I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 5, 2026] Bloodywood

My wife and I saw Bloodywood open for Babymetal about a year ago.  We loved everything about them–their intensity, their positivity and just how heavy they were.  So when they announced a headline tour I grabbed a ticket for myself, my wife and my son.  My son had a final exam the next morning so he opted not to come.  (Smart kid).   So that left my wife and I.  Normally I love seeing opening bands–some of my favorite live bands are band I first saw when they were an opener.

But I looked at this lineup and saw three openers–bands that I have never heard of–and told my wife that we could skip them all.  She had something to do until around 6:45, so we left a little around 7.  I figured we’d get into Philly with a bunch of extra time and then stroll in around 9 right after the third band finished.

Well, we didn’t realize it was Cinco de Mayo and had no idea that South Street was blocked off in a number of places because of some kind of free taco festival.  And we got caught in the middle of it.  We drove about a mile in 45 minutes, finally escaped the chaos and found a parking garage.  When we walked to South Street, there were crazily drunken people everywhere and police on every corner.  We negotiated the cops and entered the venue at around 9:15.  My wife later told me she thought they were going on at 9 so she was panicky and didn’t understand why I wasn’t.  Well, there was no merch line, so I bought a shirt and we headed into the packed room.

I don’t really like being so far back, but TLA is fairly small, so even being n the back isn’t so bad.  Aside from the guy who inexplicably felt the need to put both his hands over he head for most of the songs, I could see fine and the sound was great.

So Bloodywood is a metal band from New Dehli who started out as a band making heavy metal parodies of Bollywood songs.  In 2016, Katiyar quit his job as a corporate lawyer and together with Jayant Bhadula formed a two-piece band with the intention of “destroying pop songs”.

Now, live, the band is a six-piece.  Katiyar plays guitars and flute!  Bhadula sings and growls.  Raoul Kerr officially joined in 2019 and does rap vocals.  The touring band since 2019 includes Vishesh Singh on drums, Roshan Roy on bass and Sarthak Pahwa plays the dhol (an Indian drum that sounds amazing).

The crowd was really excited right from the getgo with a very large man chanting Bluh Dee Wood!  The lights went down and everyone stormed the stage and they launched into Dana Dan.  They had played this one last time and it has a super catchy chorus.  Based on the song titles, I assume all of the songs are in Hindi, but I have no idea.  And with their deep growling voices and super loud instruments, it’s not clear what they are saying.  Although the chorus of a chanted Dana Dan is pretty easy to shout along to.  [Turns out they sing in English and Hindi].  So the band played only 9 songs in an hour, but their songs were really long.  I was sure Dana Dan was over and a new song had started when they all started chanting Dana Dan again.

Between songs they would banter, telling us about the songs (this one is about Indian food, the best in the world; this one is for everyone who has felt serious sadness; this one is about facing your fears, etc).  And they called on the audience to do lots of things–scream, mosh pit, circle pit and at least three walls of death.  And the crowd was  there for all of it.  They also called for people to make some fucking noise (possibly the first time I’ve heard an Indian person scream fucking).

Nu Delhi is about where they are from.  And Aaj is from their first album–all three played last time.  The song about food is Tadka

Vicious and delicious, you don’t wanna miss this
And if you take a bite, then you licking all the dishes

Then Katiyar busted out the flute and played the melancholy opening of Jee Veery.  I really enjoyed the flute throughout the song and could have used more of it.  Machi Bhasad had prominent use of the dhal and it sounded great–again I would have loved to hear more of it.  This song, like many of the others has a pause and then pow–a great opportunity for a wall of death.

Bekhauf features Babymetal and their voices were (too quiet) in the backgound.  And then they announced that this next song was their last song (after only some 50 minutes).  But it’s a rager and the crowd was totally into it, even trying to sing along,

The crowd chanted one more song and they came back a minute or so later.  One of the guys said English is not his native language but did we shout one ore song?  They ended with Gaddaar which they had opened with last time.  It’s a powerful song with lots of pauses where they can have the audience sing the chorus one more time.  And one more time.

The hour just flew by and my wife and I enjoyed it tremulously.

The opening bands were

The Pretty Wild, Ladrones and Ankor.  I saw a lot of people wearing The Pretty Wild shirts and the guy in front of me was wearing an Ankor shirt

Of the three bands, I was most most interested in Ankor a Spanish alternative metal band from Catalonia, featuring female front singer/screamer Jessie Williams, drummer Eleni Nota, guitarists/singers David Romeu and Fito Martinez, and bassist Julio López.  I had listened to them before the show and liked what they did–but I didn’t want to get there super early just for them if I didn’t really like the other two.  But I hope I get to see Ankor someday.  They have a very heavy sound (and screamed vocals) but with a cool pop chorus component that stays heavy.

Ladrones is a Mexican band that mixes metal, hip hop, and regional Mexican music, self-describing their music as “Flow Pesado”. The band includes vocalists Zxmyr and Cirujano Resendez, guitarist José Macario, and drummer Diego Zornoza.  They sing mostly (if not entirely) in Spanish and have a nice mix of traditional Mexican sounds with heavy guitars.

The Pretty Wild are an American metal band from Las Vegas, Nevada, composed of sisters Jyl and Jules Wylde.They’re a little too screamo for me.  They sound like a lot of bands of this genre but the addition of female singers is a nice touch.  They were the least interesting band of the night, although I’ll bet they are dynamite live.

 

2026	2025
Dana Dan ® [Give a Beatdown]	Gaddaar ®
Nu Delhi ♦	Aaj ®
Aaj ® [Today]	Dana Dan ®
Tadka ♦ [a South Indian cooking style]	Bekhauf ♦
Jee Veerey ® [Live, Brave One]	Nu Delhi ♦
Bekhauf ♦ [Fearless]
Machi Bhasad ® [Expect a Riot]
Halla Bol ♦ [Raise Your Voice]
encore
Gaddaar ® [Traitor]

♦ Nu Delhi (2025)
® Rakshak  (2022)