Secrets She Kept

Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015
Venue: Lost Well, Austin TX
Bands: Nosferion, Hexlust, Skan, Secrets She Kept, Plutonian Shore

After eight years of playing drums onstage, I still get a decent dose of stage fright before gigs, and still get apprehensive the day of a show. 

"Maybe everyone associated with the venue will spontaneously combust," I'll fantasize as I try to will myself out of bed that afternoon, "and I can just stay home and not have to do stuff."

Don't get me wrong, I love playing live. I love seeing my metal friends, both musicians and supporters. I love setting up my drums and taking a proud second to admire how pretty they are before I smash the unholy fuck out of them. Among all this joy, though, there remains my little checklist - places to go, tasks to complete, things to keep an eye on - that never stops cycling through my noggin. Completed items are crossed out, tasks still to be done are highlighted in an ever-boldening shade of red. On gig days, I'm often withdrawn, distracted, even a little grumpy, depending on how bold any of those red items are.

Not this day, though! Somehow I just woke up knowing this was going to be a great gig. I had used our full-band practice the week before to troubleshoot my drum kit, so all my gimcracks and doodads were in working order, broken down, and ready for load-up. I knew exactly where the Lost Well was and how loading in worked, having performed there with Morgengrau back in December. Load-in wasn't until 21:00, so I spent most of the day relaxing and lightly warming up on my practice pad. Everything in my brain's to-do list was looking to be easily crossed off at a casual rate, practically taking care of themselves.

Of course, I had Jake to do all my worrying for me. When the person who was actually in charge of the show wasn't able to make it, Mr. Holmes stepped into the role of promoter as well as stage manager - charged with communicating with all the musicians and making sure everybody was aware of their stage times - while also performing in one of the bands! I knew he was feeling the pressure, but I had zero doubts as to whether he'd pull it off. He's well known in the central Texas metal scene and has great rapport with many musicians, plus he just plain gives a shit. 

The good vibes continued as Hexlust took the stage. We had a numerous, energetic crowd, which was really saying something considering there had been some higher-profile, well-hyped shows going on in the Austin/San Antonio area since Thursday. Our playing was smooth and confident, and once again Tony displayed amazing presence and crowd control, although he did have one minor issue I'll get to in a minute. Our stage sound was fantastic, provided by a soundman who was actually on his first night employed at the Lost Well. He scared me a bit when we were setting up, telling me that this was his first night as he clipped a mic onto my floor tom. I must have given him a look, because he quickly followed up, "As in, here! I used to work at Red 7, but I recently left." Can't do that to me, dude.

Without the frustration and stress we had at our last show, we weren't playing with the same fire and fury this evening, but we were a well-practiced, finely-tuned thrashing machine nonetheless. Well, there were a few moments of mild concern:

-Right before the set JT thought he wasn't getting a signal to his amp, and had to futz around with some newly-purchased cables he had just then unpacked. He managed to resolve both issues, but still. That's a paddling for bad pre-show prep, Mr Avakuma.

-My hi-hat clutch slipped just a bit (I might have hit it once or twice while playing), to where the cymbals had a fist-sized gap between them and sloshed horribly no matter how hard I mashed the pedal. Annoying, as well as distracting, but the show must go on. Then, despite all the prepwork I did on my kit before our set, my double pedal managed to become discombobulated and revert to a single pedal during "Baphomet Dawn," WHICH, by the way, we weren't even going to play this evening! We had planned on skipping it entirely to save on time, but I was so distracted by my sloshy-ass hats I counted it off out of reflex.

-After Baphomet, I had to call a break to get myself situated, leaving Tony to entertain the crowd in the interum. Here, we rediscovered one of his biggest weaknesses in his otherwise stellar stage presence: improvisation. After all the leaps and bounds he's made in his charisma and confidence, Tony still can not work a crowd on the fly, and I heard some instances of "uh" and "like" slipping into his word-vomit. He even admits that his confidence dips when he has to improvise, which can probably be alleviated if he were to keep a skeleton of a speech tucked away in the back of his mind that he can fill in with details on the moment.

