Posts Tagged ‘concerts’
Meeting UDO/Raven – June 17, 2000
My good friend Nyk invited me to stay the weekend with him in Northern Virginia the same weekend that UDO and Raven were playing Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield. While I’m not the biggest Accept or Raven fan, I knew that we would be on the guestlist because at the time, Nyk was friends with John Gallagher of Raven. It would also be a good opportunity to get some more sigs in The Book. Raven’s drummer at the time was Hasselvander from Pentagram, a band that I am a HUGE fan of, so the chance to meet him is worth the trip in itself. And to be clear, I love Restless and Wild and Balls to the Wall but I’m not as familiar with their other albums. I owned Metal Heart and Russian Roulette at some point but I really don’t remember either one of them. And Raven? I’m not a fan…at all. There, I said it. Talented dudes, but not my thing.
The day of the show we have dinner with the Gallagher brothers and they were super nice guys. If memory serves me well, dinner was at an Asian place. A few Raven fans spotted them and came over to say hello. Honestly, prior to that day I wouldn’t know those dudes if they were standing next to me.
They take off for the show and we bum around for a bit then head there ourselves. We’re on the list and get to go in the “upper room” above the bar while one of the opening bands was on. Hasselvander was up there and let me tell you, he is one of the coolest dudes around. We talked about Pentagram quite a bit as he was still involved at the time and his connection with Blue Cheer and his new band, Hounds of Hasselvander. He was putting on some eyeliner and with it he can really pass for Ozzy. Fun dude. He signed the book as well the Gallagher brothers and I went back to put it in the car. It’s a bit of a pain to lug around all night.
Right as Raven was going on, we were just standing a ways back from the front and I turn to go get a drink or something and bump into this little stocky dude. I said, “Oh, sorry man. ” and he replied with “No problem.” And instantly it hit me. It was Udo! He must be about 5’1″ or so. I shook his hand and asked him to sign my ticket (see below).
Both bands put on great shows, no matter if I liked the music or not. The musicianship was top notch for sure.
Ticket signed by Udo...flip it over and you can almost make out his name.
Raven sigs in The Book on their page. (click to enlarge)
Slayer – Seasons In The Abyss Concert Ticket And More…
Since today is the International Day of Slayer, I thought I’d post this Slayer memory.
February 17, 1991, 10 days prior to my 21st birthday. Slayer and Testament invaded The Boathouse in Norfolk, VA. Slayer was promoting Seasons In The Abyss and testament was on The Souls of Black Tour. I had seen testament at least once before and they were awesome. To this day they are one of the best bands I have ever seen and I try to catch them every chance I get. I had never seen Slayer before this night and I wasn’t much of a fan of the Seasons album but liked everything before it. I remember going to buy my ticket and complaining that it was $15. Hell, I was only making about $6.50/hr or so at the time.
It was an awesome show though. Both bands delivered. Testament was phenomenal and Slayer was probably more intense than any band I had ever seen. There were mosh pits everywhere during Slayer. Like a fool I decided to get into one at the back of the venue. I may have gone around the circle once or twice when I fell over some dude who hit the floor in front of me. My face lands square on his back and I thought I broke my nose. Luckily there was no blood but my nose has been slightly off center ever since. Damn that hurt.
On the wall in various parts of the venue were printouts as seen below with the band’s photocopied autographs. I snagged one immediately when we walked in. After the show the staff was trying to clear the parking lot and a few of use were trying to ditch them and see if we could meet some of Slayer. I was able to get about 30 seconds with Kerry King who walked out with a towel around his neck. I asked him to sign the back of this piece of paper and he asked what I thought of the show. I told him I thought it was great. He signed it, shook my hand, thanked me and got on the bus after a few other folks got to talk with him for a moment. Total class act that night. Jeff Hanneman came out and had a group of guards around him. No one got close so we bailed.
It was a pretty cool night and overall an awesome show. I got to meet Lombardo several years later and will talk about that meeting some other time.
Slayer sign (click to enlarge)
Kerry King's autograph
Motorhead – March or Die Concert Ticket
This was my first Motorhead show and the only reason I even cared to go was because Mikkey Dee was in the band. At this time I really didn’t give 2 hoots about Motorhead although I did like the 1916 album. Daniel and I got to the show a little early and got to spend time with Mikkey and Phil Campbell (aka Zoom at the time for what he stated as legal issues with an ex). It was cool because Mikkey remembered me from the year prior when we hung out on the Don Dokken solo tour. I remember Wurzel being there and he signed my ticket stub, but he was really quiet and didn’t hang out with us. This was also my first time meeting Lemmy. It lasted all of about 9 seconds. I handed him my 1916 cassette (!!!) cover and asked him to sign it. He mumbled something unintelligible to me, shook my hand and I thanked him and walked away.
I didn’t notice until the other day that we had free tickets. I’m not sure how that came about but I think Steve from Skinnies Records. If so, thanks Steve!
Local band Sea of Souls opened up. I will admit that I liked them the first time I saw them (not sure which show it was), but they seemingly opened up for every band that came through town and I quickly got sick of them. When Motorhead hit the stage, it was pretty intense. Mikkey brings a high level of energy to any band he is in. Since this show, I haven’t missed a chance to see them live. Mainly because of the drums but over time I became a fan of the band as well. I’ve met Mikkey a few times since then and he’s always a class act.
Iron Maiden – No Prayer For The Dying Concert Ticket
This was my 2nd Maiden show. Two pals of mine drove up with me to the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA for this one. Anthrax was opening on their Persistence of Time Tour. I remember during Anthrax’s set that many of the folks in the front rows were sitting down and Belladonna had made some comments to the crowd about it. Security was pretty tight for this show. We had pretty decent seats up and off to the side. At the end of Tailgunner (the opening song), they dropped stickers down from the roof and that’s what’s under the ticket in the photo below.
Setlist
- Tailgunner
- Public Enema Number One
- Wrathchild
- Die With Your Boots On
- Hallowed Be Thy Name
- 22 Acacia Avenue
- Holy Smoke
- No Prayer for the Dying
- The Clairvoyant
- 2 Minutes to Midnight
- The Trooper
- Heaven Can Wait
- Iron Maiden
- The Number of the Beast
- Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter
- Run to the Hills
- Sanctuary
The Metal Files 
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