Fourteen bands, two stages, a tattoo artist, and an axe-throwing trailer converted into a metal stage are all landing in one White Center parking lot on Saturday, September 26. Thunderdome Fest, an all-ages, all-day heavy music festival, takes over Axe Kickers starting at 2 p.m., with doors opening at 1:30 p.m. and admission set at $25.
A Caged Trailer Becomes the Stage
According to West Seattle Blog, the festival's lineup includes bands like Skelter, Vulcan Death Grip, Crawler, Last Respite, Peace, Mycon, We Bite, The Passed, Villain Plays the Victim, Violent Insurrection, No Signs of Serenity, Sunshine Lollipop, Bloody Sabbath, and Lust for Glory, with acts alternating between an indoor stage and an outdoor stage before the evening lineup moves entirely outside. Two of the bands are tributes: We Bite covers the Misfits, while Bloody Sabbath pays homage to Black Sabbath, per the same event listing. Adding to the spectacle, band performances will also be staged inside Axe Kickers' mobile “caged axe-throwing trailer,” an enclosed unit the venue normally uses for offsite events, according to Axe Kickers.
The venue itself has a history worth knowing. Founded in July 2018, Axe Kickers opened as the Seattle metropolitan area's first dedicated urban axe-throwing venue, running a nearly 3,000-square-foot facility with safety-fenced target lanes, according to Seattle Magazine. Hoodline has previously noted that Axe Kickers was the original in a wave of Seattle-area urban axe bars that later included Capitol Hill's Blade & Timber.
From Axe Bar to Live Music Hub
In late 2025, owner Keith Mulligan began converting the commercial space into a regular live music venue, booking local punk and metal acts on a 50/50 door split, per a Facebook post from the venue's community group. Thunderdome Fest builds on a trial run from May 2026, when Axe Kickers hosted “Feminine Rage,” an event that combined live rock sets, axe throwing, and tattoo flash sales, as reported by West Seattle Blog.
The festival also folds in an all-day tattoo flash sale featuring local artist Mad Max Wallace of Top Hat Tattoos, a studio in the immediate commercial corridor, according to the event listing on AllEvents. Admission also includes axe throwing, and organizers have arranged an on-site food truck to keep the crowd fed between sets.
A Death-Thrash Act and a Curious Namesake
Among the local acts on the bill, Violent Insurrection stands out as a Seattle Eastside-based death-thrash metal outfit formed in 2019 by brothers Sage and Ashton alongside bandmates Spencer and Jacob, according to El Corazon. Elsewhere on the bill, Vulcan Death Grip shares its name with a satirical 1980s faux-heavy metal performance art ensemble created by East Village artist Ann Magnuson in New York City, an odd bit of music trivia noted on Wikipedia.
Axe Kickers is located at 10843 1st Ave. S., in the unincorporated King County enclave of Top Hat and White Center, just south of Seattle's official municipal boundary at SW Roxbury Street. The venue is also an officially sanctioned facility of the International Axe Throwing Federation, hosting the competitive “Axesquatch” league and regional tournament events, according to a listing on Look Washington. A May 2026 national industry guide from the Axe Throwing Directory ranked Seattle among the 15 best U.S. cities for axe throwing, citing Axe Kickers specifically for combining competitive throwing with live performances.
