 "Photo: Photos by Allen Broome")
 "Photo: Allen Broome")
If band names like Wretch, Aberrance, Tome of Goetia and The Makai didn’t prepare viewers for a night of heavy, aggressive music, the name of the event should have.
Wild Oak Music Group put on the second “Heaviest in Chico” show Saturday at the 1078 Gallery.
The student-run organization is trying to establish the show as an annual metal showcase featuring the best local performers of the genre, said Shane Gann, a media relations representative for Wild Oak.
Headliners The Makai finished off the event with an hour-long set of their epic metal. Meanwhile, lead vocalist Brandon Squyres demonstrated that behind the long hair, beards and black T-shirts, metal musicians often have a sense of humor.
The Makai’s total weight added up to 940 pounds, Squyres said.
“We may not be the heaviest in Chico, but we’re playing last,” he said.
The Makai employ elements of thrash, punk and melodic metal. While they do get fast, the emphasis is never on blazing guitars or technical breakdowns.
The same cannot be said for the night’s other Chico locals, Tome of Goetia.
Drawing on melodic death metal tradition, Tome of Goetia guitarists Jake Costello and Matt Fuller made use of high-speed sweeps and harmonized riffs all night. At particularly heavy moments in their set, both guitarists, bassist Jimmy Broyer and vocalist AJ Donham banged their heads in unison.
Donham spent the entire set in front of the stage, among the audience. Like Squyres, he helped with some humor, jokingly telling the audience to ignore the “no moshing” signs Wild Oak had placed on the main speakers. He also advertised the Tome of Goetia T-shirt deal.
“They’re $10, or two for 20,” he said.
Paradise bands Wretch and Aberrance opened the show with their brands of progressive rock and metal. Wretch vocalist Tim Flores’s previous band, Writ, won the 2009 Wild Oak High School Battle of the Bands.
Wild Oak member Pat Orona originally wanted to get Writ back for this show, he said. They are now disbanded though, so Orona got Flores’ new band.
With both Wretch and Aberrance, Orona hoped to draw in high school students, he said.
People who had been to many Chico shows most likely recognized at least some of the musicians or spectators.
Kirk Williams, frontman for the Chico metal band Armed for Apocalypse, was a recognizable attendee.
Everyone knows everyone else in the Chico music scene, Williams said. Though his band is primarily focusing on upcoming tour benefit shows for their European spring tour, he still supports other local acts.
Williams formerly played with Tome of Goetia guitarist Jake Costello in The Blood of Cain and plays with Makai bassist Adrian Hammons in the instrumental band Red Giant.
This illustrates a point made by Squyres, vocalist of The Makai.
Everyone in The Makai is in at least one other band, he said. Most of these alternate bands play some form of heavy music, but they each provide a different musical outlet.
In a way, the members have to play in multiple bands, Squyres said.
“There are only so many people who like to play our type of music,” he said.
Squyres thanked the audience for the same reason — there aren’t a lot of people into heavy music, he said.
Maybe it’s not a “spectator sport.” Maybe it is an acquired taste. But judging from the number of paying fans fist-pumping and Wild Oak members working to put on the show, it is hard to agree with him.
Matt Shilts can be reached at
mshilts@theorion.com
Be the first to comment on this article!