MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST :: 04/26/24

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST :: 04/26/24

HOUR 1
ZAKK SABBATH - "paranoid" // doomed forever/forever doomed
MADAM DRIVER – “through the trees" // negative ghostrider
ODDS OF AN AFTERTHOUGHT – “show me a sign" // through eyes of change
BETTER BROKEN – “queensbury" // tundra
SLDG – “1000 yard stare" // predicaments ep
SKILLET – “the resistance" // unleashed
RED HANDED DENIAL – “one more night” // a journey through virtual dystopia
ANGRY WATERS – “the heist" // the ghosts we chase

JUDAS PRIEST – “the serpent and the king" // invisible shield
SABATON – “race to the sea" // the war to end all wars
CORSAIR - "battle eternal" // the golden heart
THE BURN VAULT – “even rock stars die too" // ignite
ROYAL TUSK - "here on out" // altrustic
HOUSTON - "dntUwry" // the biggest shove in space
BAD OMENS, HEALTH, SWARM – “the drain” // concrete jungle
BOSTON MANOR – “sliding doors” // sliding doors – single

HOUR 2
KNOCKED LOOSE feat POPPY - "suffocate" // you won't go before you're supposed to
DESTROPHY – “welcome home” // welcome home – single
WIDOW7 - "low life" // our new doomsday
VENDED - "the far side" // the far side - single
STITCHED UP HEART - "the hunting" // to the wolves
SETYOURSAILS - "bad blood" // bad blood
BOUNDARIES - "easily erased" // death is a little more

TILL LINDEMANN – “du hast kein herz" // zunge
MEGADETH – “trust" // cryptic writings
MUDVAYNE – “the end of all things to come" // the end of all things to come
BETTER LOVERS – “the flowering” // the flowering - single
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY feat COURTNEY LaPLANTE – “to the dance floor for shelter” // coup de grace
FOREIGN HANDS – “God under fingernails” // what’s left unsaid
ROMAN CANDLE - "gaslighting isn't real" // discount fireworks
REAPING ASMODEIA - "dreamcaster" // darkened infinity

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST :: 04/19/24

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST  ::  04/19/24

HOUR 1
DESTROPHY - "welcome home" // welcome home - single
BULLETS & BUTTERFLIES – “hey rose (it was what it is)" // hey rose - single
VIA – “appetite" // after you drown
RAD OWL – “every second”  //  rage gracefully
ALPHA WOLF – “whenever you’re ready”  //  half living things
SUM 41 – “in too deep" // all killer, no filler
THE INTERRUPTERS – “raised by wolves" // in the wild
THE FAILSAFE – “head under water" // erasing color

WEEKEND PICNIC – “I will remain" // I will remain - single
MADAM DRIVER – “innocence fading”  //  negative ghostrider
SELF EVIDENT – “everything all at once" // endings
NOTHING MORE – “if it doesn’t hurt”  //  carnal
THE WARNING – “automatic sun”  //  keep me fed
BOSTON MANOR – “sliding doors”  //  sliding doors - single
TURNSTILE - "dance off" // glow on
UNDEROATH - "a boy brushed red living in black and white" // they're only chasing safety

HOUR 2
BETTER BROKEN - "queensbury" // tundra
ODDS OF AN AFTERTHOUGHT – “show me a sign" // through eyes of change
SLDG – “calcify" // predicaments ep
THE CHALLENGER DISASTER CONSPIRACY – “corncob messiah" // city pages 2023 band of the year
CLUTCH - "worm drink" // blast tyrant
RED HANDED DENIAL – “one more night” // a journey through virtual dystopia
BAD OMENS x HEALTH x SWARM – “the drain” // concrete jungle
THE GHOST INSIDE – “wash it away" // searching for solace

JOHNNY BOOTH – “ring light alter" // moments elsewhere
JESUS PIECE – “an offering to the night" // so unknown
MAKE THEM SUFFER – “epitaph”  //  epitaph - single
JUDICIARY – “blood" // flesh + blood
KUBLAI KHAN TX – “low tech" // low tech - single
CONVERGE – “under duress" // the dusk in us
KNOCKED LOOSE – “blinding faith”  //  you won’t go before you’re supposed to
ENTHEOS – “an end to everything”  //  an end to everything – single
VEIN - "virus vibrance" // errorzone

KUBLAI KHAN TX throws down hard at a sold out First Avenue!

