A Ball to Close Out the Year!

Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Venue: Rock Bottom
Event: Goregrowler’s Ball

PRE-SHOW
This was a show we had been booked for WAY far in advance, like since June or something, and was the show to which we were the most looking forward. We were told we’d be among the opening bands of the festivities, going on like at 4 or so, which we did not mind at all. We know our place on the totem pole, and liked the idea of playing early, packing up the stuff, and having time to watch some of the other bands before leaving.

We got to the Rock Bottom and were told that we had been moved up; a few of the other bands cancelled at the last minute and we had been promoted from 4:00 to like 6:30! This would have been great if we had not already arrived at like 2:00. Instantly I felt tired. The club wasn’t even opened yet so we spent a goodly amount of time just chilling outside the club. JT tried to go to sleep in his car, I warmed up on a practice pad, and Tony and Tarzan walked around talking to folks.

CORNUCOPIA OF BANDS
The doors finally opened and the festivities began. Thus began a huge collection of bands that I either saw and do not remember or was not watching since I was busy setting up my drum kit.

HEXLUST
I swear our audience gets better and better every time we play in San Antonio! With every show there are a few more people and the response gets a little bit better. The sound check went pretty well; Tarzan wanted his own microphone so that he could start working his backing vocals into the show. The sound man warned me that this would result in one less of my toms being mic’d, which I didn’t mind, hell I mainly use the two right in front of my snare anyway. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really hear his (or anybody’s) vocals this time, so I couldn’t tell you if he did a good job or not.

As you have probably guessed, by now we had a never-fails set list of Intro-Toxic-Hellhammer-Baphomet-Tombs-Casket. It started feeling kinda samey to us, but 1) we were sucking at coming up with new material and 2) it’s not like our audience is at every practice with us. At the time there only three videos of us on YouTube, we still have only the one recording out, and we play in San Antonio maybe once every two months at the most. I didn’t see people getting sick of our songs anytime soon.

I’m digressing a lot. This show went very well, I did not drop a stick once this performance, although I did screw up horribly during "Open Casket." Nothing we couldn't bounce right back from though! Besides that, I don’t remember many details, which is good, because it’s usually screw-ups that stick out in my mind! I promise, dear readers (those of you left who haven’t been driven away by my writer’s laze) 2010 will be a much better year for show coverage, mostly because I won’t be behind so much!

POST-SHOW
We stuck around long enough to see maybe one more band, and then left for home. By the time we got back to Killeen and I got my stuff unloaded, it was nearing 11:00, I had school the next morning, and I still had homework to do. I attempted it for about a half hour and then went to bed.

Friday the 13th: The 11th Hour

Date: Friday, November 13, 2009
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Playing with: DownsiiD, Amicicide, some others.

MOST LAST-MINUTE GIG EVER
As I got done helping a customer at work, some dudes came up to me and asked if I’m in Hexlust and if we’d like to play a show that evening at the Music Vault. I was down for it but told them I’d have to ask the others. Turned out they knew Tarzan from high school or something, and even had his number. Tarzan thought it’d be a great idea, so all we had to do was get Tony and JT on board and we had a show this evening! Oh, and those dudes who approached me were members of the band Amicicide, of whom I had never heard before this evening but was glad to meet.

JT and Tony were of course down, and we were already set to practice this evening so it’s not like we had to do any schedule shuffling to be able to play. There was something which had the potential to ruin the evening; when Tony got to my parents’ house he asked me to come out and talk to him for a minute. Turned out his family dog had just been put down that day. We sat out on the back porch and got it out there all manly-like and whatnot, and he assured me that he would be good to play and would be having no emotional breakdowns onstage.

So we got the gear loaded up and headed out to the Vault, a place at which we hadn’t played since… poking through the archives… November of ’08, almost a full year before! And that last time, as you readers may recall, was quite a disaster, the time my bass drum flew off the pedal and Tony suffered a case of stage fright and everything basically went to hell. Coming back though was like coming to some kind of class reunion, Big Mike and Rich recognized us and gave us hearty handshakes and expressions of “how the hell ya been?”

We were the first act this evening and so had the luxury of being able to set up on stage without feeling rushed. The sound people weren’t even there yet, so I had time to make sure my toms and cymbals were in comfortable reach and not interfering with each other. It was then I discovered that, in spite of all my usual precaution, I had forgotten one very important can’t-live-without-it item: my throne. JT had taken off to pick up his girlfriend but was already most of the way back to the club by the time I discovered this. I sent Tarzan to see if any other drummer would be generous enough to offer up a seat for my temporary use. I got one, and the seat was comfy, but the height was set very high and kind of stuck in place. This didn’t affect the performance too horribly though, it was just a little awkard on the knees during the double-bass parts. I sure as hell wasn’t complaining.

HEXLUST
Not too shabby of a set, definitely a make-up for the shambles that was our last outing at the Vault. We came back with our newfound habits of drinking water onstage and not putting all our energy into the first few songs; our streamlined set list of Intro-Toxic-Hellhammer-Baphomet-Tombs-Casket (that’s right folks, no more Sodomy and Lust); and a mega-boosted stage presence thanks to a year of playing mostly in San Antonio, where we had just recently started to really feel accepted. What also helped was that we had great sound equipment amplifying us. I tell ya, after a year of shows at the Sports Shack and the Armstrong Center and especially all those shows at the Ten Eleven, I had almost forgotten how great it feels to be able to say “Can I get some of Tony’s guitar in my monitor?” Also: LIGHTS, which also were absent at many of 2009’s outings.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the biggest audience to show off our improved Hexcellence; due to the VERY last-minute nature of the show we couldn’t get a lot of our friends, not even my parents, to come out. Also, again, we were opening, so we were basically playing to Amicicide, Dear Cyanide (I forget if they were there to actually play this evening or just hang out) maybe another band, and a few of those bands’ friends. Not that this affected the quality of the audience, they were very much appreciative and cheered enough for a roomful of folks!

As for the set itself, it almost seemed to go by too quickly. Smooth playing, no muscle cramps, no dropped sticks or picks, no equipment malfunctions, everything went swimmingly. Tony even took a moment to pay tribute to his dog, which was greeted by a “WOOOOOOOOOOOOH! YEAH!” from some douche in the audience who was quickly silenced.

