Show Review: Sunbather Die, Blind Heresy, Jellyfish Method and Bodyshot at the Cal Anderson Skate Park.
March 16th, 2025.
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The show must go on
March 18th, 2025
On Sunday, Seattle’s Blind Heresy and Bay Area’s Jellyfish Method were joined by Sunbather Die and Bodyshot (originally listed as a “secret band”) to close out their Pacific Northwest tour with what was initially planned to be a bridge show in Seattle. While on our way to the bridge, word spread that the show was moved to the Cal Anderson skate park thanks to some loser prematurely tattling to the cops. After an hour of showgoers and band members scrambling to rearrange skate ramps and set up equipment in the March cold, the biggest and most exciting DIY show I've been to in years ensued:
Sunbather Die kicked off the show, and I swear within 2 bars of their first song, the mosh pit had already started. Limbs went flying in the crowd as the band slammed into a heavy instrumental opening, eventually joined by distant vocals. The anticipation of the night dissipated as we melted into the swift tempo, thrusting an aggressive rhythmic middle finger at the forces that tried and failed to put a stop to our night. Like the chugging of Sunbather Die's guitar, the show goes on, and we were only getting started.
Blind Heresy knows how to excite a crowd like no other, a credit to both their dedicated fanbase and kinetic performances. They played Starships by Nicki Minaj while tuning, and the now completely full skate park sang along before immediately throwing themselves into the harmonizing yells of the two vocalists and rapid snaps of the drums. Blind Heresy's songs are a snake bite, sharp and quick, dangerous but enticing. Never have I ever seen the second band on a bill play an encore, but Blind Heresy had the audience in their jaws, and we didn’t want to escape.
Luscious locks whipping in the air, Jellyfish Method reminded us Seattleites what California is made of. With their growling bass rumbling the pavement of the skate park and impassioned vocals piercing through fiery melodies, our third three-piece of the night closed off their Pacific Northwest tour by marching the crowd into a blaze of unbothered punk fun. The guitarist and bassist frequently paid homage to their musical predecessors by leaping and shredding mid-air, and their energy was so electric that at one point even a Lime Scooter was crowd surfing.
Bodyshot was listed as a SECRET final band for this show, but I desire to sing hardcore glories of this band’s name to the world. The vocalist opened their set by demanding we mosh in proper hardcore fashion, complete with “karate moves," opening the floor to a show-and-tell of thrashing bodies taking turns launching into the air. Show-goers and random park civilians climbed and shook the surrounding wire fence in response to the four-piece's ferocious blitz of raucous rhythms. Cookies and money were thrown into the crowd. It was all out war--uninhibited, sublime chaos--led by Bodyshot's unshakable, brazen intensity.
Sunbather Die, Blind Heresy, Jellyfish Method and Bloodshot brought a crowd hungry for action to Cal Anderson park, yanking the park out of its empty winter melancholy and illuminating it as the lively community pillar that it has proven time and time again to be. I felt silly getting so emotional while gazing upon a sea of flying elbows and passionate two steppers, but the show felt like a pivotal moment, a turning point for fearless DIY gathering that proves the power and persistence of our community and the music bringing us together. Cops and narcs be damned.
| Keywords: | Seattle | Cal Anderson Park | Sunbather Die | Blind Heresy | Jellyfish Method | Bodyshot | Disposable Parts |
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