Date: Saturday, June 25, 2011
Venue: Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX
Bill: Aggravator, Hexlust, Machinage, Death Rites 666, Hod
PRE-SHOW
Originally, this was set to be another small thrash show at the Parlor, with Death Rites 666 headlining this time since we did at Ana's birthday bash, and Aggravator opening. However, the Parlor announced that it was set to close three days before the date of the show (to change locations, not shut down for good) so Tony R. had to scramble to find a new venue. What ended up happening was a venue change to the Ten Eleven and an adding-on of two additional bands, Hod and Brazilian touring act Machinage.
AGGRAVATOR
We've played after Aggravator so many times, their music has almost become my background noise of choice for setting up my drum kit, much like how Absu's self-titled album is my grocery shopping music and Opeth's "Lamentations" DVD is the soundtrack to cleaning my room. I used almost their whole set to piece my kit together, taking my time since this was the first time since February that I was performing with the whole shebang, rotary toms and all. From what I could hear, they were really killing 'em in there, getting the small early crowd ready for some serious face-bashing coming their way from the later acts.
"Sacred Disease" and "Power Surge," with its "Agent Orange"/"In My Darkest Hour"-ish intro, are by far my favorite Aggravator songs.
HEXLUST
After a speedy stage setup and a hiccup-free soundcheck, we tore into our set, hoping that playing on familiar ground would give us enough confidence and focus to deliver a more worthy show than we had been with our last two San Antonio outings. For the most part, I feel we really succeeded this evening! I dropped no sticks and kept it together on the fills; Tony maintained his confidence at a high level; Tarzan's bass playing was on point and he performed his vocal parts to a T; and JT showed that he has been no slug while living apart from the band, his claims to have been practicing daily ringing true in his high picking speed and always-ripping solos.
In fact, we had all been practicing much more lately, in preparation for finally recording our first album. Drum fills and guitar solos have been planned out in advance, and riff cohesion between bass and guitars (and even between the guitars themselves) have been more closely scrutinized. Our reward for our more focused efforts was a set with which we ourselves were satisfied and which audience members told us was by far our fastest, most intense, and overall best set yet, with particular attention paid to our mid-set melding of "They Conjure" into "Baphomet Dawn."
I feel the only area in which we could have improved was onstage water-drinking. I had two bottles in my backpack which I kept with me behind my kit, and I'm sure the others had their own water with them, but I can't vouch for how often they drank or how hydrated they were before our performance. JT reported almost fainting towards the end of the set, and Tony, usually one for being more vigilant in these matters, said he almost threw up at one point while singing. I guess they sweated out more than they could take in!
Taking our gear apart offstage, we were reunited with former Hod bassist Derek, whom we haven't seen in I can't tell you how long. He reported having been responding very well to his cancer treatment lately, which pleased us very much to hear, then he and Tony engaged in discussing Weird Al albums and performances. One of many reminders I get on a regular basis that true "metalheads" are nerds, an observation I swear by proudly.
Set list:
Intro
FBF
Conjure
Baphomet
Mega
Tombs
MACHINAGE/DEATH RITES 666/HOD
You'll have to forgive me; it must really seem like I'm "phoning it in" with this post, the way I'm consolidating categories and all. The truth is, after we packed our gear away, I hardly set foot in the Ten Eleven again, intrigued though I was to see a touring band from Brazil (Machinage) and to watch our friends in DR666 and Hod play again. I chose instead to spend time with friends and bandmates, particularly JT. We got to his apartment earlier that evening with maybe half an hour to spare before we all had to leave for the show, and he had work the next morning at ten a.m., so this was really the only time we had to hang out and catch up with him.
Unfortunately, no footage of Machinage's set was shot or just not uploaded, so for the sake of getting exposure to this awesome band of very nice guys, here is a video of another show recent enough to be representative of how they performed.
MORE MACHINAGE / POST-SHOW
As the show drew to a close, members of Hexlust could be found outside the Ten Eleven, talking with friends and acquaintances old and new. Tony in particular held down a lengthy conversation with the members of Machinage, which focused largely on comparisons between the US and Brazil in matters such as currency value, coffee quality, breakfast preparation, and the popularity and cultural relevance of metal music. According to Tony, they feel Hexlust would be a huge hit down there. Wooh! This made me wish that members of Averse Sefira had been present so they could toss in their own accounts of playing in Brazil.
After wishing our new friends well and catching up with old ones, we headed off to JT's apartment for some rest, finally able to pat ourselves on the back and say that, with the exception of a few dehydration difficulties, we had ourselves a fine show that makes up for our recent hiccups. Hopefully the rest of this year finds us meeting and excelling this new standard!
