Photos By Chris Pirri
After five long years the BUTCHER BABIES finally have stepped back onstage in Orange County, California. This time they head back behind the orange curtain as the top bill at the locker room located within the Garden Amphiteatre in Garden Grove, California, a small intimate stage where the bands were treated to a rambunctious and friendly crowd. It felt like the good old days when KNAC used to put on shows at small clubs located here in the OC.
Up first on the night was a four piece band from New Jersey called UNCURED, founded by Rex and Zak Cox who are brothers. These two absolutely tore the stage up. They fed off each other’s energy and both took turns singing. If I had to describe them it would be close to a groove metal sound with a slight touch of some heavy growls here and there reminiscent of death metal. UNCURED treated the crowd to some great energetic music and also showed us why they are receiving more popularity within the metal community. As for the set list there were a lot of new songs that aren’t available yet. However that didn’t keep the crowd from throwing up their horns and rocking out.
Headliners of the night the BUTCHER BABIES were up next. As the lights went out the crowd got excited as Chase Brickenden (drums), Ricky Bonazza (bass), and Henry Flury (guitar) took the stage. However the screaming and excitement started as the front ladies of Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey strutted to the stage. Right off the bat they went into “They’re Coming To Take Me Away”. To me this is one of their signature songs with of course “Monsters Ball” which they would go into two songs later. To play these songs in the beginning of their set just shows you how far this band has come. The band would showcase songs from all their albums and even some songs that were released as a singles only, such as “Bottom of a Bottle” and “It’s Killin’ Time Baby”. Let’s hope these songs make it on a future album. The highlight of the night for myself is when they went old school and played two songs off their self-titled debut EP. Those songs were “Mr. Slowdeath” and my favorite “Jesus Needs More Babies For His War Machine”.
Overall this was a great night with some tremendous music and talent on the stage. The hair and necks of not only the crowd but the performers was thrashing around. Both bands took it to eleven and gave us a show we will remember. This was a small mini-tour but both bands will be opening up along with LIONS AT THE GATE for LACUNA COIL starting September 8th. Now that is a show not to miss.
BUTCHER BABIES Set List
- "They’re Coming To Take Me Away"
- "Igniter"
- "Monsters Ball"
- "The Butcher"
- "Gravemaker"
- "It’s Killin’ Time, Baby"
- "Bottom Of A Bottle"
- "Thrown Away"
- "Jesus Needs More Babies For His War Machine"
- "Mr. Slowdeath"
- "Headspin"
- "Yorktown"
- "Best Friend"
- "Sleeping With The Enemy"
- "Magnolia Blvd."
