[CANCELLED: October 11, 2026] Voivod / BAT / Rhododendron
I was pretty excited for this show. I love Voivod and have only seen them once. The chance to see them at Underground Arts was just amazing.
But last week they announced
Dear Fans,
It is with heavy hearts that we must cancel the US tour dates with BAT due to family health emergency in the Voivod clan.
We would like to say postponed and give you a new time period but Voivod can’t commit to any dates right now.
Tickets will be refunded at point of sale, we ask fans to wait a few days until the ticketing systems have been alerted.
Thank you for your understanding and support.
So that sucks. More for them than for me and I hope all is okay.
BAT are a heavy band from Virginia that I’d seen on posters but didn’t know much about. Well,
The brainchild ofMUNICPAL WASTE guitarist, Ryan Waste, BAT’s origins actually go back to 2008 when Waste and former D.R.I. drummer, and Texas native, Felix Griffin, hatched the idea of working together. “We’d see each other when I’d pass through Texas,” saysWaste, “and we talked about doing a project where I played all the instruments—guitar, bass, and vocals— and he would drum. We both love Discharge and Celtic Frost and we wanted to do something real straightforward, no frills.” “As big of a heavy metal fan as I am, I think the dirtier side of it fits better with my vocals,” he says. “But we try to push the boundaries in BAT between heavy metal, punk and rock ‘n’ roll to where you can’t quite put your finger on it. Dynamically it all coagulates together with our dirty sound. I call it primitive heavy speed. It’s just the nastiest mix of all of the above.”
And that’s pretty accurate. They play fast and heavy, in an old school way. And the vocals are old-school growly where you can hear the words clearly but the singer is snarling at you. It reminds me a lot of Venom or Celtic Frost.
Rhododendron were formed in 2019 in Portland, Oregon while the band’s members were still in high school, Rhododendron’s Ezra Chong (guitar, vocals), Gage Walker (bass), and Noah Mortola (drums) set out to push their musical limits without regard for genre boundaries or audience expectation. In the past 7 years the trio has developed a sound rooted in technical precision and repetition. Drawing from the angular experimentation of underground rock in the 1980s and 1990s alongside elements of jazz, ambient, and progressive music, their compositions are deliberate with intensity. Riffs fracture and reform, rhythms lock into patterns only to break apart, and extended passages build pressure before shifting direction.
I saw Speedy Ortiz back in September and the show was fantastic. I already had tickets to see Phish on New Year’s Eve, so it was unlikely that I’d be going to this show.
