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Pit Stories: Escaped Mental Patients And Mohawk Mullet Car Boning

Ready for a killer addition to the ever-expanding Pit Story collection?

This week we've got some crazy tales of a venue that was a little too close to a mental hospital for comfort, but the most outlandish shenanigans to go down there were frequently enacted by the punk and metal kids rather than the escaped patients!

Today's story comes courtesy of incendiary and apocalyptic heavy group Integrity, which just released new album "Howling, for the Nightmare Shall Consume" earlier this month via Relapse Records. The band recalls:

I’m not much for the pit. I always liked watching bands / observing what was going on more than I liked being jostled around a wet slippery floor. I have a lot of great memories of going to see bands play in Toronto when I was growing up. Every weekend my friends and I would take the bus and train downtown to spend the day eating food and buying records before ending up at a show that night. Back then our interests were contained within the more civilized part of the City, but if you were so inclined to travel a few subway stops down the line you would end up in a far more depraved environment. There was only one real reason for us to go there: The Generator.

The Generator was a dive-bar located on the corner of Queen and Ossington that hosted awesome metal / punk / hardcore shows. Also located on the corner of Queen and Ossington was an old mental asylum that never seemed to be able to keep their patients locked in at night. On any given night if you were going to The Generator, you’d be guaranteed to see a mishmash of punks, metalheads, junkies and escaped mental patients. It often made for an interesting time.

Anyways I’ve seen some pretty crazy shows over the years. Whether it’s a barrage of fireworks / burning items flying around, to dudes moshing with a deer carcass ala Tom Green’s get inside the animal skit. I’ve watched shows explode into all-out prison riots ridden with drugs, sex and violence… .you name it. But the most memorable experience to me was seeing Canadian punk legends Dayglo Abortions perform at The Generator.

The club was jammed with a smelly and extremely wasted hybrid of crust-punks, metalheads, and escapees from the Asylum across the street. When Dayglos hit the stage, I wanna say they started with "Fuck My Shit Stinks" and all hell just broke loose. Everyone started pitching their beer bottles at the ceiling so it was constantly raining glass on this uncomfortably packed and hot mess of human bodies. By the time they were done playing, the pit was a mess blood, beer, dirt and drool peppered with tons of broken glass and who knows what else.

When the club let out, it looked like a scene from "Death Wish 3" crossed with "Night Of The Living Dead." A dude with a road-warrior Mohawk-mullet was boning a similar looking girl on the hood of someone’s car. When the poor owner of said vehicle tried to get into his car and go home, the ‘boner’ (or it might have been the ‘bonee’ in an equally gruff / terrifying voice) growled ‘You just keep walking if you know what’s good for ya.'

Many years later, Integrity played in Toronto at a venue that was in the same part of town, and I couldn’t believe the amount of gentrification that took place over the years. It was all boutiques, fancy bars and bistros. My mom and siblings came to the show, and we were eating together at a restaurant that years ago could have been in The Generator’s backyard. I couldn’t help but wonder to myself what the growling car-bone guy was doing at this exact moment years later. I hope it’s something equally as awesome.

Integrity's freshly released album "Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume" was recorded and mixed at Developing Nations Studio in Baltimore with mastering handled by Brad Boatright. The band will kick off a Japanese tour in October, and below you can check out a video for album track "Hymn For The Children Of The Black Flame."

Ty Arthur splits his time between writing dark fiction, spreading the word about underground metal bands, and bringing you the latest gaming news. His sci-fi, grimdark fantasy, and horror novels can be found at Amazon.