BAND?
Honestly, I forget who played next. I know it was the band whose drummer was generous enough to lend me his throne, to whom I lent a pair of sticks in return. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to see them, since I was busy breaking down the kit and fielding questions and compliments from some very appreciative benevolent audience members.

After that, it was time to go. No, we didn’t have a long drive ahead of us and no, we weren’t restricted from sticking around because of our gear; yes, I live like ten minutes away and yes, that may have made us seem rather douche-y, but dammit I had to work in the morning! In fact I think most, if not all, of us had to work that next morning (and for JT, that shift starts at like 7 a.m.) so we all took off early this time.

A Whole Lot More of Not Much

Date: Friday, August 7, 2009
Venue: Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX
Playing with: Witchaven, Hod, Birth A.D., Butchered Saint, Bloody Pit of Horror

PRE-SHOW
Part 2 of “shows Dart doesn’t remember cuz either he was outside being all ‘mother hen’ about his drums or he was just gone.” Once again, I’ll be offering sufficient commentary on our performance but will be saying very little, if anything, about anything else that happened.

BIRTH A.D.This show was our first encounter with Birth A.D., although JT knew of them beforehand. Even while I was tending to my kit, I could hear the unleashing of crossover fury, and I felt very nervous about going on after these guys.

HEXLUST
After the minor embarrassment that was our last show, we took to the stage for this performance with two things: water bottles in our hands and “take it easy” notes in our heads. Boy, did it make all the difference! This show was fantastic compared to the last one; we were going steady during the first few songs, still going fast, still headbanging, but not putting our full 110% into it. After “Baphomet Dawn” we started turning up the juice, so that by “Sodomy and Lust” we were able to make it the full-speed spectacle we intended it to be!

There was only one eentsy flaw with this performance though, and it rested with Tony. While it was great the guy was taking swigs of water between tunes, he would do it after he announced a song! On more than one occasion, he would be cleansing his pallet as I was counting off, which wouldn’t be so bad if his wasn’t usually the first guitar playing! It’s amusing now, mentally watching Tony realize his snafu, try to choke down (literally) his water, set the bottle down, and then hit the right frets, all in the span of four hi-hat strokes. At the time, however, the boy was asking for a flying stick upside the head. Thankfully Tony has been great about drinking before talking at every performance since.

Another interesting note about this show was that it was that we had opted out of performing “Troops of Doom” or “Immanent Retardation” in public, the former because we felt we had grown out of it and was one of our more expendable covers, and the latter because we felt like it was a huge lyric-less drag. At the time I did not like the decision to nix “Troops,” I felt that it was an excellent first song of the evening as it started slow, was mostly mid-tempo, and had a few fast parts, a perfect warm-up song. I did, however, see what the guys were saying about it not being as relevant as it used to be, and have since gotten used to jumping straight into "Toxic High" after the intro.

HOD/BUTCHERED SAINT/WITCHAVEN?
JT and Tarzan wanted to stay and see Witchaven, but Tony and I were pooped and still saddled with an open truck bed of valuable gear, so we chopped out.

POST-SHOW
At the time, I had just moved out of my parents’ house and into… my parents’ house (I used to live there with my family, my parents still own it and are technically my landlords) so Tony and I just slapped his truck in the garage, put the amps in the spare room, and crashed out in my room.

A Whole Lot of Not Much

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009
Venue: Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX
Playing with: Deceased, Butchered Saint, Necurat (?), Bloody Pit of Horror

PRE-SHOW
I’m going to use this pre-show space to say that I have no earthly clue what went down these next two shows as far bands other than Hexlust are concerned. I have only one good reason: I personally did not do much besides set up my drums and play.

Anyone who knows me knows that I spend most of my pre-show time tending to my kit. Even when it’s set up, I rarely leave it unless it’s constantly in my line of vision and/or with somebody I trust. I play my drums during the show, and afterward I load them up and go about having fun and observing other bands. Unfortunately, since our last show our beloved HexBus was sent off to the junkyard. Tarzan’s Jeep was having startup issues, and my little Toyota would be no help with gear loading. So we were left with Tony’s truck, with its open bed. Great for loading gear in a jiffy, but not the best option in terms of out-of-sight gear storage.

The result: once I was done performing and loading my kit, we had to either leave immediately or hang out by the truck for the rest of the evening, which sure as shit wasn’t happening.

Hoping for help, I sent emails to my bandmates asking for any details they remembered. Unfortunately, I chose to do this quite a while after these shows took place (schoolwork interfered with punctual blogging) and they couldn't give me much to work with. As much as I'd like to describe the entire show, I'm afraid I'll have to leave y'all with just our performance.

HEXLUST
We were far from great this evening. This was the show when Hexlust learned two valuable lessons: 1) Control our energy and distribute it evenly throughout our performance, and 2) keep ourselves hydrated.

I myself was suffering extra-hard from neglecting those two concepts, for some reason I got so into it just during the intro and “Troops of Doom” that I was slamming my hi-hats and snare with all my might. I felt like I could go like that all night! Then, during “Hellhammer,” (a whole two songs later) it happened. The arms started cramping, the throat got all cottony, and even my legs started protesting. That part right there, the cramping and dry-mouth thing, could have been easily alleviated by wetting my whistle between songs. Hard lesson learned.

So of course “Tombs of the Blind Dead” was a cruel, cruel bitch, and by “Sodomy and Lust” I couldn’t even play fills anymore. Thankfully that song requires almost no double bass (unlike “Tombs” or “Open Casket”) or quick opening and shutting of the hi-hats (again, fuck you “Open Casket”) but it was still a struggle making this song the most high-speed, throw-everything-in-the-pot song of the set.

After our set I spent time outside, with my drum kit all in pieces on the sidewalk being all up in the way of passers-by, talking to Ralph and Eric about precisely what the hell happened up there and trying to salvage my ego. Of course, most audience members were very generous in praising our performance, but those two are hometown homies, they know how we roll and they know how to really tell when we’re playing at our best. Finally, Tony got his stuff out there, we loaded into his truck, got the tarp over my gear, and headed home.