CONCERT REVIEW :: KUBLAI KHAN TX, SUNAMI, JUDICIARY
First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN
April 9, 2024
Photos by Brett
Review by Nick

It’s not often a hardcore band gets to headline the First Avenue mainroom in Minneapolis so this Kublai Khan TX show was going to be one for the books the moment it was announced. The fact that this show was near selling out two weeks before the show was going to make it even bigger. When we arrived at First Avenue and the sign on the door said “SOLD OUT”, that marks a huge win for heavy music!

We missed MOMENTUM’s opening set but heard good things from people in the crowd. JUDICIARY came out swinging the second the screen lifted and the lights went down. This show was not going to be for the faint of heart. I saw karate kicks and windmills in the circle pits, and even a bloody nose! I’m not well versed at all with JUDICIARY but they were impressive enough for me to pick up their latest disc “Flesh + Blood”. There’s punishing riffs, there’s grooves and there’s Jake Collinson’s intense vocal delivery. Easy to see why Kublai Khan TX brought them along on tour besides also being from Texas. Definitely time for me to get up to speed on JUDICIARY.

SUNAMI was up next. Lots of stomp and a totally different vocal delivery from JUDICIARY courtesy of frontman Josef Alfonso with more of a Rage Against the Machine style delivery. Crowd was completely in to it the entire set with lots of activity in the pit which was fun to watch from some safety upstairs. With Josef himself saying “(They) probably would never have played here if it wasn’t for Kublai Khan taking them on tour.” That’s right, MN isn’t a fly over state, feel free to come back again.

KUBLAI KHAN TX came out to perhaps now the loudest crowd sing a long right out of the gate of the year with “Theory of Mind” opening lines of “Monkey See, Monkey Do. So who the F made you?!” The crowd immediately was loud and crazy. The security guys up front had their hands full with crowd surfers right from the beginning of the song’s feedback to announce the start of the set.

Launching in to “Loyal to None” and “Resentment” from 2022’s “Lowest Form of Animal” EP, the band wasn’t letting up and neither was the crowd. For as punishing as KUBLAI KHAN TX’s music is, you can definitely tell there was some love between the crowd and the band with a few smiles cracked from the band from the intensity being thrown back at them. Jordan from MOMENTUM came up to help out on “Swan Song” creating a dynamic two headed monster on stage. If you thought the crowd was letting up once they launched in to that song, you were very mistaken.

Newly released “Low Tech” got a big pop from the crowd as they launched in to “Us & Them” with another shout along from the crowd. Before “The Truest Love” frontman Matt Honeycutt shouted out all the parents in the house who got a babysitter to come to the show and gave some extra love to all the single parents in the house celebrating everyone’s struggles and successes as parents. “Taipan” was a good pit turner as it’s a short and heavy number before heading in to “Self Destruct” which brought along another great shout along, no one can deny that “Every F'n Human is Built to Self Destruct” is a killer shout before the band breaks it down.

If you don’t know who KUBLAI KHAN TX is, remedy that now. Check out the new singles “Low Tech” and “Theory of Mind” as well as their most recent releases “Lowest Form of Animal” and “Absolute” and keep working your way back from there. Matt is an excellent and intense frontman, guitarist Nolan Ashley, bassist Eric English and drummer Issac Lamb lay it down heavy and thick. It’s pretty impossible to stay still during their set, heads were nodding if they weren’t moving in the pit.

This is a band that is not letting up anytime soon and has the show to back up the heaviness that they set the bar on record. Don’t sleep on catching KUBLAI KHAN TX the next time they roll through town. Can we get a Harm’s Way, Dying Wish, Kublai Khan TX tour to happen? It should.


SEE MORE OF BRETT's PICTURES FROM KUBLAI KHAN TX, SUNAMI and JUDICIARY HERE!

