Well, I wasn’t planning on writing this one today, but
Purple Star Third Class Contributor Timmy Arrowtop at our sister publication, Missoula Punk News, put his well-conceived two cents on this show in and should be
viewed here along with some other cool write-ups. However, the main reason I
started this blog was for me, me, me. I’d like to be able to remember the shows
that I attend locally by a brief narrative (more like a diary entry, really), a
video, a blurb about my evening, and the highlights. It’s a blog cause I
figured, hell, someone else might wanna see it at some point. As I did take
this video, I was planning on punching in a review at this here board of keys. It
would seem we’ll both get our chance.
Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a n00b. I hadn’t listened to Tragedy
until about a month before the show. Josh Vanek of Wantage USA, local promoter
(he booked this show), a head honcho at TotalFest, KBGA DJ and all around cool
dude showed me some of their stuff online and I have to say, I was quite
impressed. I’ve often thought that I’ve left my punk rock days behind, the days
of songs about beer, work, boners, and some sort of political awareness
(although these days political ignorance seems to be popular too) was something
I was reluctant to leave behind. After all, punk is one of the most prominent
homes of DIY culture, rejecting social norms, lack of pretension, and, well,
you know the rest of the rhetoric. I came of age loving it, it helped mold and
shape who I am today, and is still very much a part of my being. However,
several years back, the process of writing my own songs left me hungry for
something more substantial than most punk could provide me; it was then that I
found the dirty, slow and despondent parts of the metal underdark welcoming me
with open. . .mud spikes. Yeah. Mud spikes.
I’ve grown to know and love a fair amount of heavier music,
and every so often there are energetic parts of punk rock that I wish metal
would use more often, and dark overtones that metal has perfected so well that
spikey-haired punks really could learn a lesson from. Crust punk usually does
this better than any other genre, and Tragedy seems to be able to make music
that perfectly blends these parts together and creates an opus of awesome.
I greatly enjoyed their performance at Zoo City Apparel on
May 16. This isn’t to say it was the best show I had been to by any means. The
choices for the opening bands, Total Combined Weight and Bird’s Mile Home, while
both excellent, enjoyable and top-notch local groups really seemed to. .
.confuse the mood for the evening’s headliners, at least for me. But I go to
both of these bands’ shows frequently (and you should too), it wasn’t them at
all. It was probably the crowd, my mood, my poorly planned wallet contents, or
the fact that half the reason I took this video was so I could see the band
play in (what appeared to my feeble eyes to be) the pitch blackness. 
There was a good pit at this show. I can’t participate in
them anymore in a normal setting, as it is generally too dark for me to avoid
being knocked to the floor the instant I decide to start running in a circle
with fists flying, but just knowing that there’s enough energy in the crowd and
enthusiasm for a band really makes the experience that much more enjoyable.
But want to know what really made this. . .not as enjoyable
as, say, the performance by Milwaukee’s Enabler the week prior?
Read Purple Star Third Class Correspondent Timmy’s review at
Missoula Punk News. Although I disagree with the choice to not enjoy a musical
act taking a page out of early Neurosis’s playbook (how can sounding like
Neurosis from ANY era be bad? Issue of taste, heh), and I enjoy the fact that
the levity of punk isn’t present (cause only certain types of punk should have
that at all), but in the end, Timmy’s right.
They did sound a bit
tired. Can't hold that against them, I suppose. They're on tour. Give them your money.
Here’s the title track from their new album, Darker Days Ahead.
Ok, now, I've got videos and shows and stuff for Gretchen, Bridgebuilder, and Throne of Lies. I'll get to them. . .at some point.
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