tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39888781796301867762024-03-12T18:00:01.408-07:00Hall of HexcellenceThe travels and trials of Hexlust. Deathly speed metal and our quest to be cool!
<p>"Manifesto Hexcellente" album now available at www.hexlust.bandcamp.com!</p>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-68659131465612868672015-09-26T01:17:00.000-07:002016-06-06T01:18:41.787-07:00Secrets She Kept<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jSWK6Mvb_L8/VuaMIH6YrUI/AAAAAAAACnw/ZN5AcpWsKIU34a8PP1CLKxdj5h3f5LMoQ/s1600/2015.09.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jSWK6Mvb_L8/VuaMIH6YrUI/AAAAAAAACnw/ZN5AcpWsKIU34a8PP1CLKxdj5h3f5LMoQ/s320/2015.09.26.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Date</b>: Saturday, September 26, 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Venue</b>: Lost Well, Austin TX</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Bands</b>: Nosferion, Hexlust, Skan, Secrets She Kept, Plutonian Shore</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"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."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The good <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">vibes continu<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ed as <b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">H<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">exlust</span></span></b> took the stage</span></span>. 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.<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span>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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-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.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-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.</span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></b></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> concerns certain<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ly </span>didn't detract from the evenin<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">g's merriment! This was actually a very social show for us, <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">c<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hatting it</span> up with reg<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ular metal-sc<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ene friend<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s well as some longtime cronies who cam<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e to see us<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was</span> Eric B (we know <i>a lot</i> of Erics, so it's important to make the distin<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ction)</span>, an old friend who barista'<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">d w<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ith <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">JT for a while<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">,</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> jammed with us on occasion, and even c<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a</span>me to our shows, who I haven't seen since<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e Immolation show in San Antonio back in 20<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11.</span></span></span> Christ, time flies too quickly! Also there were Russell <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Amb<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">er<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">; Russell used to head I Misery, one <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of the <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">very very few legitimate death metal bands to come out of the Killeen/Cove area, as well as Spe<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">cial Guest Satan, which also featured our<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> very own Tony on guitar for a while. Adding a slig<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">htly s<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">urreal touch to the revelry was the presence of Mr. Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, who<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> was related to somebody associated wit<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">h this s<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">how and is actual<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ly an arde<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nt supporter o<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">f underground metal. I neglected to <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">get a picture with him, but did have the privelege <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of carrying on a <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ple<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">asant <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">conversation for<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> a good while!</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">O<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">f course, I don't mean to imply that t<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">he <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">evening's entertainment was uninteresting<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, and I did manage to <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">catch at least a little bit of most of the performances. </span></span><b>Nosferion </b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">employed a soundscape-y app<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">roach to bleak black metal which I enjoyed as much as Tarzan <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">assured me I would. Can't wait to see what they so<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">und like with <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">both <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">their guitarists!