Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008
Venue: Headhunters, Austin, TX
Bands: In Asunder, Hexlust, Grace of Terror, Hybrid, Manifestation, a couple others
Setlist:
-Intro
-Troops
-Toxic
-HH
-Tombs
-Sodomy
PRE-SHOW
I think Hexlust may one day endorse CEFCO stations. They have the cheapest gas with the most pumps, the only store around here that carries the big cans of Monster, cheap water, good taquitos, and best of all the one here in Killeen has a Quizno's next to it! It only made sense that we stopped there to fuel up and grab some munchies before we took off for Austin. I was riding with Keith, with the amps and guitars stuffed into his Jeep, following JT's Expedition, containing Tony and my drums.
An hour or so later, we arrived and wound our way comically through the streets (even during the day the lane-separating lines are hard to see) until we came to Red River St. We parked, Tony and Keith went to check out the club, JT went walking off somewhere, and I stayed behind to watch the vehicles and make sure no one tried to piss on JT's tires. Some black guy came by and asked me if I had a pussy; when his girlfriend accosted him for it, he said he knew them gays when he saw them. Wow, I'm really thin and have long hair, I'm totally gay. I must be in middle school again. What's fascinating is that being that he's black AND fat, one would figure that he would be more sympathetic towards stupid stereotypes.
Just goes to show that he really is a douche.
Well, Tony came back and reported that we're the first band there, and, best of all, it's managed by the one and only Billy Milano! For those of you who don't know who that is, listen to S.O.D.'s "Speak English or Die" album. Already I had a good feeling about this show. We found some free parking across the street from the club and met the guys form In Asunder. After that bit of social niceties, we got to work on a system of two dudes carrying stuff in while two more stay with the vehicles.
Coming into the club and preparing to show my ID, I realized that this club is small. Smaller than Area 51, a feat I didn't know was possible, but at least the ceiling was higher. The stage itself was smaller than the Denim and Diamonds one, once again something I had before considered physically impossible. I planned out how I'd have my drums on stage while watching In Asunder prepare to perform.
IN ASUNDER
Take the fact that these guys sounded like I Misery, and if I wanted to see I Misery I'd stick around Killeen and go see I Misery, combine that with the fact that I'm just not that much into the "brutal" style of death metal, and you have Dart not particularly moved. Nice guys, and certainly good musicians, but their flavor is not my cup of tea. The others were impressed, hell they stood up and watched them the whole time, but I watched them from my seat and warmed up.
A horrible realization: watching the drummer from In Asunder brought me to the conclusion that maybe I wouldn't have room on stage for my rotary toms. A pained expression on my face, I told Keith that I wanted to put the best part of my kit back in his Jeep. Sad panda.
So In Asunder got off and we threw my crap onstage, which took no time at all thanks to it being a reduced kit and having been set up offstage ahead of time. My kit for this show was, for the first time since… the first Area 51 show, my Ludwig kit, now with my new 14" tom.
We soundchecked, and I could not have been happier. Know why? My drums were actually miked! There was one in my kick drum and this little one perched right above my kit. No timing issues this evening! And Billy said that Tony's falsetto screams were "fuckin' metal." Feeling good again! It wasn't even directed at me, but just to be associated with that compliment felt great.
HEXLUST
Man, you know what I love? Dropping my sticks before we're even through with the intro song. If I may have more time to just talk about me, I have this weird thing where my arms start cramping up whenever we play live. Doesn't matter how much or how little I warm up. Whenever we practice, I'm fine, whether I've warmed up or not. When we're in a situation where peoples' attention spans are at stake, BAM! Cramp. I think it's the fact that I'm watching Dr. Katz while I've been writing this that's caused me to go off on these self-absorbed tangents. Or maybe I've always been doing that and it's watching Dr. Katz that made me realize that I'm doing it!
What the hell am I talking about?
The show! Yes, dropping sticks, four total, all before "Troops" was over! I could feel my bandmates looking back at me and thinking "Oh, that's our Dart!" That's ok though. JT broke a string just in time to not do his solo for "Toxic." He grabbed Tony's Peavey and I thought about how funny it would be if he broke the strings on that one, too.
For the first time in our history of performing the song "Hellhammer," hardly anybody in the audience said anything when Tony asked if anybody liked Celtic Frost. Even fewer answered back when he asked if anyone liked Hellhammer. Oh well, they seemed to like the song itself. "Tombs" was a great time, and with this show we continued the concept of doing a stinger at the end instead of the fade-out deal we'd been doing before. We first debuted the stinger at the Armstrong show, just cause "Tombs" was the last song of the evening. God, I'm really rambling with this blog. Anywho, the song ends and, lo and behold, JT broke the string on the Peavey!
Oh, that's our JT!
So for "Sodomy," Hexlust were a three-piece with JT doing backing vocals (In case you were wondering just what the fuck the second part of the title meant, there it is.) Worked well enough, and we finally got some moshing in the audience (from all two of the people standing up), not to mention some singing along with the choruses! Big long stinger finish, and that's a wrap!
POST-SHOW
Billy Milano said we were the most metal band he'd heard that night! At least that's what I think he said, I couldn't hear him so I'm getting this paraphrasing secondhand from Tony. Either way, we got complimented by him! I'm still dorkin' out about it. It took about another twenty minutes or so to get everything packed up and stored away, and we got another opportunity to talk to Mr. Milano in the form of how to get to Encore Records from there. Not like it mattered, we eventually decided to not go to Encore anyway, but it gave me a chance to shake the dude's hand.
After a couple harrowing near-death experiences involving dark, rainy streets and the increased inability to see the lane-separating lines, not to mention going all the way through Florence behind somebody who was probably going slower than the posted speed limit, we made it back to my place in one piece. The guys left around one, and I went to bed, realizing one wacky fact: I didn't smell like smoke! We weren't in the club that long, there weren't that many people, and those who were there weren't smoking. This was the first time I've ever come back from a show reeking only of sweat!
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I wanna thank all twelve of the people who saw us play for showing up and for not making my clothes, hair, and equipment smell like an ashtray. In Asunder were cool dudes with whom we'll hopefully be playing future shows. Billy Milano for being awesome and the Headhunters club in general; it was compact but comfortable, the bathroom was clean, and, personally, this was my first "miked" show in about eight months. It felt good to be heard again! Last but not least, I wanna thank Possessed, who were playing right next door that night and were probably one of the causes of our limited audience, alongside our considerable obscurity.
