TOOL Abduct Salt Lake Audience For 90 Minutes

ISIS began playing promptly @8, opening w/that familiar instrumental song from Panopticon, the one w/crashing chords & soaring screams at the end. They played 4 songs for a total of 30 minutes. The last song had a killer rockin' outtro. The lead singer thanked everyone at 8:30 & they walked off the stage. A short but sweet set from everybody's favorite post-hardcore band.

Thus began a very curious intermission wherein stage technicians efficiently assembled TOOL's stage & set. The curious part was when, after removing ISIS's equipment offstage, they first laid down this pristine, glossy white floor w/a backdrop of the same material that stretched from one edge of the stage to the other in a 5 foot tall strip. The results looked like a miniature hockey rink of perfect white, and for a moment we wondered: Were we going to be treated to "TOOL ON ICE" - ?

After Danny's drumset & the amps & the rest of the equipment was finally set up, the results were a very sparse looking stage w/a long white backdrop strip behind it with a perfectly unblemished white floor (the techs who set it up wore special clean rubber shoes so as not to mar that flawless surface).

The setup gave the stage a very clinical appearance. Throughout the show this effect was complemented by Adam's guitar tech, a woman in a white hospital lab coat. Apparantly we were going to have our minds operated on after being abducted by TOOL. Yet nobody panicked or made a rush for the EXITS as the infamous quartet strolled casually onstage. Instead, they were received w/a bonafide full house standing ovation of thundering applause, whistles, and cheers.

Maynard wore blue jeans w/an oval silver belt buckle, and no shirt. He sported the old school mohauk. He said something cryptic to the effect of "So you're all still here-?" insinuating an impending calamity, and they tore into the familiar pummeling of Stinkfist, as we knew they would. This came as a relief, since we all understood if they opened with anything else, they would have been cleverly disguised imposters.

The 2nd song picked up the momentum with a redemptive version of The Pot. I would wager doubters understood, like losers never would, how much collective booty this tune actually kicked. Unsurprisingly, nearly half the freakin' place lit up for this one. Well not your trusty reviewer, who chose not to partake in substances leading to sensory distortion or enhancement. I preferred experiencing TOOL perfectly sober.

Then they launched into 46 & 2, and by this time, their warm-up was through and the sound began to level off to a more satisfactory focus. It turns out the white backdrop strip behind the band comprised of about six seamless panels was a carefully modulated video screen (duh). During the first song only one panel lit up w/trippy imagery, the one directly behind Maynard.

During The Pot, the psychedelic visuals stretched out to cover two panels. Little by little, as each subsequent song began, more panels were integrated with sharp, hi-contrast imagery that soon enough resolved itself into the familiar videos for the songs. The entire floor lit up to mirror the backdrop strip, and we felt lucky to have seats close to the stage and eleven rows up into our section which afforded us a view of the cinematic stage and floor.

Jambi sounded awesome and it was a pleasure to listen to Adam's Joe Walsh -inspired guitar solo midway through. TOOL have a way of making any song they perform sound fresh & dynamic, regardless of how overplayed the song may be. This was certainly the case w/the opener Stinkfist as well as w/Schism and even Sober and Opiate; no matter how many times they've been heard, these tunes always sound killer live.

After Schism, the high point of the show began in earnest. Starting with Rosetta Stoned (featuring the most outrageous & trippiest visuals of the evening) and continuing on with a nicely evolved sounding Opiate, a strident & crushing Sober, & on into the set's peak w/the superb title track Lateralus.

You should have seen the visuals during Rosetta Stoned: there was repeated motifs of hallucinogenic meltdowns, and halfway through all the screens merged to showcase planet earth seen from about the moon's orbit, and then it pulled back eventually to show Saturn, which really lent a majestic feel to the song itself. At the end of the song there was this creepy ass alien Grey -like face, only really disturbing looking and not your typical stylized Grey. It looked more real - reminescent of Aleister Crowley's depiction of a higher Enochian being.

The moment the song Lateralus began, we were all reminded exactly why the album LATERALUS is the crown jewel in TOOL's canon. Justin Chancellor was thrashin' like a heavy metal madman, near us on stage left, his long curly hair whipping about all over the place, while Jonesy remained rooted to his spot like he always does, over on stage right, doin' what he does best, strangling the sickest array of sound effects out of his axe. Danny Carey never fails to impress behind his magickal drum kit, although to be honest I thought he wasn't quite up to par with his usual kinetic clarity.

Maynard also wasn't 100% up to snuff, perhaps the years of belting out these tunes have begun taking their toll, but whether that's from worn out vocal chords or enthusiasm is the real question. I rather tend to think it's the latter. Herein may be glimpsed the one possible weak link in the chain of camaraderie, for I got the feeling Maynard's heart may not be into it anymore.

After Lateralus, Keenan walked off stage while the other three guys actually sat down on stage front center, obviously exhausted, and drank their bottled waters while soaking in the thunderous applause. This was a first for me; usually they all retire backstage for a few minutes before returning for the final encore.

It didn't occur to me right then, but looking back on it, I can almost see Adam, Justin, and Danny just soaking in the fan-worship as if they may not be getting to for much longer. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Eventually Maynard came back out and they launched right into Vicarious. As w/The Pot earlier on, this live rendition was so kickass & heavy, it managed to transcend the perception it's "just another derivative single" and proved itself worthy as a bonafide TOOL epic, similarities to older songs notwithstanding.

Finally they ended the show w/Aenema, half drowned out by the crowd shouting along w/middle fingers raised. The song was great but ended kind of muddy instead of with its usual dynamic & resounding punctuation mark.

As for in-between song chatter and the like, the first incident (during the 2nd song The Pot), I spotted down front on the floor (all seated) people began passing the fold-up chairs hand over head. Maybe a half dozen chairs floated to the front by song's end, and Maynard paused to tell them to quit with that shit and that if anyone got hurt because of him singing, he would leave. "They're just rock songs, people," and that settled them down real quick. Then they launched into 46 & 2.

After Lateralus, Maynard made "Mooing" and "Baaahing" sounds. When the band finished their encore, Keenan walked off stage-left flashing the peace sign w/his right hand; he was so outta there. Meanwhile, the rest of the guys remained onstage without him to salute the crowd cheering them on. Danny walked over and gave Jonesy a hug, and Justin joined in for a group hugs, while the crowd showered them with screaming love.

Secret Chiefs 3 + Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Nils Frykdahl in red light in the background
The angel of white light is Carla Kihlstedt, violinist

The Secret Chiefs 3 took over an hour to get their instruments set up properly, as a result the show kicked off way later than intended. But that was ok, cuz for one, The Secret Chiefs 3 were very interesting. Hard to describe, since the only reference points are probably other bands few have heard of much less listened to. That said, they came across like a heavier Dirty 3 w/roots extending back to stranger, more eclectic sources. For instance, my favorite portion of their exuberant set was when they launched into this mad jam of the Halloween movie theme, it was so kickass cuz they were pushin it as hard and mean as they could, eliciting various shouts of encouragement from the crowd, and of course, devil horns from "those in the know".

Their music varied, however, from grating, grinding, ear-splitting screechy dissonance to gypsy-like passages and general rollicking mayhem. Long, drawn out instrumental jams w/distortion and such weirdness I can not describe it to you, actually. You had to have been there. You would either hate them with every fiber in your being, or you'd think they were totally cool.

