When we caught up with Body Count frontman Ice-T, he was gearing up to release the band’s first album in eight years, Manslaughter. With the album out and in stores as of this past Tuesday, the band played a special one-off show last night at the Gramercy Theater to road test some of the new album and dust off some classics in preparation for their run on the Mayhem Festival this summer. During our interview, Ice issued us a challenge after asking if we’d be attending: “get your ass in the pit and let’s see what it do.”
We’ve been to plenty of shows at the Gramercy, but this was the most crowded we’ve seen the venue. After Wisdom In Chains got the crowd excited, NYHC standard-bearers Madball kept them going. Candace Kucsulain of Walls of Jericho came out for a song with the band. The audience was a mix of hardcore fans and others that picked up tickets to gawk at a rapper (or Odafin Tutuola) and his wife Coco, who watched from the audience. But by the time Body Count took the stage, the energy was palpable. Whether through new songs, like “Talk Shit, Get Shot,” or classics like “KKK Bitch” and “Body Count,” the audience screamed along to the lyrics, feeding off of Ice. Metal Insider contributor Melinda Oswandel was at the show as well, and took the following pictures, so even though he didn’t talk shit, Ice got shot by us:
