On Friday 30th September the Slade Rooms in my hometown of Wolverhampton played host to American humour-core metallers Psychostick. It was a night of awesome metal and fun times.
First on the lineup was Birmingham based hardcore outfit Dead Hands. The best way I can describe this five piece band is IN YOUR FACE! And yes, the capital letters were intended. The front man, bassist and one of the guitarists spent their whole set off the stage doing their thing in and among the crowd. It’s very rare for me to see a band do this and it definitely works for them. Their engagement with the crowd garnered intrigue and got this reviewer headbanging and having a great time. From their performance, you could feel their passion and energy and it was infectious. Fantastic opening band. I’d love to see Dead Hands again in the future after this.
After a changeover it was the turn another band from Birmingham. This time, it was 90s groovecore four piece RAWKAS. Another great support act. A particular highlight of their performance was their song Black Lagoon. As a horror fan, this was a great song inspired by the classic Universal Monsters movie Creature From The Black Lagoon. If I’m not mistaken, this was a brand new song that RAWKAS were working on. The frontman built a rapport with the audience during their set with his banter. I was never a big fan of 90s groove metal (aside from the odd Pantera song), but RAWKAS may have converted me.
After another changeover it was time for the main event of the evening: Psychostick. I was so disappointed when I missed Psychostick at the Slade Rooms last year and so imagine my delight when I heard they were returning. As soon as I heard about it I made sure I was going to be there. And boy, Psychostick did not disappoint. They performed many of their most famous songs including Obey The Beard, Dogs Love Socks, Because Boobs, Bruce Campbell, NSFW and BEER. Psychostick ensured a memorable evening by also holding 3 song lotteries (or slaughterries as bassist Moose put it in such a metal fashion). These slaughterries had members of the audience pick a random song out of a hat (or a plastic box) and the band would perform said song. The 3 songs that were picked were President Rhino, This Is Not A Song It’s A Sandwich and Jägermeister Love Song. Another memorable highlight was when they performed The Sombrero Song. This sounds harmless, and then it happened. They picked out the biggest and toughest looking dude in the crowd (which I’ll admit wasn’t me) and had him put on a sombrero. Once the song started they gave the rest of the audience the task of trying to remove the sombrero from his head. 2-3 songs later the crowd were stick after the sombrero. Psychostick performed an encore and got people from the crowd to join them on stage for SO HEAVY and then they closed the show with the Hokey Fucking Pokey.
This was one of the most fun gigs I’ve had the pleasure I attending and I hope to see all 3 bands again in the future.
