Texas Hippie Coalition, Anti-Mortem and More @ The TLA.
Text by Gabi Chepurny. Images by Ian Ruckus Watson.
Southern metal heads arrived in small numbers at the TLA last Wednesday night, but the bands performed like they were in front of a packed stadium, bringing hard riffs and a little Southern twang to the stage.
Philly’s own Sutter Cane opened the show to a surprisingly small crowd that didn’t grow to usual metal proportions by the end of the concert. Not surprisingly, at least one of Sutter Cane’s songs focused on being hurt by a girl.
“This song is called ‘Six Years of Pain,'” the lead singer stated. “It’s about a bitch I spent way too much time on.”
Limb by Limb took the stage next with an introduction that went, “We’re from Central PA and welcome to the Catalina Wine Mixer.”
The show was anything but, and lead singer Kody Thomas’ growling vocals proved that.
Four-piece Ammunition, “from Central Fucking, New Jersey,” let us know who they were in just the way we wanted to find out. The Lambertville natives brought hard-hitting heavy metal to the stage.
Young bucks Anti-Mortem (none of the guys are above the age of 22) brought some serious Southern flare with country inspired guitar riffs that we couldn’t get enough of. The five members of this band brought an actual show with them, full of headbanging and stage posturing that seems to have been lost on most bands along the way.
This being their first time in Philly, guitarist Zain Smith made sure to inform us, “You know we hit that Philly-fucking-cheese-steak,” before launching into a guitar solo that we were actually happy to sit through.
Texas Hippie Coalition headlined the event and gave us a prime example of grade A Southern heavy metal. Now that we know such a thing exists, we were all about the heavy guitars and grumbling vocals. But what really got us was lead singer Big Dad Ritch’s Southern accent, especially when he asked, “I got a question for ya Philly. Do ya got any outlaw blood in ya?”
After this show? Yes, yes we do.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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