'll be at more for sure, now that holidays are over and my camera works again! Speaking of camera, I got tons of pictures last night, so click here to check them all out or visit the SMS' Facebook page! And yes, here's my videos, of State of Misery's new original "Stand The Fuck Up", WinkStinger's song "Chudnugget", and two short songs from Shit Liver, their self titled song & "Speak of Weak"!







That's all for today, but I have a post with some big concert news tomorrow, so stay tuned! Thanks everyone!