Posts Tagged ‘chastain’
Flotsam and Jetsam Concert Review, Austin, TX, May 14, 2018
This could also be titled: “NEEEEEEEERRRRRD!” I guess most of my posts could be called that.
Last night was pretty huge for me in general. Since first hearing Chastain’s Ruler of the Wasteland in high school, I’ve been a huge fan of drummer Ken Mary’s work. Most folks know about his time in Chastain, Fifth Angel, Alice Cooper, House of Lords, TKO and a slew of others and there’s no need to go too in depth on his discography as that info is all out there for anyone to look up.
In recent years and thanks to the internet I’ve been able to connect with Ken and always had hopes to meet and see him play. A year or so ago Fifth Angel did a reunion and I considered flying out for that but saw that Ken had some shoulder issues and had to bow out of the shows. Recently he stepped in with Flotsam and Jetsam after Jason Bittner left to join Overkill. He ended up doing the Keep It True show in Germany a couple of weeks ago and is on Flotsam’s upcoming album. He’s also doing the current tour with them and that’s where this story gets us to yesterday.
Doors for last night’s show were at 7PM and I arrived around 6:30 in hopes to catch the band, do some metal nerd stuff and whatever. As I pulled up, Erik AK was outside the bus while the trailer was getting some welding done to the ramp gate. We started talking and I asked if they had dinner plans and if not, I’d be glad to take them to dinner. He rounded up the troops, did a quick round of introductions and we walked over to the Jackalope for some burgers and beers. Of course I was stoked to hang out with Ken and jibber jabber on the walk over. Once at the Jackalope, the guys took pictures on the giant rabbit and I ordered up drinks and food for everyone. It was great talking with them about the old shows at the Boathouse in Norfolk, VA where I had seen them several times in the 80s and 90s and talking with Ken about his time in Chastain, Cooper etc. The guys really enjoyed the food and the restaurant in general. As we walked back I mentioned having some stuff to get signed and was invited on the bus to get that taken care of.
Once there, the first thing I had Ken sign was The Book. Obviously he’s got numerous entries in there but I wanted to have him sign on the Chastain band photo. I already head Leather, David and Mike sign it in recent years and Ken was the final piece. Michael Gilbert, the only other original member with Eric AK, signed my Doomsday and Flotsam (2016) LPs. I had gotten his and Eric’s signatures in The Book a few years back. Added bonus was Michael Spencer being back in the band on bass. I had him sign in the Sentinel Beast section. Score! Of course I had a stack of LP covers for Ken. It was really cool having him tell stories about each of the bands. I had the rest of the band sign the 2016 F&J LP as well and then I made my exit off of the bus to let them rest up before their show. Added bonus, I got to hear 3 rough mixes from their upcoming album while we were on the bus. “Want to hear some of the new album?” “Is that a real question?” It sounded killer and Ken’s on drums for that one, too. I also asked if they were playing Der Fuhrer from the debut LP. Eric said they sound checked with it but didn’t plan to play it. “We’ll add it for you. Thanks for dinner.” SWEET.
After putting my nerd stuff back in the car, I needed to just chill out for a bit before their set and hung out on the patio and caught up with some friends.
Flotsam was scheduled to go on at 10:20PM. Love early shows! They ended up going on closer to 10:30 and opened with Monkey Wrench from their 2016 LP then went into Hammerhead. The already small crowd thinned out a little but the ones who stayed let Flotsam know they were appreciated. The setlist mixed up a lot of stuff from Doomsday, No Place, the 2016 LP and one from Drift. The band was solid and Eric’s voice sounded good. This was the first show of the latest leg of their Forbidden Territories of the World Tour and we were lucky to have them as a headliner as they end up in the opening slot with Hammerfall for much of the tour. That tour rolls back around in June in San Antonio and I’ll likely hit that show as well. Michael Spencer is a beast of a bassist, very impressive. Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley (F5) shred well together and of course the highlight for me was watching Ken play. He’s not an overly busy drummer but adds the right amount of flash and technique when needed and had some nifty stick tricks here and there. After the encore song, Doomsday for the Deceiver, Ken handed me a stick and Steve gave me his pick. They were done just before midnight. PERFECT.