</span></span></span> Th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e Wolves of</span> <b>Skan </b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">presented</span> a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> confident, intimidating stage presence <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">featured at<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">mospheric segues between</span></span></span> blackly esoteric meditations o<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">n <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">death<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and a Slayer cover with <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jake's vocal assistance. I<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> missed out on <b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Secrets She Kept</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a b<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">lack metal act</span></span> on a national tour <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">who</span> were added to <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bill after another show they w<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ere attached to got cancelled<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, but from what I saw they got a decent crowd.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tony, Tarzan, and I were <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">carrying on <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with Jeff A.D. when I heard <b>Plutonian Shore<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">start up. Of course, I act<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ually w<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">anted to watch their set, after I missed a good 90% of the<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ir performance at <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">our last show in Dallas,</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and Tony wanted t<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">o <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">head <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">home, so we started our goodbyes... and they <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">kind of lasted for a while, as our goodbyes tend to... basically I missed a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> little more than</span> half of Plutonian's set.<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whoopsies. I <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">got right <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">up <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fr<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ont and a<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">dded as much falsetto might as my range would allow f<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or their "Highland <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ty<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">rant At<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">tack" cover, and headbanged with Eric B for<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> the rest<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> of the<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> songs. There are still a fe<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">w months le<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ft of 2015, so <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there's room for surprises</span>, but their <i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sp<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">here of Ge<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">burah</span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">album is <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">shaping up to be album of th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e year in my humble opinion<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, and it's stil<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">l a blast seeing those songs in the live environment. In fact, I have a <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Morgengrau gig in Decem<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">b<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">er with Plutonian on th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bill, so this time, <i>this time, </i>I'll catch their whole set.</span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">POST-SHOW THOUGHTS</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I don't have the brightest opinion of <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">band promo pictures, which i<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s largely why <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the majority of the photos <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you find <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">online of Hexlust are live shots. <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We haven't even attempted a photoshoot since 20<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">08, and<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> we used live shots in the booklet for our album<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. T</span>hose turned out <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">great,<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> so</span></span> I don't see u<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s changing that policy anytime soon. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, an even compromise does e<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">xist in the concept of pro-shot live <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">pics<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, and <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">after this show, I think we know who we'll be using<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. In fact, the footage taken by Mr. Erik Bredthauer of <b>NecroBlanca Photography</b> this <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">very evening was<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">close to <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">perfect<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">; some killer angles, a tasteful use of black and white, and <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the best postures and facial expression<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">s captured by his <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">finely-calibrated</span></span> shutter finger<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. I'm including four of my favorite examples from his business Facebook page, but if you <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">visit h<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is <a href="http://www.necroblancaphotography.com/Galleries/Concert-Galleries/2015/Plutonian-Shore-Secrets-She/" target="_blank">web</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.necroblancaphotography.com/Galleries/Concert-Galleries/2015/Plutonian-Shore-Secrets-She/" target="_blank">site</a>, you can see the shots he got of all this evening's acts! That<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> link should take you directly to th<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is evening's folder.