Recently Rocks Off ran an article about the five most insane bands to see live right now. Obviously, when you're working with five spots, you're going to leave someone off, which readers never fail to remind us. A lot of names were thrown around in regards to that one, especially the Chariot. But what caught my attention the most was a band e-mailed to me that I'd never even heard of before.
That band is Philadelphia "ultra-violence" pioneers Eat the Turnbuckle, and after watching their videos, I agreed that they entirely deserved their own spotlight. Those of you who grew up in the '80s probably remember the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection during World Wrestling Entertainment (back then called the World Wrestling Federation) and Hulk Hogan's heyday. Eat the Turnbuckle brings that to a whole new level.
A group of shirtless, tatted-up, huge dudes, Eat the Turnbuckle plays modern hardcore that is admittedly pretty good, but the band's big draw seems to be the professional-wrestling aspect. Their name and song lyrics already reference pro wrestling, but they take it to a new extreme by performing squared-circle stunts during their shows.
Clips from their videos include jumping through tables, jumping off of ladders and stapling things to their foreheads. Their song "Fans Bring Weapons" is a wrestling reference itself, but could be an invitation as well, considering the nature of their live shows.
In the course of their shows, they bleed, they fight and they hit each other with weapons such as trash-can lids. That includes the fans, apparently, though from the video above, it's somewhat hard to tell who is in the band, who is part of the show and who is just a fan.
That's not all, though. Back in April, the band played one of their biggest shows yet at Sounds Asylum in Middletown, New York, for the Shrimp til Death Fest, introduced by ECW wrestler Balls Mahoney and wrestling a match in the audience before the show. For a steadily rising band, that's a pretty big get.
