The Metal Files

Omen in Laredo?  OK, why not?  My friend Lisa and I drove in to Laredo late night after the Scorpions show (see previous post) to meet up with her husband and his family for the weekend.  I was pretty wiped out by the time we got there and fell asleep pretty quickly.  We got up the next morning, did some running around town and some sightseeing since I had never been there and saw a lot of the places where the two of them were familiar with as they grew up there.  That was cool getting some of their history mixed in.  We met up with our friend, Mina, at El Popo for some torta type sammiches then went and had a couple of drinks before heading back to the house to chill before the evening’s festivities.

We met up with Mina again at a bar and had a couple of drinks then went to the venue.  It wasn’t a big place but was about what I expected.  There were three death metal bands opening.  None of them were my thing but the crowd dig them.  Two were from Monterrey, MX and the other, Severance, were from the valley, I believe.  They’ve apparently been around for a long time.  I was there for Omen exclusively.

I saw Kenny Powell from Omen for a quick minute before the show and met the new singer.  The bands were all sharing a backline, so there was no real set up time.  I moved straight to the front.  I LOVE OMEN.  The JD Kimball era (RIP) falls within my top 15ish bands of all time.  I also liked the Kevin Goocher stuff and thought Hammer Damage was a strong album.  Omen had released 2 songs online with Nikos who is their new singer from Crete.  All I can say is that he pretty much nails the JD sound, be it contrived or naturally.  He’s also a super nice guy.

They opened with Termination and rolled through the classics until playing Alive from the new EP.  They also played Evil Seductress from that as well.  The set was killer and other than the 2 new songs, I was singing along with everything.  I was fully energized by the show and the band was great overall minus a couple of technical issues with Kenny’s effect pedal board.  He’s got such a unique sound and it was great to hear most of my favorite Omen songs, especially Torture Me and Teeth of the Hydra.

I look forward to seeing them again…and again.

Omen setlist

Hello Mexico! What’s up, friends?

Logan, Mina, Lisa and Monkey Boy

Late night Taco Palenque

border patrol checkpoint on the way home

Scorpions came back through on a make-up date for the show they canceled last year because of some health issues with Klause.  I ended up with a pair of great seats and no date.  I was heading to Laredo after the show with my friends Lisa and Logan and offered one of the tickets to them.  Have one of them go with me to the show and we’ll meet the other in Laredo.  Logan isn’t much of a Scorpions fan so he let his wife come with me.  We got in a little late and missed half of Queenryche’s set.  What we heard sounded great.  Todd nails it on vocals.  Unfortunately the number of original members in the band has dwindled down to 2 with Rockenfield no longer on drums.

Scorpions came up next and our seats were right on the rail at the catwalk.  I told Lisa that we should just move up to the rail during the break and maintain our spots.  Security had moved a few people off of the rail but the closest guard to us recognized me from the Priest show and told us to stay there.  We were also right next to our seats, so no biggie.  Scorpions opened with a newer song, Going Out With A Bang.  It’s an OK song.  The rolled through most of their 80s hits, played a medley of the Uli-era and then did something really cool, which they had been doing since Mikkey Dee joined the band…They played Motorhead’s Overkill.  It was a good enough version.  TO be honest, my main reason for seeing the show was to see Mikkey as he’s one of my all time faves.  Klaus’ voice sounded really good and the band was solid as expected.  There was one blunder by the bassist at the beginning of No One Like You where he obviously didn’t hear the count into the song and wasn’t playing in the right post.  He figured it out quickly and they rolled on.  The set could have been a bit better and it was weird that they didn’t play Still Loving You, but oh well.

It was a fun show and we had a long drive in the darkness and rain to Laredo, so we didn’t waste any time and got on the road.

Scorpions setlist

Queensryche setlist