And speaking of rejoicing, saw today that one of my ‘dream concert’ pairings is actually gonna happen – Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper.

I know what you’re thinking.  “Rev, didn’t you say in a post a while back that you didn’t think Zombie would be touring much longer?  In fact, Rev. . .didn’t you say you thought the LAST tour was, well. . . the LAST tour??”

My rebuttal, if you were in fact paying that much attention to what I posted so long ago, is “Dude, seriously?  Don’t you have better sites to hang out on?”.  Ok, ok – my rebuttal is actually a simple “yes”.  With Hollywood yapping at his heels, I’m as surprised (albeit pleasantly) as anyone that Mr. Zombie has chosen to resist the Glamour Town siren song a little longer & stay sweaty on the stage in front of loyal metal hellhounds.

Now as always, I just hope I’m able to be one of those hellhounds one more time. Come to Columbus gentlemen – even though Rob is already signed up for Rock On The Range, we’d all go see him twice!

So there were two opening acts but since the show was sold-out and security was uber-tight, the wife and I waited it out at the A&R Music Bar next door.  Thus, didn’t see Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures but was told I didn’t miss anything.  Still, in all fairness I can’t say if I agree or not.

The first act we did catch were the Nekromantix out of Cali.  They play pretty standard Psychobilly/Punk but I still enjoyed them enough to buy a CD.  Added bonus is the lovely Lux on drums – wow, that girl can play!

Then came Zombie & Co. kicking it oldschool and taking no prisoners.  They sounded great, and played mostly old hits with only a few new songs sprinkled in to catch your interest.  Didn’t feel like the entire show was a sales pitch for the new CD, which is always good.

From a visual perspective, the band had a huge Jumbotron screen behind them and two smaller versions on either side.  While this is becoming more and more common with tours (probably easier to set-up/take down),  I do still prefer the old White  Zombie sets with tons of props, mannequins and the like.  Don’t get me wrong, there were still plenty of shooting flames, explosions, dancing robots (I can never remember that thing’s name) and the like – just a noticeable step down from days of yore.

That being said, aside from ticket & t-shirt prices ($35 for a shirt!), I can’t really complain about this show.  Zombie and his band played their hearts out & still act like they enjoy working together – which in the end is what you came to see, right?  Catch this tour if you can ’cause like I said, this may be your last chance to do so.

Zombie’s set list;

• Channel X
• Superbeast
• Supercharger Heaven
• Living Dead Girl
• Demon Speeding
• More Human Than Human
• Sick Bubblegum
• House of 1,000 Corpses/Drum Solo
• Never Gonna Stop
• Scum of the Earth
• What?
• American Witch
• Thunderkiss ‘65/guitar solo
• Demonoid Phenomenon
• Lords of Salem (one of my personal fav’s)
• Dragula

The mighty Dethklok rolled into town on Tuesday, and I’m glad to say I survived the event. If you ever watch the show Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network, then you know just how dangerous a Dethklok show can be.  While I was there, few dismemberments or impalings occurred (at least that I noticed).

It was a sold out show, so by the time I had had the obligatory cheaper beers at the bar next door and then gotten past security, I arrived just in time to hear High on Fire say “Thank you, good night”. Bummer.

Next up was the screamcore outfit known as Converge. Very heavy, driving hardcore/metal that has no gray area; you either love them or hate them. Personally, I liked them but they are definitely an acquired taste (must be all that Anal Cunt I’ve been listening to that softened me up for them?). They counted down how many songs they had left in their set so you know they’ve caught their share of flack on this tour. Sad really.

Mastodon followed almost an hour and half set that included their entire new CD ‘Crack the Sky’ BUT neither of their two earlier songs that I really dig – “March of the Fire Ants” & “Colony of Birchman”. Getting to be a trend with me, that bands aren’t playing the stuff I most want to hear when I see them live. Regardless, Mastodon has become, in my opinion, more stoner metal now so the setlist was heavy, but slower paced (and occasionally tedious). Still a good set to see live but I do prefer the older material.