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<br />Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-91680791944569516432015-08-08T03:33:00.000-07:002016-06-06T01:20:16.741-07:00Tony's Stupid GPS, and the Mosh Off of 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> Saturday, August 8, 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Venue: </b>Curtain Club, Dallas TX</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Lineup: </b>Bunch o' bands. Lookit that flyer. So many bands. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">GETTING THERE</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For reasons I can't comprehend, other than I'm stupid, what I actually said was "Okie dokie!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>However</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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 <a href="http://dart-side.blogspot.com/2015/06/fucktard-fest-15-feat-1349.html" target="_blank">1349 show</a> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our attitudes improved greatly the instant we entered the Curtain Club.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>BEING THERE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>SET LIST:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fucked By Fire</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They Conjure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Baphomet Dawn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Imminent Retardation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meganecropolis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tombs of the Blind Dead</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>LEAVING THERE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Rest assured, Dallas metalheads, this was just a taste of the hexcellence to come!</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THANKS/SHOUTOUTS</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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, <i>Sphere of Geburah</i>, is fantastic, everybody should go <a href="http://store.palehorserecs.com/products/14010279-plutonian-shore-sphere-of-geburah" target="_blank">buy a copy</a> or <a href="https://palehorserecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sphere-of-geburah" target="_blank">download it</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Christopher Atomic-Thrasher!!! It was great seeing you again, massively looking forward to what Insinnerator put out next. Remember: MORE WHAMMY BAR SOLOS!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>U<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PDATE: </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It turns out Tony had "avoid highways" selected on his GPS. </span> </span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-49986315238796230932015-06-13T03:55:00.000-07:002015-07-02T10:26:39.212-07:00Basement Dwelling<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> Saturday, June 13, 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Venue:</b> Korova Basement, San Antonio TX</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Bands:</b> Aggravator, Nodens, Blood Royale, Hexlust</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.aggravatorofficial.com/#!music/c10tw" target="_blank"><b>AGGRAVATOR</b></a>, 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://nodens.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank"><b>NODENS</b></a> 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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://thebloodroyale.bandcamp.com/releases" target="_blank"><b>THE BLOOD ROYALE</b></a>, 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">*Sigh* One step at a time towards being a real band. One step, at a damn time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEXLUST</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b> </b> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>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!"</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>OUTRO/THANKS</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Until next time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">THRASH TIL ALZHEIMERS</span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-6804864605182762992015-04-25T20:37:00.000-07:002015-05-29T20:41:30.983-07:00Morgan's Point Hexcellente<br />
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<b><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t50dfIZKVmM/VWkun-EIvNI/AAAAAAAAAkE/xBGM5sKjXlw/s1600/morgpoint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t50dfIZKVmM/VWkun-EIvNI/AAAAAAAAAkE/xBGM5sKjXlw/s320/morgpoint.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> Saturday, April 25 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Venue:</b> Morgan's Point Sports Club, Belton TX</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Bands:</b> Plebians, Marla Strange, Shfux, Hexlust</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's finally here, folks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After what felt like a lifetime of obstacles, restarts, nervous breakdowns, and that kooky little thing called "responsible adulthood," our debut album <i>Manifesto Hexcellente</i> has been brought kicking and thrashing into the metal world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If you haven't checked it out yet, the tunes are streaming (and totally for sale) at our brand spankin' new <a href="http://www.hexlust.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">BandCamp page</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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 <a href="http://rockinricklive.com/" target="_blank">guitar karaoke artist</a>, the place itself now stands as a sort of rentable event center. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As they did tonight.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEXLUST</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kinda funny, in retrospect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This year's already almost halfway over. Shit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>SHOUTOUTS</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Also, a personal thanks for his dedication of "Doomsday" to me during the <b>Shfux</b>'s set. That eight-minute punk epic is the highlight of every performance for me nowadays. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Thanks to <b>Marla Strange</b>, 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. <a href="https://marlastrange.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Buy their album</a>, go see them play!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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 <a href="http://underthesignofthelonestar.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Under The Sign of the Lone Star</a> zine, quality writing with zero ads or scene politics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(It also include a nifty review of our album!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And of course a huge thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of <i>Manifesto Hexcellente</i>, and/or one of our album shirts, both online and at our shows!</span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-37755736161477905912014-09-20T05:20:00.000-07:002015-01-01T19:22:16.845-08:00Book of the Worm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Date</b>: Saturday, September 20, 2014<br />
