(Concert Review) TEARS OF BLOOD TOUR (Pigweed +3) - Bedford Park, May 27th

Review by Mark McQueen

Good evening ladies, gentlemen, and fans of all ages. It’s your intrepid reviewer (The Beard), and tonight I’ve made the long journey to the industrial town of Bedford Park for the next show on The Reviews Never Stop Tour 2022.

Tonight, I am covering the Tears of Blood Tour featuring Pigweed, Dreams in Peril, Overlords and Speed Pussy at The Graffiti Room in Bedford Park. With me as always is my Metal companion, the irrepressible raga muffin of Rock “Little Johnny”.

Nu-Metal

Death Metal

Hardcore

In The Graffiti Room of Magoos Bar

An industrial show in an industrial town. This one could get hardcore.

SPEEDPUSSY

"We’re SpeedPussy and you’re not. Let’s gets fucking retarded!” Good opening line (nod to Chevy Chase) for our opening band this evening.

Annnnnd right into death/speed. Easy Johnny there are four bands tonight. Three piece group. Damn that drummer's ripped. The guitarist/vocalist spits out the staccato deathgasm grunts and lines. He’s decent on guitar though. Give me definable vocals and they aren’t bad. Some definite sound adjustment needs to happen from the house guy though.

Energetic hair shaking metal. Crowd still too sparse for a pit yet. Band is feeding audience beer out of a funnel. “Get back here Johnny!” Oh shit. There went the pit. Duck and cover Beard... duck and cover.

Bassist is stripping shirt off. “No! Johnny, leave your pants on, it’s the first band.”

The speed metal guitar leads are actually fun and sound good. I’m giving SpeedPussy 85/100 for raw energy and entertainment value. They packed a lot into 30 minutes.

85/100

OVERLORDS

Metalcore. Definitely not a fan vocally. On the other hand, the drummer works with a full Indian head dress ... and a beard that puts your reviewer in second place. That’s worth some points.

Vocally, I can tell you I’m not going to be a fan. Too much "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!".

But let’s break it down. Guitar not bad, little bits of doom riffage in there. Musically I can roll. Just stop sing/screaming. There ARE real words coming out of his mouth, but I swear every song title is "BWaaaahhhggh".

Johnny has vanished. Where are the guys from SpeedPussy with that beer bong? This could be trouble on the ride home.

Finally, this style clicked. It’s like Gojira. Of course I’m also not a fan of them either, so that didn’t really help.

Going to have to put this one in the musically 75 vocally 55. Add five for the Indian head dress drummer and we’ll call it 70/100.

70/100

DREAMS IN PERIL

Dreams in Peril are a metalcore band out of Kansas City. In a little preshow interview, I spoke to Dalton (the bass player) and Lucas (the guitarist) while they marketed their own merchandise so they could also personally talk to fans. It’s always nice to see bands going the extra mile to interact personally with the audience and be regular guys, as well as the performers on the stage.

Dreams in Peril present metalcore sound with traces of ambient synth to create a “dreamlike” feel, weaving transcendental-like through and around the heaviness. Their lyrics are intensely personal to the band members, with songs reflecting the overcoming of personal and professional obstacles they’ve faced.

“We chose the name Dreams in Peril because it’s reflective of overcoming. We’ve all had dreams in peril and faced these challenges and our music and lyrics speak to this.” said Dalton. It’s not all serious though, as Lucas “Karen” added, “we’re also just guys that like to have fun and give our audience a great performance.”

Dreams in Peril, despite the technical additions, are still largely hardcore heavy music. The slight ethereal strains are mostly evident at the beginning and end. Like falling asleep, then an angry gorilla beats you like you’re the monolith in 2001:A Space Odyssey, then you wake up to strings in your ears.

That’s a Dreams in Peril song structure.

Once again cannot really call myself a fan. Crowd seemed very receptive, so I’ll give credence and call them a 76/100.

76/100

PIGWEED

Headliners Pigweed are Texas thrash and nu-metal. This is of the Slipknot vein, with one drummer instead of multi. Still that pseudo rap/metal thing vocally. I don’t really hate it but can’t say I like it that much either. It’s definitely energetic though.

Crowd was not as into Pigweed as they were Dreams, but I can more easily listen to Pigweed and they are headlining ,so I’ll go 77/100.

77/100

Tears of Blood concluded, the Beard will collect the now passed out and pant-less Little Johnny to start the 75-minute journey back home. Stay tuned for a couple of corkers in June featuring GWAR, Goatwhore and ,of course, the 4-day odyssey known as Maryland Doomfest.

Till next time this is your host, The Beard saying “Horns Up”.