Archive for the ‘austin’ Category
Symphony X/Iced Earth/Warbringer Concert Review 2/28/12 Austin, TX
Austin’s metal scene was a bit lacking when I moved here 5 years ago. San Antonio has always been the metal capital of Texas but I think Austin has been picking it up a bit in the last few years. While we’re still not getting Maiden, Priest, Scorpions and other big headliners like that, we’re still getting a steady stream of smaller acts. Megadeth has come regularly and Motorhead always comes. Luckily I get to see them together this coming weekend for Gigantour 2012.
Emo’s has been pretty consistent for bringing good metal since I’ve been here. Now that they’ve moved to a bigger venue on the east 
side, they’ve been doing their due diligence and booking decent shows.
Last night was Symphony X/Iced Earth/Warbringer.
Warbringer opened up and I am indifferent about them. Solid retro-thrash, but not bringing anything new to the table. Like I said last night, “they’re just ripping off Testament.”
I once was a huge Iced Earth fan, then they released Something Wicked This Way Comes and I was out. I’ve tried listening to all of their albums and they’ve never got me back. I saw them in 1999 and filmed it. You can see the entire show on Youtube. They picked up another singer recently, Stu Block, who used to be in Into Eternity. The band was solid, as expected. Jon Schaffer makes sure he’s got good players in his band. They played 3 or 4 older songs and sounded good and the new stuff they played sounded fine. Stu has a really good and clean high range, but his “normal” voice is a bit too much like Matt Barlow, minus the Hetfield-ah! tendencies that Matt had. Whoever their lead player is these days is pretty good. One annoying note, I really hate the crowd participation songs and they did it in over hald their set. “hey hey hey hey!” Ugh.
I saw Symphony X in 2000 at L’Amours in New York when they opened for Halford. I thought they were good, but just not my cup of tea. I like a handful of tracks from their first 3 records, but prefer to hear them on CD than live. All very talented guys. I left after their first song.
Iced Earth
Billy White Concert Review, Austin TX 111011
Last night I was able to see a small and rare performance of Billy “Blanco” White. You may remember Billy from such bands as Watchtower, Don Dokken and the Billy White Trio. The guy is such a great guitar player. He’s been spending much of his time in Mexico in recent years and primarily does flamenco style music now, although he said last night he’s been doing some guest spots on other people’s albums recently.
I first saw Billy play in 1991 and you can read about that here.
Last night performance was pretty cool, albeit a tad uncomfortable. He played in a small room that was about 20’x40’. Everyone sat on the floor and we had to remove our shoes prior to entering the building. Even sitting on a pillow, my back and knees were killing me but it didn’t matter, I was sitting a few feet away from a great musician. Only about 40 people showed up and it was a great experience. His playing was awesome. A mix of flamenco with a tad of fusion thrown in. He had a violinist and a tabla player sit in for a few songs as well. It was all pretty cool.
Afterwards I got to speak to him for a few minutes. He graciously signed The Book and some CDs for me. It was a fun evening, very relaxing.
Billy White
Philm, Unmothered and My Education Concert Review, Austin, TX 110311
Philm is a project that has been around since the mid-1990s according to their drummer, Dave Lombardo. It 
remained pretty dormant until the time(s) he wasn’t with Slayer and apparently they jam a bit. I had seen some of the YouTube stuff and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. When I saw that they were playing Austin, I was a tad excited about it because, hey, it’s Dave Lombardo. While I could never claim him as an influence on my drumming, he was certainly an inspiration. The guy is a beast of a player and given the chance to see him play outside of Slayer seemed pretty rad.
Originally this show was $15 but a few days beforehand they made it a free show. Slayer is in town this weekend for the FUN FUN FUN Fest so I guess Dave decided to try and float his other band here.
The opening band was called Unmothered from Austin. They were pretty good and I’d certainly go see them again. They were a 3pc sort of droning thing. There was a weird dark almost black metal undertone but this was no black metal band. Worth checking out again for sure.
