Along with some nasty weather, a sonic tornado rolled through the town of De Kalb, IL on June 7, 2007. The House Cafe, owned and operated by NIU music professor and Chicago music legend Fareed Haque, was the scene for some musical mayhem provided by Tribunal Records in the guise of Killwhitneydead, Woe of Tyrants, and The Demonstration.

Shadow of the Reaper, a local band, kicked off the evening. These guys are long on chops and attitude and I expect to hear more from them as they mature and get wider recognition. Their twin-guitar attack, along with some solid drumming, bode well for the evening.

The Demonstration came on next. Singer Zachary Messick has one of the strongest voices I've heard in some time, I'm here to tell you. I understand Mr. Messick is a fairly new addition to the band. Great guitar playing from Charles Matheny and David Shoaf was undergirded by the crushing rhythm section of Josh Coe on bass and Peter Jackson on drums.  Listening to these guys made me wonder what they put in the water in North Carolina, from which they hale. I'm looking forward to hearing more from these guys. Their latest release on Tribunal Records, Words of a Con-Artist is worth picking up.

On a personal note: during their set a pretty large guy planted himself right in the middle of the floor which was filled with kids two-stepping and windmill kicking. This guy got clipped by a hand or fist, a common hazard when one gets in the middle of the pit. He starts pounding on this much smaller kid, an egregious breach of mosh pit etiquette. My oldest son, who had come to the show with me, flies out of nowhere, grabs this big lug around the neck, pulls him away from his target and moves him to the back of the venue. I was pretty proud of my son for standing up to this mosh pit bully. I like to think my wife and I raised him right. It's a shame that this happens frequently at shows. There is always some cretin who is not there for the music or the camaraderie of the pit but just looking for trouble and a fight.