#deathcrawl

Ohio Doomed & Stoned Fest

 ~Doomed & Stoned Festival Scrapbook~ 

Words by Dan Simone   |   Films by Scott Goldy of Project Concert 150

The inaugural Ohio Doomed and Stoned Fest took place over two hot and heavy days in July at the Buzzbin Art & Music Shop in beautiful downtown Canton, Ohio, and it was a blast!   24 heavy bands from Ohio and the surrounding region came together and just fucking rocked out. I was asked to do a year-end review as the lead organizer of the fest and I gotta admit, my recollections are a bit hazy. It was six months ago, after all, so while my memories may be lacking in specificity. I can assure you of this, however: while I began the first day stressed-out and more than a little bit scared of the many little things that could go wrong when coordinating so many people into something coherent and successful, it was so fucking worth it.

DAY ONE

Saturday, July 21st, was a pretty nice day, all things considered. Sunny and warm, with a threat of rain in the forecast, but we had planned for that with tarps and pavilions galore. A couple of the bands got to the Buzzbin right around the same time as me and though I didn't really know these guys well at the time, they immediately volunteered to help with the final preparations. I mention this to make a point about the heavy music scene here in Ohio. Everyone's just cool. It's something we love about our scene here. There really isn't much bullshit. Everyone involved just wants to make a bunch of really awesome music and play it really loud for everyone else.

Doomed & Stoned in Ohio by Doomed & Stoned

Anyway, got everything set up. Killer. We had two stages set up to run in 30-minute time slots, one stage inside and one outside (hence my concern about the rain). While band "A" played on one stage, band "B" set up and soundchecked so they'd be ready to go as soon as band "A" was done. Day One had 14 bands scheduled to play and for the first few acts I was running around like crazy making sure that everything was going well and everyone knew where to be when. Monastery from Cleveland started things off on the inside stage, nice and hazy and we were off!

God's Grave by Monastery

OctoSkull #1: Original Soundtrack by Doom Christ

Ascension by Cult Of Sorrow

Acceptable Level of Misery by DeathCrawl

Red Sky EP by Black Spirit Crown

Somewhere Out Among the Stars is Home by Matter of Planets

Tria by Night Goat

Dumb enough to care by Enhailer

Kali Yuga by Maharaja

International House of Mancakes by Bridesmaid

PALE GREY LORE by PALE GREY LORE

Astrological Passages by Weed Demon

Dead Seeds, Barren Soil by Horseburner

Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2 by Howling Giant

You guys, it was fucking great! The bands were on point, the fans were way in to it, the taco truck was selling grilled cheese sandwiches, and once we played and I settled down a bit, I was in heaven. Everywhere I turned my pals were having a great time. Someone brought in a bunch of ferns in hanging baskets and hung them around the outside stage, and then there were running fern battles throughout the rest of the evening.

Official Sponsor: EarthQuaker Devices

DAY TWO

Sunday, July 22nd dawned nice and sunny as well. My brother and I bummed around downtown Canton, which isn't particularly lively on a Sunday morning. There was some parade - we never really found out why - but we found our way around and had some food and drinks and girded our loins for what was sure to be another adventure of a day...and boy was it!

By the time we got to Buzzbin to start getting everything back in order, it was obvious that we weren't going to get a repeat of Saturday's perfectly beautiful sunny summer weather. The rain started misting down before Reflex Machine, our fist band of the day, even started inside. That was ok, as I said before we had pavilions and tarps set up all over outside, and the stage was covered on three sides.

Then the wind started blowing -- right in to the face of the stage. We delayed our second band, Urns from Pittsburgh, to see if it would blow over. The rain slackened enough that they were able to set up and play safely, if slightly damp, but it was obvious that it was only going to get worse. So we improvised! In a stunning display of Stoner Teamwork, we cleared the entire second stage area of all gear and transferred it inside, P.A. and all, in about 5 minutes. In another 10, we had recreated the outside stage and set it up perpendicular to the main stage. It got a little tight, but it worked and the show went on!

Reflex Machine/Ghost Embryo Split by Reflex Machine, Ghost Embryo

Borrowed Light by Sweaty Mammoth

Amps. Anecdotes. Annihilation. by supercorrupter

Good As Evil by BlackWater

BY GOD by goosed

Deny Everything by Contra

Abandoned by Pillärs

VI by Close The Hatch

Another Way to Fly by Silent Monolith

THE DOOMED & STONED SHOW

Season 4, Episode 1

We're back, folks! For the new season of our podcast, we're kicking things off with a preview of Ohio Doomed and Stoned Fest on July 21st and 22nd in Canton, Ohio, where 20+ bands will descend for two days of total sonic destruction.

In this episode, Doomed & Stoned editor BillyGoat interviews festival organizer Dan Simone and gives you a listen to this stacked bill, sponsored by EarthQuaker Devices. Listen for new doom metal and stoner rock by:

Black Spirit Crown

Blackwater

Bridesmaid

Close The Hatch

Contra

Cult Of Sorrow

DeathCrawl

Enhailer

goosed

Horseburner

Howling Giant

Maharaja

Matter of Planets

Monastery

Night Goat

Pale Grey Lore

Pillärs

Reflex Machine

Silent Monolith

Supercorrupter

Sweaty Mammoth

Weed Demon

*also streaming on Soundcloud.

Get Tickets to Ohio Doomed & Stoned Fest here.