Posts Tagged ‘nwobhm’
Satan & Night Demon Concert Review, West Hollywood, CA, March 26, 2016
What a weekend! I’m completely wiped out this morning but here goes…
I go see Satan any chance I get. I love Satan! Unfortunately they aren’t doing any Texas dates this year so I took the opportunity to go see them at the famous Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood. Even more, my good friends in Night Demon were playing direct support. It was slated to be a win-win!
I had a super early flight from Austin to LAX and didn’t sleep well the night before. Bummer. Anyhow, I arrived in LA at 830AM Pacific time and there was some sort of weird mix up with the rental car. Let’s just say that I’ll never try and use Payless Rentals again. I ended up at Enterprise having to try and book something on the spot. That’s never easy to do in LA as I’ve found out before. The only available cars that they had were classified as exotics and there were only a few to choose from. They handed me a rate sheet with the car selection and the cheapest one on there was a 2016 white Camaro SS convertible. I gave a bit of a sob story to the guy that was helping me and he gave me some discounts. It was still more than I had planned to pay but whatever. I figured that the weather was nice, I’m in LA for just a short time, I might as well enjoy it as much as I can. So off I went with the top down, the 80s metal cranked up and two suitcases full of Cirith Ungol and Night Demon shirts in the back seat that I was delivering for a friend. I cruised around LA a bit, ate at Pinches Tacos on Santa Monica Blvd then went to the hotel to check in. I was pretty tired and with the long night ahead and the 2 hour time difference, I was going to need all the rest I could get. Unfortunately that rest only lasted about 30-45 minutes. Too much noise around. Oh well. I went to do some exploring and ended up at Amoeba Music. The place is huge and I couldn’t find a thing that appealed to me.
It was getting close to load in time so I called for a Lyft ride and took the aforementioned shirts along with me. Night Demon had just started loading in and a good friend from Mexico was already there so we chatted while the bands worked. Satan hadn’t arrived yet as they had some issues in San Francisco the night before and had to get some things worked out. After Night Demon finished their load in, Jarvis and new Night Demon guitarist, Armand, Sarai and I went over to the Rainbow for dinner. This was my first time back at the Rainbow since Lemmy died. Lemmy died. That’s still not easy to write or think about. The group secured a table and I went to the outside bar to the corner and just spent a moment there in reflection. It was good. Back to the table and Armand and I ordered a Jack and Coke in honor of the man and we ordered a pizza for the group. I love their pizza. As we were eating, Sebastian Bach and his family/a family came in. I just said hello as he walked by and it was returned with a “hey man”. San Antonio Rodney showed up as did Night Demon’s drummer, Dustin, and we hung out for a little longer before heading back to The Whisky.
Once inside we made our way upstairs to the dressing rooms where Sean Taylor, Brian Ross and Steve Ramsey of Satan were hanging out. Sean and I caught up for a bit while Brian and Steve were being interviewed. After their interview, Russ Tippins and Graeme English arrived. I really do love these guys. All class and super kind and all very funny. They were obviously still a bit worn out from the night before and their drive so I went downstairs to meet up with some other friends. Some of the opening acts had already played and locals Resistance were just coming on when we got downstairs. I couldn’t get into them at all although one of the guitarists had some good lead breaks.
Up next was Night Demon. As I mentioned before, Armand was now in the band replacing Brent Woodward. I love Brent. All around solid guy and loved my tacos when he and Night Demon were in town. I’ve known Armand for several years as his old band, New Liberty, played Austin several times during SxSW in 2011 or 2012. Dustin from Night Demon was also in that band and it was through him that I got introduced to Night Demon when my old band played with them in Chicago at Ragnarokkr in 2014. As much as I hated to see Brent gone, I’m elated to see that his replacement was Armand. He’s a killer guitarist. and was also recently in Gygax and I highly recommend their latest album, Critical Hits. Night Demon opened up with Screams in the Night and blasted right into Full Speed Ahead, which is one of my faves. Armand sounded great with them and brings a bit of a different vibe to their live show. They played 7 tracks overall and were right on point as always. I’ll see them again in a couple of weeks in San Antonio and Austin with the mighty Visigoth.