Then Sleepytime finally got their set put up - and it was 12:30 in the damn morning before they finally began. Nils introduced the first coupla songs as being from their new album, due out in May. They were simply amazing. Starting out w/cautious, classical interplay between band members, which eventually morphed into some super heavy ass crypto funk sleepytime fusion, as only they know how to do.

I'm sorry for the vague descriptions, or the meaningless precision, whichever the case may be, it's just both bands feature such eclectic artistry that you will simply have to take my word for it: These are live bands you do not want to miss, unless you are way more comfortable at a piano concerto, a polite chamber orchestra, a hip hop show, a folksy gathering of acoustic guitarists, or any god damn mainstream show on the fucking planet. If that is the case, stay away, this is not for you.

If, on the other hand, you like hearing bizarre amalgamations of rude sonic dysfunction which occasionally meshes into glorious nuances of lyrical beauty, and sporadically erupts into violent ear pain sure to lacerate your brain with vivid impressions of super charged melodic assaults best left for forgotten nightmares, then you rush do not walk to your nearest Secret Chiefs 3/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum show.

I can't tell you the names of the Sleepytime songs they played, just that they hammered it balls to the wall, pedal to the metal, w/their bizarre assortment of spooky fairy tales for adults, all introduced w/the sideshow flourish of our most eminent host, Nils Frykdahl, whom I believe to secretly be the bastard offspring which resulted when Tom Waits had an affair with the Devil's wife, or he is Pan reincarnated and having the time of his life on earth running this carnival freakshow of the most intense jammadelic heavy fuckin meltdown of antique music styles coupled with some thrashy modern sensibilities, but you will NOT hear one single damned reference to your typical "metal", "alternative", "indy" or any other tired old commercial crap choking the airwaves like so much tepid sonic pollution.

Sleepytime's music sounds more as if classically trained musicians who grew up listening to King Crimson but also liked to thrash out and decided they would produce this music on bizarre instruments of their own devising, violins, cellos, bass harmonicas, viking rowboats, piano slide logs, cymbaline trees and the lord of light only knows what all else.

They played until nearly 2 in the am, but it was worth it. The small crowd up front took turns crowd surfin in the 12' x 12' area, it was kinda funny. Mad energy, good times.

IncendianT, DECAPITATED, KRISIUN & Six Feet Under, ewww

My friend's Cliff (drums), Waleed (guitar), Matt (bass), and Alex "Desecrator" Gomez (guitar + vocals) local brand of extreme metal sure to singe the eyebrows off every face who dares to step too close, IncendianT are getting better, louder, and tighter sounding with each show they play. Tonight will certainly be no exception as they luckily got hired on this bill at the last minute, due to Cattle Decapitation having dropped off.

Tonight, Friday September 29, 2006, Salt Lake City Utah, at the Ritz by Sugarhouse, is sure to be indisputably the sickest and best metal show put on all year long. And the best part? The Ritz doubles as a bowling alley. OH yeh baby, we're goan take the metalheads bowling, with pitchers of cold beers and increasingly reckless debauchery after every band.

Also playing: SIX FEET UNDER and one other band I can't remember the name, "Abysmal Something".

Poland's own DecapitateD, infamous purveyors of lightning-fast uberbrutalic technical deathmetal are here in Salt Lake City to flash their steel and take heads. This is the single most eagerly anticipated deathmetal band for me to see live. I am completely psyched for this. I intend to bring my 10" vinyl of their sick short album THE NEGATION to have signed.

South American deathmetal at its finest: Brazil's KrisiuN is guaranteed to proceed with an unholiest of thrashing twi-edged guitar attack, with razorloop wires of strung taut leads guaranteed to sever heads from moshing bodies and set depraved souls free of their mortal coils, musically speaking that is.

Killer Show Disrupted by Headliners:

But DECAPITATED put on one helluva mean, short set on Friday night, @The Ritz !

I was right up there headbangin' my mohawk w/the longhairs, Poland's DECAPITATED fit the bill as we nearly banged our heads clean off.

I got these pics of MARTIN, their bass player, check out the TOOL Lateralus T-shirt he was wearin' :


Martin was so sick on that bass, these pictures are actually perfectly focused. They were that fast.

Man, what a RIP them SIX FEET UNDER Tour Managers were. Fuckin' A-holes cut INCENDIANT off the bill at the *last minute* My buddies were onstage, right after the first (real shitty) band finished, gettin ready, Cliff's drumkit was all set up, and they get CUT *mimes slash across neck* And get this - the next band uses Cliff's drumkit. We were pretty pissed - esp Alex (guitar/vocal for Incendiant) who started screaming at the tour manager, whilst I casually strolled out through the 'artist' exit & stood right by, looking pissed & mean w/my one whited-out eye, mohawk, & HANK III/Goatwhore camo patch jacket & MorteM -T. The picture of renegade evil, lol. A few of us were shouting "INCENDIANT!" like we meant business. Unfortunately (we felt at the time), the riot never happened.

Out back in the parking lot, all the usual guilty parties in black were knocking back Scotch Whiskey, PBRs, Jaeger, you name it. I was shooting back shots of whiskey from I don't know how many different bottles. The Jaeger kept me focused.

Then Brazil's own infamous Krisiun went on - - they were pretty much the highlight of the show, matching Decapitated w/their own darker, more classic deathmetal riffs, between those 2 bands, the entire evening was a blazing success (despite the fiasco engendered by the greedy Six Feet Under crew).

Turns out: Six Feet Under wanted as big a cut of the pie as they could manage, as well as hoggin as much stage time as they could. And they suck, man. I mean, I wandered in there halfway thru their set, ya know -?- to check it out. Chris Barnes has dropped a few rungs down that ladder of underground fame he earned while fronting CC, I'm afraid. His grunts were not much more than demented gorilla spasms, and every once in a while, this horrendous "SCREEEEEEEEE, SCREEEEEEEEE" noize that sounded like a wounded fax-signal, although you couldn't tell how (or if) he did it - not terribly impressive - and back out front of the venue, we were all making fun of him for it. Miming that he was strangling himself from a noose made out of his own 3-ft long dreads, mincing that "SCREEEEEEE" sound, and we'd all chime in w/ludicrous "RuggaRuggaRugga" parodies. All joking aside the man is a legend on the scene so it just made it more wrong that he is scraping low w/Six Feet Under, who that night put on one of the worst dm shows I've seen. I know we all have off nights but c'mon.

faun fables Sept 23, 2006, SLC

Well, the faun fables show @the Urban Lounge was tremendous (as expected), only this time, we got the real deal totally stripped down: ff are back in their original form: a 2 piece consisting of just dawn & nils.

amazing what just 2 acoustic guitars + 2 powerful vocals are capable of. Nils also reached for a gretch (or was it a gibson?) for a couple tunes, but mostly it was vocals + acoustic guitars, w/dawn's lovely beseeching & at times harmonically harrowing voice striking notes that reached back in time to ring clear & true bells of childhood memories, often lilting, sometimes savage, always graceful and hot enough to get blood boiling.

Nils looking like Little Red Riding Hood & The Big Bad Wolf all rolled up into one, wore a distinctive man-dress and crooned out his resonant vocals w/a deep profundo command & theatricality.

When these 2 get going, the sparks start flying through the aether. Two songbirds elucidating fables for our pleasure from the depths of a dream realm. Marrying faded photographs from the past with bright tomorrows, electrifying the present and soothing sorrows.

