Except I forgot that I live in northern Virginia. And it was a Friday. And it was raining. I literally rode my brake all the way to Baltimore – it took me 3 hours to get there. I started texting friends that I knew were at the show and found out that Origin was taking the stage… and I had just barely driven over the Maryland state line at that point. Origin, who put out one of my favourite albums of last year, was the reason I wanted to go see this show. While they ruled the stage, I was watching the guy in the car behind me play with his miniature soccer ball hanging from his rearview mirror. When I finally pulled into a parking spot the gas gauge on my car said “0 miles until empty.” I was so frustrated by that point I said fuck it, I’ll figure out my lack of gas situation AFTER the show.

I slammed a crown and diet then ordered a second one… took a breath and started enjoying the show. I managed to catch the last song of Born of Osiris and then settled in to watch Dying Fetus… I grinned all the way through their set. They played two songs off their upcoming September release and both of them were heavy as shit. I could have watched them play for another hour, but eh, it’s a festival and everyone has shorter playtimes to keep everybody moving. They will be heading over to Europe later in the summer to open for Cannibal Corpse… I’m thinking about how I may stow away in their luggage…

Traipsing back and forth between the two rooms at Sonar (a slew of local bands played the smaller stage in between the main stage sets) I re-entered the room to catch Winds of Plague, whose singer was rocking a Mohawk… cuteness. Ha. Good energy, thought they did a great job.

Saw a bit of Darkest Hour, they ALSO have a new one coming out…which I didn’t know about. Played lots of old shit, which was fun plus the new tracks, which seemed a bit heavier than the Deliver Us album… so now I’m interested in hearing the new one, “The Eternal Return” when it drops June 9th… which is this Tuesday.

Suffocation rocked out 3 new songs, which is good… I suppose. I wanted to hear more old shit. I don’t think they played one track off of Souls to Deny and Frank forgot the lyrics of his last song and apologized, saying that it was his fault and that it won’t ever happen again which I found humorous… This WAS the first show of the tour, of course it will be a bit bumpy and other than the lack of songs that I wanted to hear, they didn’t disappoint. July 3rd we will see the “Blood Oath” release.

Necrophagist was great. As always. So now, post-show, I still had the problem of the empty gas tank. And a bassist by the name of Ji Park is now my new hero, leading me to the nearest gas station and not letting me be stranded in the middle of Downtown Baltimore. Thanks dude. See you guys at Dillinger at the Rock and Roll Hotel on Thursday…