The Caboose was a small club in Garner, North Carolina (just outside of Raleigh the state capital) owned by Ed Warner, who later would become one of my closest friends. From 1996 to 2000 Andy Miller, another one of my closest friends, booked shows there. Andy and I also did Scumfeast Fanzine which covered the extreme side of underground music and culture. I had the good fortune to work security at the Caboose which afforded me the incredible opportunity to be at almost all of the shows. Since Andy had great taste in music, the bands that would appear on the small stage at the Caboose were the ones he wanted to see. So for close to four years the Caboose had the best shows, as far as extreme Punk and Metal go at that time, in all of Wake County. Also Andy video taped a lot of these bands in order to keep a historical record, give copies to the bands and trade via mail to other video collectors across the globe. Right now Andy Miller and Ed Warner are appearing on stages and making history themselves as part of the punk/metal act KNOWLEDGE IS FOR FOOLS.
Myspace: www.myspace.com/kiffknowledgeisforfools
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/kiffknowledgeisforfools
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/KIFF-Knowledge-Is-For-Fools/51878349998
Andy also is owner of Buttons Made For You, a small company that creates buttons/badges. Through constant inquires from fans about those old videos Andy has finally took some time out of his busy schedule in order to upload some of those old videos to Youtube. Scumfeast Metal 666 is proud to present some of these videos, with a few words about the bands and show memories, on a regular basis.
GRIEF live at the Caboose 1997
These days magazine and website scribes have no problem describing the latest trends in Thrash or Old School Death Metal as revivals. But if you ask about the new found interest in Sludge Metal or Stoner Rock they are ignorant to the fact that it's also in a revival stage. By the end of the 1990s both of those genres were at their creative peak as far as that decade went. You couldn't even stand outside of a club in the 90's to smoke a joint without someone walking up asking to take a hit and telling you that they were in a Sludge Metal or Stoner Rock band. Once the 2000's hit the genre excitement petered out and attrition took care of the band overflow. What remained were those acts who survived on name recognition and a strong fan base. History is repeating itself today except this time around the influences are not just the genre fore-fathers aka: BLACK SABBATH, SAINT VITUS, PENTAGRAM and TROUBLE. Nowadays those influences which have spawned a new generation of Sludge Metal or Stoner Rock bands can be found in the fertile scene of the 1990s.
One of those bands was GRIEF from Boston who in the early part of the decade made a name for themselves with their sludgey grooves of doom. Their debut full length Dismal from 1993 and their breakout release Come to Grief the following year are sludge metal essentials. By the time of this video, recorded at the Caboose by Andy Miller, the band had taken on a legendary status. If you were into extreme metal at that time then GRIEF was the band to see. The Caboose was not a huge venue so packing the place tended to be the norm when bands like this came to town. For those of you who don't know GRIEF is no more, finally calling it quits a few years ago. Although you can still hear their influence on many of today's Sludge Metal acts (some of which admit to GRIEF being an influence while others are in complete denial). They will always be looked upon as one of the genre's greats. I was at this show and it's one of those extreme music moments. Enjoy.
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