Up next came NWOBHM legends Satan. I can’t say enough about this band on a personal level and on a performance level. The band is practically perfect live and I’d go see them every chance I could. They opened with Siege Mentality, Incantations, The Devil’s Infantry and Twenty Twenty-Five. That’s the same four they opened with the night before but then they changed it up and played Break Free from Court in the Act. That album is so good. All told they played 5 from their great latest album, Atom by Atom, 8 from Life Sentence and 4 from Court in the Act. I’m still utterly amazed at Brian Ross’ vocal abilities. The whole band was awesome and it was especially nice to hear them on a quality PA system. I was a bit surprised that the show didn’t sell out but it was good to see people singing along to Night Demon’s and Satan’s sets.
I ran into Tim Baker from Cirith Ungol. What a nice guy. He gave me some stickers. I saw Robert Garven as well but we didn’t get to speak much as he was on his way out the door. I also got to see my friend from Austin, Allie. Quite the pleasure seeing her again as well.
After the show we headed back to the dressing rooms. The band was packing their stuff as they had an early flight out for their next show in Portland. We said our goodbyes and I told them I’d see them on one of their east coast dates in October. Right before walking out of the dressing room, I was recognized by a girl I had met at the Cathouse Live show at Irvine Meadows last year. She was wearing a killer Toxik shirt, too, so that’s major points with me! It was great making that connection with her again. Said my “see you later” to her, Satan and the Night Demon guys and headed back to the restaurant by the hotel for a late night bite to eat. Service was slow and Rodney bailed. My LA friend, Sabrina, and I stuck it out, ate and she took a ride back to get her car by the Rainbow and I was fading fast. I went back into my room and pretty much passed out as I hadn’t been to sleep, real sleep, in almost 24 hours. Unfortunately I was only able to sleep for about 3 hours as I have a hard time sleeping while the sun is out.
After checking out, I spent some time just driving around LA. Made a quick trip into Venice to see Cameron and Rell. She and I have been friends for a long time from when we both lived in Norfolk. She moved to Austin after me, met Cameron, moved to Venice and then got married. Always great seeing them.
After that I headed up to Studio City to meet with someone whom I’ve loved since first hearing her music…Betsy from Bitch! We had been in contact a few times in the last 15 years or so and I asked her if she had time to meet up as I’d love to get her signature in The Book. She agreed and we met in town for about an hour. It was really awesome to be sitting there with her. We spent about an hour together, she told me some stories about the band, her current drummer showed up, she signed the book, snapped a few fotos with me and then we were both on our separate ways. I can’t thank her enough for that time. She’s pretty damned cool.
I was slated to turn my car in by 5 as I had a 7PM flight home. I got notice that my flight was delayed for 2 hours but went ahead and turned it in as I was getting charged an hourly rate. I couldn’t have asked for a better 2 days of 78 degrees and clear skies to be driving around with the top down, though.
Once at the airport, I just waited it out at Gene and Paul’s “Rock N Brews” for a beer and some tacos that weren’t that good. I tried catching a few z’s on the plane but couldn’t as I couldn’t get comfortable, even with the whole row to myself. I finally got to bed around 230 Central time, extremely tired by extremely pleased with the whole fast weekend in LA. California always sets me right, even with the fakeness and the deplorable traffic. Something in the air for sure. BUT…I’m always ready to get back to Texas.
Satan “Atom By Atom” Album Review (2015)
Satan have returned again with a new offering for 2015 on Listenable Records entitled “Atom By Atom” and it’s everything you’d expect after 2013’s Life Sentence.
This album rolls hard from beginning to end and proves once again that the guitar duo of Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins is damn near untouchable. Brian Ross’ vocals are on point and his patented high wails are ever prominent in all the right places. After their Richmond, VA show in 2013, my friend asked Brian how he’s maintained his voice so well since “Court In the Act”. Brian simply replied with, “It’s my job.” And he still does it well.
“Atom By Atom” features 10 tracks and one thing I’ve noticed is that this album seems a bit darker lyrically than their last album and even “Court In the Act”.
Let’s go track by track:
- Farewell Evolution – The album opens with Brian’s falsetto, and lyrically tackles the lack of critical thinking in modern society.
- Fallen Saviour – “Some still believed that he’d return to save them”. I think you can figure out the rest of the sentiment here. I love the guitar solos in this one.
- Ruination – This is one of my favorites on the album so far. The combination of the riffs and rhythm section matched with Ross’ descending vocal pattern just makes for a clean song.
