The Attic

The Attic Celebrates Its Final Night

February 13, 2013 By Mike Ritchie Leave a Comment

Saturday January 26th over 700 kids jammed the Attic’s positive space to be part of the venues final loud shout out of all day music marathon. 15 bands played the Hot Head Burrito and main stage in door festival starting at 2:30 with States Away and finishing 8 hours later with Beneath the Sky. Bands sandwiched in between included Ignite the Empires, Strangers to Wolves, Witness, The Holy Guile and Hail to the King amongst others.

Event vendors No Where To Go Clothing also donated half the evenings proceeds to The Attic. A raffle was held for a signed Miss May I framed poster by Rockstar Energy, a Woe Is Me signed poster, CD and drumsticks and a Texas in July CD.

States Away

The day started with the high energy of States Away playing human bumper car on stage as they cranked out their pop punk set including I Tried so hard and Mean What You Say. Corey Davis’ Gerard Way influenced vocals carried the band’s sound. Formed in early 2012 they released their self-titled EP in June and plan on recording, playing shows and depending on the kindness of strangers for sleeping quarters on the road.

In Current Standing opened up the first set of heavy agonized screams, growls and a little calm singing mixed in, including some atmospheric laptop tech effects. Guitarist Trevor Strahans skull guitar breathed out some death heavy tunes including Virtues that prompted the day’s first ‘dance’ moves.

Ignite the Empires crash the stage banging heads with some Cheap Wine. The Attic Alumni return from previous shows including opening for A Plea For Purging to play and Piss Off the crowd with their own brand of loud, aggressive in your face noise. They played the guitar intricacies of Miles of Expectations like a thief in the night then told the tale of Xanie Annie before finishing off in a cartoonish manner playing a select tune for all the Family Guy fans.

We take a short acoustic break with the pierced soothing songs sung by rebellious Kevin Brewer including the Foo Fighters’ Hero.

Strangers to Wolves

Strangers to Wolves brought their snarling pop metal predatory music next. Silver bullets and fang prosthetics aside their sound echo’s the cold dark woods where the howls come from after midnight. They play an 80’s tribute to their namesake historical rival Lost Boys while sporting some hairy wolfish mullets. The night was guitarist Marcus Springer’s second show with the pack. A new EP will be coming out in March with the single Second Star on the Right.

It could be said that Permission to Live are just a bunch of good hearted, fun loving hard edged, hard wood surfer punks riding the wave to future success. A few new tunes in, they pay homage to Taylor Swift, say Final Goodbyes half way through and get a little Smashmouth bringing some VIP’s on stage to celebrate.

Can we get a Witness please? What we get are a bunch of loud, scream/singing loud blokes blending a computer enhanced sound with a warped mixture of pop sound and legit heavy metal cannon fire. Their opener off the Of Great Importance EP spreads F.E.A.R. throughout the building as they played crowd control during The Ledger, a cheery song dealing with the grief and sadness of loss; check out the video on YouTube.

Lammes Lane performed half their set under the man-made flashing light nightshade and stage mist resembling pillaging and plundering shadowed Viking warriors. They play their music like primal animals no matter Who’s at the Zoo. Their hard thrashing sound accompanied by Obituary meets Death vocals brought the crowd up and over the stage for Showtime. Though their music is Yet to be Scene, their debut CD will be available this spring.

Witness

We Are Forever from Indianapolis brought out the special lighting for their 2nd visit. All the girls screamed as they played tunes from their first record Seasons featuring Lights including Make It Through. Their sound is pretty upbeat pop with a high energy presentation.

Grim State play their music down in the heavy drudges and cold earthen woods where they bring us Creeps, Sheep and Deadbeats. Only songs like Solitude and Valor are slow and trudgy enough to come from the darkest forgotten holler. Also songs like Madness, Illness and Torn show just how Volatile and Unstable these Dayton boys are.

Remember When is a five-some power pop band riding high on the momentum of their Save Your Wishes EP, touring with bands such as Miss May I and their new EP He Said, She Said played with high pop precession.

