Date: Friday, April 19, 2013
Venue: Zombies, San Antonio TX
Bill: Hexlust, Morgengrau, Plutonian Shore
Playing with Plutonian Shore and Morgengrau? Hot damn! What a way to end this string of shows than with a "family reunion" sort of gig, sharing the stage with friends and having a slew of additional compatriots in the audience. Even better, this was the release party for Morgengrau's exceptional debut album, Extrinsic Pathway, so the atmosphere was thick with camaraderie and the celebration of a milestone realized. Having my ever-supportive parents in attendance made it all the sweeter. We were excited, warmed up, and ready to blow the roof off of Zombies, one of our favorite venues in San Antonio.
Things were off to a rather awkward start as the night's opening act, the very promising Nymesyn, had to drop out. Their singer (a guy with whom, just days prior, I was exchanging Facebook messages talking about how excited we were for this show) had become Born Again and suddenly quit the band. I'd like to think that if I were to one day be drawn to the "loving embrace of our heavenly lord and savior," I would at least finish out my commitments to the band and bow out quietly, "devil's music" or not.
What can you do though, besides get back on the proverbial horse and ride on. An eleventh-hour replacement was found in a band whose name already escapes me, opening the show with power-grooving "Texas metal." Pantera worship really isn't my thing, and the band did feel a little out of place in the evening's death/black/thrash bill, but they did come through when the show needed them, so thumbs up all around.
HEXLUST
The awkwardness continued when we took the stage. Not only was I struggling to get acclimated with the backline drum kit (more on that later), but we had some technical issues in the form of JT and Tarzan's sound disappearing entirely before we had even reached the chorus of the first song. Tony and I soldiered on while they performed inspections to isolate the cause. It was quickly discovered that the problem was with the power supply itself, and thankfully the whole thing was resolved in time to finish the song and play the rest of the set intact.
JT was livid, however, and considered our performance the laughingstock of the evening. I felt differently: for one thing, the problem wasn't due to any kind of incompetence on our behalf, just a short in the power supply; additionally, and most importantly, we kept playing. The laughingstock thing to do would have been for me and Tony to stop the song and stare stupidly, unable to contribute to the solution ourselves and letting that godawful silence fall over the stage. I've seen bands stop songs and start all over due to technical issues; it's never not cringe-worthy and they never do gain that momentum back. Momentum is everything, it maintains that immersion the audience achieves when they are physically and spiritually invested in the music, and to lose it is more a sign of failure than any trifling technical issue.
All in all, though, we played very well. Through "Toxic," "Conjure," "Baphomet," and "Meganecropolis," momentum was sustained, immersion was maintained, we never lost the audience and finished out "Tombs" to a roar of applause.
As usual with any band that goes on right after us, I missed out on a significant chunk of Plutonian Shore's set thanks to gear breakdown and load-up. And, well, let's be honest, I didn't just put my shit away and then run right back inside; we caught our breath for a minute, discussed the pros and cons of the set, took a few pictures, what have you. You do it too, so shut up.
I do want to say real quick, though, that my mom, who was in attendance, took plenty of pictures, and manage to capture the full face of the elusive Prokingu. Definitely doesn't happen often, you'd almost have to do like on Pokemon Snap and throw an apple at his head or something.
MORGENGRAU
Tightness. Tightness, tightness, tightness. If there's one thing for which Morgengrau are quickly becoming known (besides their "old school" sound) it's their lock-step cohesion, even when playing at higher speeds. The higher speeds don't happen often, as they've settled into more of a mid-tempo act, but when they do turn up the gas, like on the "Inner Self" cover, you can bet there won't be a single note out of place. No matter the velocity, though, they're all together: the backing vocals match precisely with Erika's lead yells; they turned their backs to the audiences between songs at the exact same time; hell, they even came in all together after a "held out chord" without Reba having to keep time with her hi-hat pedal, which I consider a recipe for disaster but dammit they made it work! Altogether a fine showing for their album, and I'm really looking forward to playing with them again.
A special shout-out goes out to Jake tonight, pulling double duty like a champ and not showing any signs of wear. He's the headbangingest dude I've ever seen, and in real life is always at 100%, as if he doesn't even bother unplugging his charger. We in Hexlust are old farts who start powering down once midnight hits, we like our cups of hot tea and our comfy sleepytime clothes and our "it's 2am, shut the fuck up!" Jake is always ready for metal, will pull out his Proscriptor impression at a moment's notice and perform it at full volume, one of them dudes you're sure will someday die onstage and go out with a smile on his face.
POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
We wound up leaving as the last band took the stage, a weird black metal act with an... unusual vocal style that was hard for us to digest.
At times, it actually sounded like crying.
Anyway, as I said in the beginning, it's always great to be able to play shows with friends, people you not only respect but have fun talking to and yukking it up with as well. It was a shame that Jeff AD wasn't his usual fiery self, he was a little more subdued tonight thanks to a jacked-up rib and a bad case of bronchitis he picked up on tour, but we were glad he still showed up and even tried to lend a hand when things went wonky during our set. I really hope any other shows we play this year are just as much fun as tonight, although hopefully smoother from a technical standpoint.
DRUMMERS CORNER
Devastation from Plutonian had lent his drum kit to be used as a backline for the whole evening. This was great in that I only needed to bring my cymbals, snare, throne, pedals, and sticks, but undeniably uncomfortable for Witchhunter-worshipping me, a disciple of "caveman drumming" not at all at home on a kit build for technicality and blast-beating. I spent the whole set rim-shotting fills on his horizontally-angled toms, and never did find a comfortable way to position the ride cymbal without overreaching and hitting the other cymbals or elbow-bumping the floor tom ("Have I always been this fucking gangly? When did I get spaghetti noodles for arms?").
That kick drum, however, was a thing of beauty. I've been using the same double pedal since the fall of 2008, and longtime readers are aware of the issues I've had with the thing. I'm too poor to replace it, so I just make do, "ghetto-rigging" it here and there the best I can. Tonight, however, those issues ceased to exist; the contraption remained structurally coherent the entire time, and my double-bassing has never been as fast or as fluid as it was this evening. I need to message Devastation and ask how he tunes and anchors his kick, I'd have never thunk that the key to getting good results out of your double pedal would be to focus on the drum itself.