Swansong for HexBus

Date: Sunday, May 24, 2009
Venue: Rock Bottom, San Antonio TX
Playing with: Gloam, So Unloved, Butchered Saint, Midnight

PRE-SHOW
After four outings to San Antonio, a routine has set in for Hexlust. On this day, like the others, we met at JT’s house in Kempner, dumped our gear into JT’s Explorer and Tony’s HexBus, chose riding buddies, and set off. We stopped at a gas station near JT’s house to fill up on gas and snacks. It kinda varies for everyone else but to this day my pre-show snacks are almost always a green Monster and a bag of Chex Mix Bold Party Blend.

GLOAM
I think there was a band that went on before Gloam, although I don’t remember who they were or what they sounded like. Alls I know is that I had my stuff unloaded and mostly set up by the time Gloam took the stage.

I will give this band props for not giving away much about themselves with their name and delivering a style that I did not see coming. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I liked them. The vocalist, who was on the floor in front of the stage, had a keyboard, and soundchecked with some pretty off-the-wall soundscapey stuff. I was expecting mind-blowing psychedelic transcendentalism. I got substandard metalcore fluff (complete with obnoxiously bad snare tone) with weird keyboard “interludes” between songs. That’s right, the only time the dude touched his keyboard would be when a song ended. And it wasn’t like he actually played an interlude, he would just hit a key which triggered a sample. Looking back, and at my review of this band so far, I think it really was the lack of keyboard whackaloonery that disappointed me the most.

SO UNLOVED
I did not hate this band’s music. I say that not as a comparison to Gloam, but as a reference to how I rarely am into “punk”-type music. I like Dead Kennedys; I like the bands we play with back in Bell County; I’m like punk-inspired bands like Nuclear Assault and some bands in the grindcore genre. Beyond that, I just can’t get into the stuff. This band, however, had that awesome combo of pissed-offishness and sing-alongishness, and had a damn good stage presence too. The fact that these ladies were easy on the eyes didn’t hurt matters either.

UNFORTUNATELY, there was this prick in the audience who liked to mosh. I’m normally fine with this, I just move back out of his way and keep my eye on the band. Not good enough for this cockfag, though, who decided that moshing by himself (noone else was interested) was lonely work and decided to go around pushing folks on the edge of the circle. Including me and my bandmates. Mocking us all with thumbs-down gestures and middle fingers the whole time. Tarzan was amused by the fact that he could see me popping my jaw, part of my signature “Rolf is not amused” body language. Finally, though, the guy’s buddy grabbed him and whispered in his ear. I dunno what exactly was said, but considering the little douche stopped his tomfooligans, it was a warning to stop before he gets knocked down and clubbed about the head and throat.

Anyway, good band, good tunes, nice people to chat with. We haven’t played a show with them since, but I would not complain if’n we did.

BUTCHERED SAINT
By the time Butchered Saint went on, I was spending most of my time warming up on my practice pads. I heard them though, with their high-speed blackened blast-death metal. They weren’t as catchy as Hod, so I can’t say I remember much of their stuff, but I was ok with it. Sure enough, something did annoy me though.

Not once in most of their songs was there even one guitar solo, but finally, at least midway through their set, I heard it. A solo. Not just any solo, but a whammy solo. Ask any of my bandmates what Dart’s favorite type of guitar solo is, and they’ll probably tell you with little hesitation: Whammy solos. And boy howdy was I a happy camper… for five seconds. Then it was over. Just like that. They didn’t do it again; they didn’t attempt such a feat in another song. Five seconds of one tune. I couldn’t help but feel bamboozled.

HEXLUST
Part of me believed that the only reason we went on after Butchered Saint was that Midnight wanted to use our gear. This was the last night of their tour and they had already shipped most of their crap back to Ohio. Not that we were complaining, up to this point we were always going on first or second. It was nice to have a little more time to warm up, and it was nice to have a little more audience to play to. We were not disappointed, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t disappoint, judging by the enthusiastic applause after every song.

Our set list was different this time in that we closed with “Baphomet Dawn.” There were two reasons behind this: One, it was our first time playing this song in front of our San Antonio audience and we thought they would get a major kick out of it; two, our old friend Jade had come to our practice a week before and suggested that we close with the song, which we all thought was a great idea. The desire associated with the first point (audience approval) was satisfied; we got nothing but compliments on our seven-minute doom-speed behemoth. (Basically it’s our version of Sarcofago’s “Nightmare,” haha) Unfortunately, the desire associated with the second point (great closer) was unsatisfied; being that the song is so damn long and is also a change of pace from the rest of our songs, I always felt it worked best in the middle, and the nagging feeling of anti-climax that came with using this song as a closer reaffirmed that conviction.

After the performance as we were getting off stage, some chick asked Tony if she could get a copy of our CD. Tony responded that we didn’t have one on us and that she could download it off our MySpace for free, and it totally threw this girl for a loop. She was like “You don’t have a copy of your recording with you?” as if Tony had just told her he drove all the way here without a driver’s license. I found her bafflement slightly amusing.

As I said before, we were sharing our equipment with Midnight this evening, and it was a pretty sweet feeling not having to immediately get my gear offstage and start breaking it down. I took full advantage by sitting down on the couch in Rock Bottom’s back room and opening a bottle of water. Normally I do none of these until my drums are loaded and secure. In retrospect I kinda feel like a douche, I didn’t think Midnight’s drummer had brought his own set of cymbals and would have gladly stayed behind to take mine off if I had.

MIDNIGHT
So before our set we were talking to these three dudes who claimed to be the band Midnight. They were all roughly middle-aged, very friendly, and overall were about the least likely metal band I’d seen since… us. But then the equipment gets on stage, shirts came off, black hoods were donned, and it happened. Before us stood Midnight, the band that mixes Venom power-trio metal madness with a Piledriver fashion sense. The songs were good, although when I said they were Venom-ish I wasn’t kidding. While definitely steeped in evil subject matter, it was all just a little too mid-tempo for my taste.