<b>Location</b>: The Limelight, San Antonio TX<br />
<b>Bands</b>: Hexlust, Sardonic Witchery, Witchaven, Hod<br />
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Fuckin' Hod, man. Fuckin' Hod.<br />
<br />
Some of the neck-snappingest tunes (and coolest tshirt designs) in all of Texas metal are released under their name, and some of the coolest people you'd ever hope to meet can be found in their ranks. Trans Am, their bass player, once regaled me with awesome stories of seeing Death live in Florida when they had just started introducing the Leprosy material; ol' TA was actually absent from this show, filling in for Goatwhore's bassist on tour, and his replacement in Hod this evening was none other than our good friend Zvs, of Plutonian Shore; the guys have said that Carl Necron and Danny Blackwolf, the guitarists, are always up for good conversation, although I think I've spoken five sentences to those guys; and Beer, vocalist, always makes sure to give us all a handshake and hearty hug while pointing out that he's happy to see us and that Hexlust are Hod's little brothers.<br />
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Considering all the esteem we have for them, we wasted zero time saying yes when we were offered the opening slot on this show, celebrating the release of their second album, <i>Book of the Worm</i>. Word had it that they would be playing the entire album this evening, so I spent the whole week in advance listening to it (HELL YEAH FOR PRE-ORDERS) to familiarize myself.<br />
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I was also going to sport the t-shirt I got in the album pre-order bundle, if I had received the right size. Due to a mixup, though, I wound up with a 4XL, and while I'm sure everyone (especially the ladies) would have considered my Hod muumuu to be quite hip, fetching even, I chose to send it back and wait to receive my proper size.<br />
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<b>HEXLUST</b><br />
"Was that there last time?"<br />
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First words out of my mouth upon approaching the stage, referring to the drum riser positioned upstage-center. I was positive it was not there when we last played here in April, considering I recall having an easy time getting my kit squared away. This, I could already tell, was too small for the set I normally rock. No problem at all; I would simply do without my rotary toms and the two small toms over my hi-hat. Easy peasy. I've already practiced enough with a condensed kit that I'm able to adjust my muscle memory on the fly in situations like this.<br />
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That, however, was only taking into account the width of the riser. What caught me off guard was the depth, just a few inches too small for me. See, I'm a tall, spindly dude with long arms and legs, so I sit further back from my kit than most other drummers I've seen. I felt too close to my drums even with my kick almost at the front edge and my throne right at the back of the riser, which ended with a few inches of space between it and the stage wall to presumably allow cords and wires to be looped around back. Still, my soundcheck wasn't that bad, and I was able to hit everything without knuckling the cymbals, so I was sure I'd be able to endure forty minutes of mild discomfort.<br />
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My body had other plans, though.<br />
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As soon as we came out of the intro to FBF, with Tony making his grand declaration and me doing my Bonham triplet fill and all four of us taking off at high speed, I started sliding back across my throne. The simple act of working my feet on the kick pedals was pushing the rest of me away, and my ass was too light to anchor myself, so back I went, damn near off my throne. Thankfully, there are a lot of "breather" moments in that song where I was able to pull myself forward, but I knew that not all of our songs would be as forgiving, especially since the guys wanted to play "Agent Orange" tonight.<br />
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I was in such a state of screaming red panic that when Tony came over and asked which song was next, my brain froze. I stared at him as if he had just inquired about my favorite flavor of oatmeal, stuttered a few times, and then gurbled out something like "Toxiconjure."<br />
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That was a mistake. Tony said okey doke and announced Toxic High, a song which, from the instant we all come in to right before JT's solo three minutes later, has zero pauses. No breathers at all. There were times it got to where I was literally leaning back against the wall with my arms and legs fully extended, before finding a "punchy" spot to tense up and launch myself forward like a coiled spring. Our tightness suffered, and those first two songs were the sloppiest we've played in a long while.<br />
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After that debacle, I called for a long pasue so I could see if I could adjust things any further. Tony said stuff to the audience while I pulled my kick forward just a smidgen, maybe half an inch, really skirting the edge of the riser, and did the same with my throne in the opposite direction, again right at the very edge of stable surface grip. The full inch extra didn't do much for my comfort level, but I was now just far enough away that I wasn't in danger of pushing myself off the throne and could play through a whole song.<br />