Those concerns certainly didn't detract from the evening's merriment! This was actually a very social show for us, chatting it up with regular metal-scene friends as well as some longtime cronies who came to see us. There was Eric B (we know a lot of Erics, so it's important to make the distinction), an old friend who barista'd with JT for a while, jammed with us on occasion, and even came to our shows, who I haven't seen since the Immolation show in San Antonio back in 2011. Christ, time flies too quickly! Also there were Russell and Amber; Russell used to head I Misery, one of the very very few legitimate death metal bands to come out of the Killeen/Cove area, as well as Special Guest Satan, which also featured our very own Tony on guitar for a while. Adding a slightly surreal touch to the revelry was the presence of Mr. Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, who was related to somebody associated with this show and is actually an ardent supporter of underground metal. I neglected to get a picture with him, but did have the privelege of carrying on a pleasant conversation for a good while!

Of course, I don't mean to imply that the evening's entertainment was uninteresting, and I did manage to catch at least a little bit of most of the performances. Nosferion employed a soundscape-y approach to bleak black metal which I enjoyed as much as Tarzan assured me I would. Can't wait to see what they sound like with both their guitarists! The Wolves of Skan presented a confident, intimidating stage presence and featured atmospheric segues between blackly esoteric meditations on death and a Slayer cover with Jake's vocal assistance. I missed out on Secrets She Kept, a black metal act on a national tour who were added to this bill after another show they were attached to got cancelled, but from what I saw they got a decent crowd.

Tony, Tarzan, and I were carrying on with Jeff A.D. when I heard Plutonian Shore start up. Of course, I actually wanted to watch their set, after I missed a good 90% of their performance at our last show in Dallas, and Tony wanted to head home, so we started our goodbyes... and they kind of lasted for a while, as our goodbyes tend to... basically I missed a little more than half of Plutonian's set. Whoopsies. I got right up front and added as much falsetto might as my range would allow for their "Highland Tyrant Attack" cover, and headbanged with Eric B for the rest of the songs. There are still a few months left of 2015, so there's room for surprises, but their Sphere of Geburah album is shaping up to be album of the year in my humble opinion, and it's still a blast seeing those songs in the live environment. In fact, I have a Morgengrau gig in December with Plutonian on the bill, so this time, this time, I'll catch their whole set. 


POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
I don't have the brightest opinion of band promo pictures, which is largely why the majority of the photos you find online of Hexlust are live shots. We haven't even attempted a photoshoot since 2008, and we used live shots in the booklet for our album. Those turned out great, so I don't see us changing that policy anytime soon. 

However, an even compromise does exist in the concept of pro-shot live pics, and after this show, I think we know who we'll be using. In fact, the footage taken by Mr. Erik Bredthauer of NecroBlanca Photography this very evening was close to perfect; some killer angles, a tasteful use of black and white, and the best postures and facial expressions captured by his finely-calibrated shutter finger. I'm including four of my favorite examples from his business Facebook page, but if you visit his website, you can see the shots he got of all this evening's acts! That link should take you directly to this evening's folder.

Tony's Stupid GPS, and the Mosh Off of 2015

Date: Saturday, August 8, 2015
Venue: Curtain Club, Dallas TX
Lineup: Bunch o' bands. Lookit that flyer. So many bands.


GETTING THERE
There we were, heading to play in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for the first time in five years, as part of the weekend-long Mosh Off sponsored by the Pit Bulls organization. Tony and JT lead the way in Tony's truck, carrying only amp heads and guitars since amp cabs were going to be backlined this show. Tarzan followed, carrying his bass, our shirts and CDs, and a recently-aquired merch table. I and my companion Sue held up the rear, lugging my kit since drums were not being backlined. We were excited to see our Dallas friends for the first time in years, and finally play somewhere that wasn't San Antonio or Austin. Hopes were high.

