Posts Tagged ‘slayer’
Slayer Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 18, 2014
Whew! What a whirlwind it’s been the last month with all of the shows and there’s no sign of it slowing down yet! Last night was not slow. Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies and Slayer were in town to play a sold out show at the Moody Theater (aka ACL Live). I still can’t believe a show like this got booked at such a classy venue, but I’m glad it did and hope that it opens the door for more metal there. Let’s get right into this…
Exodus hit the stage promptly at 7:30PM with Black 13 and Blood In, Blood out from their latest release of the same name. They were fast, tight and Steve Souza sounded great. They only got 30 minutes for their set which is by far too short for a band with such a back catalog. They rolled right into Blacklist from Tempo of the Damned then gave the crowd what they wanted in the form of Bonded By Blood, Toxic Waltz and Strike of the Beast. I’m in the minority when I say I don’t like the Bonded By Blood album. I’ve bought it several times over the years and it just never caught on to me. However, I do love Fabulous Disaster and Pleasures of the Flesh. Gary Holt is doing double duty with Exodus and Slayer and he and the whole band sounded great. Tom Hunting is always the highlight for me in seeing Exodus live. He’s got such a unique style and watching him play last night was certainly a treat.
I’m not the biggest Suicidal Tendencies fan but do love that late 80s pre-funk ST stuff. Last night I became a bigger fan, at least in a live setting. Mike Muir hit the stage looking healthy and just sounded clear and coherent all night. The show I saw a few years back was pretty awful. The backing band last night was totally kickass too. Especially the drummer. Holy shit that guy was a beast. They opened with an extended version of You Can’t Bring Me Down and went right into Freedumb from their 1999 release of the same name. They mixed the set up with songs from Join the Army, the self-titled LP, Lights Camera Revolution, How Will I Laugh and 13. The crowd was completely into it and there was a decent pit most of the time they were playing. Highlights for me were War Inside My Head and How Will I Laugh Tomorrow . Again, Suicidal brought their best game last night and blew me away.
Up next…SLAYER! I’ve been a big fan since Reign In Blood, main reason being Dave Lombardo’s drumming. Well, Dave’s not in the band anymore and it’s completely obvious, at least to me it is. More on that later. Slayer opened up with World Painted Blood and flowed right into Post Mortem. They only played 5 post -Seasons era songs and that was fine by me. They sounded great early in the set but it seemed to deteriorate ever so slightly as the set progressed. They are an intense band and I can’t imagine playing night after night with that intensity, but if it was my job, I’m sure I’d make it work. Araya’s voice sounded great and was actually better than when I saw the Seasons anniversary tour. For me what was brought the show down a notch or two was the lack of Lombardo behind the kit. He brings a certain intensity (I know I’m using that word a lot but it fits) to Slayer and it was missing last night. This is no slight to Paul Bostaph who is a damn fine drummer in his own right, but he’s no Lombardo. Few are. Slayer is like the Rush of thrash metal. Rush fans want to hear all of Peart’s fills and Slayer fans, especially yours truly, wants to hear Lombardo’s stuff played properly. Bostaph did a good job and that’s why he’s in the band. But there were just some little things that made it hard for me to totally enjoy him and the band last night. His double bass work in some songs wasn’t very consistent. Maybe he was having an off night, I don’t know. I remember when I was gigging regularly as a drummer that off nights happen. Sometimes you’re just not in “the pocket.” None of this is to say Slayer put on a bad show, I’m not sure that they could, I’m just saying that I miss Dave behind the kit and the band just seemed out of sorts last night. I went so far as to rename them “Slower”, but that’s probably not too fair. I do need to mention that Kerry King was as solid as ever and I loved his Raiders/Biletnikoff jersey. Gary Holt did fine playing Hanneman’s parts. Holt is a good guitarist all the way around.
In the unlikely even that he comes back to the band again, last night was probably my last Slayer show (that I’d pay for). The setlist was good and I’m really glad I got to hear At Dawn They Sleep, Chemical Warfare, Hell Awaits and Die By The Sword.
Long live Slayer and RIP Jeff Hannemann. It was a good night.
RIP Jeff Hanneman
I don’t know what more to say but thanks, Jeff. Those Slayer records up to and including Seasons In The Abyss are all very special to me in many different ways, none more than Reign In Blood.
RIP, man.
Happy 48th Birthday Dave Lombardo!
Happy Birthday, Dave! By 1999, I’d seen Slayer only once, the Seasons In The Abyss Tour. But it wasn’t until he was touring with Testament on The Gathering Tour in 1999 that I got to meet him. My buddy Chris E. and I went up to Jaxx in Springfield, VA and got in free thanks to his connection with Steve DiGiorgio. We arrived early and got to meet Dave and his son outside the bus. I had Dave sign a few CDs and had him sign The Book. When he signed my River’s Edge soundtrack CD, he said, “We were on this?” It made me laugh. I then opened the book to the photo of Slayer and handed it to him. He lowered it down to his son and said, “Which one’s daddy?” He son looked for a second and pointed out Dave. That was pretty cool. It was a great meeting with one of metal’s most powerful and influential drummers.
I’ll be 43 in a few weeks and it doesn’t seem like Dave would only be 48. I guess as a kid when you’re listening to Reign in Blood, you think that the bands you love are so much older.
Dave. 1999
Philm, Unmothered and My Education Concert Review, Austin, TX 110311
Philm is a project that has been around since the mid-1990s according to their drummer, Dave Lombardo. It 
remained pretty dormant until the time(s) he wasn’t with Slayer and apparently they jam a bit. I had seen some of the YouTube stuff and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. When I saw that they were playing Austin, I was a tad excited about it because, hey, it’s Dave Lombardo. While I could never claim him as an influence on my drumming, he was certainly an inspiration. The guy is a beast of a player and given the chance to see him play outside of Slayer seemed pretty rad.
Originally this show was $15 but a few days beforehand they made it a free show. Slayer is in town this weekend for the FUN FUN FUN Fest so I guess Dave decided to try and float his other band here.
The opening band was called Unmothered from Austin. They were pretty good and I’d certainly go see them again. They were a 3pc sort of droning thing. There was a weird dark almost black metal undertone but this was no black metal band. Worth checking out again for sure.
Up next came My Education, also from Austin. Apparently they are considered “post-rock”, another sub-genre of rock. They were all instrumental and had a viola player through most of it. It was slightly prog and gave me somewhat of a Kansas (band) vibe. They weren’t awful by any means, but a bit boring to watch. Perfect background music, though. My friend made a good observation by saying that if they had some sort of film projection along with their live performance, it’d be more palatable in a live setting. AGREED.
Up next was Philm. By the time they came on, there may have been 150 at the show. I’ll go ahead and say it first, they 
were very underwhelming. Sure Dave did some cool stuff here and there, but it was pretty boring. I think if they went all instrumental it would have been a bit better. The singer killed it for me, not to mention that the music was rather generic. It was cool to see him do his thing on a tiny drumset though. Apparently he came out for a few minutes after they played. A few friends met him. I didn’t bother as I got to meet him while he was on tour with Testament back in 2000. It was cool because I got to meet his wife and kid too.
Rumors were flying around that Slayer was going to show up and do an impromptu set after Philm. I think it was all a set up to get more people to the show and sell some drinks. Slayer never played. That was unfortunate as it would have been cool seeing them do a few tunes on a barebones stage.
C’est la vie, eh? At least I got to see another one of my musical idols play again this week.
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
The Metal Files 
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