The Metal Files

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.