Rick's Recap (now with video!)

Ok, it's been a couple days since the Rule 17/Vindictus show at Rick's. It was a really fun last hurrah for Vindictus who we've played with quite a bit over the years.

Our set was the first we had played since last November, as we took December off. It went off pretty well, though. The fun thing about openers is that you can kind of concentrate more on the dynamics of the set rather than just set lengths, as often gets to be the case when you're doing the "dance band" rotation (set, break, set, break, set, end).

This time around, we decided that we definitely had to do what tunes Troy, Dave, and I had done at the first 7th Seal show. Unfortunately, of those songs there are only a couple which have survived over the last 8 years. The only original at the time was "Original Sin", and one of the covers was "Children of the Sea". Dave's wife caught video of Children of the Sea (a.k.a. "Chicken of the Sea".

At the end, I grab a pitcher of water (the post-Dio water grab - that tune does a number on me), and keel over laughing because Aaron requested "Psionic Illuminations" by the Lord Weird Slough Feg, which was also played at the first 7th Seal show (and he guessed it, too).

Another one that we had been batting around for quite a while was Powerslave by Iron Maiden. If you have 2 lead guitars, it's hard to not play a lot of Iron Maiden - it's kind of like having an Ortega Taco Kit and not making tacos. This was technically the first new cover tune since 2007, and it actually went pretty well for us only having run through it 3 times.

Vindictus played 2 sets, had a bunch of guests on stage, and a good time was generally had by all. We in Rule 17 would like to wish our Fargo metal cohorts in Vindictus (all members past and present) the best in their future endeavors. We've shared a lot of stages over the years, and have really appreciated all of the good times we've shared since 2005.

Travis

Vindictus at Rick's, Jan 26

Ok, the holidays are over, and the time has come to get off our collective duffs and deliver some metal to all of you good folks in the Fargo-Moorhead area. On January 26th, we will be performing with Vindictus at what will be their last show.

I originally meant to get this blog out sooner, thinking I might have some pictures from past shows with Vindictus. Couldn't find them, but I bet they'd be pretty funny.

I think 7th Seal first played with Vindictus back in 2005 at the old Eastgate as part of a multiple band thing. Since then, we've played with them roughly 40,000 times (give or take). We played with Vindictus at the second-to-last 7th Seal show, it was with Vindictus that we played the first show as "Rule 17" not quite a year ago, and now we'll be playing with them for what is their final show.

There's always something that sucks about a band calling it a day, but at the same time 9 years is an incredibly good run for a metal band in Fargo. So we're happy and honored to raise the horn (and the volume) with these guys one last time. Skål!