Municipal Waste
January 9, 2015
Regent Theatre- Los Angeles, CA
The Show Your Scars Festival is a festival show for underground metal bands. This year, it was headlined by the crossover thrash metal band Municipal Waste. At the entrance to the Regent Theatre, there was a sign telling the crowd that there is no stage diving allowed. For a Municipal Waste show, that sign is as useless as telling people to not buy alcohol. Well before Municipal Waste came on stage, all hell had already broken loose. Fights could be seen which would cause security to kick out the people involved, stage divers were going off almost non-stop, and even the singer from Repulsion let the already packed venue know that there was an ambulance outside because a girl had gotten kicked in the head by a stage diver and to watch out for each other. The show had sold out weeks in advance and by the time Municipal Waste came on, the venue was filled with metalheads as they were ready to wage war against each other!
Municipal Waste decided to commemorate this special occasion by playing their sophomore album Hazardous Mutation in its entirety for its tenth anniversary. As Municipal Waste was getting ready to come on stage, a group of fans were chanting one of their favorite lyrics from the band, “Municipal Waste is gonna…” 
and the majority of fans would finish the line, “fuck you up!”. You could tell they were ready for the headlining band of the night. Municipal Waste came on stage and frontman Tony Foresta greeted the fans by saying, “ladies and gentlemen, we’re Municipal Waste from Richmond, Virginia!”. The crowd cheered as they were finally getting what they wanted. Since the band was playing their Hazardous Mutation album in its entirety, Municipal Waste started the show with the intro/Deathripper track. Immediately, fans reacted with a circle pit as well as stage divers making their way to the stage and diving into the crowd below, regardless of who was in their way. Municipal Waste is known for their short yet thrashy songs that always guarantee to get the crowd wild. Just two minutes and twenty seconds into the first track and Municipal Waste had already started the second track Unleash the Bastards which clocked in at just under two minutes. While this song was playing, the crew decided to turn things up a bit and started hurdling toilet paper rolls into the crowd and the crowd threw them back and forth amongst each other. Since their songs are short, Municipal Waste sped through song after song and the crowd only got crazier as stage divers covered the stage to where the band members had to look around before moving to be sure they wouldn’t run into anyone. A stage diver even went as far as going on stage and stealing a 6-pack of beer from the band and diving back into the crowd as guitarist Ryan Waste looked on in disappointment.
Foresta dedicated this next song to all the speed metal punks in the audience as Municipal Waste started playing Set to Destruct and kept driving the fans wild. When the one-minute long song Abusement Park was getting ready to start, Foresta had the circle pit split in two and on his count, to give him a wall of death! The fans delivered and Municipal Waste kept pulverizing fans with fast and heavy music. Municipal Waste was getting ready to wrap up their show and Foresta warned the fans to beware…of the Terror Shark! The Thrashin’ of the Christ was another song that made the crowd get even crazier with stage divers everywhere. Guitarist Ryan Waste talked to the crowd for a bit saying that the next day, everyone tonight would be hurting from either moshing or drinking too much alcohol. It wouldn’t be a hangover, but rather…a Bangover! With that, Municipal Waste wrapped up the Hazardous Mutation album, thanked the crowd, and left the stage.
The crowd wasn’t ready to leave just yet so they stuck around waiting to see what else happens. Surely enough, Municipal Waste came back out to perform a few encores. Foresta started the first encore by saying, “Los Angeles, this is The Art of Partying!” The crowd once again went back into a wild mosh pit and stage divers made an appearance once again. The second encore was the fan favorite, Beer Pressure. It’s another short song and Foresta stopped the song right as it got to the chorus, let the crowd calm down for a bit, then had the band continued the song as they sang the final lyrics, “Beer Pressurrre! Beer Pressurrre!”. For the grand finale, Municipal Waste played the song that everyone had been wanting to hear. They ended the show with Born to Party. This is where the stage was practically filled with fans as they dove off the stage and took selfies with the band members. Foresta let the crowd know that this was the last chance to party with them and just like that, the song cut into the line everyone was eager to sing which was, “Municipal Waste is gonna fuck you up! Municipal waste is gonna fuck you up!”. All hell broke loose during that song whether it was the huge mosh pit on the floor or stage divers flying left and right. The show ended and Municipal Waste left the stage. If you like your music fast and heavy with a hardcore punk feel and crazy mosh pits, be sure to Check out Municipal Waste next time they’re in your area.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
