Little Slaughter on the Prairie: War Diary
- NSMZ Team
- 12 minutes ago
- 5 min read
By: Eric Ashe Photos: Tracy Creighton (Copperblue Photography)
If you were to pull into the parking lot of the RCAF hall in Saskatoon on Saturday August 22nd, you would have been greeted by a barrage of blast beats, ripping guitar tones, and ferocious vocals, as the grinding good times breached the walls of the hall and cut into the night air.
Eight bands took to the stage, with each set broken up by a killer magic show conducted by Jay. The one and only magician skillfully wowed the audience, building the energy up before announcing and hyping up the next act.
Starting the night, Vain from Edmonton crushed our spirits with heavy doom laden riffs inspired by the likes of Crowbar, and many other hefty sounds. Soon after them, Rex Infernus followed. Their rendition of Hot for the Teacher getting the whole crowd going wild.
Following the guys in Rex, Seb of Affordable Housing was up. First he had Nyles of Pit of Gore join him on drums, labelling their performance Affordable Burger. Tagging Nyles out, Jonah who was filling in for Pit of Gore that night as well began beating the skins as his predecessor took up the mic. Annihilating vocals before melding into the crowd once more and ushering Eric of Abuse to join in for some improvised vocals himself.
Exsang closed out the first half of the festival with a bang. This trio of grindcore fanatics wrapped the first half of the fest hard with some killer new songs as well as many of this writers favourites.
As Jay closed out the intermission he introduced Half Dead, and Hillary the front-woman hit the ground running. Almost literally. Her high energy antics catching on in the crowd as the already active pit broke out even further.
By the time Jay brought out Abuse, the walls heaved in unison with the high energy of music as madness broke loose for half an hour.
Pit of Gore were brutal with energy in the building at a high and an arsenal of delicious gore grind in their pockets. This crowd must have got a month's worth of cardio, as they never stopped moving.
Following Pit of Gore, Dead Sunday came out to close things off. They call themselves Slaughter Metal and the name is apt. Their slam-tastic rhythms with absolute maniacal leads behind such ferocious vocals makes for a slaughterhouse of a pit. I cannot wait for a chance to perform alongside or see any of these bands again.
Paraphrasing Magic Jay, the magician that acted as an MC for the night: on his first approach of the venue he spotted a duo wrestling beneath the red iron wings of the monolith that marks the RCAF, and questioned if he had gotten himself into something more than he had bargained for. However by the end of the night he related to me that out of all the audiences he had performed for this summer, this crowd turned out to be his absolute favourite and most reactive. Relaying to me that all these intense looking long haired, black clad, patched up, tattooed people were some of the most true to themselves and kind folks he had ever met, and as we spoke before he departed I could see the tears of passion forming in his eyes. Maybe they were in fact tears of jealousy as he stared at my luscious hair, but I like to think it was for the memories he formed at this festival.
After the dust settled and everyone made their way home I got to catch up with a few of the musicians who had performed, and all I have spoken to had a great experience. Sebastian of Affordable Housing spoke a bit on his own time at Little Slaughter on the Prairie:
“Not going to lie, I loved it! It was some of the most fun I’ve had in a while. It is a shame that I couldn’t have my boi with me to do a proper affordable housing set. Despite that everbody dug the improv sets and had way too much fun going absolute bonkers on the bass with Nyles. Plus was low-key a debut of a project I have been planning with Jonah for a few months now. Especially having you hop on some improv vox! Plus the magician was an absolute staple! I know for a fact I would be on board for coming down again for something similar or the fest again next year or vice versa lord knows. I know all my bois in the Art of Moving Forward or Pack a Punch would be all over that! I can safely say that it hands down is in my top 3 all time shows I have played.”
Sloan of Vain added, “That was a very fun show and good all around experience. We’d love to do it again.” He may have still been recovering from the insane pit when I caught him. There was a lot of awesome crowd participation through the night, from volunteers joining Jay for his mind bending tricks, to the absolute massacre that was the pit.
I caught up with Nyles of Pit of Gore a little later in the week and he also had good things to say about the festival and Saskatchewan in general. Though our conversation was a little more loose he complimented our hospitality and clean water. Showing excitement at the reception Saskatchewan had given to all the touring bands, and gratitude that Pit of Gore have been able to travel and accomplish so much in the short time they have been a band. I know I look forward to seeing more from them soon, and Nyles let me know that hopefully I won’t have to hold my breath too long. Their promo is up on bandcamp now though and is a killer listen if you have the chance.
To sum everything up, I’ll speak as one of the event organizers: “Little Slaughter on the Prairie was a killer time that took the effort of many to make happen, and I thank everyone who did help. Alyx, Shannon, Adrian, Alex, Axtyn, Chanel, Cody, Dustin, Darrah, Sean, Scott, and Tracy. All the bands that came out from near and far. As well as everyone who attended, seeing the joy on everyone’s faces made all the time we spent promoting, organizing and executing this festival feel so worthwhile. I cannot wait to show you all what we have planned for the next slaughter.”
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