Up next came My Education, also from Austin. Apparently they are considered “post-rock”, another sub-genre of rock. They were all instrumental and had a viola player through most of it. It was slightly prog and gave me somewhat of a Kansas (band) vibe. They weren’t awful by any means, but a bit boring to watch. Perfect background music, though. My friend made a good observation by saying that if they had some sort of film projection along with their live performance, it’d be more palatable in a live setting. AGREED.
Up next was Philm. By the time they came on, there may have been 150 at the show. I’ll go ahead and say it first, they 
were very underwhelming. Sure Dave did some cool stuff here and there, but it was pretty boring. I think if they went all instrumental it would have been a bit better. The singer killed it for me, not to mention that the music was rather generic. It was cool to see him do his thing on a tiny drumset though. Apparently he came out for a few minutes after they played. A few friends met him. I didn’t bother as I got to meet him while he was on tour with Testament back in 2000. It was cool because I got to meet his wife and kid too.
Rumors were flying around that Slayer was going to show up and do an impromptu set after Philm. I think it was all a set up to get more people to the show and sell some drinks. Slayer never played. That was unfortunate as it would have been cool seeing them do a few tunes on a barebones stage.
C’est la vie, eh? At least I got to see another one of my musical idols play again this week.
Anthrax, Testament & Death Angel Concert Review 092911
It’s really amazing what music can stir up in a person. You know how it is. You hear a song on the radio/iPod/etc that just shoots you back in time. Last night’s show at the new Emo’s East did just that. It was a high school flashback for sure.
I first saw Anthrax and Testament together in 1987 at the now defunct Boathouse in Norfolk, VA. To this day that hails as one of the greatest shows I have ever seen. Anthrax was on their Among the Living Tour and Testament was promoting their debut album, The Legacy. Just an awesome show.
Death Angel opened the show and I’ll readily admit that I am not a fan. Not for lack of trying, mind you. About every 10 years I’ll listen to their first 3 albums to see if they sound any different to me and they never do. I just couldn’t get into them minus a few songs like Mistress of Pain and Room With A View. My friends here kept saying that I had to see them live and it would change my mind. Well, it didn’t. I went in open-minded (no, really, I swear I did!). They just didn’t do it for me. Sure, they were solid but their brand of thrash just doesn’t settle with me. Rob Cavestany is a fine guitarist, though. He was shredding it up last night. I did get to meet Mark Osegueda at my favorite bar a while later after the show. Fun guy for sure. Super nice. Shots!
I’ve lamented for years that Testament is the greatest live band ever. They never disappoint and last night they surely didn’t. They had Gene Hoglan behind the kit and as always he was perfect with ever hit, every beat. The guy is the greatest metal drummer alive and certainly the most versatile in my opinion. I was hoping to catch up with him and say hi but it wasn’t in the cards, unfortunately. Testament’s set was really strong. They played a good mix of their back catalogue. Chuck was in fine form. Skolnick, while playing great, seemed a light bit bored, like he was going through the motions. I know he is really into his jazz trio these days and maybe playing the metal is taking a back seat, but again, he shredded it perfectly. The whole band was on it, as always.
Anthrax…I’ve been a fan since I first bought a used copy of Spreading the Disease on cassette for $3.99 at Unicorn Records in 1986. They were a band that I had read about but not heard yet and Spreading is still my favorite album of theirs to this day. Thanks to the Internet, setlists of previous shows get posted instantly and I was able to see what they had been playing on this tour recently. Great list! The main part of their set had been consistent for most of their shows with the closer changing up a little. Only and Medusa had been played recently and I was really hoping to not hear Only and hear Medusa. You see, they didn’t play Medusa when they were in San Antonio within the last year and I was a little disappointed. Last night, instead of Medusa, they gave us Be All, End All. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Seriously? Man, I really wanted to hear that one badly. But alas, no dice. I will admit that I left when they started their encore. The went into N.F.L. and I was out. My feet were killing me. Anthrax kills me, though. With a band whose Belladonna era has some really great material, they continue to throw in Antisocial and Got The Time in their set. I would’ve been happy with Belly of the Beast from Persistence of Time and something else a little more obscure like Raise Hell (yeah right, I know I’m dreaming) or even A.I.R.
