The Biggest Night in Eau Claire History (in terms of Death Metal)

You are going to have to have a hobby in northern Wisconsin.  We don’t have the luxury of having too much to do like Madison or Milwaukee.  This is not a bad thing.  No traffic jams for one and cheaper prices for another.

Actually now that I’m doing this “wisconsinbeerun” thing I’ve quickly found out that there is something happening every weekend in Northern Wisconsin that has to do with beer or music.  It only seems that there is nothing to do when you compare whatever subculture you identify with to that subcultural home. i.e. Seattle’s Grunge Scene in the early 90s.

I joke that Eau Claire is the epicenter of the Hipster movement.  This is because every artistic thing that happens in Eau Claire gets overanalyzed and if you don’t like it it is because you don’t understand it.  See Hipsters love talking about Art.  They use it as a tool of dominance.  Don’t get me wrong I like art as well but you can’t take Art and instantly put it on a pedestal and then get pissed because someone else doesn’t like it.  Art needs a struggle.

Death Metal is about as anti-Hipster as it gets.  First off it is down with Satan, Hipsters talk a half an hour to explain they are somewhat atheist, somewhat agnostic.  Hipsters wear goofy outfits, goofy colors and goofy shoes, the Death Metal crowd wears black shirts, black pants, and black shoes.  Whereas Death Metal music wakes you up, Hipster music makes you want to go to sleep.  And so on.

The Death Metal crowd has started a NPO to get more and higher quality Death Metal acts stopping by Eau Claire.  They scored big by getting The Carnival is Forever Tour to pull through town and a random Wednesday night in October.  The Carnival is Forever Tour consists of Rings of Saturn, Decrepit Birth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Decapitated.   They have a giant black tour bus that pulls a black trailer full of their black equipment.

So what does this all have to do with beer?  Simple.  Craft Beer is like Death Metal  in that an outsider will not be able to really tell the difference between similar acts.  For me all the bands sounded the same last night.  Much in the same way that a flight of beers used to taste the same for me.  This is because you have to develop your palate to pick up on the smaller differences between things, and much like my wine palate, I may never develop my Death Metal palate.

Nor do I want to.  As a photographer I don’t go to shows to hear the music, I go to shows to see the music.  I like it when things are different.  You can’t fake enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm is also contagious.  I’m trying to use my enthusiasm for Craft Beer to get you to like Craft Beer.  Hearing my Death Metal friends talk about this show for weeks made me want to go to the show.

And have a great time.  Going outside your comfort zone and dive head first into somewhere that you don’t belong is a great thing to do.  You make new friends who also made that plunge.