When Tony pulled off the highway, lead our little convoy into a rest area, and told me that his Garmin was erratically trying to direct him to an alternate route which he was just gonna go with, what I should have said was, "Dude, fuck your Garmin. That thing was a miracle back in 2008, when we were stumbling our way through San Antonio using directions printed off MapQuest. But now, with its unreliable satellite connections and insistence on following one route and one route alone, that thing's becoming more of a liability. I know none of us wants to drain away his battery or data plan using his phone to lead us all the way there, but we know that the Curtain Club is not too far off I-35. What we should do, then, is just stay on the highway for about two hours, and when we feel we're in a Dallas-ish proximity, you or JT boot up a GPS app of choice and take us the rest of the way there."

For reasons I can't comprehend, other than I'm stupid, what I actually said was "Okie dokie!"

Now, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the scenic route a bit. Little towns like Moody and McGregor seem like neat places to book a hotel and spend a Saturday exloring. The Big Rocks Park in Glen Rose promises whole... half hours of amusement climbing on the as-advertised ginormous rocks and I guess eating a picnic lunch or something. Best of all, Stumpy's Lakeside Grill in Granbury has a breathtaking view of the Brazos River, which itself holds promise of summer-afternoon fun for the whole family or a group of close friends.

However.

The four and a half hour drive (it should have only been three) was frustrating. The collision-clogged city streets, on-a-dime lane changes, and residential speed limits were aggravating. Arriving at 5:55pm to play a set at 6:20 was, worst of all, humiliating. Plutonian Shore were set to play before us, and I had arranged to share my kit with Gorgon as a way to reduce changeover time and to thank him for letting me use his kit at the 1349 show back in June. I had to back out on that, and felt double-embarrassed for that. Even the laid-back vibe, plentiful (and cheap!) parking, and agreeable traffic of the beautiful Deep Ellum streets did little to assuage how cranky, cramped, and just plain stupid we all felt.

Our attitudes improved greatly the instant we entered the Curtain Club.

BEING THERE
We were greeted by a professional staff and lead directly to a backstage area with racks for gear storage (!) and even a neat little lounge area that was pleasantly isolated without the "fuck you commoner" VIP vibe of separation by rope or door. The stage itself was plenty spacious, had an elevated drum riser, and, true to the venue name, had a heavy dark curtain that was drawn closed between sets.

I didn't even realize how much I dug the drape until I experienced setting up behind it. Offstage, I am all for accessibility and transparency, but onstage, immersion is the name of the game, and nothing will throw that off quite like watching the performers fumble around trying to find the cable that plugs this into that or trip over the drummer's tripod stands. Of course, most audience members head outside or across the venue during changeovers, but when setting up on an open stage I still can't help but feel like I'm already in performance mode, already being observed and made note of. With the curtain, all the audience sees is what was intended for them, and the setup and soundcheck feels that much less stressful because of it.

The soundcheck itself was a dream. We were all mic'd up and we each had a monitor, from which everyone could hear a little bit of everything. The techs helping us were friendly and communicative, and the actual sound guy told us ahead of time what order he'd check us in and how we should indicate desired volume adjustments.

We were given an all-clear, our name was announced to the waiting audience, and the curtain was pulled back. I counted off FBF and we were off into one of the more intense shows we've played in recent memory. I could tell we had a very unique aura going this evening; all the fury built up from our long journey, combined with the goodwill we felt toward this wonderfully run venue, gave us an energy that was equal parts bloodthirsty and playful, malicious and jubilant, exactly what, if anything, Hexlust is "about." It's exactly what Tony and I had in mind when we first started jamming together, and I can honestly say we haven't played with such spirit since that Limelight show last April.

Of course, audience reaction was a huge help. We only had, maybe, twelve people up at the front of the stage? But dammit, those twelve people were STOKED to see us, and I saw quite a few pits going on during our set. 

Unfortunately, our skin-of-our-teeth arrival gave us zero minutes of warmup time, so our demonic fervor was paired with a rather pedestrian execution. We were plenty convincing during mid-tempo numbers like "FBF" and "Baphomet," but lagged on our fuck-you fast church-burners like "Imminent" and "Tombs." My unstretched legs plopped and plodded through the double-bass sections of "Conjure" and "Mega." Some riffs went on too long, some solos were sloppy (even for us), some vocals came in at the wrong place. Speaking of which, thanks to the awesome monitors, I clearly heard Tony's and Tarzan's vocals crack and lose their "metal edge" about halfway through. 