Of course, I wasn’t really focused on whether or not I liked the music. Admittedly, my mind was set on how great my drums sounded! Until this evening I had never been fully confident in how POW-y my snare was or how BOOM-y my toms were. Tony, Tarzan, and I just stood there admiring the audience perspective on our equipment when the guitar suddenly stopped. We thought this was just some breakdown that was part of the song for like two seconds, then the bass and drums got confused and stopped. Something had blown in Tony’s amp head. We got his stuff off stage and Midnight continued with someone else’s head while I followed Tony out to the back yard area. He was none too happy, having just recently got the head and now it was somehow fritzed. He put on a brave smiley face for the public but I knew he was screaming inside.

POST-SHOW
Our first time driving back to Killeen after a San Antonio show. It was late, we were all tired, Tony was driving, and I was his passenger. Not that I’m complaining, I was happy to be the one talking to him in his mood. Soon he was mostly cheered up, we were listening to music and laughing and generally enjoying ourselves. It was a pretty peaceful drive until we got just outside of Burnet. That’s when the fog rolled in. And not just any ordinary fog, this was pea-soup, slow-down-or-you’ll-die, fuck-you-tired-driver fog. We were doing like 35 on a highway-speed road and shoveling extra minutes onto our journey home, not to mention hoping nobody behind us decides to throw caution to the fog and plow full-speed-ahead into the HexBus.

Tony and I made it to my house in Killeen at like 3 or so in the morning. We left the HexBus in the driveway, staggered into my room, and fell gratefully into our beds. Boys will be boys though; exhaustion didn’t stop us from staying up another half hour making fart jokes.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
I must seem godawful cranky talking about this show. Every section I wrote in had something go on that rubbed me (or Tony) the wrong way. Honestly it really was not all that bad of a show, I wasn’t even particularly pissed off when we left. There were just little things I did not like going on at every turn, which thankfully did not compound and add up to major pissiness.

Tony’s amp head was eventually repaired and was back in action by our next show. An exact answer was never found for its temporary demise, but those in the know offered up a possible solution of it being plugged into a multi-plug deal, resulting in a short.

Also, I would like to take this “closing thoughts” section to say goodbye to the HexBus. Not long after this show, Tony’s parents decided to get rid of it in favor of one of them spiffy Toyota hybrid spaceships. All of us in Hexlust miss that van terribly, with its impossibly comfy seats, ample legroom, separate stereo systems, and of course, the Super Nintendo hookups. What we will not miss, however, was that 90s relic’s appetite for petroleum. That thing guzzled gas like Chris Holmes enjoyed him some Jack Daniels. R.I.P. HexBus. You’re a cube now.

Haaaaaaaands Down! Part 2

Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009
Venue: Sports Shack, Killeen, TX
Playing with: Hands Down

PRE-SHOW
So we gets another invite to play a show with local friends Hands Down. For those not in the know or not remembering from our October 11 show, Hands Down are a predominantly covers band. Their guitarist, Sheena, is a good friend of mine. Her dad, Russ, is the singer/guitarist and bandleader, her mom is the bassist, and their friend Dan handles drums.

So we get this gig, which is great, cuz we had not played a local show in almost half a year at this point. The best part? The venue itself, the Sports Shack, was literally, LITERALLY, a three-minute drive from my house. Now I know what you’re saying: “That’s terribly fucking fascinating, Dart, but Tarzan and JT live in the Cove/Kempner area, and Tony in Temple. Aren’t you being kinda self-centered on the whole convenience issue?” Bear in mind that all our gear is stored in our practice room at my house. That means when the show’s over, we can just toss our shit into our vehicles as un-meticulously as possible, put on Death’s “Evil Dead,” and be unloading our stuff by the last chorus! You can’t tell me that ain’t a sweet deal.

Problem? Sound. The Sports Shack does not have a house PA, bands must bring their own. Luckily, we were playing with HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDS DOWN, one of those groups that’s more like a self-sufficient community than a band. Russ had his own PA packed into his truck and was very generous in letting us use it for our performance. As we shall find out later, benevolent as this was, things didn’t go completely swimmingly.

So after meeting at my house, scarfing down some wings and rice prepared by my dad, and rehearsing a bit, we broke down and got to the Sports Shack. James arrived shortly thereafter and helped me build my drum kit on the stage, for which I was very grateful indeed. Due to the convenience of location, I brought every piece of my kit I could pack into the bed of Tony’s truck, including rotary toms, extra floor tom, and even cowbells. While preparing to play, a few friends showed up, in the form of my friend Sue, Tony’s friends Susan and Andy, JT’s friend Kumer (sp?), Kodee, Jeff Lewis, Michael and Kelsi, and band friends John and Rick. (EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: John and Rick would later play with us in January 2010 in the band Desmortes.) And, of course, my dad, who took VIDEO FOOTAGE! Always a helpful tool in reviewing performances.

HEXLUST
This evening was special for one reason: The debut of two things: Our song “Baphomet Dawn” (actually a re-debut, in the YEAR since we last played this song we had re-tooled the structure and the lyrics and the solos) and JT’s awesome new red Jackson guitar! Tony was also using his Jackson this evening, meaning we unleashed a double-Floyd-Rose-whammy attack on this small club in Killeen!

For the most part, the set went very well. The list went Intro, Troops, Toxic, Hellhammer, Baphomet, Imminent, Tombs, Casket, Sodomy. Tony made the evening extra-so-special by announcing at the end of the intro “We are Hexlust from up the street!” There was something dropped in “Troops.” Was it Dart with his sticks? No, surprisingly, it was JT with his pick. What was better? His back-up picks he left on top of his amp fell down. Even better? He walked across the stage to grab a spare off Tony’s headstock. Speaking of JT and headstocks, “Toxic High” saw Mr. Bass getting his hair caught in Tarzan’s tuning keys. After the song ended, ol’ Tarzan was kind enough to remove the hair and toss it back onto its owner.

Comical moment #3 came at the beginning of "Hellhammer." Oldest HexJoke in the book, actually. I counted off and Tony DID NOTHING. I think he didn’t stomp his distortion (again). This time I took an extra second to say “Fool!” menacingly. And then of course Dart the FailDrummer dropped his stick! The re-debut of "Baphomet Dawn" went well, with Tony flubbing the lyrics only a few times! Wooh. Thanks to the appreciative reaction, we kept it in the setlist and haven’t not played it since. Although one thing that totally fell flat on its ass and we never did it again was Keith’s bass solo in the re-intro. Totally inaudible and overall pointless. We have since replaced it with a solo from Tony. Also: JT dropped a pick again. HAR! This time he actually had to fish on the ground for it.