The next act starts with a pretty Cool Story about a band from around these here parts somewhere. They spread their Holy Guile all over the damn place with wicked spewing venom vocals on full rotation, blasting drums, a unique unsuspected cathedral, turntable effects conglomerate with inserted black metal and techno elements to trans-mutate into a chaotic gelatinous mass of metal love and torture. Imagine a holy conversion by Dani Filth backed by Crowbar cranked to hyperdrive. The next songs called Hey Zeus, Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don’t mess with them or they’ll shove a lightning bolt somewhere special, Zeus! And you better not have a problem with that. All’s good but noisy tonight in Idahoe.

When imagining Hail to the King, think of Fear Factory with an even more pissed off sounding Burton C. Bell in the form of Kody Hale meets Meshuggah, intensity like a thousand screaming armies and aggressive insanity like the screaming mind of a raging psychotic. Hell explodes raining hails of inner earth onto the ground, through the acrid smoke and debris Hail to the King emerge. They clamp on an iron clad Contagion Clasp and Go for the Throat with a malevolent decimation of sound and some nice melancholy guitar notes. They bring everyone together, pit by pit. They play the lovely sounding Starletta then Saud Ahmed of The Holy Guile came out to help harmonize on one of their louder tunes. They thank the crowd with a final pummeling Gutshot shaking the ribs and rumbling organs.

Cincy’s bloody birds pecking at the body of Christ celebrate their second record A Feast for Crows on Victory records with a pretty Portrait of American Greed. There’s Blood in the Water as the ship goes down and those self-made glorious pompous pulpit Monuments crumble to oblivion. A Glorious new song is heralded before we finish with bitterness and hope of Marilyn courtesy of Corpus Christi.

Pastor Kilby address the crowd

A reunion show for the Cincinnati metal growlers as they celebrate everything Beneath the Sky with a packed house of tired but hungry for more metal heads is The Reason they’ll are still here. It’d be a Grave Mistake to leave now being it’s the first time the original lineup played since 2007 and not celebrate to the end. The uncomfortably themed and videoed Terror Starts at Home is followed by a Gunsmoke Kiss for the Goodfellas. We spend ten minutes at the users ball before we find an evening partner before Last Call. They talk about Miss Misery and a tale of near death from the Northside. They mourn a friend at 7861 Blackthorne Drive and finish taking us on Our Last Road as sadly The Attic finishes its decade plus road of the area’s best talent.

Though there’s no set timeframe Pastor Kilby has promised that the Attic concept, theme and everything that made it a great hang out for kids will return in the form of another building or venue depending on when some new positive space becomes available.

Special thanks for on the spot event info, go-to guy the prosperous ‘Mr. Tree’.

Help Save The Attic!

January 16, 2013 By Mike Ritchie 1 Comment

For a little over a decade 2852 Wilmington Pike in Kettering has been a club unlike any other. Its 22,000 square foot spacious inner cavernous sanctum can hold 700+ kids, young adults, teenagers, and adults. Whether hitting the dance floor, jumping up and down screaming during a concert or hanging out/relaxing at a bible study the large epicenter of friendly fun and frolic for kids-late teens and on occasion adults has stood proud and unabashed in its mission to give local youth a place to hang, study the word, dance, chill and head-bang while Facebooking, texting or Tweeting when needed and…. it’s in danger of closing its doors after February 7th.This year The Attic finds itself in the worst financial bind in the ten years they’ve been open. A decrease in national tours and less local bands booking shows are contributing factors. Originally they were going to lose their insurance due to a lawsuit filed by parents whose teenage daughter was inadvertently hit in the crowd at a show. Staff and management have always gone out of their way to preach and stress safety and watching out for one another due to the aggressive nature of some shows, going as far as permanently banning the rowdiest of the rowdies and troublemakers. After talking to the parents, the father, a Christian decided to drop the suit as an act of grace, never intending to hurt the venue but was trying to recoup some of his losses. In turn The Attic will hold a huge benefit show on February 1st all proceeds going to the families medical costs.

Finding affordable insurance is still a major issue as they are a non-profit organization and need to at least break even to continue operations. There will be an all-day music festival held on January 26^th featuring over 15 bands performing to help raise funds. The venues last scheduled event will be a pre-closing booked show on February 7^th featuring The Color Morale.