They kept us riveted for an hour and forty five minutes, until 1:30 am, and I, for one, never yawned once.

Pearl Jam, Las Vegas July 6, 2006

first the setlist:

~They kicked it off with seventeen songs straight~
{I've bolded the songs that I was amazed or pleased to hear}

Inside Job
Corduroy
World Wide Suicide
Grievance
Given To Fly
Marker In The Sand
Faithfull
Even Flow
Gone
Daughter
Green Disease
Rats
Garden
Parachutes
State Of Love And Trust
Life Wasted
Do The Evolution

1st encore

Little Sister
Small Town
Betterman/Save It For Later
Black (w/a "Come Back" tag on the end!)
Alive (*a sight to behold*)

2nd encore

Go
Comatose
Fortunate Son
Porch (!;)

Pearl Jam Shows Las Vegas How Its Done

Yes they opened up w/Inside Job, which pleased me very much, and they also played parachutes, state of love and trust, world wide suicide, go, evenflow, and at one point, eddie said something about pulling one out of the vaults, and that his voice might be shaky on it, but it would be "all heart": that's when they launched into given to fly! dude song after song was lobbed up, and knocked out the park. it was sick.

I was counting each & every song on my fingers. The first set was comprised of 17 songs. Then they came back w/an encore of 4 or 5 more (kicked off w/an Elvis cover, of course). And then 4 more after that (including a rousing & pertinent CCR cover of "Fortunate Son"). It was like, 26 songs in all. The band was relentless. Our seats were very close to stage left (just to the left of it). We had a really good view of STone Gossard, then Eddie, and matt Cameron on his kit, w/Mike McCready over on stage right. He strutted all across the stage in his bleached white rooster -do hair cut, I was like "take it down a notch, bitch". That's why stone gossard was hella cooler. He just remained calm and down to earth, w/short brown hair and worn jeans and a nice earth-toned t-shirt. You could learn somethin from stone, mike. settle down a bit. I think Matt cameron makes a stellar, solid drummer. Eddie just delivered the goods, song after song. Half way through I was amazed I'd never caught these guys before now - - fucking staple of american rock -- (awesome fucking killer rock might I add) - - and I could only shake my head that I was able- - and yes, lucky enough -- to catch em now in 2006 hot off the searing impetus from their smokin' self-titled -- before they possibly lose some steam in the upcoming years.

Yeah even Eddie joked about it - - and honestly, it didn't really seem like much of a joke - - about becoming a regular Vegas attraction. *wince* . . . I think in his refining maturity, he probably only cares about "getting the music out to the people, whoever the fuck makes it into the shows" . . . I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see PJ added to the roster of regular Vegas acts . . . hell, BLUE MAN GROUP does it and from what I hear, they put on an amazing performance.
*deadpan stare*

It was impossible for me to remember all those songs, in order, after the show. I was left straight up dazed & confused from it. During the show, I was cruisin along to each and every one - they sang porch which was awesome . . . and "faithfull" from YIELD, and Do The Evolution . . . along w/Given to Fly ... I was amazed & blissfull taking those tunes in.

One of the biggest delights was RATS. Hell yes. RATS. Of course they sang daughter. . . and we also got a strong dose of evenflow (of course). I remember towards the end - (one of the last 2 songs) . . . the pretty awesome spectacle of every motherfucker in the house pumping their fists in unison to ALIVE. (yeh that was the last song of the first encore set. before that was an Elvis cover) ALIVE was a moment to just lean back on your heels and straight -up marvel at. Did I mention they sang Go -? yeah well they did. Jeff Ament gone wicked off the hook, yo.

Man these guys have earned their fair spot up on top as the Number One, that's Numero Uno for you mexican rockers, and in case you're wondering, YES they played black, and also corduroy (towards the beginning), and also GARDEN. . . it was just a sharp, focused blur of hits sailing past these amazed ears, one after the other. You expect me to keep track of this shit, while my mind is reeling -? This is what you get. They hardly played anything from No Code- if they did I can't recall which. Smile? MOsquito? I don't know. I was too freaking retroflabulated w/all the awesomeness pouring out of these guys to really keep track or care.

There was no "immortality" or "tremor christ". . . but there was, maybe four tunes from the new one.

I'm still stunned here .. . nearly one week later. . . and mentally recovering from the impact . . . from the shock of finally getting to witness my long time rockin' heroes. In the wake of so many other awesome shows I've seen, my mind is still reeling. But the echoes of that pearl jam show are still ringing loud & clear in my head.

SUPERSUCKERS Rock Salt Lake Yet Again

Well the 'Suckers put on their usual "Best Rock'n'Roll Show In The World" again last night, and they stayed true to their rep.

I'm about partied -out, what w/after the murder Junkies & HANK III a few days ago, and THUNDERFIST w/the Supersuckers last night. I'm glad Erik got me on the guest list . . . it seems I couldn't stay away from a Supersuckers show if I wanted to.

Towards the end of the show, I walk up to Chris (their devoted PR, email -fanclub /T-shirt stand manager) and asked him if he had any patches. He didn't. I was like, dude you gotta get Supersucker patches.

Then I spotted a T-shirt that he had half-covered, I could see it was black, w/a Sherrif's star that said "100 PROOF EVIL" in it. I thought that was badass. . . but when I asked him about it, he said "There's hardly any left; here, try this one instead".

But I wouldn't back down. (I suppose he may have been saving it for. . .I don't know, a more "established" Supersucker fan? One w/tits? Who knows. All I know is I wasn't about to leave w/out it. ) I could tell it was an "oldschool" 'Suckers shirt, and I've seen the band so many times, hung out w/em, I mean, sheeeyit, I'm the damned "ultimate" supersucker fan in Salt Lake, if you ask me! Eddie's always singin' "heavy heart" & dedicating it to me; I've bought all their stuff on vinyl practically.

Anyhow, he finally gave in and dug one up (presumably the last one). Here's what it looks like:

*is that sick or what*

Man I love my supersuckers T. Check out the visible thread across the collar & sleeves. Tight yo :D

MOGWAI : ROCK ACTION INDEED

Here is a pretty poor picture I snapped of last night's official mogwai POSTER, which I fell in love with and purchased for $15 after the last of the resounding set's echoes had diminished into the air and the receptors of our baincells.


Well I can surreptitiously add mogwai to the top of the heap of post-rock acts (now that I've finally seen em live & in my face). Damn. Shasta was right on. Totally visceral, and eventually, achieving a sort of transcendence by attempting to induce latent epiliptic seizures in the audience, at show's end.

I like to think of mogwai now as mono meets the melvins. All kinds a rock action, for realz.

I did not know any of the songs by title. Only that they simultaneously (and by turns) lulled, startled, soothed, and scared the bejeezuz out of the audience, who mostly stood hypnotized by mogwai's incessant onslaught of amped up lullabies.



The poster I bought (pictured above) is a limited edition, fine print which deserves to be framed.

After last night's riveting mogwai set, I'm afraid Pelican and Mono will have to bring every last bit of strength & reserve to the table, if they're going to stand a chance at competing.

DINOSAUR JR April 16, 2006 @the Depot, SLC

Good ol' J. Mascis, bringin the squealz 4 realz

Lou Barlowe, keepin it down & low

Murph rulin' his percussive turf

Dinosaur Jr rocked Salt Lake last night! J Mascis was all over that fretboard! Lou Barlowe was a Beast on the BAss! I can't remember the drummer's name but he pounded the skins all night long!

