Metal Faerie

Standing Penance Rock Party 07.08.10

Hey you. Glad you could make it. I’m so totally stoked about this blog and I’ll be getting straight to the metal of the matter in a moment. I hope you saw what I just did there. Bliss out.

I arrive at the site an hour in advance with the family in tow. It is dark. The noise of a welcoming scream pierces my ear, the aromatic scent of gas station pizza fills my senses and the promising taste of an energizing drink of guarana makes my mouth water.

I am going to need this energy. I am going to need this sustenance of friends and food if I am to last for over five hours of high octane, synergetic musical mayhem and rock revelry. I finish my pizza and guarana with a sigh of relish and step out of the car.

The stats are small tonight. Only Sade, the afore-mentioned scream, and Everton, her boyfriend, are present and accounted for. A lone member of the band, Cherise the bassist, skulks in the shadows with a skateboard and then out of sight. I prep the camera.

One by one they come. Reyshad, Andre, Steve, Alyssa, Ramona, Logan, Kristopher, Jehan. Even here I can see how male-dominated this culture is. There are few women in this tribe. And yet, I feel satisfied, at home as the scene unfurls and breaks around me.

Photos are snapped. Moments are captured. The night air is filled with a soft light prelude of 90s alternative, as the last line of latecomers get here. Everyone is here. The stage is set. The band assumes their place, tuning and warming their instruments. It begins.

The first beats blast off the surface of Lexx’s drum, followed by the crunch of Steve “Tearhead” Johnson’s rhythm and the squeal of Jehan “Hanjible” Sattaur’s lead. Cherise jumps in with a fine, groovy bass line after, rounding out the pounding rhythm of their first song.

I stand, ensconced in the embrace of enthused fans, friends and family immersed, absorbing, swept away as I take it in. Original after original pours from the instruments and the throats and the souls of Standing Penance for the entirety of this first set, heavily pushing their recently released album My Pain.

We now break for a brief review of that album by one fan.

The album is fantastic guys! I know how good you are, and I know how good the music you make is. But at the parties you are so caught up in the scene and the moment, the atmosphere and the energy, you aren't as attentive to the details as you could be.

Testament and I listened to our copy while driving in the car yesterday, and the details blew me away. Atmosphere isn't to be had at the parties only. My Pain is a very dynamic album, full of pleasant melodious surprises, killer vocal harmonies and kick-ass crunchy riffs.

Your musicianship is exceptional and outstanding, and this album you've created perfectly captures the fact that you aren't just a band, but the fact that you are also driven professionals as well. A job very, very, very well done!

What I Am ---> FAN-tastic <--- What You Are. ♥

Here's to more albums. Here's to more moments. Here's to Standing Penance! ^_^

HAIL! \m/

And we’re back. I cannot tell you much of what happens during the second set. Suffice to say it is wild, heavy and hardcore. Somewhere between banging head, wind-milling until I break the ligaments of my neck down to the point of wet-noodle-ism and guest singing the camera dies.

The band keeps it constantly and fully hyped all night. There is no rest for wild or weary alike. The energy raised and the bonds forged are powerful. As the final note rings out on the final song, the crowd melts away from the open door to the band house, allowing the chill of the early morning air to cool the sweat on our skins.

Spent and satisfied, fucked up and fulfilled, we go home.

PARTY PICS!