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Of course, everything else about our set was great. For being the opening act we had a fantastic crowd response, lots of moshing and headbanging and folks singing and screaming along. We played with ferocious energy and were mostly perfect; JT hit the wrong notes or started a progression on the wrong chord in a few places but that was it in terms of actual flubs. Agent Orange hit the spot for our audience. The response was so rabid and violent I thought folks were gonna start tearing each other apart, but thankfully the hard moshing in good spirits all the way through.<br />
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I think what I'll do if we play the Limelight again is set my kit up in front of the drum riser. It's a pretty big stage overall, so I think there should still be enough space that some fool won't easily be able to grab my front tom stand and pull it over into the audience. And hell, we can just split the guys up on either side of me like Sepultura in those 1986 live videos.<br />
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<b>SET LIST:</b><br />
Fucked By Fire<br />
Toxic High<br />
They Conjure<br />
Baphomet Dawn<br />
Meganecropolis<br />
Tombs of the Blind Dead<br />
Agent Orange<br />
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My family were once again in attendance tonight, so it was a more social evening for me. I spent <b>Sardonic Witchery's</b> and <b>Witchaven's</b> sets catching up with my brother over some de-damn-licious mini tacos at that awesome roach coach next door, and finally joining everyone else (my parents, their friends Gary & Chris, and Damiyan's girlfriend Valerie) back at the Limelight patio area for some good conversation. They left before Hod's set, bound for some generously-portioned chicken fried steak at a place called Lulu's, which apparently I gots to try. There was talk of ginormous cinnamon rolls.<br />
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<b>HOD</b><br />
Holy bejesus dude. I've seen Hod plenty of times, and they never fail to get an audience going, but this has to be the most vitriolic response they've ever received. They certainly had a bigger crowd at the Absu show a few weeks back, but it was nowhere near as rabid as this one. Every person was there for Hod, and were primed and rarin' to hear the songs from <i>Book of the Worm</i> played in sequence. I thought the pitting during our set was intense, but here it was right on the verge of out-and-out violent. I thought for sure that fights were going to break out on multiple occasions, particularly when one guy looped him arm around another dude's head and dragged him crashing and ping-ponging into the rest of the audience, but again, it was all in good fun and in the name of "fuckin' metal," as Hod put it.<br />
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Now, anyone who knows me knows I love me some guitar leads, the whammy-abusing-er the better, so it should come as no surprise that my only nitpick with the performance (and the album) is that there were not enough solos. "When The Ghouls Feed," for instance, is such a little tease of a song, where Necron pulls off a sweet divebomb at one point and then stops.<br />
<br />
And the riff just keeps going.<br />
<br />
And the riff just keeps going.<br />
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AND THE RIFF JUST KEEPS GOING YOU GUYS.<br />
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NO MORE SOLOS OR VOCALS OR ANYTHING.<br />
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WHY DO YOU HATE ME CARL.<br />
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All fuddyduddying aside, though, this was far and away the best Hod performance I've ever seen. They played through the whole Book of the Worm album, of course, and capped things off with "The Smoke Will Rise," my favorite Hod song, one I'm surprised didn't end up on the album. All that was done and the band walked off stage and into the "dressing room" off to the side, leaving their equipment set up, sure a sign of an encore as anything.<br />
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They came back out, to the surprise of nobody, and regaled a smaller, but no less appreciative audience with "Demoralizer," which I haven't seen them perform in forever. Those of us left had no energy for moshing, which made it safe for some nonstop headbanging as close to the stage as we wished to get.<br />
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<b>CLOSING THOUGHTS</b><br />
As of this writing, we are about to receive the final-final mix of the album, along with the final-final version of the album art. Possible release date may be around Halloween, or hell even Christmas. To save yourself a broken heart, expect it on Valentine's Day. Trust me, if it's not out by then, we will have killed ourselves.<br />
<br />Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-60945171146536127712014-09-06T05:09:00.000-07:002015-01-01T19:24:44.593-08:00CVMA Vets For Vets<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b>Date</b>: Saturday, September 6, 2014<br />
<b>Venue</b>: Pit Stop Bar & Grill, Nolanville TX<br />
<b>Lineup</b>: Back Creek Band, Hexlust, Lady Zion & The Babylon Boys<br />
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Being from a military town like Killeen, you'd think we'd have played veteran benefit shows like this more often. Or, you know, at all. Somehow, in our seven-plus years of playing live, we never got picked up for one.<br />
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Well, first time for everything and all that. Our initial foray into the world of military benefit concerts was hosted by the local chapter of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, and held at the Pit Stop Bar & Grill in Nolanville, a few miles outside of Killeen. Proceeds went to veterans organizations in the Central Texas area including, but not limited to, the State Veterans Home in Temple and the Fort Hood USO.<br />
<br />
As you may have seen from the list of bands I posted at the top, today's bill was... varied. Very "intersting." <b>The Back Creek Band</b> opened the festivities with a set of mostly if not all covers, culled from the classic/Southern rock spectrum, including that bar-band chestnut "Pride & Joy," mixed with more mainstream songs executed with a laid-back, twangy sort of approach, like Nirvana's "All Apologies." What really made them stick out for me is their use of three guitarists (four if you count the acoustic the singer pulled out of thin air halfway through), which was more fun to watch than you'd expect, especially since one of them took more of a "slide guitar" approach to his playing. My only disappointment is that they had three-plus guitarists and didn't pull out any early Radiohead. Even "High & Dry" would have hit the spot for me.<br />
<br />