What an incredible evening all around with a killer band and some good friends. Super thankful to Ken and Flotsam for letting me intrude on their time for a bit.
Click photos to see comments.
Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse 2016 Review, Chicago, IL, May 6 & 7, 2016
My 3rd Ragnarokkr attendance in a row came to a close Saturday night in Chicago. It was a great time as always. I got into Chicago Wednesday night after spending some days in Virginia with my Mom and my brother. Upon arrival and getting my bag and rental car situated, I headed over to the newly reopened Metal Haven Grill for a pre-pre-party. Cool little place that has some insane original artwork on its walls like the original painting for Savatage’s Hall of the Mountain King, Def Leppard’s On Through the Night, BOC’s Fire of Unknown Original original concept drawing, original KISS embossing plates for Dressed to Kill and a lot of other cool stuff. Go check them out if you’re ever in Chicago. From there I met up with Mendoza, Simon, Bob and a couple of other festival pals for a few drinks before heading to Mendoza’s Sugar Shack to sleep.
Upon waking up on Thursday I went to my hotel near the concert venue around 930AM to see if they had a room available and they got me right in. Sweet! I didn’t sleep well the night before and needed to catch a nap to have some energy for the pre-party at The Mutiny later that evening. I didn’t get much sleep but it was enough. I did a late lunch with a friend in town then back to the hotel again. I caught another quick nap then Rodney and I headed off to the pre-party dinner. That was pretty tame this year. From there we went to The Mutiny. I love this bar. True dive bar with one of the coolest owners ever. Ed. Ed is the man but sadly he told me he’s got cancer and apparently it’s pretty advanced. He’d lost 85lbs since the last time I saw him but he’s in good spirits. I spent a lot of time hanging out with him and he remembered me the moment I walked in the door from the previous 2 years. He said they gave him up to 5 years which is a pretty good prognosis for someone with advanced prostate cancer. He’s 65ish and that age is a better for having that type of cancer than being younger. But whatever, he’s a great guy and I’m glad I got some time with him. As I was leaving the party I gave him a hug and told him I’d see him next year. Unfortunately none of the festival bands except for Ashbury made it to the party at The Mutiny this year, but it was still fun. I love those Ashbury guys. Great band and great people. More on that later. I was pretty tired by around 1230AM so Judd and Jennifer (new pals from Houston) and I drove back to the hotel. I fell asleep pretty quickly.
Friday. Fest day! I picked Kelz up from the airport around 1130 and we went back to the hotel. We went to the famed Ricobene’s for their breaded steak sandwich. We ordered the small one which easily weighed a pound or more. I ended up just leaving the bread behind. Quite tasty though. Back to the hotel. Another nap ensued. Damien Thorne was opening the fest on the main stage at 530 and we got to the venue around 5. I’ll go through the bands one by one below…good, bad or indifferent.
Damien Thorne – I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with having only one original member (technically 2, as I didn’t know until meeting them after that the bassist player was on the original demos). I thought they sounded great. New singer, Warren Halverson, did a fine job. They mixed their set up with older and newer stuff and it worked just fine. Warren gave away a bunch of new CDs and some other merch from the stage and Rock Browz (b) handed me a nice Damien Thorne steel pin. Great set and really nice guys. I caught them out back and had Ken and Rob sign The Book. They bailed quickly though and never came out to meet with fans after their set. Not sure what was up with that.
Gatekeeper – I missed the first part of their set as I was finishing the Damien Thorne set. They were finishing North Wolves and then went into a cover of Omen’s Death Rider. Brilliant. Jean-Pierre Abboud (ex-Borrowd Time, Funeral Circle) is handling vox for Gatekeeper these days and did a wonderful job as a whole. It was great to finally see them play.
Killen – I caught maybe 2 songs and got bored out of my skull. It really seemed like were just going through the motions.
Riot City – Probably the biggest surprise band of the weekend. These guys from Calgary kicked total ass. Great vocals, leads, everything. Good American power metal. Check out some of their stuff here. Can’t wait to hear a full length. Super nice guys as well.
