The Alabama Music Box in Mobile, Alabama is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues to check out shows. Spacious, yet comfortably intimate, you can easily melt into a crowd at the front of the stage or escape for private time in various parts of the two story club.

The lighting is subdued and very relaxing, cool blues fade into black onto the textured walls and high ceilings. The bar is spacious with a wide variety of drinks and cool paintings and pictures surprise the unexpected when walking about.

The main acts on this night were Supreme Dispassion and CockFight. Two bands with storied histories that both formed near the beginning of this millennium.

Supreme Dispassion were born out of a Mobile scene that is famous for against-the-grain and in your face bands; a character trait that Supreme Dispassion wears well.

The hometown crowd matched the band’s intensity song for song and then erupted when the blood filled toy baby was revealed. Edginess and a sense of “What the hell is going to happen next” were the main thoughts I had watching their set. I felt like I was watching a revved-up Samuel Beckett play at midnight. The madness and absurdity went hand and hand with their music. As a kid that attended Pensacola Christian from Kindergarten to 8th  grade, I secretly wished that I could drag all of my old teachers to this show for threatening to expel anyone that attended the first Kiss show at the new Pensacola Civic Center. Gene Simmons has nothing on Supreme Dispassion.

With barely enough time for the crowd to regain their breath, CockFight took the stage fully equipped with a new lineup consisting of three guitarists. Long gone are the early days of CockFight; keyboard madness sprinkled like nuts on a thrashing sundae of metal, punk and new wave. This new CockFight holds onto the dirty, aggressive sound that translates into raucous live shows. This one was no exception. During the show, showers of liquid would fly into the audience from the stage. Only the Devil knows if the substance was sweat, piss, gin, whiskey, or a lethal combo of all and more. And to top it off, toward the end of their set, innocent concert go-er, Tammy Mills of the band Long Division, was pounded in the head (accidently) by the bassist as she watched the show near the front of the stage.

Drink of the Night: Whiskey n’ Coke.