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
