Social media really is influential. Since I follow White Reaper, all of its members, and even some key touring folks, of course I am seeing them post from all sorts of shows! And yes, I did just see them at the end of May, but my ears miss their music in a live setting, so after some scrolling through their tour dates I found that they were set to play a small barbeque festival in a suburb of Detroit. That’s only three hours and some change away! So I convinced my BBQ-loving friend to tag along for the ride.
For what it’s worth, we both had a good time. She got some quality pork and ribs, and I got to stand right in front of the stage to see White Reaper play for the sixth time this year (yes, again I am counting the New York livestream). Evidently they were only supposed to play 45 minutes, but instead we got them for 90! Good news for me, a little bit of a panic situation for them, but they crushed it. With that doubled set time it means we got some snippets of cover tracks, an interesting karaoke cover of a beloved Green Day song, and just general shenanigans with the crowd. They put a smile on my face regardless. I was still secretly hoping to hear “1F” this time around, and since “Getting Into Trouble w/ the Boss” is now featured in a Taco Bell commercial, I was hopeful we’d get that, too. No luck.
I don’t know that most of the audience in attendance at this festival really had much knowledge of White Reaper, but that just ultimately worked in my favor. I got to stand right up against the stage essentially, and then afterwards had the opportunity to chat with a few of the guys. I can say with confidence that Hunter, Tony, and Sam were all extremely nice and gracious with me. I’m going to choose to believe they were impressed with the fact that I’ve seen them six times this year instead of you know…creeped out. Nah, a ticket sale is a ticket sale! I was interested to learn that Tony’s mother was in attendance and I actually snagged her after the show mentioning that I was right by her at their Columbus show, too. She seemed genuinely tickled by that.
Anyways, it was a great fest with delicious food and good music, and even though it was hot as hell and kind of far away, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. You know I can’t say this is the last time I’ll be seeing them this year, so I won’t.
