Joe Raposa
Contributing Writer
The death metal band Cattle Decapitation threw down for the second time this year last Thursday, Nov. 15 at the Railroad Tavern on Main Street. The show featured three New England-based opening bands that played for a crowd of local residents and students alike. “It’s cool playing here” vocalist Travis Ryan said, adding that the sound system wasn’t exactly the best the band had ever been provided with.
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Ryan’s vocals were described by one audience member as “exactly what you’d expect from the singer of a band named Cattle Decapitation…brutal.” Cattle Decapitation’s lyrics focus mostly on the mistreatment and consumption of animals. Both Ryan and guitarist Josh Elmore are vegetarians. Many of the band’s songs talk about putting humans in situations that they put animals through; tracks like Reduced to Paste come to mind.
More recently, a video was made for the band’s latest love song, “Forced Gender Reassignment.” The video was so graphic that YouTube refused to carry the video. Ryan said that he came up with the idea for the video to show the exact nature of the song’s lyrics.
“I’m actually glad it bothered people. I pay more attention to those responses than those who liked it,” Ryan said. Cattle Decapitation was booked to bring the “For the Fans, By the Fans” tour to the Railroad after the band dropped off a tour with the death metal band Six Feet Under after an altercation between Ryan and the Six Feet Under vocalist, Chris Barnes. “It was an interesting turn of events, and we’ve had a lot of fun since we started doing stuff on our own. Meeting fans on a different level than we’re able to usually, and it’s [expletive] cool,” Ryan said. The band was booked by Swanzey resident Antoine Veach, who runs his own music sales business named Wicked Music. Veach, through his website and in person sells various heavy metal CDs, vinyl records, DVD’s and more. Veach said he started selling CDs about a year ago.
“I started by selling some used CDs from a collection I bought from someone moving away from the area,” Veach said.
Veach orders albums through various labels and sells them in person at shows throughout New England. He also sells the albums and occasionally show tickets through his website, wickedmusicshop.com. Veach said that he hopes to eventually open a store in Keene for his business.
“I’ve been always amazed at the fact that a college town such as Keene doesn’t have a dedicated music store. The idea behind Wicked Music is to be able to provide an outlet for fans to have access to styles of music they wouldn’t easily through normal means” Veach said.
Veach is hoping to book shows every weekend at Railroad. He said the proceeds from each show will go to equipment upgrades and future shows at the bar. “I want to be able to provide a local show every weekend with four unsigned artists. This will give bands a chance to play in a new area and hopefully gain new fans,” Veach said.
“I’m going to focus on trying to bring different styles in, so you might see a weekend show with just rock acts, or you might have a show with alternative bands. The main thing is to make people aware that there is a place in Keene that does provide music that you can check out almost every weekend for a low cost when it comes to local music.”
Upcoming shows, as well as weekly featured local bands, can be found on Wicked Music’s Facebook page.
Joe Raposa can be contacted at
jraposa@ksc.keene.edu
Joe Raposa can be contacted at
jraposa@ksc.keene.edu