Date: Saturday, August 16, 2008
Venue: The Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bands I remember: United, Hexlust, Kill the Queen
Our first ever battle of the bands-type show, our first performance at the then-recently-opened Music Vault, and our first show for which we’ve ever had to sell tickets. The number of tickets sold determined the playing order of the evening (bands which sold the least tickets played first, those which sold the most played last). I think the bands competing this evening were United, us, and Kill the Queen, although I know there was a fourth in there somewhere.
United was a standard rock band that only stuck out in my mind because 1) Channing Heath played bass, the dude who used to gum up the comments section of our MySpace with invitations to his “open mike jam nights,” and 2) there was not only a drum solo but a guitar solo as well. The drummer was much better than I was, which was awesome to listen to, and the guitarist was also talented, though it was obvious this dude LOVED Kirk Hammett. Well, Kirk or some other guitarist who said “You know what this guitar solo needs? WAH PEDAL!”
I wish I could tell you more about our set, other than we played well and we had the same set list we’d been doing for a while, but my memory is fuzzy and video footage is nonexistant. Kill The Queen, having sold all their tickets, went on last. They played a cover of Limp Bizkit’s cover of George Michael’s “Faith,” and had some other song where the singer slipped on a mask (“I’M TRANSFORMING!!!”) at the beginning. I think the song was called “Cereal Killer” or something. I dunno.
Anyway, of all the bands that played this evening, we and United were chosen to move on to the final round in two weeks. Which meant more tickets to sell.
PART II
Date: August 30, 2008
Venue: The Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bands: Grymfutures, Hexlust, Shfux, United, Remo Gotzi, Kill the Queen
So it came down to the final round. Four bands (two from each preliminary round) and a wild card from each prelim equaled six bands total. Grymfutures, the wild-card from the first prelim show, went first, a rap-metal project featuring no instrumentation (music was played over the club PA from a recording) and two vocalists, a light-skinned screamer and a black rapper. We all think the rapper was lip-synching. Kill the Queen, formerly Black Hymns, went on next, though I don’t remember their set. Like, at all. United played… the same set as last time, including the drum solo and the guitar solo.
I think Hexlust were on next, and our set was kickin. Tony had excellent crowd control this evening, and not only did we have basically the same audience as last time, but we had the added attendance of the punk kids, here to see the Shfux and appreciating us! Lord, it was fine. Again, typical Intro-Troops-Toxic-Hellhammer-Tombs-Sodomy setlist, but we made those tired old songs really sing this evening. I’m never one for self horn-tooting, but this was one of the best sets we’d played in a good while. The only awkward part of the whole evening needs a whole paragraph of explanation.
See, Remo Gotzi were playing this evening, and they were in tight with a local biker club called the Boozefighters. So in addition to band-supporters and punk kids, there were tough-lookin dudes with leather vests in the building. My mom thought it would be a great idea for Tony to give them a shout-out during our set, which made me uncomfortable. Not that I have any problem with bikers or anything, but they’re not our friends and I didn’t wanna look like a tool. For some reason I’m itchy about crap like that. So Tony took my mom’s offer and gave them a shout-out, which got a couple claps and a nod from a few Boozefighters. The shout-out fell dead and I felt like a fool by association. As I said though, that was the only awkward part of an otherwise amazing set.
Shfux went on after us. I don’t remember their set, not because of fading memory but because I was in the back, breaking down my kit and talking to friends. I do remember that this is the gig where the power inexplicably went out during their set, leading to a five-minute (decades in stage time) delay while they figured the problem out. Other than that I heard they played a great set and had mucho crowd appreciation, not just because of the contest setting but just because they are the top local punk band.
Interesting story, I was hanging out in the back room after my kit was all taken apart when the drummer from Remo approached me, saying he was in need of a crash cymbal for the evening’s performance. At the time, I used two crashes, both big, loud cymbals, which is great for Hexlust but I was nervous about how it would sound in the Remo context. (Note to self, band name: The Remo Context!) I gives him the 18” crash anyway, and not only did it sound fine in their performance but suddenly I had Boozefighters talking to me, saying that the favor I did for Remo was a favor I did for them. I felt this redeemed us pretty well for the shout-out fiasco from earlier.
So Remo Gotzi go on last, they’ve sold the most tickets so they have the most audience (not just Boozefighters) They finished their set with BALLOONS (genius!) and inviting audience members onstage for their final song, some wackaloon tune that bounced back and forth between polka honky-tonkery and distorted metal-ish shrieking. Not that I hated it, it was actually quite entertaining, but still, wacky. All of this added up to them winning the battle, prizes including studio time, coverage in some local musician magazine, and free tattoos from a local artist. Remo Gotzi put these prizes to excellent use by… breaking up months later.
So there was our first, and so far only, battle-of-the-bands type show experience. Overall I was satisfied, there were cries of us being “swindled” but I knew in my heart of hearts that we wouldn’t win. Remo had the audience, the accessible tunes, and best of all, the BALLOONS!
