Sounds of the Underground at the Starland Ballroom Parking Lot

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Sounds of the Underground at the Starland Ballroom Parking Lot: July 15, 2006

Sounds of The Underground has strolled through Sayreville for the 2nd year in a row. In what is quickly becoming a better and more affordable summer festival, SOTU has in its short inception become the summer’s top Metal festival. Boasting a lineup of bands that range from Death Metal, Hardcore, Grind/Experimental or just straight up Metal, it has succeeded in surpassing its main competition of Ozzfest for being the “IT” concert event of the summer. Read more »



This Is A MetalCore BBQ

pic11.jpgSounds of the Underground/ July 2, 2005/ Starland Ballroom Parking Lot

The inaugural run for the Sounds of the Underground tour has gotten underway. Thousands of angst ridden teenagers have come to Sayerville for this all day affair. Its main purpose is to find a less expensive alternative to its metal rival, Ozzfest or its punk rock friend, The Warped Tour. It brought 18 bands from all types of genres to kick our asses for 12 hours. The diversity of the lineup also kept the day from getting boring. You have some metal bands, hardcore bands, hardcore/metal crossover bands, and Gwar. Gwar gets their own category, because seriously how would one define Gwar, they certainly are not a band that can easily define what kind of music they play. Read more »



Hardcore Revival at The Starland Ballroom

Anon/The Autumn Offering/Bloodsimple/Candiria
February 20th, 2005
Starland Ballroom

My friends and I had 2 reasons for going to this show. The first being that I have wanted to see Bloodsimple since they started to play shows, but always seemed to miss them when they played around my way. And the fact that they had Tim Williams formerly of VOD as the singer was my main reason for going. Candiria has been a band that we all have seen numerous times, but the first since their near tragic accident almost 2 years ago. I’ve heard their new album and wanted to see if they were going to totally forget their past and not play any of their old songs, which made them one of the premiere hardcore/metal bands of the late 90’s through today. Read more »



A Touch of Irish

dm1.JPGDropkick Murphys/Blood for Blood/Only Crime/Blood or Whiskey@Starland Ballroom
April 30, 2004

The Dropkick Murphys have always been a touring band. Always out on the road promoting a new album or even a new live DVD. To wrap up their tour, they decided to come out to lovely Sayerville, NJ and play for an evening, bringing along some close friends with them. Read more »



A Night of Trustkill

Throwdown/Most Precious Blood/Walls of Jericho/25 Ta Life @ Krome, NJ: January 4, 2004

It seems as if every January and every July, Trustkill Records has a little string of shows to showcase their bands. I arrived a bit late, so I missed some of the local openers on the side and main stages, but got there with my friend just in time to see the return of the Detroit band Walls of Jericho. Read more »