RESPECT THE NECK
I’ve never been to a concert in Ventura, CA. I’ve also never seen Cannibal Corpse live. So, when given the opportunity to head out to The Majestic Ventura Theatre, a theatre that has seen countless bands over its lifetime, to see one of the progenitors of goregrind death metal, I simply had to take it. Mind you, this was a 50-mile trek for me, but it was a Friday, so I hit that fuck it button, cranked the throttle on my motorcycle, and zoomed off straight from work.
Opening the evening was an Italian death metal group paying homage, not only in name, to the great Lucio Fulci. Fulci was everything a horror movie-obsessed death metal fan could have wanted. In addition to bone-crushing songwriting, they brought awesome visuals directly pulled from or inspired by one of my absolute favorite directors of classic Italian genre cinema. They were relentless, tight, and loud as fuck. I loved it.
Following Fulci was a four-person wrecking crew who went off like a fucking bomb. Full of Hell were insanely high-energy, blending death metal, sludge, grindcore, and powerviolence into quite the unique concoction. Singer Dylan Walker never stops moving, save for a few moments between songs, which are at breakneck speeds and absolutely destructive. I felt a lot like how I felt the first time I had ever heard The Locust, and I say that as a huge compliment!
Municipal Waste is the main “coheadliner” of the tour, and goddamn are they fun. Within 30 seconds, I got hit by flying beer drops. These guys take old school trash and blend it with a no fucks given party attitude. They rile up the crowd and get ’em moving, jeering that whatever city they played before this one had more crowd surfers. Throughout the night, a guy in a banana costume was constantly being heckled into starting circle pits, and he sure did oblige!
As it turned out, this evening’s show was bass player Philip Hall’s birthday, and as such, singer Tony Foresta dedicated “The Art of Partying” circle pit to him. They also took a moment to recognize the passing of At The Gates’ Tomas Lindberg, dedicating the final circle pit to him before launching into “Born To Party.”
As I stated before, I’ve never managed to see Cannibal Corpse live. Partially because it took me a minute to come around to them in my younger, less enlightened, days, but by the time I did, I was absolutely hooked. So when they came out on stage and George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher almost immediately started headbanging, the night was officially ON. These guys rip, and they’re so ridiculously fast while also headbanging and windmilling throughout!
It seemed like Corpsegrinder was having some monitor trouble at first, but they got it figured out by the time he dedicated “Disposal of the Body” to Phil for his birthday. Allow me to say, the meme of “Respect The Neck,” in regards to Corpsegrinder’s inhuman ability to windmill and headbang harder and faster than anyone alive, is well deserved. It’s honestly mesmerizing at times, because I have no idea how he doesn’t give himself whiplash. All said and done, it was a hell of a night, and I’m glad I made the trek!