Dethklok were last and well worth the wait. I’d heard that they usually opened with a short animated clip, but then the rest of the show was just the actual band playing live. Not so anymore. With a massive jumbotron behind them, Brendon Small & Co. had active animation going the entire show. Some were clips from the TV series, a lot seemed new. Now I know what you’re thinking – “really Rev, a TV show band?”. They’re the real deal folks. A bonafide melodic Death Metal act that lost no audience from openers Mastodon and easily channeled the crowd into multiple pits across the room. Talented, heavy as hell and relentlessly pummeling the crowd, I would not hesitate to see these guys again.

Here’s their setlist as stolen from Metalsetlists.com;

• Theme
• Bloodlines
• Burn The Earth
• Hatredcopter
• Black Fire Upon Us
• Birthday Dethday
• Dethjingle
• Dethsupport
• Awaken
• The Gears
• Murmurder
• Thunderhorse
• Go Into The Water
• Fansong

Amazing brutal concert!  I remain a loyal fan!! (Pic stolen from Photobucket)

First up was hardcore-ish act From Sword To Sunrise (or FSTS as they’re sometimes called) out of Spokane, Washington. Decent energy, good stage presence. Fairly straight-forward screamcore, but well done.

Next were the surprisingly melodic Maylene & The Sons of Disaster. What a name, right? Just call’em MATSOD. And no, there was no female singer named Maylene fronting this six piece out of Birmingham, Alabama – as I understand it the name is a Ma Barker reference.  Anyhow, the boys’ appearance reminds me a little of the band Stillwater from the movie ‘Almost Famous’ but their sound is very heavy southern.  With THREE guitarists (holy Iron Maiden, Batman!) I was really digging their multi-layered rhythms and singable harmonies.  A big surprise and a group I would definitely see again.

After Maylene, we had the always enjoyable Goth/Alt. metal band Lacuna Coil from Milan, Italy. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen these folks, but they never fail to impress. Plus I kinda have a thing for singer Cristina Scabbia – hell, who doesn’t? Still, their newer stuff is dark, heavy and plays well live. Bassist Marco Coti Zelati had injured his arm, so the band openly admitted to playing along with his previously taped bass parts. No biggie really, and it was cool when his bandmates yelled for him to join them at the autograph table after the show. Gotta love the cohesive team vibe.

Headliners All That Remains completed the lineup with another piledriving performance, complete with an amazing wall of death in the moshpit at the end of show. Kudos to singer Phil Labonte as he orchestrated the maneuver for reminding everyone “No one leaves the floor injured. Take care of each other”. It worked, I didn’t see a drop of blood. If you’re unfamiliar with the wall of death, think of ‘red rover’ done to a metal song. Yeah, pretty brutal.

After the show, and thanks to my buddy Courtney, we were actually able to get backstage to the meet & greet for ATR. This was a blast, and totally worth the lack of sleep to see my girls chatting up bassist Jeanne Sagan, goofing around with guitarist Oli Herbert, and hugging the stuffing out of Phil Labonte. I gotta hand it to the band, every member seemed down to earth & appreciative of their fans. At least three times I heard one of them say “We’re just normal people. We’re just like you”. Very, very cool and what I hope is a wonderful memory for my kids – to be able to meet your favorite band and find out they’re decent folks to boot!

Great show, definitely one to remember.

Arrived at the show in time to catch the final few minutes of Psychic Ills. Mmmmk. To me, and I gotta be honest here, it was about 15 minutes (all one ’song’) of noise. Ambient noise, if that’s even possible. Hell, I’ve seen opening acts for Skinny Puppy that made more sense. But perhaps, coming in late to the show, I missed something. Like a complimentary round of Prozac. Dunno.

Anyhow, then the “classic” line-up of Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, Jeff Pinkus (who kindly had his last name on his bass strap to help us all out), King Coffey, and Teresa Taylor took the stage. “Glad we’re all still alive” announced Gibby. Was he talking about the audience or his band mates? I’m thinkin’ the later.

They were loud, they were psycho-aggressive (in an unusual ‘Pink Floyd’ kinda way), and they had a huge screen behind them showing clips of movies and other strangeness (definitely some serious ‘Return of the Living Dead’ footage, I noticed). Gibby wielded a sax and his legendary ‘Gibbytronix’ mixing board to full effect, even singing through a bullhorn for a few songs (also legendary). Paul Leary is a prototype Tom Morello. . .using pick-scraping & other funkiness to create all sorts of strange sounds which was frankly, mesmerizing to behold.

