Archive for the ‘2016’ Category
Venom Inc, Necrophagia Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, January 27, 2016
I’m not shy about how I feel about Venom. In general, I can’t care about their classic era. My three favorite albums are Calm Before the Storm, Prime Evil and Temples of Ice. Even knowing that they were playing only one song from the Demolition Man era, I wanted to go. It’s a legendary metal band that I’ve never seen before. Plus I knew I’d get them in The Book.
Before the show, Rodney, his friends and I all had dinner with Venom’s tour manager, John Perez, who was in Rotting Corpse and more importantly for me, Solitude Aeturnus. John’s a good guy all around and I always love seeing him. He and Rodney were trading some pretty incredible stories about Texas metal history.
Opening the show was Hellknife which features fellow ex-Eternal Champion member, Van Darden. As with a few other times, I missed them again. DAMMIT!
San Antonio’s Hod was up next. I’ve seen them a dozen times over the years. Hod is Hod. You know what you’re getting and what you’re not getting. My buddy Jake is playing bass for their live shows these days, so it’s always great seeing that maniac on stage.
Necrophagia was up next. I never liked them but one of my closest friends was always big into them, so I grabbed a shirt for him since he missed the Virginia show. They were solid and Killjoy works the crowd pretty well. Still not a fan, though.
Up next was Venom and the crowd of about 200 packed up closer to the stage. My back has been jacked up for a while, so getting in a crowd that surely was going to be moving around a lot wasn’t appealing, so I hung back and sat at the bar. Killjoy was standing back there next to me and I had him sign The Book.
Venom (Inc), opened with Prime Evil and for the rest of the set they stuck with songs primarily from Black Metal and Welcome to Hell. I didn’t know any of them other than by knowing the titles. Tony Dolan, The Demolition Man, did a fine job fronting and Mantas and Abaddon were as I expected. It was an enjoyable show and when they got to the encore, I knew all of those songs…Black Metal, Welcome to Hell, Countess Bathory and Witching Hour.
After the show, Abaddon came out and signed stuff for everyone. Outside at their tour bus, Tony and Mantas came out and signed stuff. They’re all really nice guys.
Added bonus of getting Louie from Devastation’s signature in the book as well. I love getting the rogue signatures at concerts. Great to see a lot of Austin friends and the Corpus Christi crew hanging out!
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- Louie in The Book!
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- Abaddon in my fave Venom CD
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- Venom in The Book!
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- Killjoy from Necrophagia in The Book! Too bad he signed over the wrong Necrophagia
Juggernaut Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, January 2, 2016
First show of 2016 and wow, what a way to get started!
About a month ago I got a heads up that Juggarnaut would be doing a short reunion show in San Antonio and I made sure my calendar was cleared. I had met singer Harlan Glenn in 2012 and he mentioned to me about a year ago that some sort of reunion was in the works.
Weather was shitty on Saturday but I headed down to San Antonio to pick up Rodney, grab dinner then head to the show. The venue, Boozehounds, is more of a pool hall than a venue, but they do have a stage in the corner and they were set up in front of the headliners.
The lineup consisted of almost everyone from the first album: Harlan Glenn, Eddie Katilus and Scott Womack. I imagine Bobby Jarzombek is out on tour. The crowd was decent for a cold, rainy night right after a holiday and some of the San Antonio/classic Texas metal legends were on hand to witness like Art Villareal, Ron Jarzombek, Rodney Dunsmore and a few of the guys from Wicked Angel.
Juggernaut opened up with a snippet of House of the Rising Sun and then went into Impaler. The sound could have been a little better out front. The vocals weren’t coming through very well, but you could still hear them alright. The band was pretty solid but as Harlan noted, this was the first show in about 30 years. The followed up the rest of the set with Slow Death, Cut Throat and All Hallow’s Eve. Between songs, someone shouted out, “Where are the rats?” Apparently at one of their legendary shows back in the day, they tossed live rats out into the crowd. Harlan explained that his mom cried when she found out about it and promised to never do that again. She was in the crowd on Saturday. He said that there would be a full show in the spring of 2016, so here’s hoping!
The Metal Files 
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