High on Fire Slay, Anew Revolution Hang Out at Action! PR SXSW Showcase

Posted on Mar 18th 2010 2:00PM by Amy Sciarretto Comments

On the first night of Austin's annual SXSW, March 17, metal reigned supreme, with Dillinger Escape Plan slaughtering a crowd at Emo's, while Prosthetic Records held court downstairs at the Mohawk, as Action! PR occupied the outside upper deck. It was a battle of deafening decibels -- and was sponsored by Decibel Magazine -- that nearly reduced the Mohawk to a pile of rubble and smoldering ash. While Withered slayed downstairs and inside, Gates of Slumber, featuring ex-members of Burn It Down, spread the doom outside and upstairs!

Atlanta's Zoroaster also gave off an amp buzz, better than any libation could ever provide and Landmine Marathon's Grace Perry pretty much ripped my face off, playing and screaming like a woman possessed by something demonic.

While there were port-o-potties near the outside stage made for a sickening smell, but the auditory won out over olfactory! Many metal industry insiders, like Rich Hall the Brick Wall, a recent two-time guest on the ''Creep Show,' Vince from MetalSucks, Rob and Frank from Metal Injection and Noisecreep's own Kim Kelly were all in attendance. But it still felt like a show, not an industry hobnob session.

Speaking of Rich Hall, he and other industry folks, such as E1 Publicist Bill Meis and Dillinger Escape Plan's marketing guru Marc Schapiro, are residing in a swank, fully-livable mobile home this week, which is dubbed the 'Slay-RV.' Get it?! It's a swank accommodation, and we won't be surprised if others follow suit next year.

Anew Revolution vocalist Joey Duenas and bassist Frank Salvaggio were in the house, hanging out as merely as a spectators this year. Duenas reminisced to Noisecreep about how he has attended 13 SXSW festivals over the years, since he is originally from Austin, and how his former band, Unloco, who were signed to Maverick in the early '00s, were 'that band,' playing a bunch of non-SXSW shows during SXSW when they were first starting out. "We would play three shows during the fest," he said!

Duenas put SXSW's metal presence in perspective, since metal is dominant and prevalent this year, with Full Metal Texas taking place today, which you can read about later tonight! "SXSW is usually a very indie-oriented festival," Duenas said. "But metal is becoming like indie, where the indie world is becoming mainstream and metal is becoming the new indie." We like that idea, of metal taking over SXSW.

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