Not much to say for “Imminent Retardation” besides how hilarious it was watching the camera try to switch back and forth between Tony and JT during their big trade-off solo section, which never fails to make me dizzy. “Tombs of the Blind Dead” came off very well, and when it came time for “Sodomy and Lust,” I unleashed ALL THE SPEED in the last verse! I love making my tired bandmates have to work to keep up with me during that verse.

Overall, lots of fun. The only real problem was the PA provided by Russ. While certainly fantastic in the use of Hands Down, those mics rebelled and became unruly when put in front of Hexlust. Tony’s vocals feedbacked constantly, and I was told my bass drum was a little too prominent in the mix. Not helping matters was the fact that Tony and JT compensated for the lack of miking by having their volumes set pretty high, which made Keith wanna turn up, which meant Dart’s drums were pretty much totally drowned out except for the overly-loud kick (this was apparent in the video as well.) We were very grateful to Russ for letting us use his equipment, but until we get a bitchin’ system of our own, we’re just gonna have to stick to clubs that come with one.

HANDS DOWN
After loading up the gear, we headed to my house and dropped our stuff off. What did we find? MORE WINGS! We re-nourished ourselves and headed back to the club. Since it was so close, we only missed a few songs out of Hands Down’s set. Of course, who did I find in the front row enjoying the hell out of the show, but my dad. The rest of the band soon left to get to their homes out of town, but Sue, Dad, and I stayed for both sets. All our favorite covers were played, plus an original tune that closed the show with a huge breakdown (which I know pleased Sheena.)

POST-SHOW (already?)
Did I mention there were only two bands this evening? Since HAAAAAAAAAAAAANDS DOWN play two sets, they’re practically two bands in one. Best part about playing on a bill with two bands? Splitting the money only two ways!

Oh, what did we do after the show? Well, the gear was already at home, the other guys had already left, so there wasn’t much left to do other than help Hands Down load their stuff, walk Sue to her car, go home, and go to sleep. I love local shows.

I would like to take this moment to thank all our friends who came to see us! Every time we play a local show we invite tons of friends, and it’s not very often more than… three show up. This evening, you all made us feel very specialJ

Masters of Disaster!

Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Venue: The Warhol
Playing with: War Criminals, Hod, Witchaven, Exmortus, Bonded by Blood

PRE-SHOW/WAR CRIMINALS?
Back in San Antonio! Hells yeah son! Not only were we playing with our “older brothers” in Hod, but Exmortus were coming back into town! We had sharpened our skills considerably in the time since October, having spent time working on stage presence, song precision, and especially pre-show rituals, to include warming up. Of course, there was a lingering thought in my head that Exmortus wouldn’t even remember who we were and that our efforts were purely for personal vanity. After all, they’ve been on full tours. They’ve played in a few weeks the number of shows we’ve done in two years. Why would they remember us?

So we were standing outside waiting for the Warhol to open its doors. A familiar van came coasting down the road, and Balmore poked his head out and screamed “HEXLUST!!!” All doubts were now erased, and we were fully confident that this would be an awesome show.

Also, apparently War Criminals actually played this evening. I don’t remember that, but my memory’s faulty, and I found a blog entry from Bonded By Blood’s MySpace that said this band did in fact play. Wacky. Sorry guys, if you’re reading this, I do not remember hearing you.

HEXLUST
After spending some time in polite chit-chat with friends, it was time for us to take the stage. I had a slightly stripped-down version of my kit, absent of rotary toms or the second floor tom. For the first time, we tried putting the bass amp behind me. Due to space reasons, we kept Tony and JT’s amps more off to the side. By the bye, Hexlust were playing this show with updated ampage! Tarzan got a second half-stack; JT had a B-52 head atop a B-52 cab; and Tony embiggened his sound with a Peavey 5150 head atop a powerful Behringer cabinet. Unfortunately, in the midst of all this newness, JT wasn’t able to play with his spiffy new red Jackson guitar. It needed repairs, so it was dropped off at Heart of Texas in Temple and JT’s black Jackson was used.

Speaking of which, photos of this performance show Hexlust decked out in black all the way across. In terms of guitars, JT had his “Blackson,” Tony had his own Jackson, and Tarzan used the same black bass as always. And with clothes, only Tony’s light blue jeans stopped the “front line” of Hexlust from being garbed entirely in ebony. I was wearing a white puppy shirt, but I was hidden behind my BLACK DRUMS. Thankfully we were contrasted against the Warhol’s red walls. Speaking of photos, if you go to Tony Rivera’s MySpace profile, you will see the funniest pictures ever taken of us. Somehow this guy clicked the shutter right when Tony, JT, or Tarzan was making the most ridiculous face imaginable.

The performance itself went off with minimal hitchery. We used our now-standard Intro/Troops/Toxic/Hellhammer/Imminent Retardation/Tombs/Open Casket/Sodomy set list. By this point in our San Antonio visits, we had a pretty good crowd going (especially in comparison to the one line of people back on July 10th) and at least one decent mosh pit. The best part of the whole set, though, happened after Tombs ended. Tony asked whomever it concerns how much time we had left. Two fingers were given, which Tony interpreted to mean “two more minutes.” Now, in retrospect, even if that were the correct signal, any other band would probably say “Two minutes? We’re pretty much done.”

Hexlust, however, said “Two minutes? Let’s squeeze a five-minute song into that timeframe.” Thus began THE FASTEST RENDITION OF “OPEN CASKET” IN HEXLUST’S HISTORY. I have never double-bassed that fast while being that much on time in my whole drumming career. Even after the double-bass ended, we were running on high, turning even slow-paced riffs into jogged or power-walked parts. When all was said and done, I was badly in need of something to drink and ready to quit. Unfortunately, it turned out that the two-finger signal meant “two more songs.” Oh hahahaha, all that full-speed-ahead was for nothing. So, since we still had time for one more, we did “Sodomy and Lust.” ANOTHER five-minute song. I did my best to pace us more evenly on this one, saving all my remaining speed for the last verse and keeping my fills to a bare minimum. I call this my “Ringo Starr of Thrash” playing. Final stinger, bring it to an end, hip-hoorah, everyone shaddap and get me some water.