Their opening band "PRIESTESS" started out like just another run-o-the-mill "70's stoner rock" band, but by their set's close, had redeemed themselves super-heavily as a force to be reckoned with. That drummer was insane ! By set's end, I was impressed. Take a little White Stripes from the singer, and mix in a heavy dose of Motorhead w/some powerhouse riffin, and you got "Priestess", a pretty good opener I'll have to admit.

But Dinosaur brought on the old-school set, just as promised. A perfect way to end Easter.

I'm all set for Mascis's new stoner-doom project WITCH \m/

Murder Junkiesw/HANK III

Turns out the Murder Junkies were G G Allin's infamous punk band. I did not know that. Well they're touring with good ol' HANK III, and they stopped in Salt Lake City - capitol of psychobilly hellraisin' & regular stop for every roots rockin' act in the USA since god knows when. You can be sure that when the REVEREND HORTON HEAT or my personal favorites THE SUPERSUCKERS from Seattle stop through this town - - every tattooed 50's greaser hellbilly freak comes out of the woodwork. And if you've been to any of these kinda shows here - be it Dave Alvin from THE BLASTERS or any one of over a dozen such dusty acts, you'd know just as well as I that Salt Lake City has got to be all these band's favorite stop.

G G Allin died 10 years ago, and it appears his self-destructive deathpunk band The Murder Junkies is on a celebrational, memorial tour right this very summer w/Hank III bringin home the whoop-ass while puttin the dick back in dixie. For any self-respecting fan of this kind of music - - and even the good old fashioned hard country spawned by Hank's grandpappy & many others (heroes cited: George Jones, David Allen Coe, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, the regular guilty parties) -- this is a show you simply cannot miss; always a guaranteed boot -scuffin good time w/plenty of rowdy drunks & hoe-down jammin'.

The Murder Junkies opened the evening with their crass, loud, and sneering, vulgar music. It was a hoot to stand back and watch the few rabble rousers shovin each other around in the pit. Shasta & I stood up close to the action and just watched. I enjoyed this band on the same level I enjoyed PIGMY LOVE CIRCUS (Tool's drummer Danny Carey's side-project) - a similar -themed band of pure balls-out aggression & testosterone -fueled macho posturing. Now that I think of it, Pigmy Love Circus would be a great combo w/the Murder Junkies.


HANK III

Hank's bassist was this cadaverous hellbilly punk that would have looked perfectly at home playin for Salt Lake's own THE PAGAN DEAD. He was a hoot. The whole time you could read his lips as he shouted unheard through the crankin music "Fuck you muthafuckas!" whilst slappin the hell out of his beaten ol' standup. The crowd responded by hurling plastic beer mugs & drinks up onto the stage, which only fueled his mock rage & kept things hoppin.

Here's Hank. Lemme tell ya - if you like old time hard country music, you should do yourself a favor and check him out. Lots of country -lovin' folk attend his shows, and leave right after the country set. Lucky for us, last night he really focused on that set, and musta played at least a solid hour of it. That was really all I was in the mood for - I've seen his punkmetal sets a few times, and well, I had to be here at work early this morning, and besides: I just can't get enuff of the new album "Straight To Hell", and was just dyin' to check that shit out live.

They played a rousin' rendition of everyone's favorite psychobilly anthem, Cash's "Cocaine Blues", I swear every one of these acts covers that song usually (I'll bet you a shot of whiskey THE SUPERSUCKERS will cover it the day after tomorrow, when they cruise through the Depot). The crowd went nuts during that song, and hell, most others in his set.

At one point during one of the faster country songs, the pit opened up for a real "country mosh", I had to point it out to Shasta cuz I just thought it was funnier'n hell.

Hank sang one of his granddaddy's songs, and also one of his Pa's. Some old classic Bocephus where the refrain says something like "You can kiss our ass", just another defiant country anthem that everyone in the damned place was lifting their beer mugs to while jostling one another in the crowd.

All in all, they cranked out one killer country tune after another, never lettin' down the pace (except for his slow ballad "Country Heroes", another shining moment of the evening as was to be expected).

We hung in there for the 2nd portion of his set, the "Hellbilly" part. It was short & sweet - I don't think they played more'n about 4 tunes on that one (maybe 5). By that time though, it was nearing midnight, and that was it. As much as I personally love the heavy ass punkmetal stuff, I figured it was time to go.

Before heading out though, I went over to the T-shirt stand, hoping there would be some Hank III patches. (I'm on this big patch kick right now) And lo & behold: not only did they have a small, oval "III" patch (perfect), but I couldn't believe my eyes at this one MASSIVE back-patch, at least 9 inches tall, featuring the Hank III logo amidst two wicked skulls, and a beautiful backdrop of ingrained spleef -images, we're talking the ultimate jacket-patch you ever laid eyes on ! It's safe to say I'm pretty much past my "T-shirt" phase, and am settling comfortably into my patch phase. ;b

So that was it - - I know that after the "Hellbilly" portion of his set, Hank came back for the third and final part: the straight-up punkmetal set, wherein anything /everything can happen, and all hell breaks loose. Maybe next time - - if only he'd come through on a Friday or Saturday night!

OPETH October 17, 2005, SLC

Well OPETH graced our local tiny stage @ the lofi cafe in downtown salt lake and lemme tell ya, their presence is palpably electric, this was my 2nd time experiencing them live, and I'm very glad I had the opportunity to see them a couple years back, because I was able to discern the difference between their two performances.

first off, Mikael announced right off the bat that they had just performed a stellar show in Los Angeles the night before, and were forced to take certain pain relieving pills that very morning in order to . . . ahem, "recuperate" enough to make it to salt lake, so he ended that with the disclaimer "be ready for a half decent rock show", and all I can tell ya is, that when OPETH deliver a "half decent show", it is more powerful than 90% of your average band's Best Concentrated Effort.

The problems: Mikael's exquisite gilmouresque lead guitar playing was somewhat muffled under the piled up layers of crushing death rhythm guitar. YOu could hear it -- it just wasn't brought out to the forefront enough. The sound mixer was a fuckin idiot.

Martin Lopez' absence - - THis, of course, was a very sad & disappointing thing. Namely becasue Martin Lopez is one of my favorite drummers of all time, not to mention highly respected in the business. The man is a stellar showcase of amazing percussive abilities, certainly one of the cream of the crop in today's music business. And I DO mean "music business"; he is NOT merely to be relegated to the limited "deathmetal" category. He would make an accomplished jazz or anything else for that matter, percussionist. Just listen to their beautiful, 100%- metal/scream-free album DAMNATION to understand what a perfect drummer he is.

The guy they had replaced kept up with the band, however. And that is an accomplishment in itself. He may not have had the necessary sharp flourish of Lopez, but he kept the spine of the beast going, and I gotta hand it to him. A funny sidenote: when introducing the members of the band, Mikael said something like "And to show you that we're not very smart, we decided to replace Martin Lopez only with another drummer with the same name: ladies and gentleman, this is Martin on the drums", and everyone laughed.