By no means were we terrible, but if we had arrived even just twenty minutes earlier, just had that much time to get ourselves warmed up, our energy and execution would have been exactly equal, and this would have been a show for the history books. But hey, we made it on time, put on a solid show, gave some folks a good time, and sold some merch. I'm still very happy with how it all turned out.

SET LIST:
Fucked By Fire
They Conjure
Baphomet Dawn
Imminent Retardation
Meganecropolis
Tombs of the Blind Dead

LEAVING THERE
Tarzan had been on the road since 8:30 that morning, driving from San Antonio to my house in Killeen and then from there to Dallas, our time here at the show his longest "break" all day. Since he was staying at my house, I was planning on leaving our departure time entirely up to him. Sadly, my energy deteriorated fast once my adrenaline died down, and I, Mr. Night Shift, Mr. Stays Up Til Sun-up, threw in the towel by 8:30. Old Man Tony was getting hungry, and basically this wound up being a rare "dick em and ditch em" show for Hexlust. Next time we come through, though, we'll plan the trip out better, maybe even get a room for the night, and will be able to hang out sooner and stick around longer.

Rest assured, Dallas metalheads, this was just a taste of the hexcellence to come!

THANKS/SHOUTOUTS
A huge thanks goes to Les Playcool, for giving us this chance and for patiently working with us on our scheduling needs, and to the Pit Bulls for bringing this shindig together.

Thanks to the staff at the Curtain Club, you guys are awesome and your venue is top-notch, we can't wait to come back!

To Plutonian Shore, sorry we missed most of your set, though I finally got to hear your rendition of HIGH-LAND TY-TY-RANT AT-TACK! The new album, Sphere of Geburah, is fantastic, everybody should go buy a copy or download it.

Christopher Atomic-Thrasher!!! It was great seeing you again, massively looking forward to what Insinnerator put out next. Remember: MORE WHAMMY BAR SOLOS!

To Sue, for putting up with my freaked-out temper up to our set, and my parents, supportive as ever, always there when they can catch a show, I love you dearly.

Everyone who watched us, headbanged to our tunes, cheered for us, and/or bought some merch, big thanks to you all as well, and we hope to see you out there again! 

UPDATE: It turns out Tony had "avoid highways" selected on his GPS. 

Basement Dwelling

Date: Saturday, June 13, 2015
Venue: Korova Basement, San Antonio TX
Bands: Aggravator, Nodens, Blood Royale, Hexlust

Originally, this was supposed to be a Hod show, with Hexlust invited to support our favorite San Antonio band at one of our favorite San Antonio clubs. Their sudden breakup last month shifted the lineup, resulting in us getting promoted to headliner and Nodens coming in to fill the void. 

It felt a little weird, almost wrong, to be the top-billed act in a San Antonio show. Probably because - and I just went back through this blog to make sure this was correct - this was our first time ever headlining a San Antonio show! I'd say it's about time. These past few shows have seen us consistently at the top of our game in terms of ability, tightness, and stage presence. Plus, we've been pimping out our album by playing the whole thing live lately, along with bringing out favorite covers, so we definitely weren't lacking material to show off.

So, you know what, yeah, maybe we are accustomed to being the spunky support act, but it was high time for Hexlust to show what we can do with the top slot and a more flexible time limit! Onward and downward, San Antonio hessians, into the Korova basement, Hexlust's dungeon of death and dick jokes for this evening!

AGGRAVATOR, who had been set up and soundchecked since nine, did get a late start to their ten o'clock set, but I'm led to believe they were waiting for their bassist to show up. They took the stage without him, and played an energetic set to an audience who had been waiting to thrash. I saw a few Aggravator shirts in the crowd, too, a sure sign that years of being Central Texas's anywhere/anytime go-to thrash band are paying off.

