Published Friday, July 8, 2011 By amanda_caines. Under Editor : Amanda Caines, Festival Coverage, Show Review, Writer: Amanda Caines Tags: Autumn's Blood, cops, Dead White & Blue, death metal, metal, Nephilim, Rusted Radio Dial, Zombie March, zombies
It’s the Dead White and Blue Zombie March!
What started on July 2 as an afternoon of frightful fun for those eager to donate blood or canned goods in exchange for gruesome zombie makeup ended up getting severed prematurely—like a victim’s head—but not before some good-natured mayhem occurred. The event over a thousand canned food items for Metrolina Food Bank and 47 pints of blood for the Red Cross, but still the cops shut the bands down just before 6pm, right in the middle of Nephilim’s set—only the third band of the day.
When I arrived with my crew at the scheduled beginning time of the event, the Epicentre was teeming with zombies, and the pile of bags of canned goods was monstrous. Three makeup artists worked hard to accommodate the large number of people who took advantage of their “bring ten cans and get free zombie makeup” advertisement. Next to them were a tarp and a table with gallons of red liquid labeled “Gallon of Blood” so everyone could get good and bloody before leaving the makeup station—but without bloodying the pavement beneath.
People’s reactions to the undead and the death metal in the family-friendly Epicenter were rather mixed. The old folks got more than they bargained for in their Uptown walk and thought the prophesied Zombie Apocalypse was upon us. Some parents complained to security about zombies menacing their children, but from my observation, the zombies only bothered the kids who were actively bothering them in the first place. Admittedly, there was little forewarning about the presence of monsters in morbid makeup. There might have been signage to that effect had planning for the event not gone a bit awry. The event was originally planned to take place in the somewhat sequestered beer garden in Epicentre, but due to some miscommunications between event staff and Epicentre staff, the bands had to play in a hollow near the 4th Street entrance stairwell. The beer garden is upstairs and has limited access, and children aren’t supposed to be up there, anyway, so that would have been a more appropriate spot for the monstrosities this event brought out. The stage up there would have been much nicer, too.
The sound system that was used was okay, though the vocals seemed a little quiet, which, I’m not going to lie, I didn’t mind because I really don’t dig hardcore. The first band, Autumn’s Blood really had the crowd moving at an early hour for the event. Being a young band, they still have a lot to learn about consistency of stage presence—e.g. you don’t get to move around until you play a solo and then stand stick-still— but they played in tune and time together pretty well, nonetheless. The next band, Rusted Radio Dial tried to pass off a two-piece punk band as something legitimate, but one guitar and a singing drummer playing overly-simple music just doesn’t impress me. Others in our clan liked it, though. Nephilim sounded pretty good, but by the time their licks started to impress me, the cops shut them down. They egged on the cheers of “Fuck the Cops”—at least that’s what it sounded like— with an accompaniment of bass drum kicks in time, further angering security.
Despite the derailment of the concert aspect of the event, the frightful festivities such as “Tha Blood Chug” and the “Brain Eating Contest” continued—and they proved to be some of the grossest stunts I’ve ever seen—so people could win the variety of excellent prizes donated by the event sponsors. Shortly after the festival-sponsored musical entertainment got the big, black boot, some middle-aged guy with tired cover songs and an acoustic guitar came out to play in place of the molten metal bands. No one was out there to see him, but he was preferable to the metal bands, apparently—that’s Charlotte for you! The zombies danced mockingly to his set, and at one point they all lay down together in the middle of the Epicentre right in front of him.
All-in-all, I think this event was a great idea, and I’m sure the benefitting charities would agree. The organizers did a great job of soliciting sponsorships for prizes, and obviously the event was marketed well considering the mobs that showed up. Even as we were leaving, three hours before the scheduled end to the festival, people in tattered, bloody clothing were headed toward the dying party we’d just left. It’s unclear exactly how or why somebody dropped the ball, but the real victims of the debacle were the charities, who could have collected even more goods for their good causes had the event continued through its scheduled ending time.
The highlight of the evening, though, was watching the huge crowd of zombies dancing to the acoustic guy’s cover of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”
More Photos Here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter16mag/sets/72157627023804927/
And Here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter16mag/sets/72157627148413862/
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