Cory Collier

So last night I met my buddy Jon, and a couple of new friends for a secret Against Me! concert held in the ghetto of Orlando. The ‘venue’ was a garage covered in graffiti and surrounded by a barbed wire fence. There were opening bands, and Against Me hung out with all of the kids at the show.

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I’m still (and always will be) a huge fan of Florida Death Metal. However, Against Me is still a great band, and really proved to me their ability to stay grounded.

Watching the crowed at the show was probably as much fun as the show itself. It was all the die-hard fans jumping all over each other. I can’t explain the stink of body odor in that garage, but trust me, it was rough.

More importantly, I can’t describe how surreal it was to see a bunch of white kids, probably living with their parents in a suburb somewhere, all hanging out at a place that provides no security, in the middle of one of the supposedly more violent places in the state of Florida.

Great times

As promised , last night I went to see the Nile show at the Haven. I would write about this on my music startup, Florida Death Metal , but my buddy Bender has been screwing around about getting my mockups done, so I’m holding off on putting any more content there for while. So, I’ve got my shepards pie and another Guinness, and I’m ready to tell you tales of Metal-Lore.

I’ve been to shows at the Haven before. So I know how there are usually a lot of opening bands before the main acts come on. Since I was going Hans Solo this time, I got there a little late and missed a few of them.

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So last Friday my wife and I met up with some friends for a few drinks and a concert. The concert in question was Mastodon, an eccentric metal band. I’m not Mastadon’s biggest fan, but I do like them a lot. So when my wife and our friends decided to show up late to the concert, I didn’t object.

We got to the show around 9:00pm at the House of Blues in Orlando. We figured we’d catch the last bit of the last opener, then we’d see Mastodon. We were wrong.

It turns out, Mastodon let one of the openers, ‘Against Me!’ to open for them. So when we showed up, Mastodon was about half way through their set. We couldn’t believe it. We were only gonna see 20 minutes of who we paid to see!

Well, it turns out that ‘Against Me!’ is a really good band. They’re a punk band, which usually isn’t my thing. They’re also politically left of center, which really isn’t my thing. But they’re really good. It’s hard to not like these guys. Their stage presence is undeniable.

It was apparent that most people at the show came to see them. I’d never heard of the band before. Yet, the vast majority of people there were screaming every lyric of every song. The crowd up front chanted it’s fist to every chord, never missing a beat. It was truly something to behold.

I just picked up their live album today. It’s worth your money.