The Metal Files

This past weekend American Icon Records (AIR) put on their inaugural 2 day music festival at The Mohawk in downtown Austin.  AIR is run by my pal, Johnny Gaylon, and by all looks, this was a successful thing for him.  My main reason for wanting to go, friendship aside, was to see my pals in Pentagram play again.  Victor Griffin has rejoined the band and it’s always a treat to see him play.  He’s a damn good player and has written some of my favorite metal riffs.

Pentagram was scheduled to play on July 4th and I planned my day around that.  I befriended the band in 2010 when I ran into them on the street before their show at Emo’s.  Added bonus for that day show was to finally see War Master live as well as seeing my friends in The Bulemics and Venomous Maximus.

I arrived at the venue around load in time and got to hang out with Bobby for quite a while in the green room.  It’s always an interesting conversation with him in 1000 different directions.  He reminds me of my brother (RIP) a bit.  I sit through sound check and they sounded great.  We head back up to the green room and they take off to go rest up before the show.

Brothers Collateral opened up the show and they sounded great.  Instrumental stonerish 4 piece band that had some really cool guitar harmony parts setting them a little differently than most of the stuff in the genre.  Venomous Maximus laid it down solidly as always.  I was really looking forward to seeing War Master, mainly because their bassist is a very good friend of mine.  I’ll be honest when I say I’m not the biggest fan of death and black metal.  I’m very limited to what I like in those genres.  But War Master was great.  If I can understand your singer, you’re halfway there with me and I could get most of what he was yelling at us.  The guitars were good and solid and thankfully JT plays solos.  I see some death and thrash and black metal bands with 2 guitarists but no one plays solos.  That’s not very metal!  Add in that TA on bass is always solid and fun to watch.  Then that drummer.  What a beast!  Seriously, this guys is awesome.  I really hope something good happens to this band.  They’re back on the road again for the next 2-3 weeks I believe.  Go see them.  I caught part of Ditch Witch and they were good.

Then Pentagram hits the stage.  It’s amazing to watch Bobby perform after all he’s done to himself.  His between song banter is basically indiscernible and was also a little hoarse, but while singing he was clear and powerful.  His stage moves are awesome.  I love that guy.  For most of their set I was up on the top deck with good friends.  It was a good night and Pentagram sounded great.  I was a little surprised that they only did one song from Last Rites, which I think is a fantastic record.  Most of the set was from Relentless and I was happy to get 3 songs from my favorite, Day of Reckoning (no Burning Saviour of course).  After the show, I hung with them for a little bit before heading home.  I was wiped out.  Great to see those guys.

I went back to Mohawk Saturday for day 2 of the fest.  I’m not a fan of anyone on the bill but was guestlisted so I went again as I had no other plans that night.  American Sharks were a pleasant suprise.  I’d like to catch them again sometime.  I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a fan of The Sword in the least but seeing them Saturday was enjoyable.  Not sure what was different this time, but whatever.  I missed everyone else on the bill.

Johnny is already working on the fest for next year.  Good job on this one!