The Daily Swarm

City of Devils via Punknews:

During the NATIONAL SUNDAY LAW set at Mountain Bar Wednesday night, guitarist Darin Tambascio told the crowd that “We are from Los Angeles…unfortunately.” Maybe not the best comment to make at a show in Los Angeles, and sure enough it raised the ire of one guy in the audience who proceeded to heckle the band for a few songs. But as Darin explained to me after, his comment was not about the city in general – it was an expression of frustration with Los Angeles’s support (or lack thereof) for underground music. That concern is justified. Over the last few months, the Knitting Factory has closed, the Black Castle has announced it is closing, the Relax Bar has reduced its schedule to just Saturday nights, Martin DePedro’s warehouse venue was shut down, and even Metal Mondays is taking time off. People are just not turning out, even when the product being sold is of high quality. But it’s not all bad news. Although the unemployment rate is at its highest point since 1983, that was a pretty good time for metal. Our concert calendar is looking might tasty. And the core people responsible for many of those shows, like Martin and Eddie Solis, have not given up. We reported a few weeks ago that the most prominent underground metal promoter, Church of the 8th Day (“CO8TD”), was forced to take the unusual step of directly soliciting support for its shows. We sent its leader, Daniel Dismal, a bunch of questions and we must say that his responses were more complete and honest than we ever expected.