FIELD NOTE // METAL IS NOT A SPECIES
Metal Mayhem Meltdown at Warehouse on Broadway with Third Wounded Man, Pure American Filth, Into Existence, and Waking Demons
By Alethea F. Mehdipour — Slightly Feral Media
METAL IS NOT A SPECIES
Metal is such a vague statement. Metal means many things. There are thrash metal creatures fueled by speed, sharp edges, and repetitive neck injuries. Doom metal sounds like an ancient structure collapsing during a thunderstorm. Death metal growls. Black metal appears to have emerged from a cold forest deeply disappointed in organized religion. Sludge metal is something extremely heavy dragging itself out of contaminated water. Industrial metal located machinery and intends to use it. Nu metal returned wearing very large pants. Groove metal made movement heavier. Metalcore brought breakdowns. Power metal brought swords. Possibly metaphorical swords. The raccoon does not assume when it come to these things.
Each subgenre tends to draw a slightly different crowd. Yes, there is PLENTY of crossover, but every metal habitat develops its own collection of markings, rituals, fabrics, boots, hardware, hair, and acceptable quantities of black. The aesthetic at Metal Mayhem Meltdown was definitely leaning toward the darker and twistier side of the humans. The raccoon observed many individuals who could easily cross over into goth-adjacent habitats.
Not everyone. Not everywhere. But substantially more than the average dabble and sprinkle of weird kids dressed in black had come out for this Kansas City metal show.
THAT caught the raccoon’s eye immediately.
SAME BUILDING. DIFFERENT HABITAT.
The raccoon began the evening inside Soundbite Social, photographing Kansas City rock ’n’ roll band Combo Diablo. Metal Mayhem Meltdown was taking place on the Warehouse on Broadway side of the building. Before their own substantially heavier habitat came into existence, members of Pure American Filth had been spotted inside Soundbite Social. They were chillin like the villains they are. They were enjoying Combo Diablo. They were supporting another Kansas City band before it was time to create their own noise.
The raccoon noticed. Artists supporting artists is cool. Photographers supporting photographers is cool. Sound creatures supporting musicians, musicians supporting venues, and venues creating room for all of them is cool. We all bring something different to the table. When the humans support one another, the table gets bigger. After Combo Diablo finished, the raccoon crossed into Warehouse on Broadway.
Same building. Different noise. Third Wounded Man—the first band to play Metal Mayhem—was already onstage.
She heard them before she saw them.
THIRD WOUNDED MAN
Third Wounded Man was a trio producing enough sound to suggest that reinforcements were hidden somewhere behind the amplifiers. There were no reinforcements. The raccoon checked. There were simply three humans being significantly louder than the available headcount should have allowed.
The mathematics did not work. The noise did.
Further investigation revealed a Kansas City band with history in the regional heavy-music habitat. ThirdWounded Man released the six-song live EP Patsy in 2013, featuring “The Ghosts of Tuesdays Past,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Tragic,” “I, Escapist,” “Too Far Gone to Crawl,” “Murdercar,” and “A Friday in Dallas.” Archived listings place Third Wounded Man on regional stages in St. Joseph in 2013, at Aftershock in Merriam in 2015, and on a Kansas City bill with Prong in 2016.
Then the searchable evidence becomes quiet. Until Metal Mayhem. The raccoon is not calling this a resurrection. Not yet.
Warehouse on Broadway is already haunted enough.
PURE AMERICAN FILTH
The raccoon had already observed members of Pure American Filth supporting Combo Diablo inside Soundbite Social. Then they crossed into Warehouse on Broadway and became completely feral. They committed fully to the Pure American Filth name and aesthetic. The raccoon means this in the best way possible.
Their drummer, Travis Fittro, earned an honorable mention in a highly specific and deeply respectedcategory: The raccoon’s Top Five Drummers Who Remind Her of Animal from The Muppets. The raccoon just made up that classification system. Yet, this is one of the highest honors available within the Slightly Feral Media classification system.
