Posts Tagged ‘heavy metal’
Pentagram Concert Review, Houston, TX, March 18, 2016
I like traveling out of Austin for shows and seeing Pentagram in another city was surely going to be fun. I first met them in 2010 on the street in Austin and became pals with them over the years since.
I got to Houston around 4PM and a little before the band arrived to load in and sound check. I noticed a line of people at the venue that seemed pretty young, too young to be Pentagram fans in general. There was a show in the main room at Warehouse Live from some mall metal/mall core/emo core band called blessthefall.
When Pentagram arrived, I helped them load in during a heavy rain storm. That was fun(?). Also loading in were Detroit’s Against the Grain and Oakland’s Mondo Drag. Once everything got set up, the band ran through sound check with a couple of Pentagram songs and KISS’ Cold Gin, all with Victor on vocals. After the check, I ran Greg and Victor to Guitar Center to get a fog machine. Let me tell you, the customer service there was total shit. The guy working there just seemed annoyed that we had questions and that he needed to get the ladder to get what the band needed from the top shelf. Sorry that you had to provide customer service in your customer service job, dude. We grabbed a quick dinner across the street and then headed back in the venue.
When we got back, they set the machine up in the dressing room to test it out. Bobby had come in from the bus and was on the couch next to the machine and they blasted him with it twice. His reaction was pretty funny. I guess you had to be there. The band also decided to prank blessthefall as their dressing room was connected by a sealed doorway that had enough of a crack in it to shoot fog into their dressing room. During blessthefall’s last song, they got their room filled with fog. Oddly enough, they got pissed off about it as did the promoter and security guy. What a bunch of pussies.
I missed Against the Grain’s set while we were buying the fog machine. However, I did catch most of Mondo Drag’s set and completely loved it. If I had to classify it, it’s Uriah Heep meets some Yes meets early 70s jazz/fusion. In general I detest the 70s psychedelic revival as most of the bands sound the same to me, offering nothing different than any others. But these guys had a little something different. Maybe just the Heep styled heavy keyboards and cool jazz riffs here and there, but it set them apart from just about all of the other bands I’ve seen that fall in the sub genre. The crowd seemed into it as well.
Pentagram hit the stage with about 150ish in the crowd. It seemed pretty lightly attended overall. I’ve not attended many Houston shows so can’t really gauge what it should have been. They opened up with Death Row and All Your Sins and much of the crowd was singing along. Bobby’s voice sounded great, probably better than any other time I’ve heard them. The band was energetic and extremely tight. New drummer, Peter Campbell, has the perfect combination of keeping perfect time and having feel in his playing. They mixed the setlist up with a lot of classics and 5 from the latest album, Curious Volume. The album is awesome and I highly recommend it. It’s easily in my top 5 Pentagram albums. The crowd went crazy during Forever My Queen. For me Broken Vows and When the Screams Come are two of the major highlights and come from my favorite album of theirs, Day of Reckoning. They played 7 total from Pentagram (aka Relentless). The encore also had Be Forewarned, which was the favorite song by my old pal, Sergio. RIP. It was a great show overall and the Pentagram band and crew are really all great guys. Thanks for the hospitality as always!
After the show, I went back to the dressing room and hung out for a bit. Bobby was worn out and about to fall asleep. He asked me what I thought of the show and I mentioned that I’ve seen 3 classic singers recently who all blew me away. Those being Liebling, Mogg and Meniketti. He perked up when heard Mogg mentioned. Apparently UFO is his favorite band. Based on the conversation we had, his knowledge of the band has few rivals. And I’ll say this, for a guy who’s done the drugs and lived like Bobby has, I’m always impressed that he can get on stage and not miss a lyric ever that I’ve seen. No teleprompter, just incredible memory. It’s quite impressive. Greg mentioned that at rehearsals they’ll start playing a random old Pentagram song and Bobby will come right in and sing it perfectly.
After some quick goodbyes, I headed to my hotel. I was wiped out.
Y&T Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, February 12, 2016
Seeing Y&T last night was pretty much a last minute decision. I had never seen them and there wasn’t much going on last night, so Rodney and I grabbed some quick dinner and got to the show right as the last of the opening acts was finishing. They were horrible, by the way.
I’ve seen and heard enough live stuff in recent years to know that Dave Meniketti still sounds great. I don’t have any real excuses for not seeing them before. Unfortunately Dave is the only original member left in the band, but he’s the most important.
They opened up with Black Tiger and Lipstick and Leather. Dave’s voice sounded a little weak but not bad. Then they went into my favorite Y&T song, Don’t Stop Runnin’. Everything sounded great. Dave is such an incredible guitar player. Midnight In Tokyo gave me chills.
His backing band was super tight and provided some of the best backing vocals I have ever heard. The drummer was flat out badass.
They mixed up the setlist a bit and played two songs from their debut album when they were still called Yesterday and Today. All of the hits were played as well as some deeper cuts.
While the whole band sounded great, the venue, Alamo Music Hall, sounded like shit. I’ve seen two other shows there and the room just sounds awful. I wish it would have been a block away at Kapone’s but oh well.
So far, this was the best show I’ve seen in 2016. Of course I had the book with me and Dave signed it and my CDs after the show. His bassist was in an 80s hair band called Jet Red and he signed it as well.
Great time.
Lamb of God, Anthrax, Deafheaven & Power Trip Concert Review, Austin, TX, February 8, 2016
I went to last night’s show solely to see Anthrax and Power Trip. I think Deafheaven and Lamb of God are awful. Boring, really.