Closing the venue would mean area start up bands and those who have a following would have to find other places and there aren’t many all age options. The staff has kept eyes and ears on the Dayton scene and teens and their families are their heartbeat. Ideally, they would like to continue serving them in whatever way possible. Although they’re optimistic they’re not sure what the immediate future holds. Area kids would lose a place where they’re always welcome and invited to hang out. The staff has seen lots of teens comment and say that they will lose a “home” and those are the hardest comments to read and hear. They strive to provide a place where everyone feels welcome and loved and they’d hate to think that they would no longer have that sanctuary in their lives. Many kids say they have figured out who they were and where they were going because of the Attic. Their goal is to continue finding ways to serve the kids so hopefully this will only be a short blip in that mission and they will be able to continue serving them or find a way to once again give them a place to belong.

There’s been a huge outpouring of support from local teens and their families to help raise awareness since the January closing was announced. Facebook and YouTube videos and testimonies have been posted supporting the positive impact The Attic has had on area teens.

Since 2002 The Attic has served as a club/meeting spot for area youth. Though visitors have flocked from all parts of the state and some have crossed the border to see shows. The double doors have opened to all manner of social groups who come in and come together to enjoy the music of their generation performed loudly on stage, sometimes by friends, sometimes by national bands and they all want this grand tradition to continue.

Founder Pastor Jim Kilby and Co-manager Elizabeth Kilby Johnson have painstakingly worked to build a good reputation over the years with business neighbors and the community. The Attic hosts a staff of 20-25. Pastor Kilby is a retired Air Force officer. One day the simple word ‘go’ from Jesus’ ‘great commission’ moved him so much that he decided to move from ministering to teens within the walls of the local church and try to reach those outside. As a result, he founded Harvest Youth Ministries, the parent organization of The Attic.

Harvest Youth Ministries is a non-profit organization operating a unique ministry for local teens. Their hope and mission is summed up by “Some place to go!” Since Harvest Youth was founded in 1998, they’ve worked hard to provide teens a place to have fun, hang out with friends and just be themselves.

The first Harvest Youth center, The Cellar, opened in Dayton in 1998. Originally located in the back room of a church, The Cellar soon moved to a building of its own in Moraine where it was transformed into a neighborhood skate park. Through God’s grace and provision, their ministry at The Cellar led thousands of teens to accept Jesus Christ as savior and begin an authentic relationship with Him. Due to economy changes and the popularity of free, outdoor skate parks, The Cellar closed in 2009. However, many of the teens that attended The Cellar began to attend The Attic, the second Harvest Youth Ministry location.

Lots of big names have played the hallowed Attic Stage including Hawthorne Heights, Staple, Super Chick, Gwen Stacy, Haste the Day, Red, Skillet, Spoken, Between the Buried and Me, The Devil Wears Prada, Brian ‘Head’ Welch, most of the Scream the Prayer Tours, Becoming the Archetype and A Plea for Purging. There’s also a healthy dose of local acts to help polish the future rock stars of tomorrow. The venue has also catered to positive mainstream acts as well.

The club is alcohol, drug and smoke free. There’s a fully stocked drink/food/snack ‘bar’, a few video games, two stages, a family of pool tables and plenty of lounging spots to prop up or plop down on and a generous amount of space up front reserved for the most devoted fans.

The Attic also has available counseling for any alienation, vulnerability, depression, heartache, confusion or other issues today’s youth deal with. Additionally weekly bible studies have been offered for those interested in hearing/learning more about biblical history and The Almighty. The Harvest Christian Fellowship is a grassroots ministry that meets every Sunday in the building and is designed to help teens and families feel more comfortable communicating and participating in a spiritual/religious setting. Thanks to this movement and its fellowship The Attic has had two confirmed miracles within their walls. Two young lives were saved on two different occasions from near suicide just by being there and the staff/entertainment showing the troubled souls that people did care about them. One of which a former bad boy drinker and drug user had planned on OD’ing after one of the Scream The Prayer Tours but was stopped and saved after the singer from one of the performing bands received a spiritual message and intervened and the young man was baptized at the club and has been a staff member since. His testimonial along with Save The Attic testimonials can be found on The Attic’s sister sites www.harvestdayton.com and www.harvestyouth.org

Other upcoming shows include 1/18-The Rose Hill, IATM and Witness, 1/19- The Paramedic, 1/24-The Almost, All Get Out and Makeshift Prodigy, 1/25-Misery Signals, Corelia. Support for keeping The Attic open can be sent to Mailing Donations: C/o Harvest Youth Ministries 4004 Woodcliffe Ave Dayton, OH 45420.