- The Devil’s Infantry – Sean Taylor and Graeme English open this one with a marching pattern. Lyrically what you’d think based on the title. It all works so perfectly. The breakdown/transition mid-song is killer.
- Atom By Atom – The opening riff on this gives me chills. “Out to get you, atom by atom.” You can hear Russ’ distinctive vocals in that part and it just sounds wonderful. The solos are both crushing as well.
- In Contempt – What Satan album would be complete with a song dealing with judgement? No worries here. You got it and shan’t be disappointed!
- My Own God – Brian lays it out in this one with, “I am my own God, I made myself, broke the mold, life is what I make it, I will not be told.”
- Ahriman – Lyrically dealing with Zoroastrianism, of which I am not too familiar. Great song though. Love the backing vocals in the chorus.
- Bound In Enmity – This is a total fist pumper. Riffs and licks for days.
- The Fall of Persephone – Final track on the record. A bit of a slow roller and took a few extra listens to warm up to completely. English has some great bass licks that really stand out. This one clocks in at almost 7 minutes and has several parts. The dueling guitar solos are perfect.
I really cannot praise this album enough. It’s everything I expected and more and I can’t wait to get a physical copy in my hands and especially can’t wait to catch them live again. If I could give only one critical opinion about this album, it would be in the drum production, mainly the snare. On much of the album it’s just a bit too bright but really doesn’t detract from Sean’s solid playing or from the album itself.
Long live Satan and thanks to Listenable Records for letting me review this!
10/10!
Satan are:
Brian Ross
Russ Tippins
Steve Ramsey
Graeme English
Sean Taylor
l-r: English, Taylor, Tippins, Ramsey, Ross
Saxon, Armored Saint & Evil United Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, May, 23, 2015
Three things in San Antonio have stood the test of time: Saxon, Armored Saint and Jason McMaster. Let’s just face facts, Saxon’s biggest USA fanbase is in Texas with the majority in the San Antonio area. Last night proved that.
The weather was bad all day but I drove down and arrived at the venue pretty early to meet up Armored Saint/DC4/Odin guitarist, Jeff Duncan, who I hadn’t seen since the Odin reunion show in LA a few years back. We met when his band DC4 was in town for SxSW about 5 years ago. His brother, Shawn, and I have been friends for a few years prior and I helped them out when they were in town. Jeff and Jason met me at the back door of 210 Kapone’s and walked me in. While sound checking Armored Saint, I got to meet John Bush and the Sandoval brothers. I had previously met Joey Vera at the Arch/Matheos show a few years back.
The Saint guys went back to their hotel after signing The Book (thanks, Jeff!) to rest and clean up and Jason and I hung out while some of the local openers were playing on the second stage. The crowd was starting to build around 730 and lots of friends were showing up. Jason’s thrash band, Evil United was scheduled to go on at 8PM. Thanks to Jeff, Jason and Saint’s manager I got an all access pass that was good though the end of the Saint set.
Evil United hit the stage and opened with Dead Can See from their new album, Honored By Fire, followed up by three more from that album. They went back to their self-titled debut for Dawn of Armageddon. The 30ish minute set was capped by a brutal cover of Judas Priest’s Tyrant. The crowd was into the set from the first note to the last. Jason is highly regarded in San Antonio because of his work with Watchtower and Dangerous Toys. He’s consistently flown the metal flag in Texas for 30+ years. Evil United sounded great. Don Van Stavern’s bass was crushing through the mains. I especially like EU’s drummer. That dude is pretty much a badass. The band was tight and the set was too short, but such is life. Jason has a long history with Armored Saint dating back to the early 80s and had remained friends with them since then. It was great seeing them hang out together.
Armored Saint was using EU’s backline so there wasn’t much of a changeover between bands beyond changing cymbals out and switching guitar pedal boards. They hit the stage around 855 with the title track from their new album, Win Hands Down. I like this song a lot and have listened to it several times since the single was released. They totally got the crowd going with March of the Saint and Nervous Man. Bush’s vocals were spot on and Jeff’s backing vocals sounded great. The guitar tandem of Jeff and Phil Sandoval is pretty crushing. The whole band was extremely tight and their setlist spanned every album. Symbol of Salvation is my favorite album and their played Reign of Fire and Last Train Home. The increasingly growing crowd was totally into their 11 song set that closed with Mad House from March of the Saint. Of course Can U Deliver elicited the greatest response. I had never seen Saint before and last night’s show was great. Just what I needed! After their set I went back to Saint’s dressing room for a bit to hang with Jeff and Jason. I didn’t want to be all up in their business as it was pretty humid in there last night and those guys put on an intense set so I knew they were a bit worn out. Bobby Jarzombek was up there and was having a discussion with John Bush about whose Mexican food was better, LA or San Antonio. It was pretty humorous.