HOD
Hod have got to stop playing right after us, haha. I’m always in the midst of breaking down my drum kit and packing it away while they’re playing. Granted I could still hear the music, and the music was nothing less than impressive as always. I later overheard members of Exmortus talking about how awesome Hod were, and Balmore later announced a song as a tribute to Hod and their astounding masterdom.

WITCHAVEN
Tony described Witchaven as “fun.” When I think of fun, I think of Devin Townsend-style wackaloonery, which this band was not, so I remain befuddled by that adjective. This band was awesome indeed, though, lots of Morbid Angel-style whammy tricks in the guitar solos and very energetic drumming. Couldn’t tell you a thing about the bass and vocals, both were drowned out from where I was standing.

I bought one of their CD’s, which was actually a compilation of demos. Cool stuff, although it drives me bonkers since the production values shift every few songs. I’ll be jamming in my head with an awesome guitar tone and a nice powerful snare, next song is sub-tar guitar and terrible TONK-y snare. Overall, though, not a waste of money, and not a waste of time.

EXMORTUS
What is there to say, really? They were amazing yet again! Thankfully, this time it wasn’t an insult-to-injury thing; we had held up just fine with our own set and were watching these guys “tear it up” with our heads held high. As an added bonus, I actually knew some of the songs, thanks to having listened to a borrowed copy of their CD. “In Hatred’s Flame,” “Triumph By Fire,” and the instrumental shred-fest “Axes of War” sounded just like the recordings! No covers this time though, as they were not the headliners and had a bit of a time restriction.

Was it me, or did Balmore play less solos this time? He seemed to have assumed more of a strictly rhythm guitar status with occasional double-tapping fills. Not that there’s a damn thing wrong with that, but still, last time it seemed like the lead work was more shared. I forgot to bring this up to them. Also, with this show I saw something else Mario could do that I envied. Not enough that he can blast beat and double-bass hella fast, but he can also twirl sticks while playing! I should work on this.

BONDED BY BLOOD
Holy hell, lookit that spiffy equipment! The amps looked the control deck of a spaceship, so many lights and dials! The guitars had hella cool designs, and the drum kit was nothing to spit at. Unfortunately, by this point, I was quite pooped and had a slight headache, so I made my way outside to get away from the volume and chat it up with my bandmates and members of Exmortus. Now, I could still hear what was going on inside, and apparently these dudes were having a mad good time. Their brand of Exodus-y thrash doesn’t hold my interest very long, but the audience they had ate it all up, encouraging the band into three (yes, three) encores!

POST-SHOW
By the time the sticks were put down and the amps shut off, it was exactly if not a little after two o’clock and we were ready to crash. We collected our pay, said goodbye to friends old and new, and headed back to JT’s sis’s apartment for food, showers, and rest. Little did we know that we would be headed back here for the last time. Sometime in April or so, Kristi found new living arrangements in the form of a smaller apartment in a reportedly not-gated community, and since this show we have driven back the night of a San Antonio show. This not only meant games of slap-the-driver-awake, but it also means leaving earlier. As a result, shorter San Antonio blogs until we find a place to crash of which we all approve.

Hexlust shall take this moment to say a fond goodbye to that apartment. It was clean, surprisingly spacious, and air conditioned, with a toilet and shower at our willing disposal, a refrigerator at the ready, and even a small garage if we felt like unloading some gear. Also, Kristi was always sweet to us and never anything less than a gracious hostess. Even better, the apartment was located only ten minutes away from the Rock Bottom/Warhol, and was literally right up the street from the highway.

There were many good times had before and especially after performances: making fun of Tony for bringing an air mattress when there were plenty of couches and square feet of floorspace available; beholding Tarzan in his awesome/ridiculous boarding shorts he wore to sleep; lying on the floor next to JT not knowing if I would wake up with his balls on my face or not, which thankfully never happened; and finally, bullshitting til slumber (song/album title!) like we were eight-year-olds at a sleepover. Apartment: It was hexcellent.

Shfuxlust Part 3: Everything Goes to Hell

Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Venue: Armstrong Center
Playing With: BC Brewhounds, Dirty Rat Bastards, Combat Shock, Shfux

PRE-SHOW
"FUCK IT’S COLD!" was the mantra of the day. The Saturday before this one, it was warm. The Saturday after this one, it was warm. Friday, the day before, warm. Sunday, the day after, warm. But this day? Cold.. And not just “low temperature” cold, no, there was wind, too, friend. So WHY, on this cold and blustery evening, are we playing OUTSIDE?!? I’m still in a tizzy over that. Especially since we were playing outside of a building which was big enough for us to play in. I just didn’t think of saying anything to anyone about it cuz I didn’t wanna seem like a bitch.

What made this outing to the Armstrong Center different from the previous one (besides the weather) was that 1) we had a semblance of an actual stage, in the form of a huge wooden trailer, instead of just playing on the back porch. 2) This was brought together for the purpose of being a “covers” show, where the bands could play their favorite songs from other groups and not feel guilty for including too many of them. Most of the other bands only included one or two covers, but we in Hexlust designed a whole set list chock full of ‘em, going way back to songs we played when first jamming together.

B.C. BREWHOUNDS
This was the debut performance of the B.C. Brewhounds, featuring Kodee’s who used to be a guitar player for Hexlust (those of you who know your Hex-history). Also in this band was Tom, bass player for Boogdish back when Tony played for them. I didn’t get to see them, I was inside setting up my drum kit and not being cold, but I heard well enough. Angry triple-guitar punkery! No covers though, which is understandable since it was their first show.

DIRTY RAT BASTARDS and COMBAT SHOCK
Oh for the life of me I remember almost nothing about these two performances. I was either walking around talking to friends and trying to stay warm, or sitting by my drum kit limbering up on practice pads. I remember only one or two covers being played, which was starting to make us wonder if we were the only ones sticking to the theme of the evening.

