Concert Review: Dirty South Festival

This summer brought the first ever Dirty South Festival, which featured some of  of the best southern metal bands as well as some awesome bands that are on the rise.  

The night kicked off with Houston locals Strength In Shadows. They put on a great show and pumped up the crowd for the upcoming bands. Throughout the set they had a group of people bust out their air guitar skills during the band’s crazy guitar solos.     

Next was Idaho’s own the Ongoing Concept. They stole the show, with the whole band going completely insane, and vocalist, Kyle Scholz, spending a good part of his time jumping in the pit and getting in everyone’s face. The highlight of the show was when they played their hit, “Cover Girl”, and everyone started singing along with the lyrics. Other highlights included Kyle picking up one of the toms and playing along with one of the songs, guitarist Dawson Scholz putting down his guitar and taking full vocal duties, and bassist TJ Nichols crowd surfing to the other side of the venue.         

War of Ages played next and the crowd went absolutely crazy for them. This was my first time seeing them and they definitely caught my eye. The band had such high energy and kept the crowd going until the end of the set.   ] 

The next band I caught was Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. These veterans have been around the metal long time, getting praise from several different people, including Demi Lovato (proof), and are still alive and kicking. They put on a great show, and even managed to pull off a cover of the Rolling Stone’s infamous hit, “Gimme Shelter”.     

He Is Legend was the next headliner. These past few years have been big for them, coming out indefinite hiatus, finding a new drummer, and working on their upcoming release, “Heavy Fruit” (pre-orders here). They put on an awesome set, playing a combination of some songs off the new album, as well as some of their classic songs, like “The Seduction”, which the band closed out with.    

The final band was none other than Texas’s own Oh Sleeper. It was great seeing them live, especially with the crazy twist of their former guitarist James Erwin filling in for their current guitarist Shane Blay, who is currently working with former As I Lay Dying members on a new project called Wovenwar. They kicked of their set with “The Song of the Morning”, which instantly had people climbing on top of each other trying to grab the microphone during that infamous chorus. The band enjoyed themselves, even stating that Houston has always been one of their favorite cities to play.

By Raj Radia