Women of Metal Fest
Pittsburgh, PA, The Rex Theatre
July 19, 2014

When it comes to Female Metal the big events tend to be in Europe, with MFVF being the Cadillac. But then, most of the big names are European, both East and West and that festival is largely organized to feature artists from Western Europe. Yea, we get some Japanese, the occasional South American band, others maybe from Russia but the US has, for the most part, been ignored. So where do you go to see good American Femme Metal? Well, we had a few events in Chicago, you could see things in Atlanta at the big festival there, but, for the most part, this is not a popular event in good ol’ ‘murica. But, some people are trying to change that a little. And Pittsburgh seems to be one of the hot spots in that effort, who knew? The culprits in charge included Jayson Shell, Richard Stark and others and they put together a rather interesting lineup for the event.

Dames of Darkness @ Robin 2
Bilston (UK)

 

It’s already some time ago that Sonic Cathedral was present at the Dames of Darkness Festival at the Robin 2 in Bilston. The good reputation built up over the last years and of course the line-up were the main reasons to visit. Also the option to meet old friends makes it attractive. For me the festival day would be a long one. Flying in from the Netherlands and getting to the venue made me get up very early. Arriving after a reasonably smooth trip a little early was not really a problem. In the local pub you could find already visitors of Dames of Darkness (DoD) based on their outfit. After a beer in the pub it was time to go to the Robin 2. The Robin 2 is a nice venue for this kind of event. It attracted sufficient visitors to fill up the space in front of the stage. The crowd was a little too big for the two “corners”, the food and drinks area and the merchandise area. With the social behaviour of the metal heads (as usual) that was no problem. Everybody respected each other and looked after each other. That in itself made it already a nice party.