Transcendent Events sells out The Metro Gallery with hardcore emo-laden banger fest
Artsy little venue damn near had its top blown off by 5 badass bands
I’ve been to several venues in Baltimore and D.C. but The Metro Gallery was a new one for me and wow, was my first time a treat. Arriving shortly after doors, I’m greeted by tons of showgoers all adorned with band tees and various neat accessories, and cute makeup. Everyone is buzzing, there are throngs of people at the merch tables already. I could already tell this was going to be a hell of a night.
First to hit the stage was Go On Red, a two-man new wave punk band with a dash of alternative thrown in. The band starts to play and the crowd is into it. They’re first on so everyone is just warming up, but you can feel the energy in the room growing.
Frontman Tory throws back his curly locks as he croons and strums his guitar to the crowd. Their music has that hardcore punky sound with the occasional scream, but Tory’s voice has an attractive raspiness to it that kept my attention.
Go On Red’s set ends and they thank the crowd for coming out and hype them up for the next band. They got a killer single out last summer called “It’s Okay,” stream it here.
Next up to bat is Evil Like You, a Pennsylvania-born metalcore band made up of 5 dudes. The crowd is all warmed up now and Evil Like You dove right into tearing the roof off of the place. This band is HEAVY, like, filthy stank face headbanging heavy. These guys had the entire crowd wrapped around their fingers and rocking the f*ck out.
When they jumped, the crowd jumped and when they said bang your head, everyone did (let’s be real, we already were).
Their stage presence was just as great as their music. The second their set ended I hauled ass over to their merch table and got myself a shirt.
This was my first time hearing this band and it will not be my last. Evil Like You recently put out a music video for their debut single, “Heretic’s Fork.” Check it out!
After Evil Like You is done, it’s time for Without The Accent to kick things off. This is my second time seeing this group, and I’m about as hyped as the rest of the room is.
Without The Accent is a Maryland-born punky metalcore band with crazy high energy.
The guitarist, bassist, and vocalist are constantly trading spots on stage. Andrey the frontman always takes it home by kicking and jumping around and even hopping off stage and venturing out into the crowd.
WTA consistently delivers the rough and tumble get your groove on type noise!
Their latest single “Riot” came out this past fall. You can listen to it here.
It’s time for Redacted to take the stage, and the audience is losing no steam. In fact, they’re hungry for more and emit a deafening roar as the band gets ready to perform.
They’re a self-described experimental post-indie-core group from Baltimore MD, and experimental is a perfect description in my opinion.
This band has two vocalists, one of which is wearing a graffitied orange prison jumpsuit and singing into a mic that’s attached to a large, fluffy stuffed animal of some sort.
They definitely changed the pace of things for me, and they were incredibly fun to watch. Griffsauce, the orange jumpsuit vocalist rolled around on the stage quite a bit and made all sorts of wild faces.
Redacted just dropped a new single named “Future Homes” which you can listen to here.
Last but certainly not least, was Heartbent. Heartbent is a four-part emo band from Maryland and emo is right. Not only is their music emotional with sappy lyrics, but their look is also the definition of emo.
Frontman Alex has jet black hair and is wearing a black beanie, and guitarist Neel and Elle the bassist are in tight black pants with a silver chain hanging from their hip.
The whole band has glitter on their face but don’t let that fool you, they go hard.
At one point, Alex brought a small child up on stage (he had ear protection, don’t worry) to rock out with the band. He jumped around and threw up horns for an entire song it was pretty heartwarming. Listen to Heartbent’s latest single, “False Hope” by clicking here.
There you have it, folks. Another ripper in the books with Shutter16. The east coast really has no shortage of talent, every genre and style has up and coming bands that are seriously just one show away from really blowing up. The emo/hardcore/punky scene really holds a special place in my heart though, and this Transcendent Events gig felt like a big warm bear hug.
See full gallery of the night here!
If you happened to capture any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see.