Of course, MIkael's legendary "Balrog"-deathvocals were in tip top shape, making up for the lack of lead guitar tone. At a few points during the show, Mikael hilariously tried to give the audience "death vocal lessons", by letting out 4 or 5 different "death growls" and grunts and ululations, and the crowd would fire back their attempt at copying them, which made for some genuinely humorous moments. That man can sing. And he can scream. And he can growl like nobody's business. Personally, I think he's the best in the industry - - many would disagree, citing more "serious" deathvocalists, but c'mon, gimme a break - - most of those guys sound like constipated gorillas grunting over a ditch - - and more to the point, are nearly always 100% unintelligable. Not that anyone can catch everything Mikael growls out of the depths of his tremendous lungpower; but still, you can actually discern much of what he is roaring out, and not only that, but he actually hits the proper notes, lending an integral melodicism to the deathyells which truly underpins their music with a visceral force not found in any band I can think of (and I can think of a lot of similar deathvocal-themed bands).

This band is truly an epic, classic rock/death/metal band in every sense of the word. If there is such a thing as the perfect vehicle to serve as the beginner's "introduction" to deathmetal, OPETH would be just the thing. Their music alternates between absolutely beautiful acoustic classical guitar passages, lyrical vocals drenched in mournful, funereal passages, which sometimes turn on a dime into a stunning display over overpowering metal and blastbeats accompanied by a truly frightening vocal delivery from Mikael, and often as not merging back into a languid, eerie as moonlight and just as lucid segue into the darker corners of music's dreams.

Truly one of my favorite bands in existance today, I would not blink an eye nor hesitate to state that OPETH grace the same stage as any of the past greats you'd care to mention, be they BLACK SABBATH, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or any other I've ever had the pleasure of worshipping. OPETH are truly THE seminal rock/metal outfit of the 21st century -- such aching beauty interlaced in between their crushing testaments, its no wonder I'm left breathless after a performance of theirs, regardless of the fact they may not have been in tip top shape.

As for a setlist. . . . . . I'm workin on it ! ! I was too involved soaking in their performance to bother with writing down the setlist. . . .and now my memory is too fuzzy for the details, I do know they closed with DEMON OF THE FALL, and everyone lost it and went nuts, I stayed out of the pits because I think its just silly, OPETH is far more of an intellectual / emotional band for me to go hoppin crazy like one more clueless fuckin asshole jock, they really are a headtrip for me, so I stood by the moshpit walls and shoved ass holes back in there, the dumbfucks.

The first song was . . . . . *straining to remember*. . . damnit, I can't remember. . . but here are some of the songs they played, in no particular order:

Ghost Of Perdition
The Baying Of The Hounds
Beneath The Mire
When (*one of the highlights, from 'My Arms, Your Hearse')
The Grand Conjuration
In My Time Of Need* --- *Amazing Singalong*, MIkael asked all of us up front, before beginning the song, that he wanted EVERYONE to sing along, and by god did we. For a couple of stanzas, Mikael just stood back & held out the mic to us, with a big smile plastered across his face. Another highlight of the evening.

The Leper Affinity - - *Awesome version* - - from Blackwater Park, one of my top opeths


The Moor - - -*HELL YES*, I almost forgot - - -they kicked this one out beautifully, from Still LIfe (of course) - - - *the other highlight of the evening*

all in all - - you just can't ever go wrong with a live set from opeth, no matter how hungover they are. If you're any kind of fan of progressive music - - - you absolutely MUST see these guys perform live. Even if you're not into the "crushing metal" aspect, I beseech thee to dismiss this triviality: for the members of Opeth are truly talented musicians, who know what they do. While the rest of the world either turns their backs or pays attention, the members of opeth are busily constructing one of the most impressive ouvres in heavy progressive music today. Their catalogue, as of this latest installment Ghost Reveries, catapults them directly onto center stage as living legends in our midst. Catch them while you can.

COHEED & CAMBRIA 

w/dredg + Blood Bros

October, 2005, SLC    @  the Great  SALTAIR Palace 

[This show I've rated **** out of ****   5  out of  5   stars!]

~NIN venue was half empty.

~NIN was good, but somewhat lackluster (by contrast).

~Coheed & Cambria was SOLD OUT

~Coheed & Cambria was the funnest show I've been too in several many wicked moons, we were hoppin' like Mexican jumpin' beans on a hot tamale plate, I was dancin' with strangers, moshin' it up with all the geek kids, the energy was out of this world!  

    Claudio stood up in front of everyone with his frizzed out Pharoah's Hairdo, struttin' like a Godling among spastic munchkins... At one point during "3 Evils" (my favorite) I couldn't take it anymore... so I launched myself off the shoulders of midgets & they carried me along the top of the crowd surfing it up while Claudio sang "...On the wrong way out, on the causeway to neverwhere. . . .on the wrong way OUT, on the cause way to Never Way-He-Hair!", and by the time the entire crowd was chanting "PULL THE TRIGGER AND THE NIGHTMARE STOPS PULL THE TRIGGER AND THE NIGHTMARE STOPS PULL THE TRIGGER AND THE NIGHTMARE STOPS" 

    I was crowd-surfed to the front and the world spun around me as the earth rotated on its axis and my feet dropped to the concrete floor in front of the stage & I raced as fast as my little feets would carry me, back around to the side, only to plunge through the crowd in a hysterical fit of sheer hopping madness... the energy was sprayed in sweatin' droplets flinging everywhere, and get this (not kidding here):  

    At the NIN show I recently attended, my sensitive nostrils picked up mainly the scents of weed smoke, cigarettes, sweat, and cheap perfume. But at the Coheed show (this is the god's honest truth) I smelled something musky and familiar in the air as every chick there spazzed out and squealed their little triumphs, I mean to say the entire scene was well-oiled and ready for some slam-dancin', if you catch my drift. 

    In any case, I hadn't been to a show as energetic and straight-up sensational as this C&C show in quite awhile, so all I can say is, judge not until thine ears & eyes & noses have heard & seen & sniffed out for them pretty-little-selves Coheed & Cambria live, cuz they are

-Rush
-Pink Floyd
-Led Zeppelin

all combined into one super-amalgamated & hype-accelerated starburst nova-shot explosion of super- charged teen bravado...and also, the lyrics are good.

dredg

    But give it up for DREDG, daaaaaaaaamn, that was the best show of theirs yet, (my 7th), they kicked it open with Ode To The Sun and they were ON I tell ya, Dino slappin' them heavy sticks with his signature hi-liftin' style, stick way UP, *SLAP*, stick way UP, *POW!*, stick way UP, *BLAP*, the rhythm churned, respect was earned, the world did turn in its orbit, spinnin' underneath our feet & we generated our own Richter-scaled mini-quake as dredg channeled their own eloquent storm for us under the cooling heat of a late fall evening by the great salt lake with the breeze blowin' in from the east, and our ears ringing true to the audial feast, and then towards the end of dredg's set, I was up by the rail (to the drummer's left) and I swear by my right hand he saw me air drumming like a freak & suddenly, at the end of The Canyon Behind Her, Dino *fliPPed* his stick up directly at me & it sailed over my head & I instantly reacted with savage instinct & nearly did a back flip & dove for the floor in the general direction it went and there it was on the floor; I saw someone's shadow looming over for it but I was quicker than Rikki Tikki Tavi & Thorny here was ON IT, I grabbed that stick so quick by the middle of it as the "other guy" grabbed it by it's tippy-tip end, so with a snarl I twisted it out of his grip  & held it up in triumph. (Later I went out back and buried it in the sand like a good little doggie. That way I was able to be hands-free for the mosh pits & the Coheed euphoria soon to come.)

    the Blood Bros

By the way: The Blood Brothers are WHACK! 

