Pat Cutty, Staff Writer
On Wednesday night, there was a rather delightful show at the Black Oak. Glass Skeleton Death March headlined, with Under the Stars and H.O.C. opening the festivities.
H.O.C. provided a delightful punky atmosphere to kick off my night. They mostly played originals, often with funny titles like “F**k” and “F**k you, I’m Drunk.” They also played a handful of covers, notably the Clash classic “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and Blink-182’s “The Rock Show.” They also played a rendition of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” which garnered mixed reactions. It was a tongue-in-cheek cover that I myself enjoyed (having recognized it as such) but a few older folks at the bar didn’t seem to agree with me on that point. I’ll give H.O.C. points for that one — it takes a lot of guts to do Twisted Sister. Apart from some minor technical difficulties, the set was pretty enjoyable overall.
Of course, the highlight of the evening was the headlining act, Glass Skeleton Death March. These guys are generally good at inducing mosh pits and headbanging in the crowd. This wasn’t the best show I’ve seen them play (again, largely owing to technical difficulties) but they did a pretty good job overall at giving me headbanger’s whiplash (sometimes known as a “bangover”). They opened with an original (complete with cheesy sample track) that they decided to cut short due to “stress.” By stress, they clearly meant an urge to play some awesome metal standards. This is an area they’re particularly good at. I heard no less than three Metallica songs (“Creeping Death,” “Master of Puppets” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as an encore) and a good helping of other metal classics, with Megadeth’s “Holy Wars/The Punishment Due” being my favorite of the evening. All the covers were very well executed and faithful to the originals, and they were played very well considering just how difficult some of those tracks are. Of course, GSDM’s trademark shenanigans were also in full force, with the crowd “marching” to their calling card song and drinking from the band’s skull-shaped glass bottle (presumably filled with Gatorade).
All in all, the show was quite good and worth my three bucks. Despite the technical difficulties that arose, I was able to handle both bands without destroying my liver. I woke up the next morning with a bangover instead of a hangover — and that’s a good thing.
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