Camera? check.
Ear plugs? check.
Cash for the bar? check.
Dramamine? check.
Playing in Grindcore bands for the past decade, I owe a lot to Napalm Death. And yet I had never gotten the chance to see them. So when the opportunity struck to not only catch the OG’s live, but to see them on a boat, I jumped at the opportunity. Even more exciting, the British extreme metal band was joined on the US leg of their 2026 festival season tour dates by Colorado Sludge-Doom legends Primitive Man and artsy Blackened Funeral supergroup Nastie Band.
As I biked up to the Liberty Belle at Manhattan’s Pier 26, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. Hundreds of metalheads clad in black milled about the 4 decks of the colonial-themed river boat. With its liminal drop ceilings and white banister-adorned mid-rise stage, the “venue” looked more apt for my niece’s Bat Mitzvah than a high-voltage three-band extreme metal bill.
One of the indoor spaces housed the merch tables, including a spot for PM Press, the venerable DIY publisher of leftist literature spanning topics from activism in music scenes to queer theory to Marxist essays. Further back, event promoters Rocks Off were peddling their wares, including witty T-shirts, pink cowgirl hats, and various “party favors.” They also had an adorable dog with them, so even before the music started, I was rating the show 11/10.
I had never heard of Nastie Band, so you can imagine my shock when I walked into the first set and saw Roddy Bottum (Faith No More) on stage. Nastie Band is quite the sight: fronted by an octogenarian vocalist stationed behind a candelabra-adorned pulpit, flanked on both sides by shirtless twins, a guitarist donning a leather jacket and a brooding drummer, and Roddy Bottum in a leather hat and vest, the performance was part experimental theatrical metal and part b-roll from Legends Of The Hidden Temple. Visually, it wasn’t quite cohesive – everyone kind of seemed as if they were in different bands – but musically, the six-piece band was incredibly tight. Fluidly weaving between spacey, sample-based instrumental passages and crooning layered over doom-laden riffs. On its own, the set was a pretty standard artsy metal band performance, but given the context of the evening, it was the perfect mood setter for what was to come.
Before Primitive Man took the stage, the unofficial 4th member of the band, Frank Huang, bathed the space with his glitchy, TV-in-a-post-apocalyptic-blender visuals. This is my sixth time seeing Primitive Man, third with Huang’s visuals, and it completely elevates the experience. The three-piece band, fronted by Ethan Lee McCarthy on vocals and guitar, with Jonathan Campos on bass, and Joe Linden on drums, takes the award for most aptly named musical act of all time. Every riff heavier and more knuckle-dragging than the last, with every guttural sending rumbling waves into the depths of the Hudson beneath us. The sea-life and body of Jimmy Hoffa must have been moshing just as hard as the passengers of the Liberty Belle.
Speaking of which, I want to take a moment to talk about the general vibes of seeing a show like this on a boat. Starting with the venue space, I was incredibly impressed with the sound. I’ve been to the majority of venues around NYC, and many of them couldn’t touch the clarity and punch of the sound on this boat. While the space wasn’t large and was fairly packed, it was still a really comfortable concert experience. The crowd itself was wonderful – everyone was friendly, excited to be together for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The mosh pit was just as intense as I had hoped, without any crowd killers – and when the boat rocked and sent everyone to the ground, the rolling rockers giggled and helped each other up before getting right back into it. I could probably make a silly joke about the irony of crowd surfing while on a boat, but I’m not going to. Hats off to Rocks Off for putting on this event and keeping the NY metal scene weird.
Heading out of the venue space after Primitive Man to find a cigarette to appease my sea legs, I was greeted with an up close view of Lady Liberty, in all her patina glory. I took this time to wander the boat, taking photos of friends and strangers as they posed and pondered the city in the distance. Growing up in NJ, I’ve watched the iconic NY Skyline change over the years, in more ways than one. Every day I walk past the shuttered St. Vitus space and bike by the soon-to-be-gone Williamsburg Music Hall, wondering what the next wave of venues and bands will look like. This concert felt different than most- as if we stole away on this boat not just for a bit, but to build a temporary space that held the past, present, and future of the NY metal scene all in the same moment.
After the cigarette, white claw, and prosaic pondering had passed, I secured my spot at the front for Napalm Fucking Death. While vocalist Barney Greenway is the longest-tenured member of the band present this evening, none of the original bandmates remain. Despite remaining a member of the band for almost as long as Barney, guitarist Mitch Harris has been on indefinite hiatus from touring as he’s been focusing on his family, which can be fairly difficult in a band that tours as extensively as Napalm Death. In his stead, dreadlocked touring guitarist John Cooke was on riff duty, backed by drummer Danny Herrera. Notably missing was bassist Shane Embury, the longest tenured current band member – and while Matt Sheridan did an amazing job in filling the role sonically, he could never fill in for Embury’s magnificent mane.
Napalm Death has this massive aura about them, having been the global ambassadors of grindcore for the past 30+ years. Any extreme music festival lineup feels empty if it doesn’t have the band’s logo at the top of its ranks. And yet here on this boat, they were just four dudes who really enjoyed playing their songs. The setlist left nothing to be desired, spanning their discography from the debut album Scum up through their 2022 EP Resentment Is Always Seismic – A Final Throw of Throes. It’s hard to pick a highlight from their set as every track was played with the same intensity one would imagine they have brought to every show and recording session. That being said, I was over the moon to hear their cover of (and improvement upon) “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” by the Dead Kennedys. The crowd went crazy for this one, though I imagine the chud with the Burzum patch would have realized he was in the wrong place at this moment if he had any brain cells left to rub together.
And of course, it wouldn’t be a Napalm Death show with not one but TWO renditions of the Guinness World Record holder for shortest song, “You Suffer.” Barney took very few breaks in between songs, mostly to lament the state of the world and celebrate the crowd’s ability to come together and support music and each other in these fucked times. As the boat was moored back in Manhattan, the band wrapped up their set with fan favorites “Persona Non Grata” and the title track off 2006’s Smear Campaign. As the crowd poured off the vessel, we all had to take a moment to re-acclimate to the stability of the ground beneath us, and the instability of the city we had returned to.
Buy Napalm Death music and merch:
https://amzn.to/3STeR3l
Buy Primitive Man music and merch:
https://amzn.to/3SYuh6t
Buy Nastie Band music and merch:
https://sleepinggiantglossolalia.bandcamp.com/album/nastie-band
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ROBBY GRODIN
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