Originally I wasn’t going to go then I saw that Anthrax was doing a relatively inexpensive meet and greet and I’ve wanted to meet them and to get them in The Book so I got my ticket and ordered the meet and greet. Shortly after the M&G was announced, a local record store posted that they would be doing an in-store as well and to get anything signed, you had to buy a deck of their playing cards and no photos. Oh well.
Doors were at 4:30PM (wow) and we were told to be there at 3:15PM. Ultimately there were only 4 of us and we got taken to the backstage area where the band came out to say hello, sign stuff and do a few pictures and talk for a few minutes. It was pretty obvious that Scott Ian didn’t want to be there, so I just shook his hand, had him sign The Book, a photo and my Spreading the Disease CD cover. Charlie was checking out The Book, looked up and saw my Loudness patch and said, “I bet Loudness isn’t in here.” I let him know that they were and that I had sigs from 3/4 of the original band. Then he started rambling off other bands, some of them nu-metal shit, and I said that there were no bands after 1991 in here. “Oh, cool. Where do I get one of these?” So I directed him to Amazon blah blah blah. Joey and Frank were extremely nice and super chatty as was their new guitarist, Jon Donais of Shadows Fall. I wish I had recognized him at the moment because I love Of One Blood by Shadows Fall. I mentioned to Joey and Frank that I had first seen them on the Among tour at The Boathouse. Scott heard me and said, “Geez, I remember that dump. We played there a few times.” Three to be exact, but whatever. It was good to meet them and we were all given a deck of the Anthrax cards, a record mat, a band photo to get signed and the M&G laminate. We were also given the opportunity to buy merch on the way out so I got a tour shirt.
Since Power Trip wasn’t going on until 6PM, I went over to Lambert’s for some awesome food and a beer as it was only 430PM when we were led back out of the venue. I’m back at the venue are 530PM and see a bunch of friends and hang out a bit before Power Trip’s set.
I head up to the mezzanine area and sit for a few minutes. I’ve had some back issues lately and I was seated on the back corner of the back row (only four rows in this section) and could get up as needed. I ended up standing for most of the show as it was more comfortable. Power Trip started promptly at 6PM and the crowd was trickling in. I’ve seen them several times and I really enjoy them in a live setting. I think they gained some new fans by then end of their 30 minute set. They were solid as usual.
Deafheaven was up next and I just went back out to the lobby area to hang out with some friends. They bore me to tears.
Anthrax came on right at 745PM opening with Fight ’em Till You Can’t from their Worship Music album, which I really liked. Having Belladonna back in the band has been great, for me at least. They rolled effortlessly through an 8 song set that had 2 songs from their forthcoming album, For All Kings. I liked the 2 new tracks a lot. They played In the End, Caught In a Mosh and Indians as well…and two covers. FUUUUUCK. I mean, I know they’ve always played covers live, but throw us a bone every now and then. On some of the shows where they’ve had a longer set, they’ve included as many as 3 songs from Spreading the Disease. HOLY FUCK I’d lose my mind if I saw Lone Justice live. *sigh* Oh well. Charlie Benante is still ungodly on drums and Frank Bello is basically the Angus Young of the bass. I’ve always loved his playing and his backing vocals are superb. Joey sounded great, too. Jon is a killer guitarist and played Spitz’ parts perfectly as well as his own.
After a short break, Lamb of God comes on. I stayed for the first song and that was enough for me. Never liked their stuff. Bro-metal.
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- Photo by Jerry Milton
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- Photo by Jerry Milton
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- Photo by Jerry Milton
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- Photo by Jerry Milton
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- Photo by Jerry Milton
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- Monkey Boy with Anthrax
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- Photo by Monkey Boy
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- Photo by Monkey Boy
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- Anthrax playing cards
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- I couldn’t get the page flipped quickly enough to have Joey NOT sign this photo
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
Holy Grail & Night Demon Concert Review, Austin, TX, December 7, 2015
My good friends in Night Demon rolled back into Austin this week as direct support for LA’s Holy Grail. With it being a Monday night I was a little concerned as to how well attended this show would be, but it did better than I expected.
The ND guys got to my house around 4:30PM after a long drive from Albuquerque and promptly unloaded their bags and started taking showers and just relaxing a bit before we head to the show for load in. This is the 3rd time they’ve stayed here and they now have their own key to my house. Great guys.
The show had 4 openers going on before ND. Fortunately I liked two of them already, Blood for Master and Widower. Both bands put on solid sets as usual. Blood for Master played some new stuff from their latest disc. Widower pretty much destroyed everything in their path. Love seeing both bands. I went elsewhere during the other 2 bands. A few seconds into each of their sets and I knew I didn’t need to be there.
Night Demon comes on shortly after 10PM with their Conan the Barbarian intro and bust right into Screams in the Night and Full Speed Ahead. The crowd of about 75 or so was very into it. They played 7 more songs closing with Night Demon. Great set as always and it seems like they picked up some new fans.
After about a 20 minute break, Holy Grail comes on and while the crowd thinned out a little, the faithful remained and stayed right up front. They were really solid and I like their guitarists a lot. The only thing I don’t lik.e it the occasional death metal growls. They don’t need it but I guess it’s what the kids want these days. They also played a decent cover of King Diamond’s No Presents for Christmas. Solid set.
After load out and coming back to my house, I made tacos…again. Night Demon loves my tacos. haha
The Metal Files 
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