Truthfully, the whole show was quite amazing and I was glad to be there EXCEPT FOR TWO THINGS. Call me sell-out, call me poser [cough, cough pewser cough}. When a band has a Billboard top 40 hit, and they’re ‘reunited’ for a tour, I WANNA HEAR IT! That’s right children, they did not play “Pepper”. Nope, not a smidge. They did play “Who Was in My Room Last Night?” (which I haven’t been able to get out of my head since, BTW), but no “Pepper”. Secondly, there was no burning cymbal (thanks Gibby).

ok, ok. It was still a Surfers show, and a damn good one. Just was hoping for the ‘complete’ show. That’s all I’m sayin’. Go see them if they come to your town. Or rent Guitar Hero II, y’know?

Fuck it. Here’s “Pepper”, the lame-ass ‘official’ version. I know some of you peckerheads don’t know the song, enjoy.

Tomorrow night is All That Remains & Lacuna Coil. Both shows are at the Newport Music Hall, so I should be pretty familiar with security by Wednesday. Not that I get into much trouble these days . . . but back in the day you had to know your security personnel to avoid a ’situation’. Guess old habits die hard.

Wednesday night is Hanson. KIDDING. Well, not really – they ARE playing here but I’m sure as hell not attending. That’s a mean moshpit, at those Hanson shows (damn elbow throwing tweens).

Oh, and go rent ‘Trick R’ Treat’ while I’m out. It’s awesome! Hometown boy from Columbus penned/directed a really good (albeit bloody) Halloween flick.

The beer sampling was hit and miss; some were great – Abita’s Purple Haze & Bear Republic’s Red Rocket.  Some, not so much – Magic Hat’s Lucky Kat and Christian Moerlein’s Friend of an Irishman didn’t do anything for me (perhaps ’cause I don’t like to chew my beer).  But at $1 for a 3 oz. sample, I tried plenty of strange brews to consider on my next trip to a finer beer store, or Whole Foods.

Comedian-wise, there were a lot of ‘meh’ acts but a few real gems.  Jimmy Walker (JJ from “Good Times”) was pretty funny, but I honestly didn’t know who he was until after he was off the stage. My wife got his autograph without knowing who he was (AWKWARD). That’s the problem when a skinny guy gets older – no one knows who the hell he is anymore. Believe me, it happens to me all the time!

Other lesser knowns were the highlight of the festival. Such as Julie Scoggins;

And my favorite of the evening, headliner John Henton (Obie from Living Single) channeled Bill Cosby as he tore through an hour set that literally left many of us wiping away tears. I had a drink with the guy later (he was staying at the Hilton too!) and found him kind & soft spoken. I wish him well . . . and a damn HBO special. This man is FUNNY!

I liked pretty much every band in the afternoon line-up on the Killian’s Celtic rock stage (1 of SEVEN stages they have at this event every year).

First up were the Irish rockers out of L.A.,  the Young Dubliners, who were accompanied by special guest Eric Rigler – the pipe player/composer behind movies like ‘Braveheart’ and ‘Titanic’.  They greeted everyone good morning (it was almost 1pm) and apologized for making us get up so early on a Sunday morning.  Knew right then I was gonna like these guys.   Text book Celtic rock and very good stuff.  Rigler was given a few moments to showcase his solo work & started off by playing the intro to ‘Voodoo Chile’ on the pipes.  Very cool!

Next up was a group called POGEY out of Halifax, Nova Scotia who played a country/Irish hybrid fused with rock and pop.  A little mellow but still good stuff!

Perennial favorite & self proclaimed ‘Adrenaline Peddlers’  Scythian were next, playing to a packed house after we waited for security to remove the first 13 rows of chairs.   I cannot rave enough about these guys; talented, eclectic and completely comfortable with the crowd, they play their own brew of Celtic, Gypsy and Country with a sharp dose of rock for good measure.  Destined to be a big commercial success in my opinion – or at the very least good fundraising fodder for your local PBS station.

Prodigals followed and I didn’t care much for them.  They’re just too slow, too mellow and generally not my cup of tea.  If you or someone you know likes them, more power to ya’.  I headed for the beer booth.