Watching them as I was putting my drums together, I realized it had been a while since I had seen them play. Mike now had his drums held up by a spiffy curved rack, with his roto-toms out front above his rack toms. Jessie was still the man to beat in terms of technical sweep-happy shredding, and Derek was as caustic and abrasive as ever, although he did show his sweet side on a couple occasions by congratulating us on our album release. Their bassist showed up about halfway through, ampless but still bringing that vital low end to the proceedings by plugging direct into the PA, as bass players are lucky enough to be able to do. 

NODENS were up next, and these Houstonians win the award for quickest setup time. They came in part of the way into Aggravator's set, had their gear set up by the end, and were stage-ready in no time flat! Their music was a death/black mix, heavy on the black, with a wall-of-sound attack that reminded me of "pure" black acts like Inferno that toss aside any sort of rock influence in favor of hateful aural chaos. 

I loved the noisy, whammy-heavy solos, but my attention was really focused on the drummer. This dude had chops to spare, and soundchecked by showing off some spiffy traditional-grip snare work and jazzy hi-hat hits. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing these guys again, this time on a show I'm not playing so I can really take it all in.

THE BLOOD ROYALE, being an awesome band with the "sweet spot" set time that falls between 11:30 and midnight, wound up being the true stars of the evening. Heavy, energetic, uptempo without being full-on speedy, like Motorhead's faster moments sustained for a whole performance. The best part of the whole deal was watching JT Smith go into a solo: holding his guitar way out in front of him where you'd think he wouldn't even be able to pick comfortably, leaning heavily on that wah pedal, building up to a crescendo where he'd suddenly arch way back, dreadlocks flying everywhere.

They're also really cool guys who let us have a bit of space on their merch table, because after eight years of performing live we still haven't realized basic shit like getting a table for the wares we're peddling. Something Walmart's el-cheapo fifteen-dollar foldemups are actually good for. Something I've seen Morgengrau drag to the two shows I've played with them at this point! 

*Sigh* One step at a time towards being a real band. One step, at a damn time.

HEXLUST
  

Random thought: I'm normally up until 5 or so in the morning because of my work schedule, but at shows I'll still be thinking "Fuuuuuuck, it's 12:30 and the last band isnt even on stage yet!"

Yep, that is a status update I posted to my personal facebook profile, just a five days before this show, where we headlined with a 12:45 time slot. 

Turns out, I'm not the only one who feels this way. The room had emptied a bit when we took the stage, and continued to diminish as we played. Even my ever-supportive parents called it a night by about the halfway point. Such is the gamble you take with late shows, I suppose.

Those who stuck around, though, were treated to a fine set of deathrashing hexcellence, if I do say so myself! The surprisingly plentiful stage space negated the crowding issues of our last show, and everyone got a mic so the trade-off vocals in the second verse of FBF went off without a hitch. I did better with energy management this time, not even feeling tired yet until after "Baphomet," although I did experience a brain-fart on my big fill in "Conjure." Possibly the funniest drum happening was when I dropped a stick that came to rest on one of my toms right in front of me, allowing me to pick it right back up and continue on.

After "Baphomet," we switched things up a little by bringing out our cover of "Agent Orange," which we've been nailing a lot in the practice space and is never not fun to pull out live. After that, though, I was really starting to feel the fatigue set in, so of course it was a perfect time to go into "Imminent Retardation." The rest of the set, all our fastest material, went by in a blur, as I was just taking a breath before every song, willing myself not to die, and going for broke. I do know we finished strong with "Tombs," though, and finished to enthused applause from a small audience of loyal hexthrashers. 

OUTRO/THANKS
Late shows are always a dicey proposition. Weariness sets in with both the audience and the bands, and if the headliner isn't on by midnight there's a good chance they'll be providing the soundtrack to everyone's goodbyes. In ten years of seeing live shows I've only seen two bands take the stage at 1am to a full house, and they were both in Killeen: Downsiid and Kritickill. This was during both bands' unstoppable halcyon days, back in the mid-2000s. 

When it comes to playing a late show, though, I couldn't have asked to be part of a better lineup. Every band on this show managed their stage time well, and made quick work of their changeovers. Everything was running so smoothly, in fact, that when we were setting up on stage, we were told not to rush because our start time was twenty minutes away! In retrospect I should have asked if we could just get going right after the souncheck just so our fine audience wasn't waiting for too long, but that's that ol' 20/20 hindsight kicking in.

