Atlas Brewery
August 24, 2019
Washington, DC.
On the weekend of August 24th, 2019, a buddy and I visited our friends in Virginia. We were attending a show that their band was going to be performing that evening. We were beyond excited and we were also curious to see Mindmaze. I had seen them before and wasn’t into them at all but I always like giving a band another chance. That night though, during Mindmaze’s set I had a brief but impactful exchange with Josh Schwartz of A Sound of Thunder. I’ve never done a review of a conversation but I had a particular “exchange” this weekend that I felt was review worthy.
Josh made his epic metal entrance in Atlas Brewery in DC to all 7 or so people (including Mindmaze) that seemed to even give a fuck that he was there. With his metal as fuck grimace, he made his way around the room. All of a sudden, we locked eyes and I felt completely Joshed (when Josh Schwartz looks at you like he wants to put you in a blender and drink you as a breakfast smoothie). I waited patiently for an exchange and there wasn’t one so I figured we were just cordially not talking to each other… or so I thought.
After my friends’ set, we were hanging in the main room congratulating them on an amazing performance; I headed back into the stage area to take in the 2nd half of Mindmaze’s headlining performance. I was actually enjoying them pretty much when all of a sudden, to my surprise, I look next to me and there’s Josh. He whips out his phone like a switchblade of destiny and points to the tiny little clock in the upper right-hand corner. He then proceeded to address me; “You see this? You came in halfway through their set. Don’t you fucking dare give them a fucking bad review you hear me?” then stormed out of the room.
Thanks to him I was distracted and failed to enjoy the rest of Mindmaze’s set. This was the band he was telling me not to talk shit about and he walked out only to return for the very last song. What a great friend and a true fan. I guess just gracing the building with his presence was epic support enough. What a great friend and fan of Mindmaze, eh?
When the bands had finished loading out, I saw Josh and said, “It was great talking to you again.” Once again, I got Joshed. That night, when I went to sleep and my friends’ house, I had a dream that he was sitting in the corner chair and he said, “We’re not done talking.” I sat up in a sweat and I felt violated. Because of this, I may just sue him for punitive damages.
Josh Schwartz is the kind of guy who will talk about how I gave his band a shitty review on the same day his dog died but fails to state the fact that I made a donation to the SPCA in his dog’s name and even had an email sent to him. Today is Josh’s 40th birthday so I can only assume that if he has a shitty day that it will be because of this review. Happy Birthday, Josh.
Salud!
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