        I did mightily enjoy the blood bros set... they've got twin lead singers (not that they're related by blood) while one looked like Chris Robinson's little bro', the other one was blond with messy hair and Jagger moves that looked a little groovy, and while he sang out with a sharpshooter's crack on vocals just like a spastic attack, his skinny-assed blood brother with the short black hair would double over & shriek like a raptor into the mic... soundin' like a howler monkey getting stabbed with hot darning needles... they traded vocal licks in a woven tapestry of screams... not a word was understood, but the feeling registered in the crowd & the band kicked it up a notch or three... PSYCHO-fukkers like a home made tornado of disparate styles a Mississippi Delta Danger Blues infused with a high-voltage Jazz Abuse, on a Hellbent time signature that twisted like a pack of Tasmanian Devils on the loose... and just when you thought "this can't get more whack", the music accelerated and lifted into a riot of tangled noize flowin' into various styles competing for supremacy, all the while the singers losin' it (this wasn't music this was an all out hype-accelerated invasion of decency!) and a storm-the-normals psYcho-fusion of shrapnel-induced cacophony of musical illusion shattering our perceptions and scattering them far and wide across the lost plateau of what was formerly known as "normal music" gripped us in a collective seizure & now that we were exposed to the BLOOD BROS VIRUS there was no turning back... their music's like crack... once you get a hit, you're addicted... it don't matter if you LIKE it or not... that shit is IN you now... & you've got no choice but to go with the flow so I did, and they proceeded to mass attack my ears and shriek into my soul... and the echoes are still fading... there:  we were violated and we liked it!   

     

~ A Show For The Ages ~

NIN October, 2005, SLC

*** out of ****


I was stoned man. It was like. . . . chock fulla NIN songs. One after the other. They just kept em coming! I particularly enjoyed HEAD LIKE A HOLE (one of my alltime faves - man I can't wait for KORN to deliver their kover of it!), and that one which showed the video of all the baccili and swarming bacteria, and wildlife footage, where the song built and built . . . I don't even know the name of it! And "Terrible Lie" was fuckin awesome (I always think that song is "Tell The Lie!"

They hardly played AnYthing off The Fragile (which was kinda disappointing). . . but plenty off PHM and TDS, and even WISH from Broken (that was fuckin stellar) and one other song from that album. . . . I particularly enjoyed "Right Where It Belongs" and HURT (I think these exemplify where NIN hits me hardest: when they're at their most . . . reflective).

Every Day Is Exactly The Same sounded good. . . they closed with Starfuckers Inc (can't remember offhand if they did an encore after that...) And The Hand That Feeds sounded really tight, and loud . . . a good typical NIN footstomper "Will You BITE The Hand That FEEDS YOU, Will You Get Down On Your KNEES!" .. . Overall, a completely solid NIN performance, but I feel obligated to point out that on the scale established by 2000 FRAGILITY 2.0 TOUR --- If you give that one a 10 (which I most thoroughly do), I would ease back the dynamic rating of With_Teeth down to a more reasonable, easygoing 7 by comparison. The Fragile concert was simply a Tsunami of Sound & Vision that exceeded the most epic standards . . .it was virtually Flawless . . . a Totemic Avatar of subliminal fury merged with gargantuan, crumbling beauty . . . unlike any show I've ever seen actually . . . the 2 tours are as different as if they were provided by *2 entirely seperate bands*, really it's like day and night or something. . . .but I nonetheless enjoyed the hell out of the more "garage"-rock sounding simplicity & straightforwardness of this With Teeth tour.

MASTODON

PELICAN

Well, The Red Sparowes + PELICAN certainly delivered, last night was the perfect recipe for post rock chillin, and those 2 bands who were originally intended to headline the evening, ended up deferring that slot to MASTODON, who came in late at the last minute, because of Ozzfest having cancelled. That turned out to be a brilliant move, cuz MASTODON ain't got nuthin on either the Sparowes or Pelican.

Essentially, since Ozzfest was cancelled less than a week ago (and was to happen last night), they added Mastodon to the Pelican lineup. I was concerned about the ambience of the Red Sparowes + Pelican combo being disrupted by Mastodon's sound, but such worries were misplaced once it became evident that the 2 stateside post-rock acts were allowing Mastodon to headline, which really did organize the evenings sonic atmospherics into a much more manageable program.

We stayed to hear out Mastodon's first song, despite not wanting to disrupt the absolutely impeccable note which Pelican and the Sparowes left off with. Sure enough, it only took 1 song from Mastodon to start muddying up the otherwise lucid waters stirred up by the former two bands. We left as the 1st Mastodon song came to a clumsy, crashing, vocal-grating close, and our minds were still marveling over the impressions left by the other 2 bands.

I managed to score the last PELICAN poster, a beautiful work of art reminescent of old school posters worthy of framing.

dredg, July 26, 2005

Well dredg was a lot of fun, as usual. They were in top shape, despite Gavin's claim to the contrary (insofar as his vocals went). He said, at the beginning, that he wasn't up to par, and that he'd "redeem himself" the next time they came through town (which will be in October). However, if you ask anyone who heard the show last night, I'm sure they'd report that Gavin was in full swing, delivering a moving and powerful vocal performance, as he always does.

Dino broke a stick at one point, and later on in the set, when Gavin tried a hand at some percussion, he too broke a stick from the force of his savage drumming. It was that early song of theirs that gets all crunchy in the middle, where Gavin nearly destroys that dulcimer-like instrument. I have the worst time remembering the proper titles of dredg songs, I swear. But their music never fails to carry me away, as it always does for the whole crowd.

There was no moshing at dredg, this time. Oftentimes, there is, of course because dredg's music is powerful and intense. But though the intensity was not lessened in the least, if anything they amped it up some this time, nonetheless the crowd was way too internally tuned to the flow and ebb of their beautiful music to ruin it by thrashing about. Totally chill scene, and I got to hang out with the guys once again afterwards, had em sign my CD and exchanged pleasantries. I even told Mark & Gavin (their guitarist & vocalist, respectively) that they were my favorite new band of the 21st century - - and that the old honor went to PINK FLOYD, back in the 20th century. I think they were dutifully impressed by that.

An Impromptu RUSH review, by thoRny

*June 30, 2004, USAna Amphitheater, SLC, UT*

Well RUSH did it: they rocked our collective world for 3 Hours and Twenty Minutes, as Geddy promised. Man what a killer show. I've seen em over a dozen times, but it's like the freshness never fades. They kicked off the show with an extensive "Oldschool Rush Medley", beginning with segments from each of their albums, starting off with Finding My Way from their debut, and seamlessly riffing through Anthem, Bastille Day, parts of A Farewell To Kings (including a kickass foray into Cygnus X-1), and weaving and winding all over their early terrain with wild rocking abandon, for like a good twenty minutes it seemed. Eventually this kickass medley segued into the beginning of The Spirit Of Radio, and finally Geddy began singing for the first time, delivering us avid pack of raving RUSH fans the first official entire full-length song of the set. Talk about an amazing, inspired beginning to what ended up becoming one of the best RUSH shows I ever saw.