So yes, a big thank you to the members and associates of Aggravator, Nodens, and Blood Royale, and again thanks to BR's merch crew for letting us get in a little table space. Thanks to my parents, Jake, Nick, Zvs, Alyssa, Marisa, Dough, Tony R, and all the fine thrashers who stuck around as the night wore on and everyone else started peeling off! You made this night worth it!

Just as a bit of an update, the album is selling pretty damn well. The CD's arent exactly flying off the shelves, but even I'm surprised by how steady the pace is, as well as the reach. I've shipped CDs and shirts to Japan, South Korea, France, and Denmark so far, as well as all over the US. We don't really hype the thing up a whole lot, but part of the fun has been simply putting the album out there with minimal pomp and circumstance, and watching it take on a life of its own! 

And I just gotta say, when our BandCamp has a paid download option, and when I've seen our album pop up on Torrent sites, the fact that some folks are actually laying down the dough to get their own physical copy of our little disc of darkness and fuckery is a huge  honor. I've heard nothing but good things from those who've purchased one, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for Hexlust as we start working in earnest on new material.

Until next time!

THRASH TIL ALZHEIMERS

Morgan's Point Hexcellente

Date: Saturday, April 25 2015
Venue: Morgan's Point Sports Club, Belton TX
Bands: Plebians, Marla Strange, Shfux, Hexlust

It's finally here, folks.

After what felt like a lifetime of obstacles, restarts, nervous breakdowns, and that kooky little thing called "responsible adulthood," our debut album Manifesto Hexcellente has been brought kicking and thrashing into the metal world. 

If you haven't checked it out yet, the tunes are streaming (and totally for sale) at our brand spankin' new BandCamp page. 

Of course, who better to throw us a CD release party than the man who engineered, mixed, and mastered the thing while also putting up with our naivete and panicky last minute changeups? Walter put together a sweet local show for us, with Plebians, Marla Strange, and his own band Shfux on the bill, and the festivities taking place at a place in Belton called Morgan's Point Sports Club.

Once known as Rockin' Rick's Guitar Bar, the place was, from what I hear, quite the hot spot for Bell County rock fans looking to have a few drinks while enjoying the soaring stylings of Mr Rockin' Rick Bell. The venue closed sometime last year, I believe, and while Rockin' Rick himself now hires himself out as a guitar karaoke artist, the place itself now stands as a sort of rentable event center. 

It's whatever you want it to be for the evening, a club template with no decoration or equipment to ground itsef into a permanent identity. Blank walls, empty tabletops, a bar with nothing on its shelves, a stage with no lights or sound system. There were tables and chairs, though, and power outlets that worked, and even a couple clean and serviceable bathrooms, so it was everything we needed. 

This being a BYOB sort of DIY show, the bar remained unstocked and unstaffed and was set up as a merchandise area, displaying not only wares from the other bands but from us as well! Sure we've had merch before, our one-sided logo shirts that we just kept in the box onstage with us and sold when not performing because fuck having to guard a table, but now we had CDs! And two-sided shirts with the album artwork on it! We made a pretty decent killing, too, so an early thank you to everyone who bought a CD and/or shirt from us this evening!

Speaking of (or, rather, getting back to) the CD, one note of puzzlement I've heard from folks who've received their copy is the sudden presence of psuedonyms in the lineup. Whereas before we had simply gone by our names, Tony, JT, and I have recently tacked on "stage" last names of Morgor, Avakuma, and Nervewrecker, respectively. Tarzan remains Tarzan, the lucky fucker coming with his own ready-made psuedonym from his high school nickname. 

The inspiration behind each man's name is his own, but the purpose is the same: to provide the immersion necessary for us to keep our "stage" selves separated from our "day" selves, to keep ourselves focused on putting on a great show for our paying audience, particularly when things start going weird during a performance.

As they did tonight.

