Saturday, February 21, 2009

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!”