Dylan Barnes, lead singer of Who Knows, croons to the crowd at Aaron Vilk's 21st Birthday Party.

On Friday, October 9^th, at The Union Bar and Grill, many bands came together to celebrate Aaron Vilk’s 21^st birthday. Vilk, an Ohio University student and the ACRN promotions director, booked this event to give everyone some great memories on his birthday night. The show, comprised of a wide range of bands, offered something to almost everyone. From brutal grind to hard party hits to rap, this dynamic and diverse show delivered both good and not-so-good tunes.

The first band of the night was Who Knows (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6857413620) an Andrew W.K. cover band of music-loving high school students who like to rock the house and party hard. This group of friends occasionally jammed and eventually discovered they all had a common interest in Andrew W.K. (http://www.andrewwk.com/). They learned two songs for a local Battle of the Bands, and even played a show with Andrew W.K. himself at ACRN Lobsterfest 2008.

Who Knows is all about energy and crowd participation.

Drummer, Ian McGee, and guitarist Neal Mohr said they “try to motivate the crowd and get everyone into it.”

And that is exactly what Who Knows delivers. The crowd was jumping around and pumping their fists to Andrew W.K. hits such as “Party Hard” and “She Is Beautiful.” Their renditions stayed true to the original and were clean and precise. They even performed an original song written in the style of Andrew W.K called “Keep It Up.” Who Knows was so well received that they even came back for an encore, performing “Slam John Against A Brick Wall.” Overall, Who Knows delivered a friendly, powerful and high-energy performance to a lively crowd.

Sonofafuckingbitch, an intense raw metal/hardcore band, called a grind, composed of ACRN Music Director Ty Owen and the birthday boy Aaron Vilk ,were next up to perform. Both Owens and Vilk performed vocals while the instrumentation was provided by a backing track. Their songs were extremely short, explosive and experimental in nature, with drums employing gravity blasts and fast bass kicks. Their lyrics covered a range of unusual and obscure subjects, such as “Tolkien Inspired Van Art,” which is a tune about vans with unicorns painted on them and the people who drive them.

The band interacted well with the crowd, getting some laughs by telling the stories behind their songs, most of which are about personal experiences, and some even involved members of the crowd. It was obvious that they were not only there to perform, but also to have a good time. During their set, Vilk put on a bra that was thrown on stage while Who Knows was playing, and at one point a man went streaking through the crowd.

Although their music may be hard for some to enjoy because of the harshness of their sound and lyrical matter, they put on a good show and created a fast and intense atmosphere with a rapid-fire succession of songs.

Abaddon (http://www.myspace.com/abbadongrind), a four-piece grind band from Lancaster, put on powerful show and created a wall-of-sound type brutality in the vein of Napalm Death or Anal Cunt. Although by this time the crowd was thinning a bit, there was still plenty of dancing and moshing. Despite this being Abaddon’s first time playing together in about a year, they took to the stage and made it theirs, delivering raw and unyielding grind.

On the down side, there was little differentiation between their songs, which is a problem that seems to plague most bands producing brutal music. For the duration of their set, a high frequency ringing sound that hurt the ears was coming from the guitar amp whenever the band wasn’t playing. On top of this, the mix seemed to be a bit off, with the vocals and guitar drowning out the bass. Although there seemed to be slight problems with the mix, Abaddon certainly performed well and were a crowd pleaser — their sound transcending the waves of generic bands polluting today’s metal scene.

After Abaddon, there was a long break while the next act, Kurt Russell (http://www.myspace.com/russellviolence), was setting up. The drummer was not present, so the band just used a backing track for all of their instruments. They started their set with someone rapping over a hip-hop track provided by the band, then shifted into a hardcore punk song that seemed to last their whole set.

All of Kurt Russell’s songs sounded alike, with distorted, raw guitars and sporadic vocals. Two of the band members provided low, grunting, dog-like vocals, and the third vocalist barked high-pitched screams not unlike the chirps of a pissed-off bird — combining to create a mother-nature-gone-wrong type of sound.

The Kurt Russell band members traveled the entire stage and let fans rock out on a couple cardboard guitars — an amusing stunt that made the performance seem even more improvised and unstructured than it already was. After playing a set of what seemed to be just one extremely long punk song that oddly ended in more rapping, Kurt Russell left the crowd confused and questioning how seriously this band was to be taken.

After Kurt Russel, Vilk came out and said a few words, “So glad everyone could come out for my 21^st birthday. Tip your bartenders. I love you all.”

The next band up was Relentless Corpse (http://www.polarenvy.com/relentlesscorpse.html), an electronic noise band from Cleveland. They use a wide variety of sounds and noises to create an ambient and dark atmosphere.

Noise bands typically use volume as a musical device, employing painfully loud sounds and samples that could be damaging to the ears. Naturally, a pair of ear-plugs can easily prevent this impairment, but even then, it feels as if you are trapped in a malfunctioning machine. While for some the malevolent tones embodied in noise is a way to clear the mind, many find it hard to enjoy.

Relentless Corpse played a relatively short set, and by the time they were finished, most of the crowd had left. The Union was emptying, and with only one more band to go, only the most hardcore fans stuck around.

The final band of the night, Fleshworld, was an experimental rock collective that employed lots of avant-garde ideas, such as destroying a microwave with a metal grinder during their performance. After grinding the microwave, it was then swung by its chord and repeatedly smashed against the ground.

Later in the performance, a man stood on stage and continually raised his arms and then handed small chunks of cardboard to everyone in the crowd, who responded with great enthusiasm and fully accepted this experimental style. This intriguing display made one feel as if something larger was going on and as if the music had a deeper meaning. Which it surely must, based on the band members seriousness and grave attitude toward their music.

Aside from the experimental business, Fleshworld did play real music. Their melodies were dark and droning, effectively transforming The Union into a candlelit cavern, and fans into robed cultists. Fleshword didn’t “play music,” they performed a sort-of sacred ritual, with foreign arm motions, microwave grinding, guitar feedback (at one point the guitarist just pressed the cable jack against his pickups), and electronic noise. These spooky monks of men ended the show by building a never-ending tension of screaming and spoken word paired with an ominous and deep instrumentation—a cacophony that left the audience in a distant trance.

The night ended, and The Union emptied after Fleshworld’s performance.

Aaron Vilk’s birthday was a long night, but a definite success. A couple confusing sets, some brutal beats and some good old-fashioned microwave destruction was enough to please almost any crowd.

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