Last night was probably one of the shortest sets we've ever played, but it was a ridiculously fun show.
Reverence of Apostasy kicked off the evening with a short, intense set of metal. If death metal is your cup of tea, then these guys are definitely worth checking out.
We hit the stage for a half hour set. Now, we've been at this for some time through the years, and I can't remember ever playing a half hour set before. We're so used to trying to fill 2 hours that the notion of dropping songs just seems crazy. We managed to drop some stuff on the fly so that there would be sufficient time for Red Lamb to get rolling at 10:30.
Red Lamb were great., That's pretty much an understatement. Dan Spitz has put together a really strong touring lineup for that band, and I hope that a follow-up album to their debut features all of these guys. The Red Lamb material translated really well live, we were all front and center diggin' it. The Anthrax material that they did went over REALLY well. It was interesting to hear it with one guitar, but it really did work. I've always maintained that Danny Spitz has always been underrated as a player, and listening to him play from 5 feet away, I'm going to amend that by saying "tragically underrated". The guy's a monster.
Candy Machine Guns closed the show. At this point, my hearing was pretty well dying, but they sounded good to me. Really high energy modern hard rock/metal with some industrial influences. Lots of cool sound stuff happening with these guys. They're at the Legacy Ballroom next weekend (I think the 30th) so if you missed them this time around, check them out there.
One thing that makes shows like this so cool is when you get levels of camaraderie and mutual respect between nationals, touring acts, and local openers. Everybody at the show was cool and fun to hang out with - no ridiculous egos or anything like that. Our friends and fans were awesome as always. We always appreciate your support, and hope you have as much fun as we do.
On a final note, the whole point in Dan Spitz doing Red Lamb is to raise autism awareness. As I had mentioned in my previous post, he and his wife have idential twin sons with autism. For those who've never dealt with autism in any form, it's hard to really imagine the difficulties involved. One thing that he had mentioned is that the rate of children being born with or developing autism is still increasing. They're saying 1 in 50 at this point (they used to say 1 in 150). That's pretty scary, particularly when looking at what the future holds for people with very profound cases of it. My wife and I have dealt with some neurological issues with our son, (not autism, but that was one thing that the doctors were considering when he was about 2-3 years old). Something we sort of anecdotally noticed was that a huge amount of available data about autism and other neurological/communicative issues came from English universities. The USA needs to step up its game and start seriously funding research the way we fund research for other diseases, because at the rate things are going we're going to have a pretty massive health and human services issue in a couple of decades.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Respect the Badge! Red Lamb @ the Nestor - March 23
I'm massively excited for our next show, which is with former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz's new band Red Lamb.
For those who haven't been keeping up, this is something Spitz has been working on since the last "Among the Living" Anthrax reunion 6 or so years ago. He teamed up with Dave Mustaine on writing and production, and is taking the whole thing on the road in order to raise autism awareness. Yep, autism awareness. Dan Spitz has identical twin sons with autism. If you've checked out any of their tunes, that fact is pretty evident in the lyrics. Looks like they're doing a mix of Red Lamb and Anthrax tunes, which should make for a very cool set.
Other bands playing are Candy Machine Guns, who at this very moment I know very little about, but it appears that they're touring with Red Lamb for at least a number of dates. Reverence of Apostasy is playing as well. If you haven't heard Reverence of Apostasy, now's your chance. If you haven't heard OF them, then odds are you're actually even more out of touch than I am, which means you should probably win some sort of trophy or something.
Oh yeah, and RULE 17 is playing! We're all pretty stoked about this show, naturally since we're all old Anthrax fans. Back when we were known as 7th Seal, we used to do "I Am the Law" at most shows. No, we won't be doing it for this one - that's bad taste.
So Saturday, March 23rd, go to the Nestor and check it out!
For those who haven't been keeping up, this is something Spitz has been working on since the last "Among the Living" Anthrax reunion 6 or so years ago. He teamed up with Dave Mustaine on writing and production, and is taking the whole thing on the road in order to raise autism awareness. Yep, autism awareness. Dan Spitz has identical twin sons with autism. If you've checked out any of their tunes, that fact is pretty evident in the lyrics. Looks like they're doing a mix of Red Lamb and Anthrax tunes, which should make for a very cool set.
Other bands playing are Candy Machine Guns, who at this very moment I know very little about, but it appears that they're touring with Red Lamb for at least a number of dates. Reverence of Apostasy is playing as well. If you haven't heard Reverence of Apostasy, now's your chance. If you haven't heard OF them, then odds are you're actually even more out of touch than I am, which means you should probably win some sort of trophy or something.
