Gallery and Review: Obituary at Gramercy Theatre New York City 5/5/18

Mark Smitty Neal May 9, 2018 Photography, Review, Show Reviews Leave a comment

Saturday May 5th Florida’s death metal legends Obituary played to a sold out Gramercy Theatre in New York City along with a heavy line up of supporting bands that included Dust Bolt a thrash metal band from Germany that made their New York debut that night along with bass player Mike the Spike of Linch King / Condition Critical filling in for Ben Muenzel. On stage the band showed no fear, led by frontman Lenny Bruce who’s intense energy along with the bands aggressive style of old school thrash metal would have no problem heating things up for the usually tough New York crowd. With the crowd beginning to grow Skeletonwitch took the stage racing through a half hour set of deadly hits with vocalist Adam Clemans crawling and screaming as guitarist Nate Garnette and Scott Hendrick ripped through dueling solos track after track sending the heavy crowd into a frenzy for PallBearer to take the stage. As Pallbearer hit the stage with “Watcher in the Dark” the mood was set back to a more darker emotional tone something I personally felt could have led the a tough New York crowd to quickly loose interest and take that time to go out for a smoke hit the bathrooms and grab a beer and wait with anticipation for the moment everyone was waiting for Obituary.

As the lights went dark for the final time it was the moment everyone had waited for. As Pat Travers “Snortin’ Whiskey and Drinking Cocaine” played over the speakers and drummer Donal Tardy walked out on stage and took his place behind the drums the crowd would let out a roar as the rest of the band took their place on stage and waisted no time setting the crowd right back into a frenzy opening their set old school with “Stinkupuss” from their 1989 debut album “Slowly We Rot” and remaining old school by next going right into “Threatening Skies” with the tightly packed floor immediately becoming even tighter as the large circle pit formed and the bodies began to fly over the barricade with band pounding out hit after hit of their 14 song set spanning through their 30 year career that include hits like “Chopped In Half, Turned Inside Out, and Don’t Care” along with an encore of old school classics that started with “I’m in Pain” followed by “Immortal Visions” and finally closing out an amazing performance with the titled track off their 1989 debut album “Slowly We Rot” that left the sold out crowd finding for more. The iconic Floridian death metal veterans were nothing short of perfect that evening with an amazing stage presence and a sound that was so tight you could feel it squeezing the life from your body.