Ignitor – I left during Riot City’s last song to catch my Austin pals do their thing. The band was in fine form and Jason McMaster was working the crowd like he always does. They had a lot of fans there and had a special Ragnarokkr only EP available. Always a pleasure seeing them and good to see them outside of Austin.
Salvacion – I’d seen them before a couple of years ago in Richmond opening for Satan. While I like the singer’s voice, they don’t do anything for me. I also can’t watch their drummer. Dude can’t keep his tongue in his mouth. The band also seems lyrically challenged. Having songs like Epic Beer Run isn’t going to win me over…ever. The did two covers, UFO’s Doctor Doctor and Riot’s Swords and Tequila. The Riot cover wasn’t good.
War Cry – Chicago natives War Cry played their first show in 25 years on Friday. I wasn’t that familiar with them but thought they sounded pretty good. I give nothing but high respect to their singer, though. Rich Rozek has Parkinson’s Disease and it’s obvious that it’s pretty advanced. But he rocked the set and came out to meet everyone afterwards. I got him to sign The Book as well. He thought it was cool and asked for information on how to get a copy. He also gave me a copy of their CD. Sweet guy.
Chalice – This was another band that I wasn’t too familiar with going in…and I left their set not wanting to get more familiar with them.
Ambush – Everybody has been all abuzz about these Swedes and I had only checked out a song or two on YouTube prior to the festival. Add them to the list of newer Swedish power metal bands that I can’t care about. zzzzzzz
Ashbury – I love Ashbury, both as a band and as people. Rob and Randy Davis are 2 of the nicest guys you’d ever meet and I’m glad to see them getting success 30+ years after the release of their debut album, Endless Skies. Ashbury isn’t a metal band but fit perfectly on the metal festivals that they have been playing the last few years. When I first saw them in Ventura last year, it was amazing to see the metal crowd singing every word to the Endless Skies album. Same thing happened in Chicago. They were tight and added a third guitarist which sounded great for their live show. Their cover of BOC’s Don’t Fear the Reaper was killer. The whole band is just awesome and I can’t tout the brilliance of Endless Skies enough. They also debuted a new song, He Played a Good Guitar, which was really good but from what I understand from Rob Davis, they will be changing the name of the song. ;)
Jag Panzer – I don’t dislike Jag Panzer but I never got too into them. They were the closer for the night. I owned an original copy of Ample Destruction and Thane to the Throne on CD, but just never explored deeper into them. Let me tell you this, they hit the stage and leveled Reggie’s that night. I was completely floored by Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin’s vocal performance. That guy was hitting notes that just blew my mind. They crowd was very into it as well. It was a pleasure to see and meet them afterwards. When I met Harry after the show to have him sign The Book, I mentioned that I had Chris Cronk’s signature on the Jag Panzer page as well. He said, “Sad that he passed away.” I laughed and said, “Chris will be disappointed to know he’s dead!” Harry apologized and said, “damn, I guess I meant someone else. Tell him hello!” It was pretty funny.
After the quick goodbyes outside, we walked back to the hotel. After sitting there for a bit, Kelz and I decided that we needed some snacks and water so we hopped in the car and found a 7-11, loaded up on trash food and waters and went back to the hotel. Around 5AM the fire alarm went off. That sucked. We got up, went outside and 5 minutes later the fire crew waved us back in. The alarm went off several more times for the next hour in short spurts.
After waking up Saturday, we walked over to a Chinese place and got some great food and went back to the hotel. Nap time again. Fuck, I’m getting old. haha.
Earlier start time for bands on Saturday and we were sort of rushed to get there on time but made it.
Midnight Chaser – What a way to open the main stage! This Pittsburgh 4-piece laid down a great set of metal. I had already checked them out prior to the fest and really liked what I had heard. They were great all the way around. I picked up their CD and a shirt. Can’t wait to hear more material and to see them live again.
White Magician – Boring. Sloppy. Trash talked Ashbury’s BOC cover while playing a shitty version of Transmaniacon MC. Fuck em.