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST :: 04/12/24

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST  ::  04/12/24

HOUR 1

RAD OWL – “every second”  //  rage gracefully
BULLETS & BUTTERFLIES – “to grey" // to grey - single
VIA – “the reincarnate" // the day of purification
JOHNNYROOK - "if you're dying, I'm dying" // if you're dying, i'm dying - single
THE WARNING – “automatic sun”  //  keep me fed
GREYWIND – “antidote”  //  antidote ep
IGNESCENT - "monster you made" // fight in me
AMARANTHE – “interference" // the catalyst

MADAM DRIVER - "innocence fading" // negative ghostrider
WAGE WAR - "magnetic" // stigma
POLARIS - "with reguards" // fatalism
SAUL - "more of the same" // this is it...the end of everything
BACKHAND BLUE - "paranoid" // paranoid - single
WIDOW7 - "miserable" // miserable - single
JUDAS PRIEST – “vicious circle" // invincible shield (deluxe edition)

HOUR 2 MAKE THEM SUFFER – “epitaph”  //  epitaph - single
REFLECTIONS – “deva”  //  deva – single
BY THE THOUSANDS – “the flood”  //  the descent
VENDED – “the far side”  //  the far side – single
KITTIE – “we are shadows”  //  we are shadows - single
RED HANDED DENIAL - "parasite" // a journey through virtual dystopia
SLDG - "1000 yard stare" // predicaments ep
SETYOURSAILS - "lately" // bad blood

MANY EYES - "mystic cord" // mystic cord - single
YEAR OF THE KNIFE - "wish / last laugh" // no love lost
DYING WISH – “path to your grave" // symptoms of survival
HARMS WAY – “devour" // common suffering
BETTER LOVERS – “the flowering”  //  the flowering - single
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY feat COURTNEY LaPLANTE – “to the dance floor for shelter”  //  coup de grace
FOREIGN HANDS – “God under fingernails”  //  what’s left unsaid
ENTHEOS – “an end to everything”  //  an end to everything - single


 

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST :: 04/05/24

MIDWEST BEATDOWN PLAYLIST  ::  04/05/24

HOUR 1
KITTIE – “we are shadows” // we are shadows - single
AMIRA ELFEKY – “save yourself”  //  skin to skin
WEEKEND PICNIC – “I will remain”  //  I will remain - single
BAYSIDE – “castaway”  //  there are worst things than being alive
THE BLACK CROWES – “wanting and waiting”  //  happiness bastards
FEVERDREAM – “falling out”  //  falling out - single
ROYAL TUSK – “here on out”  //  altruistic

RAD OWL - "hannah barbera" // madison beast
MADAM DRIVER – “through the trees”  //  negative ghostrider
BLACK FLOOD DIESEL – “chasing the atrophy" // new asylum
UNLEASH THE ARCHERS – “ghost in the mist” // phantoma
EVERNOIR – “three sharp knocks" // stages of grief
BARONESS – “last word” // stone
ANGRY WATERS - "first blood" // the ghosts we chase

HOUR 2
BETTER LOVERS – “the flowering” // the flowering - single
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY feat COURTNEY LaPLANTE – “to the dance floor for shelter” // coup de grace
FOREIGN HANDS – “God under fingernails” // what’s left unsaid
KNOCKED LOOSE – “blinding faith” // you won’t go before you’re supposed to
XAETO – “amalgam” // amalgam - single
HANABIE - "otaku lovely densetsu" // otaku lovely densetsu - single
DRUID – “overrated" // overrated - single
ENTHEOS – “an end to everything” // an end to everything - single

REFLECTIONS – “deva" // deva - single
BY THE THOUSANDS – “the flood”  //  the descent
IN SEARCH OF SOLACE – “no turning back”  //  the endless ache
SOULKEEPER – “inflorescence" // holy design
KUBLAI KHAN TX – “low tech”  //  low tech - single
CAPRA – “silana”  //  errors
BOUNDARIES feat MARCUS VIK – “blame’s burden”  //  death is a little more
FUGITIVE – “standoff”  //  standoff - single