I’d heard about Ho99o9 but never listened to them. No scratch that, never experienced them.
In my fever dream-like experience of SXSW, one of the things about the festival is that no matter where you’re wandering, no matter the venue you step into to hide from the sun, grab beer or just to rest, you’re feet usually gonna stumble into something interesting, different, unique, unknown, refreshing.
It seems like one afternoon, I stumbled straight to Hell, and I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t wanna leave. Seriously, if this is what Hell looks like, then sign me the fuck up.
Okay, so when I say Hell I don’t mean crevasses flowing with lava, demons holding pitch forks laughing maniacally over dammed souls testing out the latest and oldest torturing devices (or playful devices depending on what your kink is, we don’t shame here), I’m talking about the aptly-named 13th Floor bar on Red River Street. Unlucky for some, but for me I rolled the dice, bet my time on #13 and came up a winner. I heard about ho99o9 when chopping it up with two complete strangers about Veganism in big Texas country (that’s another article for another day).
This was my favourite accident of the entire trip, I was cramped at the side of the bar, not too far from the stage wedge about two or three people or as I saw them as “meat shields” from the mosh pit that began swirling with no form early in the set. And booooooy, was it calling me. Focus on this one woman with a huge Afro who was the absolute most pit-master. Honestly she was controlling everything in the eye of that thing. The spirit of the pit itself. All the madness!
It was such an honour to see theOGM throw himself into the crowd and drift with the audience and keep his vocals dominant and echo through the venue. Dressed in formal attire, white-tipped locks synced up with a black tux. It was giving me vibes – rockshow at 8, funeral at 12 runway by 4! As a first timer I felt like it was like witnessing Frankenstein’s monster be sonically formed and wreaking havoc in our ears. The environment so the stage was crammed and commented by two demonic figures, laced dreadlocks, black nails, white eyes and I had no intention of refusing any orders.
Honestly, it felt like using the boiler room of Hell, you have huge silver corrugated metal pipes, running criss crossed on the ceiling. The lighting was an ever present pallet of purple, reds, blues, orange and a crimson which splashed onto everything, leaving stains wherever you looked as if people had been peppered with blood.
Well, I’m stood in there and the doldrums are playing. I’m instantly transported back to those nights with my little brother watching Friday Night WWF Raw, thinking this is the type of place, the wrestler Mankind would come from. This is the type of place The Big Red Machine (Kane) would emerge from before he stomped down the into the ring, hair swinging left to right. It really felt like a place were pain came to die through communion and ritual of the pit. All soundtracked by Ho99o9.
