I made it to Stage North and waited, ankles caked in mud, for the Butcher Babies. The musicians took their place and the two lovely ladies with colorful hair came out and started this monster’s ball with, well, “Monsters Ball.” These two singers prove that heavy metal is no longer a man’s world. They had as much grit and growl to their voices as male metal singing counterpart. To be honest, I have never really listened to the Butcher Babies but by the time they were finished with “The Mirror Never Lies” and “Never Go Back,” I was sold. This was a talented band with great musicians, intelligent lyrics and singers at the top of their craft. If you stop and pay attention to the lyrics of “Jesus Needs More Babies for His War Machine” you realize this was a very politically savvy band. The next song was a cover of the weekend’s closing band, ZZ Top. (The first covering the last. Kind of Poetic if you think about it!) Heidi Shepard asked all the beer drinkers to yell “beer drinkers!” and the hell raisers to yell “hell raisers.” I haven’t had any beer yet so I guessed I fell into the second category. After all, wasn’t that we were all here to do? This was our weekend and no matter who you were, whether you were a bartender, a dock worker, an accountant, or a lawyer, that weekend, we were all there to raise a little hell. After the cover was “Butcher,” Slow Death,” and “Magnolia Blvd.” The last song had a bit of a different title to the rest didn’t it? These were all beautiful songs. Strip them down from their rough metal exterior and you can see the soft, wise, and political nature to them. These women have something to say and we would be gratefully benefited to listen. This was an energetic, crowd loving band, that challenged everyone to crowd surf their way to the front for a hi-five. At one point in the concert, there was a wheel chair following a person down the crowd to the front. The woman got her high-five and was held up until she could be returned to her wheelchair. Heidi said, “she made it up! Now what’s your excuse?”
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I’m going to take this moment to address the Metal head myth. People say that Metal concerts are a dangerous place to be. All the mosh pits and violent lyrics. Blab bla bla! The fans were kind and gentle enough to lift a woman out of her wheel chair and send the chair after her. The truth, to all you nay-sayers out there, is that you can find more kindness in a guy with a mohawk and a Rob Zombie t-shirt than you ever would from someone in an Armani Suit or someone at a church bake sale. I left the first band with optimism for any new bands I might discover that weekend. The Metal energy of Butcher Babies left me more revved up than ten cups of coffee or an ounce of cocaine and with no side effects. A message to all you speed freaks out there, ditch the drugs! Grab some Metal Albums!
