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Metal comes to Loudoun

Monday, Mar. 14 by Laura Pe te rs | 47 com m e nts | Em ail this story | Video

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C hris D ugay of Retic le
lays it down on the
bas s at B all’s Bluff
M etalfes t on M arc h
1 2 . C ourtes y photo/
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3/15/2011 Metal comes to Loudoun | LoudounTim…
Toby Gomez, frontman of metal band Above the Altar, has been working on getting metal
music to become more accessible to Loudoun County. He had his band’s CD release party in
Sept. 2010 at Ball’s Bluff Tavern, and packed the place to capacity. The owner, Fabian Saeidi,
asked Gomez to continue a monthly metal music night, but at first Gomez was weary about it.
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“My [initial] reply was ‘no’, because nobody’s going to care,” Gomez said. “Everyone would say Ne ws | Spo rts
they’d see them next month, then next month, and it would have a diminished draw.”

But it turned out that the monthly metal night, which started in November 2010, has proven to
be one of the best nights in business for Ball’s Bluff and the restaurant that sits upstairs from it,
King’s Court Tavern. From what Gomez gathered, together the two establishments made almost Join Our
$5,000 as opposed to the average of $1,000 on a nightly basis. Email List
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Elizabeth May, a bartender at both Ball’s Bluff and King’s Court Tavern, said that the only other
times she’s seen it that busy is before major holidays.

“It’s very, very busy during monthly metal shows, much busier than the majority of the time,”
May said. “It’s good to see that people come out to support monthly metal. It’s definitely a good
thing.”

The main point Gomez is trying to get across is that metal music isn’t all about violence.
The Loudoun Tim e s-Mirror
“It’s like a brotherhood thing,” Gomez said. “Y ou go into a metal show and it doesn’t matter
who you are or what you are as long as you’re going there to enjoy the music and have a good
time, everyone is receptive. It’s like a spirit of camaraderie. The violence that everyone
associated with it really isn’t what it really is.” is an inte ractive , digital re plica
of the printe d ne wspape r.
Open the e-edition now.
He says there are mosh pits with a few elbows thrown, but once the guy gets hit with an elbow,
he turns around and hugs the guy who did it.
Vie w our othe r print publications available online .
“The best thing about being in the metal scene is being able to express yourself,” Gomez said.
“Y ou don’t have to be pretty, you don’t have to smell good, you don’t have to dress nicely, you
show up in whatever you show up in and well, you’re in.”

Chris Dugay, from the band Reticle says that these shows have historically brought lots of
W e e k ly He llo Loudoun Bridal Guide
people, but is still in disbelief with the big metal following in Loudoun County. Hom e s Guide C ounty 2010-11 2011

“Five years ago I would have laughed at you if you said there was a metal scene here…I
wouldn’t have guessed here,” Dugay said.

Dave Evans, who’s in the band Division, said that Gomez has been a good promoter of the metal
scene in Loudoun County, and he’s the “one-man promotion machine” that has made the shows 2011 Future He alth and Sum m e r
possible at Ball’s Bluff Tavern. Evans says that in other areas of Northern Virginia, metal bands Le ade rs Be auty 2011 C am ps 2011

are having trouble getting a following and developing people to come out the shows, a problem
they don’t have in Loudoun.

“Anywhere you go it’s like the universal language as long as you’re willing to sacrifice your
liver,” Evans said. 2010 2010 Taste C om ing
Hom e & Garde n of Loudoun Soon
Paul Dodderidge, who’s in the band Never to be Silenced, said that the metal scene is growing in
Loudoun County, but also that metal still has a lot of negative connotations associated with it.

“A lot of people think it’s about murder and Satan and stuff like that. [Some] people just don’t
agree with heavy metal because of what they heard about it,” Dodderidge said. “We don’t care
how standoffish they are, we’re here and we’re not going anywhere…metal’s here.”

The next Monthly Metal show at Ball’s Bluff is on April 2 and will feature bands, Gradius,
Y esterday’s Saints, Sordid and Permafrost.
T oby G omez, frontman
of A bove the A ltar and
organizer of M onthly
M etal N ight at Ball's
Bluff, belts it out for a
pac ked hous e during
M arc h M etalfes t on
M arc h 1 2 . C ourtes y
P hoto/ M ary V elic h

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