Lastly, and most surprisingly were the punk rock ensemble know as Street Dogs (pictured).  Vocalist Mike McColgan (formerly of the Dropkick Murphys) and his band of merry lunatics whipped the dwindling but zealous crowd into a frothing frenzy by the fourth song in – despite repeated warnings against moshing from the event organizers.  Beer spraying, lighting rig climbing, fist pumping, good ole’ fashioned oldschool punk with an Irish flavor.  Had to buy a t-shirt from these guys, just too much fun.  And LOUD, OMG painfully loud but I enjoyed every second.  Somehow, I think the Irish Festival folks didn’t know what they were getting into with this band.  Will be interesting to see if they get invited back (my vote is a hearty ‘yes’, but put them on Saturday night instead, mmk?).

Overall, a great time was had by all.  My numb ears and I look forward to going for more than one damn day next year, loading up on the Bangers and ogling a few pretty cloggers.    And I WILL get a kilt, I swear I will!  Next time . . .

Three significant acts I saw this weekend are Ball & Chain, Thunderstuck and Stranglehold.  Keep in mind, I usually don’t care much for tribute acts as I’d rather see either the real thing or hear originals.  Just my preference.  But each of these bands stood above the rest for one reason or another.  Here’s the breakdown;

Stranglehold – Ok, truthfully, didn’t actually get to hear these guys as we arrived too late on Friday but did spend a few minutes with drummer Frankie Garisto (ex-The Godz/American Dog) on Saturday.  According to Frankie, guitarist/vocalist Ronnie Hughes is a former guitar tech for the Motor City madman himself, and even sports some previously owned Nuge gear as part of the act.  Who better to do a tribute to Uncle Ted than someone who’s had to set up his equipment a few 100 times?  I’ll make sure to hear these guys when next they’re in C-bus.

Thunderstruck – These guys opened with “Hell’s Bell’s” and I watched the crowd rush to gather around them as if Angus himself was prancing the stage.  All in all, they had a pretty decent resemblance to the real AC/DC but whoa, it was their ability to reproduce the songs that blew me away (and everyone else, for that matter).   For about 5 minutes at the end of their set, I thought we were in for a riot as the crowd demanded ‘One more, ONE MORE!’ but were denied by the venue management.  How often does a tribute band get that kind of respect?

Last but certainly not least was Ball & Chain, a masterful tribute to the work of Janis Joplin. They didn’t look so much like Big Brother & The Holding Co. as they freakin’ SOUNDED exactly like them. I mean, “close your eyes and you’re there” sound like them.  Vocalist Geri Ciacchi needs an exorcist ’cause she’s possessed by all that is Janis Joplin.  No wait, scratch that & hide the holy water – we all benefit from the spirit of Pearl still being amongst us.  Haven’t had ‘Mercedes Benz’ outta my head since I saw their show.

That, and the distant sound of bongos. . .

Of the headliners this year, I was most impressed by Kansas, Dennis DeYoung of Styx and 38 Special.   Not so much by Survivor or Asia (go figure, eh?).  I’ve always wanted to check out a Kansas show and now I cannot recommend them enough.  Technically proficient, extremely talented 5 piece that have been jamming together now 35 years (most of them, anyways).  I’d heard that singer/keyboardist Steve Walsh didn’t sound as good anymore – thankfully that couldn’t be more untrue.  Steve sounded exactly like on their albums, even on difficult tracks like ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’.

38 Special I’ve seen before, knew what to expect and they didn’t disappoint.  There are precious few decent southern rock bands left from the 80’s/90’s, glad to see Don Barnes & Donnie Van Zant are still kickin’ it oldschool.  And yeah, they played all their hits plus a medley of the 90’s soundtrack songs like “Back to Paradise” off the Revenge of the Nerds II soundtrack.

Now I expected Dennis DeYoung to be well, a bit tough to sit through.  After all, the man wrote  two of the most everlasting and schmaltzy ballads on radio – ‘Lady’ & ‘Babe’.   But he also performed ‘The Best of Times’ and ‘Mr. Roboto’ which are guilty pleasures for me ’cause they remind me of high school.  DeYoung has a great backing band and sounds timeless so I was pleasantly surprised by his set (ok, and winced a few times during the ballads).

I’ll talk about some of the great tribute bands I saw over the past 3 days, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.  Dead tired now.  Damn kids.