I had been stoked about Fall Line Fest since hearing about it back in July. Having missed out on RVA Fest two years ago and never having been to Best Friends Day, Gwar-BQ, or any of the various end of Summer/early Fall events that are always in Richmond, I made it a point that I would not miss out this year.
What really sold me on going to Fall Line Fest was the stellar line up. Day one of the fest, I went to Strange Matter and stayed there the whole night. While having been excited for a majority of the bands playing the festival, the schedule for Friday only had me interested in seeing Thou, a doom-metal band from Louisiana that is highly regarded as one of the most prolific modern doom bands, having put out an ungodly amount of records through a ridiculous amount of labels including Southern Lord, Gilead Media, and Germany’s Vendetta Records.
Seeing Thou with Earthling and Inter Arma, both of whom are locals who are on Richmond’s Forcefield Records, and Woe, a black metal band from Philadelphia, was a show that I really didn’t want to miss.
Before Friday night of the festival, I had yet to see either Earthling or Woe, but both of them were very fun to watch.
The two of them were somewhat similar, a four-piece metal band that both take influence from black metal. While I did enjoy both bands, nothing about either set was terribly memorable. The sound at Strange Matter was great and both bands played well and I wouldn’t mind seeing them again, but I think that the amount of bands I saw this weekend and all of the other festivities overshadowed these respective sets.
Inter Arma’s (Top photo) set was excellent, giving another display of why they’re being heralded as the next break-out metal band from Richmond. The thing I absolutely love about Inter Arma is the influence of psych-rock within their sound. This is a band I’ve seen a few times now, and I’m definitely enamored every time I see them. The heavy, repetitive, sonic noise the band makes translates so well live, especially with vocalist Mike Paparo looking like a man possessed during their shows.
Seeing Thou was a priority for me when I saw the initial line-up for FLF. Friends had introduced me to them roughly a year or two ago, and was told by plenty of people that they’re just as great live. One of the things I appreciated about getting to finally see Thou live was just to see how ‘normal’ everyone in the band looks.
One of the things I’ve noticed going to metal shows in Richmond or anywhere else, really, that so many metal bands put so much emphasis on looking very ‘kvlt’ or punk, or some other bullshit. Thou, who are widely considered one of the busiest bands in doom metal, don’t really seem to bother with some kind of image. What you hear on the record is what you get; very slow and down-tuned doom metal.
They were as loud and heavy as I would have imagined, and they played a cover of Nirvana’s “Sifting”, which I thought was so excellent and made so much sense in my opinion, with so many songs from Nirvana’s “Bleach” being quite sludgy.
Overall, I really enjoyed my first night of Fall Line Fest, but looking back on it, the evening didn’t really seem to have the air of a music festival. There weren’t too many people at Strange Matter that night, but everyone who went seemed to stay for the whole evening. A friend of mine and I both agreed that the attendance for this show would have been better if it were not for the “no tickets at the door” rule for all of the venues for the festival. Neither of us believed that many local metal-heads were interested in paying for the whole festival when all they would have wanted to see was Thou.
Despite that, I’m still very glad that the festival included metal bands, especially Thou. Also, in defense of FLF’s decision to have admission be exclusive to those who bought a wrist-band, the whole weekend was only $20 (with a single day pass being $15!) and gave admission to three other venues and discounts at businesses and restaurants. In all honesty, I think if Thou came through again, most fans would probably end up paying $10 or $15 to see them anyway.