Sidebar, according to Baltimore luminary John Waters, is the “punk bar that refuses to move uptown.” There has been some wonderful culture happening in Mt. Vernon, Station North and beyond – but music photographer Ted Henn and I were deeply refreshed to spend some time downtown at Sidebar’s Tombs show put together by bookers Hasan Ali and Ryan Brossard. Tombs is a genre-crossing metal band from Brooklyn, weaving elements of sludge and doom metal with many other elements, including an almost post-punk sensibility on the new full-length.
More importantly, Tombs is loud, sweaty and intense as hell, as were the rest of the lineup, grindcore band Dendritic Arbor from Pittsburgh, old-school black metal outfit Ravn from Virginia and locals Passage Between and Elagabalus. We love local, underground music but after awhile things can blur together so it is very nice to be woken up by some real sweat and blood. Both the bands and the attendees engaged full on in heavy metal pageantry with beautiful tattoos, handmade vests and jackets and energetic head-banging.