For the next 3 hours RUSH rocked us so hard that nobody sat down during the first half of the show, NOBODY. An hour and a half we stood up, fist-pumping, gyrating, dancing about, and singing along at the top of our lungs most of the time. I wish I had written down the setlist but instead I was having a raving good time jamming along on air guitar with Alex, pounding the invisible skins before me with Neil, and singing along with everyone else as Geddy led us through RUSH's inspired lyrics - incidentally the most thoughtful lyrics, IMO, in rock'n'roll (thanks Neil). Halfway through their show, when they launched into Between The Wheels from Grace Under Pressure, I thought to myself "This is my high point of the show, right here", but then directly after that they played Mystic Rhythms from Power Windows, which blew me away even more, and then not long after that, they ripped out an explosive rendition of 2112, keeping the intro and Temples of Syrinx parts fully intact, and bridging the interludes after that to a rousing closer, which sequed into the entire jamathon we RUSH die-hards know as La Villa Strangiata, man halfway through that one I was all "This is the best part of the show!". But then they played Red Sector A and The Trees, both of which feature lyrics chillingly effective in the shadow of September Eleventh.

In short: There were so many "HIgh Points" and pivotal moments scattered throughout the show, that before too long it became evident (especially all throughout the second set) that THE ENTIRE CONCERT WAS A FREAKING HIGH POINT!!!


Geddy picked up an acoustic guitar and joined Alex for a thoughtful duet rendition of Resist, from T4E, and it really was a beautifully moving song, showcasing RUSH's ample songwriting, ballad skills. Then they immediately launched into that Yardbirds cover, with Neil jumping in on the kit (can't remember the name of the song). It was awesome. The RUSHness just kept goin' and goin'......there were some audience members (notably girlfriends of real RUSH fans) who were tiring out towards the end, and sitting down. You could just tell they were thinking "My Lord When Will This Ever End", and I had to laugh and shake my head at the poor weaklings who couldn't take THE ROCK UNT ROLLLLLLL! LOL

Of course Neil launched into one of his standard, awe-inducing, superhuman, quantum-rhythmic, plain GODLY drum soloes which lasted a good ten minutes or more, peaking into a hilarious "chopsticks" segue interpolating classic imagery onscreen of jazz-age drummers & flapper girls dancing hysterically. You had to have been there, leave it said the Neilster proved yet again that there is simply no one on the planet that can hold a candle to his superhuman percussive skills. Fucking mindblowing.

They finished their Godly Set with Limelight, and said Good Night. One of the coolest things Geddy said was something along the lines of "Hope to see you next time around", which confirmed the secret hopes of every true RUSH fan there: these old rockers ain't done with us yet.

*Feb 7, 2005* Lo-Fi Cafe, SLC

BEHEMOTH were really on it. They were tighter than last year's show touring with SIX FEET UNDER and SKINLESS. Except for they played a longer set last year. So the only thing I could complain about was the brevity of last night's set; however, it was an assured attack from these old hands at dealing sonic death and darkness. Nergal has his moves down pat, he's a natural showman. Their drummer stayed at the borderline of being so fast his rolls were a crisp blur. They ended their 4 song set with the title-track from their latest album, DEMIGOD.

SUFFOCATION really outdid themselves. I've been listening to their reunion album SOULS TO DENY on vinyl, and I actually like it despite the fact it doesn't quite add up to the unique vibe they used to deal out in the old days. However, I really think it an accomplished piece of technical death dealing. And let me tell you: their live performances of these new songs was nothing short of lethal. Super chugged amped up death chords wrapped in shiny twisted barbed wire lead guitar soloes, all accompanied by Frank Mullen's deep bass vocal grunting, it was a visceral set. They played more oldschool stuff than new, actually, and they succeeded in opening up the most vicious pits of the night, by a long shot. I stayed along the inner wall, and shoved fuckers back in.

It was one helluva successful night of fury, darkness, and mayhem.

Colonel Claypool's Bucket O' Bernie Brains *live!* 10/21/04: The Velvet Room, Salt Lake City

   The crowd was packed with sloshing beers and the stage was all set up and one lone individual (that may have been Ray Charles' long lost sibling) sat behind a Frankenstein keyboard, and with a flourish of his nimble digits produced a series of hollowed out trills that began spiraling & blossoming from the amps in building steppes of further intricacy until a satisfying apotheosis of resonance reached a deep plateau reverberating the columns and walls. Glasses of beer on various tables began slightly vibrating, expanding ripples like right outta Jurassic Park, and that's when I knew we were in for a Tyrannosaurus Rex of a funked-out rock show. After this extended intro on the synthesizer (brought to the packed & chattering crowd by the Maestro Bernie Worrell), I thought to myself "Rick Wakeman, sit yer ass down," and Buckethead strode out on stage with his signature Kentucky Fried Chicken Bucket on his head and long black hair, he moved like a marionette and immediately began stenciling out sporadic, intricate digital bleeps from the strings of his electric guitar with a series of impossibly quick and mechanized riffs, at which point BRAIN took the seat behind his drumset cockpit and released bursts of syncopation on his tomtoms with effortless gestures of his wrists, and the Man of the Hour w/the Psychedelic Power took stage right and kicked off the night with an impossibly dexterous attack on his phat coiled strings and now, the Colonel and his Bucket O' Bernie Brains launched in Full Force from their stacks, peaking their crescendo so the crowd felt it in all the way in the back. I had been anticipating PRAXIMUS, and that's just what we got--or maybe better yet, PRIMAX FUNKADELIC so it's a good most everyone was stoned out of their gourd one way or another because the carnival atmosphere funhouse of FUNK reached such heights of dizzying spunk there were no holds barred as the pits flat out erupted and all sense of complacency was suddenly disrupted. I mean let's get real for a second here, we were a soul-slapped choir, witness to the power fusion melodynamics of Les Claypool, Buckethead, Brain, and the legendary Bernie Worrell, anyone with a quarter-brain shoulda known well the night would rival a party thrown by old Saint Nick in Hell. Les had even stated in the paper that day that the set would be a freakshow directed by Tobe Hooper w/a soundtrack by Danny Elfman on a bad acid trip(!)... Well it was more like a pulp hybrid musical as envisioned by George Lucas and Stanley Kubrick, as Buckethead riffed on Star Wars and Darth Vader themes elicited from his ceaseless noodling along with excerpts from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Willy Wonka, and at one point, Claypool came back out onstage in a monkey mask and played a slapstick parody of the Naked Ape on an upright homemade whammy-stick bass, bending that funk right in our face, slappin' out notes with the bow of a fiddle, sowin' wild oats in a psychedelic riddle with his goggles and safari hat Les taught us all a lesson that we will not forget, that the Colonel's newest outfit is the tightest fitted yet. With Bernie on the synth-ivories worrying them so well laying down some wicked grooves to weave us in a spell while the Brain behind the battery syncopated rather well in fact he fired off percussive frills with such inventive fills the moshing started up again from the drum solo alone, and Claypool started rhythms that became so damn insane the crowd around me right up front became a hurricane of swirling spinning bodies in a spastic tribal dance with plastic beer mugs held on high and spilling on my pants and before I even knew it my brain was in a trance so there was really nothing to it but to just get out and prance amidst the mob, like a pack of jumping beans the FunK was so outrageous it shook the very beams and teleported everyone beyond their wildest dreams in a delirium quite contagious. Let it never be said or led into your head that C2B3 is a novelty cuz they're the real deal instead & if you're thinking of going to this show but change your mind you deserve some serious whoopin' on that lazy ass behind, so best take my advice on this most serious matter: beg buy borrow or steal so you too can be a witness to this crew & their Mad Hatter.