HEXLUST
Fuck it’s cold! Luckily I was in motion a lot, moving my “retardedly huge” (quote from Walter) drum kit onto the trailer and setting it up for playing. I brought the whole shebang this time too; rotary toms, extra floor toms, and all. Also, remember that crash cymbal I found at Rock Bottom that nobody claimed? While searching for a way to integrate it into my kit, I came to the conclusion of combining it with a few of my other 16” crash cymbals to make them my hi-hat cymbals. Why? Why not? Bigger ain’t big enough, after all. Plus, I liked the sound I got, very thick and explosive as opposed to the thin and glassy sound of 14” hats.

The spurs on my bass drum were failing this evening, so I just put the drum right up against the side of the trailer to make sure it didn’t go anywhere. The guys set their amps up beside my kit, although if we had really remembered our lessons from before we would have had them behind me to increase my listening and following-along ability. The dudes themselves were on the ground, guaranteeing Tony a throat lined with dust by the middle of the set.

Speaking of the set! All covers, with the exception of “Hellhammer,” which is a tribute song so it kinda counts. I forget if we did the intro song, but just like back in the day we started things off with “Wasting Away” as the first full song. I almost forgot how fast we could play that song! We also brought back “Chainsaw Gutsfuck,” and “Evil Dead,” kept our regulars “Sodomy and Lust,” “Troops of Doom,” and “Open Casket,” and for the first (and only) time ever, we played “Chromatic Death.” (SOD version, not the Anthrax version)

Our performance was good, marred only by my to-and-fro drums and my limited ability to hear the guitars. A nearby barrel fire was started a couple songs in, which came as a mixed blessing: on one hand, we had warmth by proximity; on the other hand, fires cause smoke, smoke travels with the wind, and the wind just blew that shit right into our faces. My contacts got irritated and my eyes started tearing up, but thankfully I could still see the drums in front of me. Overall, it was great fun playing all those covers, especially the “classic” ones, and it was gratifying seeing that people were enjoying our good time.

SHFUX (SCREECHING WEASEL?)
We were the first band this evening to have a set list consisting mostly of covers. The Shfux were the first and only band this evening to have a set list consisting entirely of covers from one specific band, that band being legendary American hardcore (later pop punk) band Screeching Weasel. As a matter of fact, not only did they cover a bunch of songs, but they added another guitarist to the lineup, some dude I didn’t meet.

The set was alright, as usual it had all that great Shfux obnoxiousness and energy, but I had never heard of Screeching Weasel before this evening and my interest wasn’t held very long. I wandered around to the front of the building, where the incident soon occurred.

THE INCIDENT / POST-SHOW
I’m not going to go much into detail on what happened next. I will say that some people become total idiots when they hit the sauce, and decide to say derogatory comments about others. If one of these others happens to be very prideful and willing to fight for his good name, conflict occurs and people get hurt. Well, someone got very hurt, to the tune of falling off a truck as it was rounding a corner (centrifugal force, you cruel bitch) and being knocked unconscious. Soon, the police were called and the Shfux’s set was cut short.

The whole thing soon became very surreal, with ten or so cop cars showing up along with an ambulance. Not long after, a helicopter hovered overhead, but never landed since the ambulance was apparently adequate. Some folks were crying. Others were shouting angrily into cell phones. Still others were scrambling to put out the barrel fire and hide evidence of underage drinking.

After a very long, very tense while, most of the cops left and so did most of the attendees. Two of my bandmates, one of whom I was taking great care not to talk to due to his willing encouragement (however small) in what happened, stayed behind to give statements to the remaining officer. Now, the whole “giving a statement thing” is helpful and all, but I avoided that volunteer session for three reasons. One, I had the feeling that it really wouldn’t do much good. This feeling was later proven valid, as I was reminded that Kodee has been in many a skirmish and is very unlikely to press charges. Two, I was feeling very disconnected from this incident on account of how stupid it really was. Finally: it was still very cold. I left soon thereafter.

We have not been back to the Armstrong Center since.

Final note: as we were cleaning up the inside of the center, Walter took a look around and said “Hey, you know what, we could have played inside!”

The New Year Hits Rock Bottom

Date: Friday, January 2, 2009
Venue: Rock Bottom
Playing With: Hod, Militia, Sad Wings

LONGEST PRE-SHOW EVER
So I’m gonna take a moment to talk about me. I’m the author, I feel thus entitled. On New Year’s Eve I went to Starlite (local dance club) with a couple friends, didn’t get home til about 4:30. I was at work four hours later and worked until 6:30 p.m. I then went home and had band practice, after which we drove to the airport and picked our friend Eric up, then to What-a-Burger for munchies. I was so pooped I wound up laughing til I was red in the face over something stupid. That night I got a good round of sleep, but by January 2^nd I was still feeling it. Bear in mind I don’t drink on New Year’s Eve, it was just pure exhaustion working at me. In spite of all this, I was greatly looking forward to this trip, our third show in San Antonio. We had a guest along this time: Tony’s good buddy Glen.

After dropping stuff off at the JT’s sister’s apartment, we decided to pile into JT’s car and find Hogwild Records. Why a music shop? Because one, we’re all really into music and music shops be where we like to be. Two, both of the previous times we had been to San Antonio we would hear people saying “Dude, you gotta go to Hogwild, so much metal. Like, you like Encore over in Austin? This place is better, dude. Dude.” Three, Beer (Hod vocalist) works there.

So we spend like forty minutes in Hogwild. I didn’t find anything I wanted but JT bought a remastered copy of Death’s “Spiritual Healing.” He felt really good about that purchase. He was the only one. Also, there were flyers of the show we were playing this evening, complete with band names, venue name, and lack of a date and/or time. I forget which but one of those tidbits was gone. In total Hogwild had a really great punk selection and a used vinyl section that was hard to beat, but in terms of metal I was more awestruck by Encore’s selection of CD’s. Hogwild does, however, have awesome metal hanging posters.

Where to next? Munchies! Which is always a chore to figure out. JT hates Chinese food and Fuddrucker’s. Keith doesn’t wanna eat here or there because he doesn’t feel like it and is probably fucking with us. Tony just had pizza last week. If I have Mexican I’ll shit myself later. Also Tony hates Mexican food. We eventually settled on the Hard Rock Café by the Riverwalk and had a delicious (-ly expensive) meal coupled with awesome music videos and music trivia discussions.

