Wherever Manilla Road goes, it is Shark Week…Mark “The Shark” Shelton that is. On November 21, Metallomusikum and The Circuit, a new club in Essex, will host the heavy metal legends, along with A Sound of Thunder, Iron Man, Witch Hazel and Maximum Oversatan. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door and available on missiontix.com. The venue is 21+ (sorry young’uns).
If you call yourself a metal head, you should be familiar (or become familiar) with the work of Manilla Road, which stretches back to the late 70s in Wichita, Kansas. Those windswept plains yielded some of the most powerful riffs and soulful harmonies metal has ever heard. Not only does Manilla Road hail from Kansas, but Salina, Kansas is also hometown to Iron Man guitarist and founder Alfred Morris III. Must be something about the threat of tornadoes and a whole lotta nothing else that makes people want to pick up the guitar and play.
The Circuit is a newer venue on the east side of Baltimore city and a show this size is helping put them on the map. If you have never been there, the venue has about a 300 person capacity, a full bar (next to a liquor store so you basically can have anything they have), a bar food menu (burgers, chicken strips etc.) an outdoor patio/second stage, nice lighting and sound and plenty of free parking. It is located in the suburb of Essex, so it’s a residential area mostly. There are several hotels within 10 minutes.
Don’t miss this event of the season. Metallomusikum probably won’t be hosting a big show like this again, or at least not for a very long time. As a rule, I like to specialize in smaller, homegrown events with local and regional talent, but I could not pass up the chance to see Manilla Road again after their phenomenal performance at Maryland Deathfest in 2013. Let’s do that again!