The Metal Files

Chris “Professor” Black is a busy fella.  Along with High Spirits, in which he writes and plays everything on their releases, he’s also in Superchrist, Pharaoh, Dawnbringer, Metalusafer and Aktor.  High Spirits has been getting a lot of buzz over the last couple of years over their listenable brand of hard rock/metal that slightly teeters on the AOR style.  I like them a lot and am basically a latecomer to the HS as I just started listening to them around May of this year.  It’s great melodic hard rock that’s got all the hooks.  Chris has perfectly crafted it to be accessible to just about anyone’s ears.

I went down to San Antonio last night and stopped off at my friend, Rodney’s, house.  As always, I have to peer into his insane room of metal.  We go grab dinner then dinner then head down to Limelight on the north side.  High Spirits was scheduled to go on at 11:30 so we weren’t in a hurry to get down there.  I’m not really a fan of the 3 openers so didn’t care to see them.  Unfortunately, when we arrived right at 11:30, the 2nd band was mid-set.  Ugh.  I was already pretty tired.

I met Chris and talked to him for a while.  Very nice guy.  It was right around 12:30AM when they finally took the stage and opened with the song High Spirits.  Much of the crowd had left by the time HS went on, but a few of the faithful hung in there.  They were pretty tight and the folks that stayed there were familiar with the material, which was nice to see.  I really like his voice. Other than a few drunkasses up front, it was a fun show and worth the late night drive home.  I hit the sack at 3AM…exhausted…happy.

The Professor