Also on this trip was BICKERING! In a nutshell: JT was driving, Tony navigating with his Garmin. Tony used ambiguous phrase “Keep right,” which JT (and everybody else in the world) interpreted to mean get in the most far-right lane as possible. JT did so and Tony pitched a fit. Apparently, in his eyes, “keep right” means keep going straight. (Note: I have since acquired my own Garmin. “Keep right” means get as far right as possible.) Keith sensed the tension and, being the bitch he is, decided to verbally poke at Tony. Tony retaliated in a manner which I found a little excessive, so I confronted him about it. He laughed at me and the only thing stopping me from knuckle-punching him in the ear was the fact that I would have had to do so left-handed. Also, Glen hates Keith. So we had a moment of quiet simmering hatred and JT says something along the lines of “Whoa guys, kinda tense in here, haha,” and then all my hatred was focused on him. I personally don’t mind tension but I can’t stand it when some doofus elects him or herself Goodwill Ambassador To The World and tries to “lighten the mood.”

Thankfully, by the time we got to Rock Bottom, all was right with the world. We had (somehow) made up and were laughing and joking again. While waiting for the club to open, we talked to our usual fans and friends in bands, and made acquaintance with the singer of Sad Wings, (Judas Priest cover band headlining this evening) who entertained us with stories of playing shows with Sepultura. Also, I tried to balance myself on a chunk of concrete.

HEXLUST
I think this was another one of them shows where there was supposed to be a band on before us and they just never showed up. I can’t find a flyer from that show anywhere so I can’t say for sure, but either way we ended up loading straight onto the stage to play first. While doing this, I found, in the back room where we normally load in, a boom stand with a crash cymbal on it. I was puzzled; it was a pretty shitty stand but a decent cymbal, a 16” A Custom Projection Crash (not cheap), and I could not understand why someone would just leave it there. I decided to wait til after we were done playing; if nobody had claimed it by then, it was mine.

Interesting note about this performance was that there was a gong behind me! It belonged to Sad Wings, who gave us full permission to use as we pleased. I put it in my head to do so and forgot. I consider that an opportunity poorly wasted.

Another (probably the most) interesting note about this performance is the mildly infamous video taken of us playing the instrumental song “Imminent Retardation.” The song itself wasn’t what was so interesting (though if memory serves me this was our first time playing it in public) as what came before it: Tony inciting the audience to yell “Fuck Austin!” When at first we found out this video was on YouTube, there was more than a little worry that this would somehow cause major backlash and keep us from peacefully playing in Austin again. Thankfully, response has been pretty positive. Even people actually from Austin seem to understand that we have nothing against the city itself, just its lacking metal scene, shitty parking, and we-are-the-new-Renaissance attitude of some of the snobs who strut its streets.

Other than that, a decent performance. Not our best, but a major ego boost compared to our last ’08 performance and a great way to kick off ’09. Also: Nobody ever claimed that crash cymbal, so I took it. When trying to decide how to implement it, I came up with the idea of getting together all the spare 16” crashes I have an using them as hi-hats. The Zildjian cymbal from this show is now my top main hi-hat.

HOD
Slamming as always! Not that we were actually there, we were still outside getting our shit loaded in and talking to people about the performance while they were onstage, but I could hear their awesomeness! Dennis’ seemingly effortless drum wizardry never fails to astound me, the guitars are SO HUGE and SO POWERFUL, and Beer never ceases to both intimidate and amuse. As long as we’re on the subject of Hod, it was either at this show or sometime soon after that JT entered into negotiations with guitarist Bjorn about buying his awesome red Jackson guitar from him. It’s now very weird to look at videos of Hod from before this time and see JT’s guitar being used by another band.

Before I go on to Militia, I would just like to put out a personal plea to all guys based on a phone call I received while I was outside at this time. If you happen to be in a fuck-buddy relationship with a crazy inebriated whore, DO NOT let her answer YOUR phone when a close female friend calls. Drama will ensue. If for some reason that does happen, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Reprimand your whore and tell her to stay out of your business. And finally, if for some reason you let it happen and do nothing, DO NOT try to justify yourself with suckass excuses like “Oh, she took my phone away when I wasn’t looking,” or “There was nothing I could do.” You will be proving what a spineless shitcock you are.

MILITIA
Texas thrash metal legends! Of whom I had never heard before tonight. As such, there was only so much enjoyment I could get out of their set since I didn’t know any of their songs, but it was pretty kickass. Especially the guitar solos; nothing brings me greater joy than Floyd Rose-using guitarists who actually USE their whammy bar. Especially during the individual guitar solo(s?). I had found my way outside again at the time but heard so much whammy-wankery I almost died of dork-happiness! I bought their CD “Release” and a T-shirt. I recently went to Hooters wearing that shirt, and was approached by one of the guys who worked there, asking me where I got the shirt and when. Turns out this dude was a thrasher back in the day and was way into Militia! I got big compliments for the shirt and felt very cool.

Also during this set, I had a chat with Glen. A nice, serious talk about girls, Godzilla, parents, and life in general. Before this time I had never really had anything resembling a conversation with him, only howdy-do’s and y’all-take-care’s whenever our paths crossed at Tony’s house. It was a nice, relaxed way to bring to a close this odd, chaotic evening.

SAD WINGS and POST-SHOW
We left. Nothing against the band, but it was one in the morning, we were pooped, they were gonna be on for like an hour, and neither of us were THAT much into Priest that we would stick around for that long when we could be getting some rest. Back to JT’s sis’ apartment, where, as usual, things more closely resembled by childhood sleepovers than anything else. Junk food, fart jokes, Keith’s awesome boarding shorts, JT promising that one of us will wake up with his balls on our face, and Tony getting no actual rest. See, when all the rest of us were asleep, one of the apartment’s roommates came home. He was not happy about his night and commenced to make all sorts of ruckus in making himself some pre-sleep munchies. Tony, being a light sleeper, was the only one awakened and affected by this; he had a very hard time getting back to sleep and was pretty groggy on the drive home the next day. I, however, slept GREAT and was finally fully caught up with the rest I missed out on the past few nights. What a great day to be alive!