Arms. Hair. Sticks.Cymbals receiving consequences. No shirt. Travis did not merely play the drums.He appeared to be settling a generations old family dispute with them. The cymbals knew what they had done.
The name suggested filth. The performance delivered.
No Notes.
INTO EXISTENCE
At some point, the Hair Gods, the Lighting Gods, and the Guitar Gods held a meeting. Into Existence came, well, into existence.
Hair moved through light. Guitars moved through hair. The lighting changed shape around both.
The raccoon attempted to collect photographic evidence while the entire habitat refused to remain still. This is one of the primary difficulties in Kansas City concert photography.
The most photographable humans are often the least interested in remaining
anywhere near the location where the camera last found them.
Into Existence formed in Kansas City in early 2015. Their public musical trail includes “Descension,” “Revenge,” “Saint Apocalypse,” “Exit Bound,” and “Sound of Betrayal.”
The stage provided one category of evidence. The Stage Dive KC interviews provided another. During the first interview in the series, Into Existence demonstrated that the artists in this band are MISCHIEVOUS. Definitely slightly feral. Possibly raccoons. They messed with their interviewers and appeared delighted by the results. This is known behavior.The following interviews became SLIGHTLY more serious. This did not erase the initial evidence.
The first Stage Dive KC interview with Into Existence can be observed here:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1JbfMDzcBF/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The Hair Gods were present. The Guitar Gods were present. The Lighting Gods were clearly involved.
Into Existence was inevitable.
WAKING DEMONS
The raccoon appreciates good production. Waking Demons brought good production. Theatrical metal shows have a special place in the raccoon’s little black heart. Waking Demons was not exactly theatrical metal, but the band understood presentation.
Their set began before the first note through the environment they created around it.
DID I MENTION THE RED MICROPHONES? The raccoon may have taken an embarrassing amount of photos of the red microphones. Production does not have to become theater to tell the audience that something different is about to happen. Waking Demons made the transition clear.
Then there was the drummer.
Nitro Destruction.
What the available evidence does support is this: Waking Demons closed Metal Mayhem with a deliberate visual identity, a darker atmosphere, and enough production to make the final set feel like the natural destination of the entire night.
The underworld had arrived. It brought drums. As Always.
THE CREATURES PRACTICING STAGECRAFT
Make no mistake. There are MANY, MANY ENTIRELY CAPABLE—and probably slightly feral—creatures practicing stagecraft behind the scenes at Warehouse on Broadway and Soundbite Social. They make all of this happen. The raccoon does not intend to overlook them.
She has tried many times to collect photographic evidence of the stage crew,sound engineers, lighting technicians, cable wranglers, button pushers, problem solvers, and other creatures who appear before the audience arrives and vanish into the dark as soon as someone points a camera in their direction.
The evidence has been difficult to collect. These creatures are elusive. They work in the shadows. They appear beside the stage and then somehow reappear on the opposite side of the room without crossing the space in between.
raccoon has developed two working theories. They are either fellow raccoons and therefore exceptionally sneaky, or they are vampires and cannot be properly captured by a camera.
Both explanations remain plausible.
THE SOUND ELF: CONFIRMED
The Sound Elf has been confirmed. The raccoon knew he was present at Metal Mayhem before she sawhim. The evidence was right there on the stage. Magically coiled cables. The Sound Elf possesses a cable-wrangling ability that the raccoon hopes to develop..
The Sound Elf creates orderly circles. Elf behavior.
Confirmed.
The Sound Elf and the raccoon have known each other long enough to move beyond the awkward stage of not knowing how to interact. They now simply ARE. There may be a side hug in which neither creature actually touches the other. The fondness is completely real. The raccoon appreciates every opportunity to collect evidence of the Sound Elf in his natural habitat: surrounded by cables, controls, invisible frequencies, and problems the audience will never know existed because he already fixed them.
This is the strange thing about capable stagecraft. When it works, the audience notices the band. When it fails, everyone notices everything else.