Impaler – I always liked If We Had Brains We’d Be Dangerous and It Won’t Die and looked forward to seeing them live. They still have originals Bill Lindsay and Court Hawley and I got to meet both of them before they went on. Solid dudes and signed The Book. They are a true shock rock metal band and everyone was in full makeup. It was awesome. Bill worked the crowd and the crowd was very into their set. There was some fake blood, a beautiful girl getting her intestines ripped out and then taking a hard knee from Bill. She’s one tough girl because she didn’t really flinch much. They were so much fun to see live and I was smiling ear to ear through their whole set.
Wulfhook – I listened to a couple of songs but nothing really caught my ear at all. They were solid, though.
Lethal – After leaving Wulhook I went downstairs to meet Lethal before their set to get them to sign The Book. Only Tom Mallicoat and bassist Glen Cook were down with newer guitarist Chris Brown (great guy!). For whatever reason, Mallicoat was acting like a total choad to me. Chris was cool and Glen was super nice, but Mallicoat was giving me the third degree about printing press history (?), Mark Twain and some other random nonsense. He just seemed out of his head. He started busting my balls about the book and I said, “Hey, if you don’t want to sign it, no worries. I’m a Lethal fan but whatever.” He proceeds to call me a liar and then asks how much I was going to sell the book for. hahaha. Whut? I calmly explained the labor of love I have with that book and how it’ll never be for sale. He then signed it, offered a handshake that lasted for a good minute before letting go. It was a completely surreal experience and one that I’d just as soon not have with him again. I met the other guys later in the evening and they were all total nice guys and apologized for his behavior. No worries. Everyone’s got their thing and I don’t think there was any malicious intent on his part. When they hit the stage, they were GREAT. Vocals and everything were on point but Tom’s behavior was just outlandish to say the least. Flipping off the crowd, talking shit to them, etc. Oh well. Was good to see them live finally.
Old Wolf – Holy shit. This power metal quintet from Kentucky totally kicked my ass. Plain and simple. They’ve got a demo out and I recommend it. Their singer has a great voice and range, but when he speaks, you can totally tell he’s from Kentucky. haha. Great guys all around.
Spellcaster – I caught their last couple of songs. I’ve got their 2014 S/T CD but it didn’t do much for me. They were solid, though. I should probably give their latest a listen.
Winterhawk – They’re a band that I feel that I should love, but I don’t. I don’t hate them either but their stuff leaves me a little flat. Their main guitarist is a beast though. I only caught their last 2.5 songs.
Ordained Fate – I didn’t listen to them prior to the fest but I enjoyed the 4 songs I heard from this reunited band. Only the two female guitarists are original. Vocals, riffs, leads all sounded good.
Satan’s Host – I bought the reissue CD of Metal From Hell a few years back and thought it was good, but not great. Seeing it live was quite different. Harry Conklin put on another vocal performance that made me just shake my head in awe of his range. Patrick Evil was the only other original member in the band on guitar. Nice dude and solid player. It was an enjoyable set.
Hexenhammer – Missed it completely waiting for Leather to come on.
Leather – I love Chastain’s albums with Leather on vocals and I love Leather as a person. We first connected 2 years ago when my old band played Ragnarokkr and she was an emcee of the fest. She’s a kind soul and I couldn’t wait to see her live finally after all these years. I saw her when we were eating dinner prior to her set and got a huge hug. As Satan’s Host finished, Kelz and I made our way to the front and secured our spots dead center. Game on. They played a short but killer set and Leather sounded great playing a mix of Chastain and Leather songs. Her backing band consisted of Jim Dofka (Screamer), David Harbour (Chastain, King Diamond) and Brian Harris. Brian’s brother Michael Harris was originally announced as the guitarist but I guess that didn’t pan out. Leather’s voice sounded great and she’s very engaging on stage. I just loved it but wanted more. MORE!
Medieval Steel – Never really go into them and only listened to a couple of songs. Very solid and the crowd was certainly on board.
Tygers of Pan Tang – Tygers was the fest headliner. I’ve only owned Crazy Nights and Spellbound but can’t really consider myself a fan. While they’re an integral part of the NWOBHM, I prefer the more aggressive and melodic stuff. That being said, they were really damn good for the brief time I watched them. My knees and back were shot and I spent much of their set in the other room giving them a rest. Getting to hang out and have drinks with Robb Weir and the band the night before was pretty sweet.