Oh yeah, and RULE 17 is playing! We're all pretty stoked about this show, naturally since we're all old Anthrax fans. Back when we were known as 7th Seal, we used to do "I Am the Law" at most shows. No, we won't be doing it for this one - that's bad taste.
So Saturday, March 23rd, go to the Nestor and check it out!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Sticky in Nevada - The JT Cigarro Saga
Last night, we shared the stage with Sex Knuckle, who were nice enough to let us open for them. We hadn't played JT Cigarro before, so it was a really nice chance to get a foot in the door there. Every time we get to play somewhere new, it's a little victory for us.
Our set went pretty well, all things considered. JT's has a small stage, and with a bit of extra gear, it crowds up fast. One nice thing about JTs layout, though, is that you get people up by the stage. So often we play and I can't see more than a couple of heads outlined when the lights are on, so it's fun to be able to see everybody out there.
Here's a video of "Awake" -
http://youtu.be/bsTkxZ5Ow4E
Overall, it seemed to go over pretty well, and was quite a bit of fun. Somebody mentioned that for playing heavy music, I sure smile a lot. There's a simple answer for that - it's because it's fun! On the most basic level, it's insanely fun to plug a guitar into an irresponsibly loud amp and go "dern-dern-dern". Doing that with friends who are also inordinately loud just exponentially increases the fun factor.
During set break, Joel Carlson and I decided that Sex Knuckle should have a song or album named "Sticky in Nevada". Neither of us really knows that that means, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The not-so-fun part of the evening was the after effect of cold and flu season. I was fighting phlegm during our set, and Samantha from Sex Knuckle was also fighting similar vocal fatigue. Unfortunately, this meant that they had to cut their set short after a valiant effort. That was when the brainstorming began.
Rich Lahren and Cale Schjeldrup from Relevant were there, so they got up with the Chrises (Ellingson, from Sex Knuckle and Fritz, from Rule 17 and Relevant) and did some tunes - really well! Then Dave grabbed his bass and I grabbed Ellingson's guitar - and we played "Genocide" from the 7th Seal album (NEVER have done that with 1 guitar), "Lights Out" by UFO, and "Running With the Devil" by Van Halen. Cale joined us and gave me a much-needed vocal break on "Revelations".
All in all, a fun time! Now, it's a couple weeks and a couple rehearsals, then we open for Dan Spitz (former Anthrax lead guitarist) and his new band Red Lamb at the Nestor March 23rd.
Our set went pretty well, all things considered. JT's has a small stage, and with a bit of extra gear, it crowds up fast. One nice thing about JTs layout, though, is that you get people up by the stage. So often we play and I can't see more than a couple of heads outlined when the lights are on, so it's fun to be able to see everybody out there.
Here's a video of "Awake" -
http://youtu.be/bsTkxZ5Ow4E
Overall, it seemed to go over pretty well, and was quite a bit of fun. Somebody mentioned that for playing heavy music, I sure smile a lot. There's a simple answer for that - it's because it's fun! On the most basic level, it's insanely fun to plug a guitar into an irresponsibly loud amp and go "dern-dern-dern". Doing that with friends who are also inordinately loud just exponentially increases the fun factor.
During set break, Joel Carlson and I decided that Sex Knuckle should have a song or album named "Sticky in Nevada". Neither of us really knows that that means, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The not-so-fun part of the evening was the after effect of cold and flu season. I was fighting phlegm during our set, and Samantha from Sex Knuckle was also fighting similar vocal fatigue. Unfortunately, this meant that they had to cut their set short after a valiant effort. That was when the brainstorming began.
Rich Lahren and Cale Schjeldrup from Relevant were there, so they got up with the Chrises (Ellingson, from Sex Knuckle and Fritz, from Rule 17 and Relevant) and did some tunes - really well! Then Dave grabbed his bass and I grabbed Ellingson's guitar - and we played "Genocide" from the 7th Seal album (NEVER have done that with 1 guitar), "Lights Out" by UFO, and "Running With the Devil" by Van Halen. Cale joined us and gave me a much-needed vocal break on "Revelations".
All in all, a fun time! Now, it's a couple weeks and a couple rehearsals, then we open for Dan Spitz (former Anthrax lead guitarist) and his new band Red Lamb at the Nestor March 23rd.
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