OCTOBER 1ST, 2004: BURT'S TIKI LOUNGE DESTROYED IN ALL OUT RIOT

Obliterate Plague, Beyond This Flesh, IBEX THRONE

Well, the suppurating DarkneSS & black power of evil was in full effect Friday October 1st @ Burt's Tiki Lounge - (1 of the Top 20 "dive bars" in America!) - my friends in THE OBLITERATE PLAGUE set the stage for chAos with an unrelenting set of pure focused mayhem, everyone got loosened up & drunk & ready to roar, then BEYOND THIS FLESH played and by that time the mosh up front was in full effect, beer bottles & all, and finally the night's pitch black headliners in IBEX THRONE took the stage and that's when the real chaos erupted: they began about 5 minutes before last call, so the bartender was all pissy and there was these punks from ENDLESS STRUGGLE in the bar who didn't like the looks of Lord Dying, one of Ibex's guitarists, nor his skinhead appearance or questionable tattoos, so suddenly the bartender is suckerpunching LD in the back of the neck, this kid from Endless Struggle smacks my friend Pat from the PAGAN DEAD upside the head with a beer bottle, and the riot was on! Everything went from fun drunken moshing to going-for-the-throat rage and chaos, as more people added to the clusterfuck and next thing you know, fights were breakin out left and right, a few of us got wise and headed out the door, and moments later the knot of rioters spilled out onto the sidewalk, I unlocked my bike just in the nick of time to avoid it getting flattened undert the wackoes, and suddenly 2 cops are there chasin' Casey also from PAGAN DEAD, who looks kinda like Danzig and he was sprintin ahead of these 2 rookies who didn't even know how to run right, they came straight at me and Casey ditches to the left leaving one cop skidding off and the other one takin a hard ass spill to the concrete -- his cellphone goes clattering away -- and then my friend Tony is facing off this other cop, right in his face threatening to split it wide open!, that cop was like a deer in the headlights -- Tony is one hard motherfucker -- and right then the cop who took the spill got up and started callin for backup, so more of us began headin outta there, I kinda swooped wide on my bike and stayed on the periphery just to make sure all my friends were accounted for and not getting their skulls cracked open. Meanwhile Ibex & Obliterate are haulin their amps & gear outta there, I pass by the front and look inside and there is broken glass, bottles, busted chairs, and blood all over the floor and walls -- the place was wrecked -- so I took off on my bicycle and headed over to Ibex's recording studio & met up with the guys in the band, helped em unload their gear, and we kept on drinkin and partying in their soundproofed studio until 4 in the mornin, at which point I caught a ride out to Midvale, where the rest of the blackmetal freaks and rockers were hangin, along with Pagan Pat who received homemade stitches from our own Vanessa, he was swearin to god that he was going to personally hunt down every last member of ENDLESS STRUGGLE and kill them the next day. Well Burt's had advertised kickin' off "October Madness" with Obliterate Plague + Ibex Throne, and a night of real black metal is precisely what they got, total destruction and anarchy, it was a freakin riot. Needless to say, that show has already gone down in history here as their greatest show yet, cross one more bar off the list where they can play, man there aren't that many bars left in this city! \m/

EARLY AUGUST, 2004

Thylacine, Lord Beherit, OBLITERATE PLAGUE

Saw the destined-for-the-hall-of-fame Underground Death Metal show @ Burt's Tiki Lounge featuring Thylacine (locals I never heard of) + LORD BEHERIT (my friends LD, Azelcraz, Rocker, & Russell, most of em from Ibex Throne), and Headliners THE OBLITERATE PLAGUE, homegrown Cthulhuian Black Death Metal of Dessicating Infernal Blasphemic Hategrind. My friend Tony (of Anima Nera & Taught By Birds) played the scorching brimstone lead guitar, while Berzerker helmed the front mic + guitar, bringing down the house into a sadistic fury of wailing, screeching bedlam and drunken anarchy. Man was it ever the best -- we all got so freaKing drunk, I had to call in the next day. I'm telling you this show will live on in the Memory of Underground shows for Time Immemorial. Obliterate Plague did a razorsharp, pummeling cover of TORMENTED by the one & only SLAYER, and that nearly brought down the house right there. Fucking Sweet Evil Bliss.

KORN LIVE MARCH 9, 1997, LEWISTON MAINE
review'd by shaun lawton, aka thoRngrub

KoRn's assault on us a coupla months ago hammerblasting thunkfuNk jitteRs SCREAMout lashing bitlip bursting poison foulsprayed blinding venom shrieKrending Catharsis Cacophany smashing your face to a brutal pulp with searing haTred generated in 1 Instant by David's sTep and Fieldy's siGnal UNcoiled on us like a VIPERSTRIKE between the eyes narrowed under bunched muscles Jaws locked-open neck-cordons tauT whiplashing kicks and violent fisthooks senselsess screaming buried in a slamming tidal wave of quick-shifTing current Walls of Sound, puncTuated w/Head & Munky's trade-off marks the Indelible Wind-Up jacK-in-the-boX-gone-HAYwire SQUeeKS!! and ominous slithering-into-dark-recesses of DOOMFUZZ static only to suddenly say to you YOU'RE FUCKED IN EVERY WAY was TESTIFIED by the UNANIMOUS bodyslamming in a Darkness That Seemed Real, you wanna know what's REAL? When I went to this, my 5th koRn show, the black curtains parted revealing stark strobelit hung bodies from the ceiling oh gawd KORN HAD HUNG THEMSELVES--!!!agrghkjh!! OH No stupidfukkers-had-enuff (wait it's just sex-dolls hung from nooses) then TWISt ReeT! and they lashed out sputtering bass thumping mass crowdhysterics Mosh-Hell erupts suddenly a LOST REALITY no way to fight my inner self esteem how low can i go-- after BLIND I worked my way over to the right side near the front stage and climbed up a few steps in the bleachers, to take a break and get an excellent view of the band and was able to closely watch each of the guys in their respective roles.

First there's FIELDY--w/his low-slung bass over wide cut jeans bustin' even lower, a twin-belled cap completed the effect of some kind of giant elf who can KICK YOUR ASS WITH HIS BASS. Then there was DAVID--not so much seen as FELT, a Cheshire-blur eXpertly one Beat ahead of the REst, then you guessed it JONATHAN-IN-YOUR-FACE ScarecRow dementia lookin like a RagDoll gettin shook up in a Wolf's Jaws or a gliTTerZombie hooked into a LiveWire or a Spaz-attacked Dreadnought locked-up FREAK lightning-bolted to a MAD Voltage, Psycho-Babble-Daddy goin' HAYWIRE ON THE MAINSTREAM; all the while grinnin' shadows loomin watching over Standing Guard MUNKY in his one-piece-jammies & brian HEAD sQUELCHin Fed-back spiKes they're tradin' off licks with their Pitchforks shiftin the music to a sKary STOP/ lashing w/PEG-dreads-head-bangin in UNISON three-fingered Anthem Chords ripped out in sonic stitchwork: these parodies of nursery rhymes were given a PROPER WORKOUT, as were we fukkers in the tumultuous piTs. Long Live Korn my favorite musicians. Their banner will unfurl over our cracked skies for a LONG time to come. HAIL KORN--WE LOVE YOU! ~Thorn Grub