Also great getting to see my good friends in Night Demon and Visigoth.
So some quick goodbyes on the sidewalk and back to the hotel we went. Kelz had a 7AM flight which he almost missed because his alarm never went off. Luckily I snored myself awake and saw light coming through the window and yelled at him. He made it.
I had a late afternoon flight so Brett Bretterson (not his real name) and I hit Portillo’s before heading to the airport. Always delicious.
It was a great fest and great seeing friends from fests past, meeting new folks and just the overall vibe of the event. If all works out, I’ll be playing ti again next year. I’ll definitely be in attendance again. See you there!
To see all of the setlists, click here.
Click pics to enlarge.
CJSS & Thruster Concert Review, Cincinnati, OH, October 9, 2015
I’m tired, but tired in the best way possible. It’s a rejuvenated sort of tired. This past weekend was another road trip for a show, but perhaps the longest trip I’ve made for one so far. It was dubbed #MitchfestCJSS
CJSS announced a few months back that they were doing a reunion show, their first since 1999. I’ve been a Chastain fan since around 86 when I heard Ruler of the Wasteland. David Chastain was churning out albums pretty quickly back then with Chastain, his solo gig David T, Chastain and with CJSS, who released 2 in 1986. He was a busy dude! I had always wanted to see them and remember a few times that Chastain was to play the Baltimore area but I couldn’t make any of those shows at the time. I posted the show link to Kelz’ page saying something to the effect of, “I’m just going to leave this right here.” He took the bait and we started making plans. Flying into Cincy was going to be costly. I could have flown into Chicago and driven 5 hours and met Kelz in Cincy or the final option was to fly to Raleigh and ride with Kelz to Ohio. So that’s what we did.
I arrived in Raleigh Thursday around noon and we rode around taking care of a few errands. He’s got a wife and kids so we had to manage some of that coordination with soccer, school etc. Good times. After an NC style BBQ dinner (the best style!), we hung out in the basement having a few drinks and watching football before starting to fade out.
Friday morning we got up, got the kids out the door to school and got on the road for the 8ish hour drive to Cincy. We arrived to our hotel in Bellevue, KY around 530, checked in and went and found some food. Donato’s Pizza to be exact. Good, cheap pizza and fast. Well the pizza came out quickly, Kelz’ Stromboli not so much. The manager apologized and offered free pizza coupons but we explained that we were in town for a show and couldn’t use them. This will come back into play later in the night. So we opted for 2 free chocolate chip cookies.
We get back to the hotel, freshen up a bit, get our stuff together for signatures and call Lyft for a ride across the river into Cincy for the show at Bogart’s. Doors were at 7PM and we got there around 730. Lots of people lining up to get in and it was apparent that some of the folks attending this show hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Thruster and CJSS are from the area and played around there pretty regularly.
Once inside we scope the place out a little bit and get some drinks…expensive drinks. But whatever. We find a spot on the floor about 10′ away from the stage and out comes Thruster right at 8PM. I had only listened to a little bit of their stuff on YouTube and liked what I heard. Good solid 80s metal. They opened with Back In Time and Excellorater. It was pretty apparent that these guys kept their chops up. Both guitarists were pretty bad ass, especially Russ Willoughby. McFarland’s vocals were strong and their whole set was pretty enjoyable. Third song in they played Maiden’s Revelations. I was a bit surprised to hear a cover in their setlist but I’ll just go ahead and assume it was a live staple of theirs from back in the old days. They covered really well, by the way. I usually cringe when bands cover Maiden, but they pretty much nailed it. Their whole set was enjoyable and it was cool hearing the crowd sing along to much of it. Back in Time, Screams of Pain, M.I.A. and Enemy Below were the standouts for me. Their set clocked in at just under an hour. Great show.
There was a 45 minute intermission between bands and we mulled around for a little bit, bathroom break and got a second drink, hanging out with the promoter of Chicago’s Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse fest. Good seeing him.
