Archive for October 2014
GWAR Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 25, 2014
I love seeing GWAR live. I’ve seen them several times since the 80s and I think they peaked at the Scumdogs album. Nevertheless, I do try to go and see them still. They still crack me up. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Dave Brockie died earlier this year. He was the voice and personality behind the Oderus Urungus, Dave was a funny guy and cool the few times that I met him. I have an interview I did with GWAR in 1999 that I need to get uploaded. It’s hilarious.
The band is now using multiple members as singers and it works with their new storyline of having an epic battle to see who will become the new leader of the band. Included in that mix was my buddy, Brent, who replaced Corey Smoot on lead guitar after his untimely death a few years ago. He’s Pustulus Maximus. I’ve known him for about 10 years from other bands he played with back in Virginia. Awesome dude and it’s always great to see him.
The band hit the stage during the second annual Housecore Horror Film Festival and there was a video message on the “magic mirror” from Oderus. It was all strange, but it worked. He disappears into another dimension or something and all of the new singers bash it out. The show was enjoyable and Brent’s guitar playing was awesome. He sang a song or two as well. Way to go, Pustulus!
It’s always fun watching people get soaked in the pit at their shows. This past Saturday night, I got hit with a blood cannon. Totally unintentional but it made me laugh nonetheless. Good fun all the way around, especially their cover of West End Girls. I also ran into a guy I knew from Virginia that I hadn’t seen since about 2000. He was touring with a guitar company that he works for. I also ran into the VoiVod guys who remembered me from a SxSW show a few years back when I got my head cut open by a stage diver.
This show marked the 6th in a row since Monday night. I was absolutely exhausted by the time it was over.
The aftermath
Pustulus
Hellion Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 24, 2014
Hellion was a band that was always just in my peripheral in the 80s. I owned their album The Black Book and liked it, but still never listened to them that much. When I saw that they were playing downtown on Friday, I had to go. I was absolutely exhausted from the events of the week with Kelz, who I had dropped off at the airport earlier that day. I tried to get a nap in before heading downtown but it wasn’t a good one. Normally I take a ride via Lyft downtown because I know that I’ll be drinking. I didn’t have the energy or wont to drink that night so I drove my car.
San Antonio’s The Blitz Krokus tribute band played right before Hellion. I love Krokus and was excited to see that my pal Chris Cronk (Karion/SA Slayer/Fates Warning/Jag Panzer) was on vocals. They were fun but their set got cut short.
Hellion had a stacked lineup in the band backing Ann Boleyn. Georg Dolivo from Rhino Bucket on rhythm guitar, Maxxxwell Carlise on leads, Greg Smith (Wendy O Williams/Nugent/Alice Cooper/Rainbow etc) on bass, Scott Warren (Keel, DIO, Heaven and Hell) on keyboards and Simon Wright (AC/DC, DIO) on drums. This made for some great signatures in the book!
The band was rock solid and Ann’s voice sounded good. The whole band was great but I was especially drawn to Greg’s bass playing. That guy is just a beast of a player. One of the best I have ever seen. The whole show was fun and after getting the sigs in the book, I went straight home and straight to bed. Highlight for me was Living In Hell from the Black Book. Great song.
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- The Bltiz. Krokus tribute band
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- George from Rhinobucket
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- Ann and Monkey Boy
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- Hellion’s Ann Boleyn
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- Simon Wright formerly of AC/DC and DIO.
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- Scott Warren formerly of Keel
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- Greg Smith, bassist for Hellion and was in Wendy O Williams’ Kommander of Kaos album
Raven & Night Demon Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 11, 2014
As far as NWOBHM goes, much of it is hit and miss for me. Raven was always the miss. I could never really put a finger exactly what but I think it started with their look and the lyrics. It was just a bit too goofy for me. I had seen them live previously in 2000 and was able to have lunch with the Gallagher brothers and their families that day as we shared a common close friend. That was a great day and those guys are really fun to hang out with.
I ran into John again earlier this year when I was in Richmond, VA for the Satan show there. Always polite. Flash forward 14 years and Raven is doing a 2 month long tour across the USA with my pals in Night Demon (Ventura, CA). I had met those guys in Chicago earlier this year when Eternal Champion played the Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalyspe. I had known the drummer for a couple of years prior from his other band that used to come through Austin on the regular. Great guys. I was excited that they were coming to town and offered up my house for them to stay after the show.
The night before the show I was downtown in my favorite bar and there was a couple sitting next to me. The guy was wearing a venom shirt so I struck up conversation. They were from Chile. Victor spoke perfect English but Javiera didn’t really speak any. I speak Spanish pretty well so we all had a nice talk. She had won a VIP contest to ACL, all expense paid. Pretty cool. Neither of them really cared for much of the music at the fest but weren’t going to turn down a free trip. I asked him if he liked Raven and he said, “Hell yes! One of my favorites!” I let him know about the show the next night and they were excited.
On to the show. Sweat Lodge opened and I’m just not into the hippie stoner rock stuff that much. I guess they’re good at what they do, I’m just not into it. Night Demon comes on and blaze through their set efficiently. Their brand up upbeat NWOBHM inspired metal went over well with the crowd that was there. They especially got everyone’s ear by playing a cover of Road Racin’ by Riot. Riot is a big deal in Texas and it was only coincidence that Night Demon played it. The metal faithfuls loved it. They gained a lot of new fans that night.
