If you have a taste for heavy and/or pedal-to-the-metal music and you haven’t sought out the group known as Middle Oregon Metal and Punk, you should. You can find ’em on Facebook, and there’s a blog at www .m-o-m-p.blogspot.com.
As best I can tell, MOMP is a loose collective of headbangers, some in local bands, some not and some who put on shows in town. For a while now, the MOMPers have been throwing a show or two per month, often featuring out-of-town headliners and local openers, usually held at the Domino Room. (Third Street Pub and Redmond’s Big T’s are also popular in this scene.)
I find it all to be refreshing and much-needed, despite the fact that gut-wrenching grindcore and the like is not my first choice for a lazy Sunday soundtrack. Several years ago, there was a pretty active punk/metal scene in Central Oregon, but it receded, and there’s been a hole there ever since. MOMP is helping to fill that hole.
There’s a MOMP show on Saturday night, and the headliner is a brutal noise band from Portland called Machetaso Profano. It’s a duo, guitar and drums, with growling vocals in “Spanish/Spanglish," according to the band’s bio. “We do s--- on our own terms," it says, “and screw the world."
Opening will be Central Oregon punk outfits E.F.A. and Bastard Cat, plus local doom-metal creepers Hive Tyrant. Oh, and proceeds will benefit a local family in need.
Machetaso Profano, with Hive Tyrant, E.F.A. and Bastard Cat; 7 p.m. Saturday; $5; Domino Room, 51 N.W. Greenwood Ave., Bend; www.m-o-m-p .blogspot.com or 541-788-2989.