A Plea For Purging/As Hell Retreats Say Farewell To Dayton

September 4, 2012 By Mike Ritchie 1 Comment

It’s sad saying goodbye to bands that play that special kind of soothing metal that inspires sweaty, stinky freaks to jump, dive or prance into a pit and cause gleeful self-immolation. It is both the sounds they make on stage from the furious roar into the microphone to the metal thrashing mad guitar playing that drives the kids nuts to the giant footstep thud of the bass and drums that sound like your right underneath a medieval war dance.

The Quit Your Band and Get a Real Job tour is the found farewell of Tennesse’s A Plea for Purging and As Hell Retreats. They played their last Ohio show Friday August 24 at The Attic with a Haemolacria tear in the eye, a heavy metal heart and a Chelsea Grin from ear to ear. Though they loved touring and seeing the fans across the nation the rigors of road life had got to them and were ready to settle down and be normal/respectable folk again. But not before they gave the crowd a thoroughly severe kiss goodbye dose of noise corruption.

Kettering’s happy groove metal Ignite the Empires were the first of the surrounding areas finest young up-starts to help say goodbye. Screaming Soprano Nick Moshos and band gave a truly uniformed performance proudly sporting work shirts, name-tags, bow ties and aprons that pay the bills. Alongside some unison metal hopping Moshos let out a Pepperidge Farm collection of crying, banshee yells and pig destroying vocals. They indulged in some government cheese with their Cheap Wine and opinions on the state of the union. Mild mannered Moshos pulled an unexpected cartoonish gesture Superman style, minus the phone booth, breaking out/thrashing out in a presumably alter ego Sponge Bob outfit (possible second job at Nickelodeon). Proving that even animated yellow cleaning accessories that soak can be hard-core. Next up was a nice little loud twanger ’bout Them Trailer Park Boys.

Dayton’s own local living legends Gnashing of Teeth sporting a veteran band history rivaling both headliner’s combined have definitely put the time in earning their spiked fist in the face reputation for onstage sound mangling. Formed in 1993 originally called Enslaved (not the Norwegian progressive metal band) with a different sound. Taking a break in December 1995, they chose their known biblical bicuspid biting moniker and their piece of local history was born. Several members changes later their coming back stronger, fiercer, and louder than ever. Founding member guitarist/vocalist Duane White has kept the gritting/grinding sound alive releasing Walking The Appian Way in 2010 on Sancrosanct Records and is working on new material for future release.

Their harmonious artillery range of sound bludgeoning began with Death of Beauty. They played disk opener Separate with its Burton C. Bell yells and technical string prowess and old school Arch Enemy sound/Meshuggah delivery of Death By Design. Singer Chris McKinney, a Daniel Bryan fan, threw the stage into himself resembling a young Buzz Osborne screaming like he could and would swallow your soul showing off sparkling dental work. Playing their own unique conveyor belt metal with the mechanized fury of Fear Factory and brutality of Slayer conjuring up hell fire and brimstone through their instruments. Their harmonies and ‘softer’ parts are like riding an acid death tidal wave onto sands of sulfur from the eternal sea of madness while their spiked mallet to the noggin chugs n riffs and earthquake inducing delivery could bring the house down, literally.

Hamiltons female fronted The Rose Hill was next. Originally named the Epidemic in 2007 they’ve survived through several member changes releasing their first CD With All That I Am in 2010 and will release their second effort Powerless on Sancrosanct in September. Don’t be fooled by a female voice leading the worship. If Rebecca St. James/Natalie Grant is your pleasant cup of tea then the loud but sweet metal screeching croaks of Bethany akin to Morgan Lander, The Agonist’s Alissa White-Gluzz with a little Angela Gossow sprinkled in will hardly be the comfortable shut-eye lullaby you’ll wanna plug into before bedtime.

If vocals that could make birds fall out of the sky wasn’t enough The Rose Hill employs a keytar player. That’s a guitar shaped keyboard for anyone born after the 80’s, Google it. An impressive antiquity to have considering production ceased in the mid 2000‘s. They’re on their second edition and if this one breaks maybe they can borrow Lady Gaga’s. It definitely added a unique ambiance and effect to the metal ripping around it. They broke out all new goodies for the crowd playing five songs from the upcoming CD. A Sinners Plea and Reaching can be previewed on their Facebook page and you can look forward to hearing Oh Wayward Girl, Forsaken and New Life when you get the CD. Bethany spent the whole set throwing all of her petite frame into every heavyweight word and in a few years could be a contender for Revolvers Hottest Chicks in Metal.

The first half of the nights Facedown alumni bidding a loud final farewell As Hell Retreats played like their namesake throwing out a menagerie of twin guitar biblical progressive death wraith math metal that would send the most evil dark hearted of the devil’s dark dominions howling away in surrender . They hit hard with a nine course set with all the hard thumping metal fixin’s and you didn’t even need a bent salad fork. They played with machine gun fire fret fingering, blasting out Young Heretic, Inferior (can be heard on Facebook), Shun, Misanthropist, A Beggar, Transgress, Raze and Matriarch. The unique technical, slow chug of some tunes made for unique free-styling pit activity breaking out and an unconfirmed report of an Irish jig was spotted. The building block metal sadly had to end at some point but not before they raised hands to the crowd and God Almighty with a blaze of glory thank you for a journey and career well spent.

A Plea for Purging answered a plea for more with a gnarled good mess of fun. Zakk Wylde’s doppelganger guitarist Blake Martin spun some true metal hair shredding for an hour presumably when he’s not stunt doubling for Halloween’s Tyler Bates. The no weight limit crowd surfing began on a sea of human bones. With fists and fury the fans threw their passion at the band and a fistful of metal was returned. Singer Andy Atkins walked the stage screaming with a red-faced pallete taking the space as his own for the evening belting out 7 years of old and new tunes that could easily be used for any respectable underground fight club. The crowd used what they had left creating an all out adrenaline bomb set to go off at Atkins calculated repeated command. The forces of human nature re-opened the pit with toxic human windmills and an old school circular tornado style pattern. They slowly slowed it down to 110 MPH so the kids could regroup. Near the end Atkins said that it was time to give up the ‘rockstar’ life and become mere mortals again getting real job s and spend cherished time with friends and family. Through all the hardships and annoyances of the road the fans made every negative worth it, thanks for listening. He also advised for any of the musically motivated to form a band, play one show and quit.

Atkins roared out a band ending bucket list of favorite tunes including ‘The Life’ the video of which was filmed during their last stop at The Attic. Shiver that has a very moving religious parody video on Youtube, Malevolence giving a how to guide for rock stardom and riches beyond imagination. Along with nine other loud face pounders hitting you like a fist wrapped in granite headache. Two bands, two breakups, one tour and a final tear down the wall curtain call.

Note: originally published at citizenusa.net

Ed vs. Radio is Back

February 11, 2010 By Juliet Fromholt Leave a Comment

EVR--Flyer-2-13-2 Ed vs. Radio was a big name in local music between 2004 and 2006 when band members decided to pursue individual interests. Toward the end of last year, there were rumblings of the band’s return, and I’m happy to report that Ed vs. Radio is indeed back in action. Original members Jason Gilmore (guitar and vocals) and Jeff Coates (drums) will be joined by James Daniels on bass and Jasper the Colossal’s Paige Bellar on vocals.

Ed vs. Radio will be playing an all-ages show at the Attic in Kettering on Saturday, February 13. The following Friday (Feb 19th), they’ll hit the stage at Blind Bob’s with Me & Mountains, The Javeline Dance, and 8-Bit Revival. As a prelude, the band will be playing live on Kaleidoscope on Wednesday, February 10 beginning at 8pm on WYSO.