Saxon was up next and it’s well known around here that I am not a fan beyond 3 songs or so. I just could never get into Biff’s voice, their lyrics and their riffs. Believe me, I have owned several of their album to no avail. They hit the stage to a seemingly capacity crowd opening with Motorcycle Man. They ran through what most would consider their most popular songs. I watched one song and went back to the room where the second stage was to sit for a while as it was vacant and I sit down. Ran into other friends out there and listened to the remainder of the show from a distance. I heard Dallas 1PM, Princess of the Night and the closers Strong Arm of the Law and Denim and Leather, and that was plenty for me. I was just bored and couldn’t wait for the show to end so that my friends and I could grab a late meal and hang out for a while at one of their houses. Saxon, however, did sound tight and the crowd was completely into it from beginning to end. That will likely be my first and last Saxon show.
Raven & Night Demon Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 11, 2014
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.
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- John Gallagher and Jason McMaster
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- 2 metalheads from Chile that were in town for ACL Fest
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- Raven doing their thing
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- Jarvis and Night Demon delivered a great set
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- Joe Hasselvander (Raven/Pentagram!) and Monkey Boy
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- Night Demon and Monkey Boy. photo by Andrew Bansal (metalassault.com)
Satan Concert Reviews, San Antonio and Austin, TX, October 21-23
Days 2-4 of Mitchfest with Kelz consisted of 3 straight shows with Satan in San Antonio and Austin and it’s just easier to 
combine the reviews all in one post.
We mess around Austin for a little bit before heading back to the house to rest up for Tuesday night’s show with Satan in San Antonio at The Korova. We got there a little before Satan showed up and helped them load their personals from the van to Korova’s green room. They looked pretty good after playing Houston the night before. They recognized us from the Richmond show earlier in the year. Satan was being backlined on this tour by the venue and/or the opening acts. Seemed that there were a few compatibility issues with guitar heads to the effects that Ramsey/Tippins used but those quickly got fixed with the arrival of a couple of Marshall amps.
Austin based Firestarter ’82 opened the show and I stuck around for their set as their bassist is a good pal of mine. She did a fine job as always. Local thrashers, Aggravator, played next but we missed them as we were having a couple of drinks next door.
We get back right before Satan hits the stage and as expected, they delivered an awesome set to about 40-45 people. The crowd size was quite unfortunate, especially for a city that often touts itself as the metal capital of the USA. Things change I guess. And it was a Tuesday night…but still. How often are you going to get the chance to see Satan? Satan played flawlessly as expected. They were great when we saw them in Richmond this year and I expected no less this time. They did not disappoint. It really can’t be stated enough how great of a guitar duo Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey are. Ross’ vocals are stellar, especially for a 61 yr old man who can still belt out the falsetto with no problem. Sean and Graeme held the bottom down as Satan rolled through a mostly similar set to earlier this year with only a few changes. They were awesome and have become one of my favorite live bands. Brian’s not a big talker between songs beyond introducing the next song and I’m fine with that.
It was also great seeing some old pals that I hadn’t seen in a while, namely Rob Doom, Jaime, Mando and of course Rodney who was the show promoter. A new friend, Henri, came in from Holland just to see these shows with Satan and Militia. Pretty cool!
Kelz and I left promptly after the show for the 75 minute drive back to Austin. Of course it was full of conversation about the show and old times.
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- Graeme English
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- Brian Ross
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- Steve Ramsey
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- Russ Tippins
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- Sean Taylor
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- Steve and Russ putting on a clinic
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- Firestarter ’82
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- the backline
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- Eternal Champion
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- 3/5 of Satan loves meat! Stiles Switch BBQ rules all.
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- Satan and Monkey Boy.
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- Kelz impatiently waiting for Satan
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- Kelz and Russ
The Metal Files 
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