Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Beer Metal Summer Camp

Beer Metal Summer Camp

At Lost Lake

About 2 hours east of Seattle
Beer Metal Summer camp is an odd beast-- It generally takes place the same weekend as the Capitol Hill Block Party. People start showing up out in the woods on Wednesday, staking out camping spaces and locking down the stage area. The Beer Metal crew is a pretty fun, friendly, gregarious bunch, and people will generally be hanging out around campfires for a few days.

Music starts on Friday, and a ton of bands flood the stage. It's out in the woods, so the stage is a naturally elevated riser under a small covering. The PA meets its paces, but it's definitely the kind of gear you'd take camping... which works for the aesthetic, because everyone sounds a little different out in the open air without the walls of a club reflecting sound around the room.

Beer Metal actually sounds amazing. Assuming a band's amps have enough force to keep up with drums and the PA out in the the open, I've always heard bands amazingly well at a great distance, from different camps around the lake. For not mic'ing cabs or drums, sound from afar carries well enough that I can always make out the unmic'd kick drum better than a lot of venues in Seattle.

It's the woods, so everything comes off a generator... which just got an upgrade, and a band would be hard pressed to strain it (and this from a guy in a band with two power guzzling bass amps/bass cabs). A couple 100w Marshalls aren't going to make a dent.

No matter the announced line-up, bands (or members of bands) will be arriving late due to work schedules, complications, and traveling a couple hours out of Seattle. Generally, you step into the spot where you're needed; the prime spots are between when the party kicks into high gear (probably around sunset) and when the attendees have started to pass out.

The Beer Metal Olympics are held on Saturday afternoon, and should not be missed. Events tend to include chugging a beer and performing a physical task. Last year I competed, this year I didn't-- it is hilarious to view the events without participating, especially as the MC has to repeat the instructions more frequently as the contestants become less capable of comprehending them.

The event is basically camaraderie-fueled: no one's getting paid, and everyone's just hanging out. There will be tons of bands that run a wide spectrum of tastes (though the word “metal” is in the name, the line-ups have never been exclusively metal), and for a few days, a large crowd of people exist within campfire culture, and they do it with an abundance of joy.

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