Driving Force: Travis Fry (inFEST Tucson, Freedom Assault, Resisting Arrest AZ)

In this edition of Driving Force, we tracked down the illustrious and mysterious Travis Fry, main man behind Resisting Arrest AZ, Freedom Assault and the annual spectacle of punk that is inFEST Tucson. In between being in a band and running the Resisting Arrest empire, Travis still finds time to put together inFEST each year, which focuses the spotlight directly on Arizona's amazing punk scene for one weekend every year. Travis is also a long time collector of Russian nesting dolls, and continues to write his first Broadway musical in his spare time. He's also been known to count the grains of sand on random beaches across the country. Essentially, Travis is a punk rock Rain Man, and is ultimately cooler than you will ever hope to be. We cornered him outside the local 7/11 where he was trading inFEST tickets to kids for their free Slushees and asked him a few pertinent questions.

Driving Force: Wayne Rudell (Powered Wig Machine)

By: Salvia Hex

In this edition of Driving Force, we journey south to Americas' borderlands to track down the mysterious leader of Powered Wig Machine, the infamous Dr. Wayne Van Halen Rudell Esq. Our good friend Wayne is not only the driving force behind heavy Western rockers Powered Wig Machine, but he has also recently started to establish Sierra Vista as a regular tour stop for traveling bands by reaching out to a local bar named JR's Pub and enticing them to open the doors to bearded, vest wearing rockers from across this continent. We tracked Wayne down as he was attempting to sell some nu-metal kids a BOSS Metal Zone pedal (no mods) outside the local Hastings and forced him at donut-point to answer some questions for us.

Driving Force: Brett Thomas (Ladybird/Metal Night)

By: Salvia Hex

In this edition of Driving Force, we reached out to the barren, desert wastelands of Phoenix to track down the illustrious Brett Thomas of Ladybird. Aside from being in a stupid heavy sludge band, he's also the main man behind the Metal Nights at the Time Out Lounge, where once a week he infiltrates the world of Bud Lime and Kenny Chesney to drop a heaping slab of heavy wax all over unsuspecting ears. We cornered him outside the local methadone clinic and forced him to either answer these ten questions or we would report him to Sheriff Joe Arpiao's racist posse.

Spotlight: Wrathgate

Wrathgate is a very new band out of Tucson made up of parts of a few previous bands, most notably Diminishing Breed and the amazing A Breath Before Surfacing, which was vocalist Dustin Curtis' previous band. They play a very melodic and brutal version of death metal, residing somewhere between the foundation death metal laid down by At The Gates and Carcass, and the modern death metal made by bands such as The Black Dahlia Murder. Mason Pomeroy is a standout lead guitarist, exhibiting the full range of soloing skills needed to blaze an imprint on your metal mind, and Dustin Curtis is a next level vocalist, possessing a multi-faceted range of screams and growls. In fact, every single member of this band is a polished professional player, more than capable of producing this type of music at the highest level.

 

Their next show in Tucson is the annual Toys For Tots Benefit at The Rock (136 N. Park Ave.) on December 10th. If death metal is your thing, I suggest that you drop whatever you're doing that night and make sure you check these guys out!

Wrathgate: Facebook

Wrathgate: Reverbnation