Abrasive Rock Festival 2002
08/03/2002
Capital Theater, Olympia WA

Another August comes around as does the second Abrasive Rock Festival. The event took place in the historic Capital Theater which is just a short distance from the state capital. The all-ages part of the fest ran from approximately noon to almost midnight on the main stage with a couple more hours at two nearby 21 and over venues.

The first band up was Seattle’s own Heir Apparent. Due to some sound issues they were only able to play their style of traditional heavy/power metal for twenty minutes but what a twenty minutes they were. Guitarist Terry Gorle put on a hell of a clinic for the handful of people that got up early enough to make the trip down, displaying skills that most guitarists can only dream of. Frontman Bryan Hagan seemed to be much more comfortable with the band’s material than the last time I saw them, handling everything with ease. The band as whole was tight as all get out; the only thing that would have made their set better would have been more on-stage time! These guys could make a big splash in the international power metal scene soon so keep your ears open for them.

Next up were Berserker/Crucial Blast recording artists Totimoshi. The Oakland, CA three piece played a solid set of what seemed to be a hybrid of metal, grunge, and punk without really leaning towards any of those genres. Having never heard any of their music I can’t say how the live renditions of the songs reflect the recorded material but they seemed to play very well as a unit and put on a good show.

Boston, MA’s Bonescrew were the next up on the bill. They played 40-odd minutes of “gothic industrial metal” (quote from their bio) with what seemed to be a strong hard rock influence. The highlight of the set for the majority of people attending (at least the guys) was when a dominatrix type (with electrical tape covering the nipples of her exposed breast) joined the band onstage. She danced around and disciplined the band for a couple of songs and even punished some mulleted dude from the audience, most likely for his bad haircut. The band was very professional and quite entertaining despite being a little light on the heaviness for my liking.

Abrasive Rock Festival veterans The Braindead then came out to show the crowd just why they were invited to play again. They pulled out all the stops, from vocalist JG dressing as a huge breasted, corpse painted drag queen to the molestation of an inflatable love doll to the silly string “climax” to “Cum Shot”. There were more people up front for The Braindead than any other band thus far in the day, always a good sign. After 35 or so minutes they left the stage leaving the crowd (and me) wanting more. During the closing number JG lost his lunch on the stage much to everyone’s shock. Hard to say if he was sick or not as he (as well as the rest of the band) kicked out their usual high energy performance, getting an excellent crowd reaction in the process. Regardless of sound issues and vomit, The Braindead delivered the best performance of the bands who had played thus far.

Next to hit the stage was Chief. They played a decent set that wasn’t really metal or punk, but rather a little of both. To be honest I wasn’t too impressed by them except for their perfect cover of Metallica’s “Creeping Death”, which was done very well. They seemed to enjoy what they were doing regardless of the very thin (and possibly bored) crowd and definitely gave it their all. If they could polish their stuff up a little to tone down the garage-ish sound they might be more appealing.

The gremlins in the soundboard decided to show their face again right before The Sabians were to go on so we got another twenty minute set. I was pretty impressed by the band despite the lack or true heaviness; atmosphere, complex rhythms, very original sounding vocals, tricky tempo changes, and much emotion kept me very interested through the whole set. One would never know that members of this band used to be in stoner rock legends Sleep unless someone told them; it’s so far removed from that sound. Excellent set from The Sabians, too band they couldn’t have played longer. I guess I’ll just have to pick up their CD!

Brick Bath, veterans of the Southern California scene, were the next in line to try to entertain the very tough audience. They surprised me by delivering a powerful set of groove laden thrash that could be compared (somewhat) to Pantera; only with a lot less repetition in the riffing. Guitarist Eric Meyer did some serious shredding with some awesome solos and crunchy riffs and the rest of the band was pretty impressive as well, one could tell that they practice a lot. The vocalist also did a killer job, particularly because he was a replacement for the “real” vocalist who was out ill or something. Heads were banging in the crowd too, while not quite as good a reception as The Braindead had it was very close.

Onward was next on the long list of bands. They did straightforward power metal with the exception of some seriously insane guitar work from virtuoso Tony Knapp, a guy who gave Heir Apparent’s Terry Gorle a serious run for the title of shredder of the day. The band was very professional and belted out 40 minutes of sword wielding, fist banging heavy metal. Onwards’ vocalist, Michael Grant, was the stereotypical power metal frontman with sweeping hand gestures and vocals reminiscent of Michael Kiske’s early days with Helloween. Despite the fact that I’m not a big fan of modern power metal I was entertained quite a bit by the outstanding guitar solos and the hamminess of the singer.

The gremlin invasion continued this time they chose to attack the monitors when vastly underrated old-school thrashers Hirax hit the stage. Despite that significant issue Katon W. DePena and crew managed to kick out a blistering set of classic thrash/speed metal which included such songs as “Murder One”, “Bombs of Death”, “Broken Neck” and a couple new (read unrecorded) ones. Katon is a monster frontman who knows how to work the crowd with the best, getting the crowd fully behind him every step of the way. The rest of the band is a perfect accompaniment to his mad air-raid siren vocals, creating a frenzied attack on the ears that needs to be heard to be believed. If you like thrash or speed metal get out and see these guys if you get the opportunity, you will not be disappointed.

Forced Entry was one of the most underrated bands to come out of the thrash scene in the late 80’s/early 90’s. In a lot of places they are relatively unknown but in the Seattle area they are practically legendary. Thanks to Mark Carras (and probably others) people in attendance at the Abrasive Rock Festival were fortunate enough to witness the band doing a one-time only reunion show. Although the members all look quite different now (and have aged probably as much as I have) they proved they could still thrash with the best of them to the largest, most wild crowd of the evening. The guys played favorites like “Anaconda”, ”How I Spent My Summer Vacation”, “We’re a Bunch of Dicks” and tons more. Though, like most, I was swept by a wave of nostalgia for the duration of the set the music of the band has not lost it’s effectiveness with time. Forced Entry blended thrash metal with exquisite melodies long before anyone else even thought about doing stuff like that; their music still kills to today. Those of you who didn’t show up really missed out on your last chance to see this killer thrash band in all their live splendor.

Seattle’s Gruntruck were the last band to hit the Abrasive Rock main stage. As with other bands they were plagued with sound issues, both in the bass sound and the vocal sound. The vocals sounded like mud, very dirty without any clarity. This could be why the singer seemed so unenthusiastic throughout the bands performance. The rest seemed to carry on like troopers though, doing their own style of grungy hard rock and doing it well. Though they hadn’t done a live show in a couple years they played like pros the whole time. I have never been a fan of the band so I wasn’t really impressed but plenty of other people enjoyed the show.

I had minors in tow so I was unable to see any of the second stage bands (Charlie Drown, Mindshaker, Agony of Deceit, and River Red) as they were at a 21 and over venue. Sorry about that!

Apart from sound issues and very poor attendance the second Abrasive Rock Festival went very well. Myself and everyone I spoke with had a great time and the crowd got along great. The lineup was the most diverse I have ever witnessed at a festival and for once in my life I actually able to say there was not a single band playing that I thought was really bad. It’s unfortunate that there probably wont be a third Abrasive Rock Festival because the next one surely would have been even better.

Photos from every band in the fest can be found in our Photo Gallery

Rating: 9 /10