There were a few times during Anthrax’s set that I really felt like it was 1987 all over again. It was a great feeling, albeit a strange one. Stirred up all kinds of stuff. So glad I got to see this show and so glad I got to see most of my favorite Austin folks there. It was quite refreshing.
I need more shows like this. NEED!
Death Angel setlist:
I Chose the Sky
Evil Priest
Claws In So Deep
Relentless Revolution
Seemingly Endless Time
The Ultra-Violence
Thrown to the Wolves
Testament Setlist:
The Preacher
The New Order
The Persecuted Won’t Forget
Envy Life
Over the Wall
Souls of Black
Into the Pit
Electric Crown
Henchmen Ride
More Than Meets the Eye
D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)
3 Days in Darkness
Disciples of the Watch
Anthrax Setlist:
Earth on Hell
Fight ‘Em Till You Can’t
Caught in a Mosh
Madhouse
Antisocial
(Trust cover)
I’m Alive
The Devil You Know
Indians
In the End
Got the Time
(Joe Jackson cover)
Be All, End All
Encore:
Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)
Metal Thrashing Mad
I Am The Law
Chuck Billy...THRASH!
Gene Hoglan. (Photo by Brooks M)
Yours truly, Mark Osegueda, T.A.
Eric Johnson & Sonny Landreth Concert Review 09/30/2011
I was introduced to Eric Johnson’s music when Ah Via Musicom was released in 1990 by my friend Mike W. Mike enjoyed he “shredders” like I did and dubbed the cassette for me. I liked it a lot and went back and bought Tones as well. We were excited to see him at the Boathouse in Norfolk later that year. It was a great show all around. I didn’t follow Eric’s career, probably because of the time in between the follow-up which was 6 years. Out of sight, out of mind, eh?
I live in Eric’s hometown now and he rarely plays here but it’s not uncommon to see him do a guest spot when other guitarists roll through town. He recent jammed with Dweezil Zappa and I’ve seen hm hit the stage with Oz Noy. I hadn’t see EJ live since that 1990 show and was pretty excited to finally catch him last Friday. I think he may have done 1 or 2 shows in the last 5 years here (I could be wrong) and I missed them all for one reason or another.
We had good seats and day of the show I was pretty excited about it, even after driving home 3 hours from Dallas.
The opener was Sonny Landreth who I had never heard of until this show was announced. I was really impressed with his set. He’s a very unique rock/blues/jazz fusion/country-ish player. He predominantly uses a slide but does a lot of intricate harmonic techniques and chord structures with both hands. It was pretty neat to see. The guy has been around for a long time and had played with John Hiatt and Jimmy Buffett (blech!). It was a good set and his drummer was great. I think the bassist was good too, but I couldn’t hear him due to the mix. The Paramount Theater has strange sound and I think I may try to get seats further back in the venue next time.
There was a short intermission and then EJ and his band took the stage. It started out with him just doing a few acoustic pieces, one of which was a Paul Simon lullabye. The band comes out he’s got the phenomenal Chris Marsh on bass. The drummer was some young guy named Mark something-or-other. Solid player, obviously schooled. Eric’s set consisted of a lot of newer material and some covers, including John Coltrane’s Mr. D, which was awesome. I will be up front and say that I was rather bored with EJ’s set as there wasn’t much of his rock stuff. So bored as a matter of fact that I left about 3/4 through his set. I was sitting there about to fall asleep. As good as EJ is, his stuff does get a bit “samey” sounding and I tend to get bored quickly.
Chris Marsh was certainly the highlight for me. He’s an astonishing bassist, effortless and awesome.
Other than seeing him sit in with other players, I doubt I’ll go see him live again.
The Metal Files 
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