Metal. It’s an genre I know almost nothing about, though I once had to fill in for my college radio station’s metal show once, all I remember is getting requests from the State Prison. Double kick drums have no place in my life, apart from banging on the floor at 3am to ask my otherwise nice downstairs neighbor to "turn that shit down."
Luckily, this isn’t really about metal, it’s about novelty metal. Sunday night, the Highline Ballroom brought together not one, not two, not three, but four of our area’s finest examples of metal schtick. I only saw one of them, actually. I missed Boyz Nite (known for their "Die Hard" song), Queen Diamond (teenage girl King Diamond tribute) and Beatallica (you can figure it out). I came specifically to see Tragedy, the Number One All-Metal Beegees Tribute Band in the Tri-State Area. And more specifically, I came because I’m friends with the bassist.
Tragedy are pretty much a one joke band but they do it very well, with scripted between-song banter, backup singers, and shiny white suits. More importantly these guys are all great musicians — some of whom are in the funny, glammy Moi?, others have done the metal tribute schtick before with Hair Supply — and make the covers worthy of writhing on the hood of a car.
Their only real obstacle to world dominance is their name, which has already been claimed by a crustcore (new term to me) band from Portland. At least one of that group’s devoted fans mistakenly drove from Pittsburgh to see the wrong group — and you can read his angry email on their MySpace page. (If you guys do have to change your name, may I suggest "Tragedidy" which is what I, as a kid, always thought they were saying.) While last night’s gig made perfect sense, Tragedy’s other upcoming shows are opening for legit bands ranging from real metal-ers Satancide to jam band Umphree’s McGee. And if so inclined you can also buy an MP3 of their version of "Stayin’ Alive" — for fifty bucks. Some more face-melting shots from last night’s action after the jump.