It was a weird and quiet Tuesday night when heading towards On The Rocks for FEASTEM and EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS on July 25th, 2023. The streets were still quite empty in the center as most people were still on vacation, and the city still enjoyed an almost surreal sense of quiet, compared to the busy days of the rest of the year.
The venue was still pretty much empty when we arrived, long before FEASTEM started their show – also they began a bit later as their set was quite short, at least in terms of song length. Still, there was not going to be a full house for sure, considering the balcony was actually closed, but things got definitely more lively when the band led by Petri Eskelinen began their show. As a welcome addition to the songs (mostly) from the latest record, their setlist included also some new material from the more recent split with INSISTENT, released this past winter. Watching FEASTEM live is always a pleasure thanks to their energy – and engaging music of course – which spread to some of the most excited members of the audience.
This was the last date of the tour for the Germans of EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS. Immediately before starting to play, when they asked the audience to possibly go even further back and leave the space in the front empty (inciting them to do the opposite soon after starting the show), one could tell that this gig would have been filled with that typical German humor that people either love or hate.
Clearly, most of the people in the crowd enjoyed it quite a lot – and after all, they should have pretty much known what to expect – while the show moved from grindcore versions of different parodies of popular songs, much as a more extreme version of ELÄKELÄISET. In fact, the Hannover-based combo eventually even borrowed the concept of the “humppajuna,” or let’s just call it a conga line, when the keyboardist jumped off the stage and started running around the venue taking with him a large part of the audience.
With jokes about grindcore, black metal, other kinds of metal, other non-metal genres, about the audience, and all sorts of funny introductions to each song, the band clearly enjoyed drowning in sweat while jumping around and entertaining their fans, encore included. This is EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS in a nutshell, or as someone before the gig put it: “this is the death metal version of ELECTRIC CALLBOY.” Ah, these Germans and their funny humor!
Feastem
Excrementory Grindfuckers
