Tales From the Pit: The Acacia Strain
I guess it’s my turn for one of my Tales From The Pit, for this round I’m going with The Acacia Strain. Now imagine, the room is raging in the pit and going harder than ever because let’s face it, its a hardcore metal show. CHAOS! I was at the Gramercy Theatre here in NYC to photograph Kublai Khan for a previous magazine Give Me a Try back on November 14th, 2019. So yes, post-pandemic chaos.
I was given my 3 song limit as per usual when you don’t have VIP access to be a lunatic with a camera. I make my way over to the bar and at the time, the bartender was a very close friend of mine so we’re chatting and talking about how insane the room suddenly shifted into madness because The Acacia Strain had hit the stage.
Now, I’m going to admit that I broke a venue rule and snuck in some dark chocolate, nobody was stopping me from having a snack and keeping my energy up. I was facing the stage while head banging and enjoying my delicious chocolate when all of a sudden I see from the corner of my eye that someone had picked up a trash can. You read that correctly, a nasty, disgusting, and very large trash can was picked up by one of the audience members. This person looks like they’re training for the javelin throw at the olympics, so keep this visual in mind. This is when this same person manages to perfectly toss the trash can through the pit, somehow managing to not hit anyone in it but instead rocks this poor chick in the face because she was unsuspectingly enjoying the show when this javelin trash can toss happened upon her. It hit her right in the side of the temple so hard that she immediately went down but not without taking some casualties with her in the process. 7 other audience members and 3 barricades were all taken out by this javelin trash can tosser in a matter of seconds. I was in such shock to be in perfect view of this moment that I stopped eating my chocolate and my jaw dropped instantly. There was a dude in front of me who shielded me from the chaos and then proceeds to ask me if I’m okay which I respond with “I think you should be asking her that, I’m chillin with my chocolate.” I ended up sharing my chocolate with him while security took over the whole situation.
My only regret was not having my camera ready to capture this moment. I do hope the javelin trash can tosser learned a lesson, I hope the poor innocent chicks face was okay, and I hope those barricades survived this vicious attack.
If you haven’t had the chance yet, The Acacia Strain will be touring in March with my boys in Fit For An Autopsy, this is a must attend tour if you can make it