Indiecore Memphis: Shut THIS down: New Daisy strikes back with Cannibal Corpse

Unintelligible. Beautiful.

The closest thing Memphians got to time traveling on Oct. 21, 2015 was hearing the guttural belches of old-school death metal band Cannibal Corpse at The New Daisy Theater.

Just 6 days after the New Daisy’s grand re-opening and merely hours after being shut down by the state of Tennessee for allegedly not paying state taxes, Cannibal Corpse along with Vera (local), Soreption (Sweden), and (crowd favorite) Cattle Decapitation proved to the occupants of Memphis’ favorite 79-year-old venue that the show must go on.

Nick Douglas, Vera-vocalist, took a moment in between his bands’ breakdowns to address the Daisy’s recent shutdown.

“Let’s give it up for the Tennessee Department of Revenue’s Office,” Douglas said on-stage.

After the show, the Memphis native and the rest of his band were still excited to have shared the stage with “legendary” acts, particularly the one that has sold two million records. Vera Guitarist Christopher Lemons elaborated.

“It’s just kind of a bucket-list moment,” the 21-year-old said. “I get to cross off Cannibal Corpse. They are the standard as far as heavy music. You’ve seen their shirts in hot topic for decades.”

The Buffalo-bred, current Tampa-residing Cannibal Corpse brought a substantial crowd to the “New, New Daisy,” that night, including Oxford Mississippi’s Dylan Ballard.

“I’ve been listening to them since 7th grade and I’ve never seen them,” the 21-year-old said. “I don’t listen to a lot of Metal anymore, but this is the classic stuff.”

23-year-old Memphian James Arnold hinted that there was a “high possibility” he was excited to see the headlining act.

“I heard Cannibal Corpse is gonna play for an hour,” Arnold said. “They’re heavy as fuck live, and they’re also Jim Carrey’s favorite band.”

Corpse’s appearance in 1994 film Ace Ventura was somehow still the talk of the New Daisy in the year 2015. However, Cannibal Corpse-tour mates Soreption had more to say about what it was like being on the road with “Cannibal”. Frontman Frederick Söderberg shared how touring with Cannibal Corpse has lifted the spirits of his Swedish bandmates.

“It’s an honor,” Söderberg said. “Everything is just structured and it’s great in every possible way. The venues are nice. The crowds are nice. We’re lucky.”

The bald, bearded Swede moved slowly but ferociously on-stage, focusing his intimidating orc-esque scowl into the audience during select moments of his band’s well-applied technical death metal.

Offstage, the gentle giant was more than approachable, and though he had never traveled to Memphis before, complimented the improved sights of the New Daisy theatre.

“It’s an impressive venue,” Söderberg said. “It’s big and it looks good.”

Soreption Bassist Mikael Almgren, although hesitant to be interviewed due to his limited English vocabulary, shared that he was enjoying Beale Street in general.

“It’s awesome,” Almgren said. “All the blues, the music, good food, and nice people are all good stuff.”

"Cattle Decap"

Though Cannibal Corpse’s namesake and Cattle Decapitation’s frantic spit-catching vocalist brought many metalheads out to the New Daisy, the reason for most of the college-aged crowd happened to be none other than local Memphis Metal band Vera.

“Vera’s just heavy,” 22-year-old local show promoter Bobby Harris said. “I don’t really see them outside of of shows but they’re really good guys. Good friends.”

21-year-old University of Memphis Music Industry student Cody Landers who formerly played guitar for Vera, came out to support his ex-bandmates.

“Jeremy, their drummer, is just so tight all the time,” Landers said. “He’s such a really loose yet syncopated drummer and it just amazes me. I loved playing with that guy when I was in the band and I still love watching ‘em.”

In addition to Landers, more UofM students could be found enjoying the Cannibal Corpse line-up. 18-year-old Recording Technology Freshman Ethan Wahl-Taylor had previously not attended a show in Memphis before, but maintained that the music scene in his hometown of Maryland, Virginia was something to brag about.

...more Cattle Decapitation in Memphis

“DC punk is an amazing scene,” Wahl-Taylor said. “It’s got a lot of venues that are really willing to help out local bands and up and coming artists.”

It was actually there where he first caught wind of Memphis’ own Vera.

“They have a decent presence in Maryland,” Wahl-Taylor said. “Though they’ve never really toured very far from Tennessee, people still know who they are out there. I’ve heard about them through conversations. There’s a small sort of circle that gets talked about a lot.”

After the show the boys in Vera could be found just down the street celebrating. Still enjoying the thrill of performing alongside well-known Metal bands Cannibal Corpse and Cattle Decapitation, Vera guitarplayer Christopher Lemons explained explicitly what it takes to write heavy music that earns a following outside of your home state.

“Impact- it’s gotta have impact,” Lemons said. “if you write a lot of heavy riffs and you don’t set it up right then it’s all useless. You gotta build it and you have to drop it correctly with the intention of it translating to a live setting. I feel like we’re doing that with the new music and it’s coming through pretty well according to tonight.”

Vocalist Nick Douglas took the moment on Beale to reminisce on his group’s accomplishments so far.

“Our first tour was definitely one of those life changing moments,” Douglas said. “The whole time it was surreal. That was a real accomplishment.”

In what was clearly a big night for the Vera boys, bassplayer Blake Peel noted what his favorite part was.

“Sharing the stage with Cattle Decapitation,” Peel said. “Cattle Decapitation is one of my favorite bands so it’s unreal playing with them.”

Though just 24 hours previously locks on the Daisy doors prevented any Memphians from entering the New Daisy theater, Douglas shared that his favorite aspect about the night was the venue itself.

“The whole renovated venue,” Douglas said. “It’s fuckin sick now. It’s the first time we’ve been here since they re-did it and it looks awesome.”

The vocalist added that the new wooden floors served a purpose that was instrumental for some to enjoy local shows.

“So you can get down,” Douglas said.

...

And no one gets down like Jim Carrey......

No one.