Bloodhag Call it Quits: Seattle Rock Guy on Seattle Edu-core King’s Final Show
Captured! By Robots / BlöödHag / Stovokor
Live @ The Funhouse
Monday, April 26, 2010
Nik Christofferson
Sometimes Science Fiction Geekdom is a fun place to visit. This was the case April 9 at the Funhouse, where probably the greatest collection of geek bands ever assembled battled it out for “shtick of the decade.” In the process, a Klingon warrior death metal band, Stovokor, defended their honor, we said farewell to long-running “Edu-Core” kings BlöödHag, and helped celebrate ten years of the Chucky Cheeses on acid sideshow that is Captured! By Robots.
Stovokor drove up from Portland, Oregon to open the show and immediately had some choice words for the humans in the audience, making it abundantly clear that today was a good day to die (“Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam”). Klingons definitely cannot play instruments better than humans, but that didn’t stop them from making skull stew and slinging as many insults as they could during the time they held the stage. Hab SoSlI’ Quch!
Though not a popular decision with their fans, BlöödHag have decided to hang it up after fifteen years of immortalizing sci-fi authors through death metal. Seattle’s long time pro-literacy metal heads ripped through their final set with two minute bloodbath after two minute bloodbath, choosing to retrace their catalog of sci-fi author themed tunes in alphabetical order. You better believe Issac Isamov, Jules Verne, Anne McCaffery, and Ray Bradbury made the final set list, but it also featured a couple of unfamiliar tracks. Throughout the 40 minute set, neck-tied Hellbeast Jake Stratton uttered furious and guttural vocals while Jeff McNulty threw down forever vicious riffs – the same riffs that have, since 1995, assured BlöödHag’s reputation as far more than some novelty act.
The evening’s headliners were none other than Captured! By Robots. If you aren’t familiar with the C!BR story, the basic premise is that the human JBOT attempted to create his own band out of robots. Instead of following him, they revolted, and now force him to travel the world with them, performing music. A simple ploy, but the actual experience is so much more.
Jay Vance aka JBOT is a certifiable genius, controlling the packed stage of three robots (two evil bug eyed drummers, and a bass player reminiscent of Short Circuit’s Johnny 5), two stuffed apes, and three headless horn players all via his self-made robotics remote control called the “Motherfucker Board (MFB)”. It’s quite a show; one that not only contains a musically gratifying blend of punk rock and metal, but also features an unbelievably entertaining storyline and amazingly well-timed banter between JBOT and the members of his robot band. C!BR is geekery at its highest level.
All said and done, a great night and fitting way to send Bloodhag out. This time around I even avoided a novel upside the head, unlike my previous BlöödHag experience. Kind of a bummer, though, because it would have been nice to go home with a keepsake.
RIP BlöödHag (1995-2010).
—————–
The music blog Seattle Rock Guy melts faces.
” source=”youtube” width=”500″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]