The Sound Elf works in the narrow space between those outcomes. The music comes through. The humans remain unaware of the disaster that did not happen.
The elf disappears back into the dark.
THE LIGHTING GODS: SUSPECTED
There are other stagecraft practitioners inside Warehouse on Broadway. The raccoon knows they are there. The images do not always show them well. This is not because their work is unimportant. It is because they are usually standing in the darkest part of the room while making sure everyone else can be seen.
The Lighting Gods are particularly difficult to document. The raccoon is not entirely certain whether they work at Warehouse on Broadway or simply live there.
influence is everywhere. They put light behind hair. They put light through smoke. They put light across guitars. They arrange it around musicians in ways that make the raccoon squeal quietly behind the camera.
They even put lighting on the FLOORS.
This is not where light traditionally lives.
NO ONE SEEMS CONCERNED.
The raccoon has also collected evidence of glowing pedalboards and other slightly haunted stage equipment. Guitarists step on the little boxes. The boxes light up. The noises change. Everyone behaves as though this is normal.
It is not normal. It is excellent, but it is not normal.
There have clearly been meetings of the Hair Gods, Guitar Gods, and Lighting Gods inside Warehouse on Broadway. Into Existence may have been produced during one of them.
THE WORKING HAUNTING THEORY
The building remains under investigation. The current working theory is that Warehouse on Broadway is completely haunted. There are almost certainly displaced theater ghosts living somewhere near the stage. They may be assisting with production. They may simply appreciate live music.
Either way, the production values remain excellent.
The raccoon has photographed empty sections of the stage and found evidence of something still happening there. Light remains where light should not be. Cables arrange themselves into suspiciously competent circles. Pedalboards glow.
People appear from dark corners already knowing which button needs to be pushed.The humans call this the weekend.
The raccoon is keeping all available classifications open. But Stagecraft appears to have otherworldly magic involved.
A NEW SPECIES APPEARS
The raccoon has also observed a new species at Soundbite Social. Classification is pending. He appears to have connections to both the Sound Elf and the Lighting Gods. He moves through the same dark spaces. He understands things happening near the stage. He may be a lighting familiar. He may be a sound-adjacent creature. He may be a displaced theater ghost with technical training.He may be human. The available evidence does not yet support that conclusion.
Further investigation is inevitable.
The performers are the most visible humans in the room, but they are never the only artists responsible for what happens there. Someone built the stage. Someone ran the cables. Someone shaped the sound. Someone put the light on the floor. Someone fixed a problem before the audience ever knew it existed.
The raccoon sees the creatures behind the stage. Even when the camera does not.
SAME BUILDING. DIFFERENT NOISE.
The raccoon began the evening with Combo Diablo inside Soundbite Social.
She ended it at Metal Mayhem inside Warehouse on Broadway with four heavy bands, one confirmed Sound Elf, several suspected gods, possible vampires, a developing haunting theory, and substantially more black clothing than the average Kansas City Friday night requires.
Metal is not one species. It is an entire collection of overlapping territories. An entire ECOSYSTEM.
Every band brought something different.
🦇Third Wounded Man brought enough sound for twice as many humans.
🦇Pure American Filth brought the filth, the feral energy, and one extremely Animal-adjacent drummer.
🦇Into Existence brought the Hair Gods, Guitar Gods, Lighting Gods, and evidence of mischief.
🦇Waking Demons brought the underworld and its production department.
Behind all of them were the hidden creatures making the performers visible and the music audible before quietly disappearing into the dark again. Pure American Filth supported Combo Diablo. Stage Dive KC documented Into Existence.
The stagecraft practitioners supported everyone. The raccoon has noticed a pattern across the Kansas City live music community.
It is the same people on the stage who are also building the stage. They play in bands. They photograph bands. They interview bands. They run sound. They shape light. They attend each other’s shows. They stand in the dark and make certain someone else can be seen.
Same building. Different noise. One Kansas City music community.
The stage may be haunted but the community is real.
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