BERSERKER Takes Over Ferndale

Over the last few years the festival seems to have become the new way to see music live, multiple stages are used to provide a non-stop music listening experience. In the past year, Metro-Detroit has been host to a lot of festivals including Movement, DIY, Pig & Whiskey, Orion, and many more. This week The WAB and The Loving Touch will open their doors to a new festival called Berserker.

Created by Shawn Knight from Child Bite, this event is meant to bring together a different crowd of music lovers. I had a chance to talk to Shawn in person about what motivated him to try his hand at booking a festival and he said that he felt there was something missing in the current music scene. There was no longer a festival that looked like The Michigan fests that he grew up attending and he wanted to change that. He wanted to book something that was a little more heavy and showed off a different side of the Detroit music scene. After putting in a lot of time and hours he has created a very solid lineup of some of the best louder, heavier, and crazier bands in Michigan and even some from out of town.

Berserker is being billed as “a bunch of fucked up punk/metal/noise-making weirdos taking over 3 suburban Detroit bars during the shittiest month of the year”. I have to say, this description turns me on and makes me think that we are all in for a good time. The stages will be located upstairs in the W.A.B., downstairs in the front room at the W.A.B. and next door at The Loving Touch. The festival will kick off on Wednesday, February 5th and all ages are welcome. The show will start at 7 p.m. each night and there will be a heated outdoor beer and merch tent. A four day pass for the event is somehow only $20, but a single day pass is $15. You're better off just getting the four day pass and going to more than one night, which you will want to do when you hear the line up. The schedule is as follows :

Wednesday, February 5th - Kickoff Night!

OLD GODS (ex-Dillinger Escape Plan)

w/ Homewrecker, Terrible Twos, Traitor, Touch & Kronic Youth

***Free pints of PBR from 7 p.m. 'til 9 p.m.! (Weds. ONLY! Follow the instructions on Facebook here!)

Thursday, February 6th:

MACABRE (Chicago Death Metal Legends)

w/ Acid Witch, Gutrot, Dead Church & Coffin Feeder

VOYAG3R

w/ M.Sord, The A-Gang, Reverend & Man At Arms

NICE HOOVES

w/ Stonecutters (KY), SNAFU, Pink Eyes (IL) & Size Queen

Friday, February 7th:

WOLF EYES (Ann Arbor Noise Wizards)

w/ Tinsel Teeth (RI), Ritual Howls, Cotton Museum & Peephole

YOUNG WIDOWS (KY)

w/ TV Freaks (ON), Arbogast (IL), Bad People (NY) & Sperm (NY)

OOZING WOUND (IL)

w/ The Armed, Boreworm, Lasers and Fast and Shit (IL) & Lizerrd

Saturday, February 8th:

RINGWORM (Cleveland Hardcore champions)

w/ Child Bite, Beast in the Field, Writhing, Golden Torso, Temple of Void, From Hell, Isenblast, Failed & Bahamut

THUNDERBIRDS ARE NOW!

w/ Heads Will Roll, Snakewing, The Amino Acids & Frustrations

Tickets can be purchased in advance here or you can purchase them fee free at The WAB., UHF, Found Sound, and Stormy Records. We are really excited about this one and congratulate Shawn for coming up with such a cool idea to get us off our couches and out on the town during this shitty winter season.

~S