Metal Mayhem II

by Regina Yoast

It's not often you get a story that combines heavy metal music with puppies and kittens. So when OFF! heard about Metal Mayhem II, a two-day metal music festival to benefit The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri, our curiosity was piqued. The event will be held October 17 and 18 at Our House Bar and Grill, and all the proceeds from the $5 cover charge ($7 for minors) and other capital will be donated to help local cats, dogs and other critters.

The money will be put to good use, said Leigh Parrish, a Humane Society worker who helps with fund raising. "We can use the money on lots of things," she said, "like food, cleaning supplies, and our new building fund."

But if $5 buys a lot for the Humane Society, Metal Mayhem founder T.J. Shoemaker points out that it also buys a lot of great entertainment. "Over 20 bands are scheduled to play," he says, "and I've got them coming from everywhere: Boston, St. Louis, Chicago and even Arkansas."

Actually, it was the drive to present more out of town bands to the Cape Girardeau area that prompted Shoemaker to organize Metal Mayhem. As you've probably figured out by the Roman numeral, this is the second installment of the event.

The First Metal Mayhem was held last May. The idea came to Shoemaker when he noticed the lack of a forum for St. Louis bands in Cape Girardeau pubs. After only three weeks of planning, Shoemaker had signed over a dozen bands and secured a place to play- Our House, which was then just opening its doors on Main Street. The event was a huge success, and instead of leaving it at that, Shoemaker and Our House HMFIC Jason Copeland decided to make it a biannual event. Next May's show is already in the works, and another charity has already expressed interest in becoming a beneficiary.

But back to this year's show. Bands scheduled to appear are: Fleshheld, Lunatic, Tribal dust, Tryptophane, Realm, Byproduct, Savant, Snobank, Rusted Skin, Shatter Mask, Deference, Sofachrome, Frogsweat, Knotted Fear, Krakt, Drivin Rain, Chaos Order, Sanctum, Stain of Mind, Futhamucka and Blacklist. T-shirts featuring all the bands will be available for $10, and all the bands will have their own merchandise on hand. There will also be lots of free stuff and drawings. "There will be items from each of the sponsors, "said Copeland," we're having all kinds of inflatables and mirrors, and tickets to win those will be handed out at the door."

Also included in the cover will be a laser light show by Jacob Brown, which promises, in Copeland's words, "to be the best damn sound and light show Cape Girardeau has ever seen. I'm gonna have everyone in here from age 8 to 80, and they're gonna have a hell of a time."

While that kind of age range at a metal festival raises eyebrows, Copeland says the metal crowd is actually one of the best and most polite groups he's known. At the last such event they emptied the ashtrays and cleaned up after themselves. And he has never had a fight.

So, if you're the kind of person who enjoys metal (anything from death metal to rap metal to mainstream), beer, puppies and kittens; then be at Our House Bar and Grill October 17 and 18. Because, in the words of Frogsweat's Daniel Seabaugh, "the show will definitely not suck."