Kelz and I found a spot in dead center of the stage with only 2 people in front of us. CJSS hit the stage at 932PM opening with Out of Control and went straight into Praise the Loud, two of my favorites by them. Admittedly I didn’t pick up any of CJSS’ material after Praise the Loud so there was a lot of material played that I was unfamiliar with. But it didn’t matter. They were great. One always wonders after so many years how the band is going to be after a long absence of playing shows, especially on the vocal front. I’ll just say this, When Russell Jinkens took the microphone and started singing, all those doubts went away. CJSS hadn’t played since 1999 and I don’t know if he’s been involved with other stuff since then, but he nailed it as did Mike Skimmerhorn on the songs he sang on. The band was tight and it was great to finally see Dave Chastain play live. His unique style and tone were certainly noticeable. Dave stayed pretty stationary while Russ and Mike moved around quite a bit. Les Sharpe’s drum solo was solid. Dave did a cool guitar solo which added riffs from Ruler of the Wasteland and Angel of Mercy, of which the crowd sang with.
The main body of the set closed with Welcome to Damnation and World Gone Mad, followed by a one encore of Metal Forever and then another one song encore of their take on Tull’s Locomotive Breath which has a cool guitar solo part that Dave jammed out on. They ended right at 11PM. Of course I brought The Book with me and Kelz has a stack of CD and tape covers. After the place cleared out a bit they came out and hung out with everyone. I tried not getting too into fanboy mode. I was hoping they’d all come out and figured they would since it had been so long since their last show. We met Les, Russ and Mike first and got the signatures and photos taken care of. Then we saw Dave. He recognized me from Facebook and said hello and we got to talk to him for a few minutes. It’s always a little surreal sometimes to meet bands that I’ve been listening to since I was a teenager. These guys were all super cool and I don’t think Kelz and I could have been much happier in how it all played out. They were thankful of the travel that we made for it and I was just thankful to be there and to have witnessed it. If I had to lodge one complaint, it would be about the lighting during CJSS’ set. It just wasn’t good. But that didn’t distract from the great concert.
After finally being kicked out by the staff, I called for a Lyft ride back to the hotel. Kelz and I decided we were hungry again and a little research showed that the pizza place was still open. So we called in, walked up to the drive thru and ordered pizza and walked it back to the room.
After some chowing down and downing of some water and Mountain Dews, it was time to wind down and get some sleep. A few traditions from our childhood sleepovers in full effect, of course. Mama jokes, Back In the Village, and just talking about the olden days. It was perfect.
Next morning we headed back for the 8hr drive, finishing up the playlist I put together on my phone. As normal, lots of air drumming and more ball busting. It was a perfect drive. Back to his place around 8 with some Asian takeout, a couple of beers and Stoned Age on the TV. It was the perfect ending to a great trip.
My overall trip went something like this…
By air – Austin – Atlanta – Raleigh
Car (going) – Raleigh thru VA thru WV thru KY
Car (returning) – KY thru OH thru WV thru VA thru NC
By air – Raleigh – Tampa – Austin
1025 miles by land and about 3000 miles by air
Let’s do it again!
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- Mt Pilot. If you’re a fan of Andy Griffith, you understand.
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- Heading north
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- Heading north
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- Thruster
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- Thruster
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- Mike Skimmerhorn
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- Russ Jinkens & Dave Chastain
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- Shredder
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- Dave + fanboys
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- Russ + fanboys
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- Les + fanboys
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- Mike + fanboys
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- heading south
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- heading south
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- heading south…stupid rain
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- my bitch…erm…chauffeur
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- David T and Mike in the Book! I need Ken!
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- Les and Russ in the Book!
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- Totally Metal Forever for us that night…made it a double
Dokken – Up From The Ashes
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was living in Western Branch off of Taylor Rd with my cousin. I don’t remember 
exactly what day it was on but it was Jan/Feb 1991 only weeks before my 21st birthday. I believe it was a Saturday and I was driving home from somewhere listening to Z-Rock and the local affiliate comes on the air to interview Don Dokken and Mikkey Dee about their concert that night at the Boathouse in Norfolk, VA. A former friend from high school and I had tickets and were pretty excited about the show. I had been listening to Up From The Ashes since it came out a few months prior.