Raven comes on and the crowd loved it. There were about 10-15 people right up front who all first saw Raven and Metallica in 1983 in Austin and this show was a bit of a reunion for them. That was pretty cool to see all of them right up front singing every word. As stated above, I’m not into Raven but they are energetic live and John can still hit the high notes pretty well.
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- John Gallagher and Jason McMaster
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- 2 metalheads from Chile that were in town for ACL Fest
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- Raven doing their thing
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- Jarvis and Night Demon delivered a great set
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- Joe Hasselvander (Raven/Pentagram!) and Monkey Boy
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- Night Demon and Monkey Boy. photo by Andrew Bansal (metalassault.com)
Satan Concert Reviews, San Antonio and Austin, TX, October 21-23
Days 2-4 of Mitchfest with Kelz consisted of 3 straight shows with Satan in San Antonio and Austin and it’s just easier to 
combine the reviews all in one post.
We mess around Austin for a little bit before heading back to the house to rest up for Tuesday night’s show with Satan in San Antonio at The Korova. We got there a little before Satan showed up and helped them load their personals from the van to Korova’s green room. They looked pretty good after playing Houston the night before. They recognized us from the Richmond show earlier in the year. Satan was being backlined on this tour by the venue and/or the opening acts. Seemed that there were a few compatibility issues with guitar heads to the effects that Ramsey/Tippins used but those quickly got fixed with the arrival of a couple of Marshall amps.
Austin based Firestarter ’82 opened the show and I stuck around for their set as their bassist is a good pal of mine. She did a fine job as always. Local thrashers, Aggravator, played next but we missed them as we were having a couple of drinks next door.
We get back right before Satan hits the stage and as expected, they delivered an awesome set to about 40-45 people. The crowd size was quite unfortunate, especially for a city that often touts itself as the metal capital of the USA. Things change I guess. And it was a Tuesday night…but still. How often are you going to get the chance to see Satan? Satan played flawlessly as expected. They were great when we saw them in Richmond this year and I expected no less this time. They did not disappoint. It really can’t be stated enough how great of a guitar duo Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey are. Ross’ vocals are stellar, especially for a 61 yr old man who can still belt out the falsetto with no problem. Sean and Graeme held the bottom down as Satan rolled through a mostly similar set to earlier this year with only a few changes. They were awesome and have become one of my favorite live bands. Brian’s not a big talker between songs beyond introducing the next song and I’m fine with that.
It was also great seeing some old pals that I hadn’t seen in a while, namely Rob Doom, Jaime, Mando and of course Rodney who was the show promoter. A new friend, Henri, came in from Holland just to see these shows with Satan and Militia. Pretty cool!
Kelz and I left promptly after the show for the 75 minute drive back to Austin. Of course it was full of conversation about the show and old times.
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- Graeme English
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- Brian Ross
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- Steve Ramsey
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- Russ Tippins
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- Sean Taylor
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- Steve and Russ putting on a clinic
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- Firestarter ’82
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- the backline
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- Eternal Champion
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- 3/5 of Satan loves meat! Stiles Switch BBQ rules all.
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- Satan and Monkey Boy.
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- Kelz impatiently waiting for Satan
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- Kelz and Russ
Blaze Bayley Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 20, 2014
I found out last minute that former Iron Maiden singer, Blaze Bayley, was coming back to Austin again to play a couple of shows at the Anderson Mill Tavern. I’m still confused as to why he plays that far away from downtown, but I believe this was the third year in a row that he’s played there. I saw him last year at another strange place on the outskirts of town. With even a little bit of minor promotion they could easily have had a crowd at a downtown bar.
My lifelong friend, Kelz, got to town that night for a week long MitchFest and he was down for going to see it. We left straight from the airport to the bar. When we got there, the lady at the door said, “You came late but it’s still $20.” Ouch. There were maybe 20 people there. We walked in as he was talking to the audience and they went right in to Man On The Edge followed by The Trooper…and that was it. Wait. What? After a few short minutes, they came back out and played an obviously unrehearsed version of Wasted Years and that was that. It was similar to the version that they played last year, which was to say that it wasn’t good. Sorry. It was horrible. I’ll give Blaze credit that he works the crowd pretty good, like he’s playing in front of a huge amount of people.
The only real bright spot to the show was that AJ Pero from Twisted Sister was playing drums for these few USA shows. So of course I had The Book with me as well as the first 3 Twisted Sister CDs. We got to speak with him after the show and was in good spirits. We talked about the Sister 2004 show in Richmond, VA at an open air venue when a violent storm came up and they cleared the place. Sister came back out to about 1/3 of the original crowd and just killed it. He signed out stuff, took some pics with us and Kelz and I headed downtown for a beer at Jackalope before finally heading home. We had a busy week ahead.
I doubt I’ll see Blaze again if he comes to town unless he brings someone else that’s in The Book with him.
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- Blaze Bayley
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- Monkey Boy and AJ Pero
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- Mitch (aka Kelz) with AJ Pero
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- And so ends the first night of this Mitchfest at Jackalope. These pints were way better than the show.
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- AJ Pero is now in The Book
The Metal Files 
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