HEXLUST
Tony's amp was to my immediate left, not blocked by any drums or stands, allowing me to hear him loud and clear, so I'm gonna pick on him a bunch. He was having a tough time. His effects channel had chosen this evening to crap out, resultng in dodgy sound whenever he went into his leads. This distracted him and he was getting lost very easily, skipping ahead to the next riff in a song way too early, then catching himself and trying to slide back to the previous one, all while singing.

It wasn't as apparent to me, but from what I hear, JT was having some issues of his own. I do recall holding off a song so he could fix something on his amp, but I'm told he was doing a lot of fiddling during breaks in the songs as well.

Then, just add on to all of that, we had the unbearable, ungodly heat. No wonder the Shfux played what felt like a truncated set, it was broiling up there! I believe that day was our first 90 degree scorcher of the season, and we were woefully unprepared. Any water we sucked down between songs was quickly sweated right out of our bodies, leaving us nauseated and shaky, and causing Tony and Tarzan's dusty throats to crack in their "everyday" voices.

Kinda funny, in retrospect.

If all this had happened even just a year ago, Tony would have shut down. He would have still been playing, sure, but the fire would have been snuffed out. He would have closed his eyes and hid behind his hair, maybe angled his body to where he was facing a corner, and his stage banter would have reduced to a mumbled "This next song we wrote is a song that we wrote and we hope you like it it's called Toxic High." 

Tonight, though, armed with his stage name and his pre-selected "stage clothes," Tony Morgor was on fire the whole set! Through the technical difficulties and sweaty hands he continued playing with full confidence and kept his stage banter energetic and engaging, while we threw out every song from the album plus two covers. Ten songs, most of them very fast, all on one very hot, very cramped stage.

A few things stick out to me: Poor JT having to maneuver his way to Tony's side of the stage to sing his parts for Fucked By Fire; me flubbing the big fill in They Conjure a bit; asking Jake which songs were next, since he pretty much has the whole album memorized by this point, then having him come up with us to do our now-usual rendition of Troops of Doom; and closing the set out with Sodomy & Lust, which I honestly did not think we would be able to pull off but somehow it happened, with our usual ramp-up to "fuck-you fast" after the middle breakdown. 

After that, we were done for. Maybe, MAYBE we could have squeezed in "Evil Dead" if folks were demanding just one more tune, but "Agent Orange" and "Open Casket" were definite no-gos. Of course, it would be really nice to be able to pull out some new material, and trust me, we are working diligently on that. Not rushing it, but still keeping the pressure on, focusing on our goal to have three new songs completed by the end of the year. 

This year's already almost halfway over. Shit.

SHOUTOUTS
For this, Hexlust's album release show, we want to thank Walter first and foremost, for all that stuff I mentioned earlier. Couldn't have done it without you, man. HEY LOCAL BANDS, if you want something recorded, hit up Walter Martin on Facebook. He knows what he's doing and his rates ain't bad.

Also, a personal thanks for his dedication of "Doomsday" to me during the Shfux's set. That eight-minute punk epic is the highlight of every performance for me nowadays. 

Thanks to Marla Strange, for being the best band tonight! No disrespect to Shfux, who ruled as always, or Plebians, who I didn't see, but these dudes shined above all with their energy and surprising catchiness among the odd guitar chords and slamming drums. Speaking of which, Jason is still an absolute monster on the kit, always making it seem like his poor little set is going to get smashed to pieces under his assault. Buy their album, go see them play!

Thanks to my parents, to Gary & Chris; to JT's parents (long time no see!); Joe Rose; Ralph; that guy JT and Tarzan went to high school with whose name I didn't catch; to Rick and John (Desmortes dudes, haven't seen them in forever!); and everyone else who paid their five bucks to watch our Hexshenanigans!

Extra big thanks to Jake, who once again went out of his way to come see us play, help us with our gear, and sing Troops with us! This evening he had on hand copies of his stellar Under The Sign of the Lone Star zine, quality writing with zero ads or scene politics.

(It also include a nifty review of our album!)

And of course a huge thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of Manifesto Hexcellente, and/or one of our album shirts, both online and at our shows!