So as I am listening to them interview Don and Mikkey, I pull over to a gas station a few miles from my house and try to call the station to see if I could talk to them. I was so damned excited that I kept fat fingering push buttons on the pay phone. After about 3 or 4 tries I got through off air and got to talk to Don and Mikkey. I asked if there was a way to meet Mikkey prior to the show and he told me what time to be at the Boathouse (super early). I told him that I was a huge fan of his from the King Diamond days. He said make sure I don’t have more than one person with me and everything would be cool.
So at this point I am flipping out (of course not on the phone but internally). I get home a few minutes later and told my buddy what the plan was and that he had better be ready when I came by to get him. He was notoriously slow at everything. I told him if he wasn’t ready when I got there that I was leaving his ass behind. Fortunately he was ready when I got there and we headed to Norfolk to the Boathouse.
We’re the first people in the lot along with the staff cars and Dokken’s bus. Some dude came to the door of the bus and said they were coming from the hotel in a few minutes and to wait. So we waited only a short amount of time and a minivan with Don, Mikkey Dee, John Norum and Billy White in it. Mikkey gets out of the van and asks, “Are you Sean?” I acknowledged and we were instantly escorted onto the bus. So Don hands me a band photo which was already signed by Baltes (who was inside the Boathouse already). So Don and the rest of the band sign it along with some other stuff like cassette covers and such (I hadn’t gotten into CDs yet). He stood with us for a few minutes then hightailed it to the back of the bus to take care of stuff. At this point I am freaking out because one of my all time favorite drummers and musical influences and standing next to me. I don’t get start struck easily as I’ve met a lot of musicians over the years but this one was different. This was Mikkey Dee…the guy who played drums on King Diamond’s Abigail.
We hung out for what seemed like an hour but was likely a lot less. Talking with John Norum and Billy White was pretty neat. Unfortunately in my giddy starstruck state I had forgotten that Billy White played on Watchtower’s debut. To this day in my head I still hear my inner voice say, “You’re an idiot.” Kelz reminds me of this regularly and he pointed out after the show, “Dude, how was it to meet Billy from Watchtower?” Ummm…D’oh! I am a Watchtower fanatic as well. What a doofus.
But all in all, I was there to hang out with Mikkey which was the first of 3 times that I got to spend time with him, the other 2 being with Motorhead in 1993 and 2000. Will post about those meetings some other time.
In my conversation with Mikkey, I noticed he was wearing an Abigail backstage pass. It had one of the heavenly aura’s around it. haha. So being the fanboy that I was that night, we talked about drums and about some certain aspects of his playing that I tried to emulate. I asked him if he was going to do a drum solo and he said there would be one. I asked him if he could incorporate the intro to Welcome Home from the Them album. He said, “That’s a good idea, we’ll see.”
So the opening act was on the stage at this point and it was time for us to get off the bus so they could get ready. I can’t overstate how accommodating these guys were. I honestly didn’t even need to see the show after that! But we went in and caught the 2nd half of the set by The Blonz. Wow. They were just awful. One of the worst bands I have ever seen.
So we make our way towards the front of the stage and got on the barricade at stage left which ultimately was in plain view of Mikkey when he was on the kit. Perfect!
So out comes the band and they rip into their set. They were absolutely incredible and it was one of the tightest sets I have ever seen by any band. Watching Mikkey slay the drums and both Norum and White manhandling their guitars with such precision was pretty incredible. Definitely one of the best shows I have ever seen. Don’s vocals were clean and clear and he was an excellent frontman.
So I guess this blog is really about an album review, eh? I’ve seen this one get trashed in many a metal review and I could never understand why. It’s easily Don’s second best album behind Tooth and Nail and pretty much the last album that he actually sounded really good on. Initially the main reason I bought the album was because I had read that Mikkey Dee was drumming on it.
Even with some of the slightly cheesier songs like Mirror Mirror and Stay, it’s an album of which I don’t ever feel the need to skip any of the tracks. Good production as well.
This one gets 10/10.
The Metal Files 
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