Closing out the fun was<b> Lady Zion & The Babylon Boys</b>, with some more bar rock, only this time with a keyboard player! The lineup also included one guitarist, an older gent (and the keyboardist's father) who could really shred; a drummer; Lady Zion herself on vocals; and a bassist who was kinda smooshed into the back corner of the stage, WHERE BASS PLAYERS BELONG. TARZAN. I'd say this band had more of a seventy-thirty ratio of covers to originals; I actually liked the originals and wished they played more, and dug the covers enough, they did the job, although I did want to tear my hair out when they launched into "Don't Stop goddamn Believing." Seriously, if you line up your television-watching, radio-listening, sport event-attending, and bar-hopping schedules just right, you could literally hear that song every single day for the rest of your life. I would have been their biggest fan if they'd played "Who's Crying Now."<br />
<br />
I did get a kick out of them though, they had some real charisma. I've heard they can really get a crowd going, which, yes, every band puts in their insipid fucking presskit bios, but I could see it being true. I may try to catch them again at a show where theyre playing to an energetic boogie-ready audience, instead of providing background music to more of a social/networking event.<br />
<br />
Sandwiched between those two bands, perfectly suited for a family-friendly charity event, you have... us. Yeah. Oh trust me, the disparity did not go unnoticed.<br />
<br />
This was also a different show for us in that it was our first daytime gig ever. By that I don't mean we went on before sunset, I mean this shindig started at noon and we were scheduled for 2:30! Being so early in the day, I was a little worried about audience size. Granted, if nobody showed up for us, it was no skin off my ass, I know we rarely play around here and don't have much of an audience that doesn't consist of personal friends. However, my parents are members of the CVMA, and this was a thing they helped put together, to benefit a cause they care about, and I wanted more than anything for today to go well for them.<br />
<br />
I had absolutely nothing to worry about. By the time we got there at about 11:45, the front parking lot was full and the place was well crowded. The audience of course consisted largely of bikers, not just CVMA but other associations here to show support, along with local veterans, families, and random folks we connived into showing up and paying to watch us make a spectacle of ourselves (and eat some awesome barbecue). A very different audience from what we're used to, but an audience nonetheless, and a sizeable one at that! Back Creek Band did a good job of keeping everyone entertained, and even had folks singing along in more than a few places; these people were primed and ready for musical amusement!<br />
<br />
And what did we do with our sizeable, attentive audience? Why, we drove them the hell away, that's what!<br />
<br />
<b>HEXLUST</b><br />
We still had 'em when we were soundchecking. Even with the obnoxiously copious drum kit, and the double-V axe attack, and Tarzan's super-awesome yet super devil-worshippy Hod shirt, everyone still seemed willing to stick this out with us. I think JT even increased our good will by warming up with "Simple Man." Then Tarzan dashed that all to hell when he checked his vocal mic, "Check, one two, check, CHEEEEEEEEEEECK," throwing on his growly kvlt vocals on that last check. According to Tony, folks immediately started nope-ing out the door. They didn't go home, but they sure didn't stay in there. By the time we started "They Conjure" three songs in, we had alienated about 3/4 of what was a pretty packed room.<br />
<br />
Not that we didn't have our share of appreciative spectators. In addition to some fine folks who decided they were hip to our jive (or were perfectly capable of ignoring us despite our best efforts to be obnoxious), we also had a mix of personal friends, family friends, co-workers, my parents, JT's parents, and this gaggle of adorable little girls who were there the whole set and were also seen wailing away on my drums before we went on stage. I don't know their names because I didn't introduce myself because I suck at talking to children, but it was endearing to know that we left an impression on them.<br />
<br />
We played great today, too! It's always fun playing for an atypical audience, it gives us an extra boost of obnoxiousness on top of our normal high energy levels to really unleash the hexcellence on some unsuspecting souls. I was worried about having an hour-long set, especially since we're used to playing a half hour, maybe forty-five minutes at the max, and after that, stick a fork in us because we are done. Thankfully, there was a drawing for raffle prizes after "Baphomet Dawn," giving us a much-appreciated breather to tune, change guitars, hydrate, stretch, etc. It allowed us to attack the second half of our set, which happens to contain our fastest songs, with a refreshened vigor. Well, maybe a little too much vigor; My right shoulder was screaming at me after "Tombs," and my lower back ached.<br />
<br />
And of course, what would a show with Jake in attendance be without busting out Troops of Doom with him on guest vocals? We had actually rehearsed our cover of "Agent Orange" in preparation for this long-ass set, but when it came time to play it just seemed like an impossible task. I had forgotten that we used to play that tune to compensate for a lack of original songs. Now that we have a full album that we can play live, any covers that aren't idiot-simple or less than three and a half minutes are really pushing it for us.<br />
<br />
SET LIST<br />
Fucked By Fire<br />
Toxic High<br />
They Conjure<br />
Baphomet Dawn<br />
Imminent Retardation<br />
Hellhammer<br />
Meganecropolis<br />
Troops of Doom<br />
Tombs of the Blind Dead<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>CLOSING THOUGHTS</b><br />
Did I feel bad for driving damn near the whole crowd away? A little. These people were here to eat some barbecue, socialize and network, and support a worthy cause, and here come Hexlust, emptying the room with our screeching whammy abuse solos, our thrash-til-death tempos, and our songs about shooting up with toxic waste and cities full of dead people and sodomy with a blowtorch (or is it a flamethrower? It's been a long time since Tony and I actually discussed FBF, I've long since forgotten what the implement was).<br />
<br />
I can't deny that I enjoyed it, though. I don't have anything against holding an audience, of course, but I do feel quite giddy knowing that we are the type of band that has to be acknowledged, positively or negatively. We can't be ignored. Granted, people were ignoring us, but they had to go out of their way to ignore us, they had to go to the other side of the venue (separated by a wall) or walk outside. Hexlust shall not just blend into the background and provide a soundtrack to your outing. You have to stand up and pay attention, or stand up and leave!<br />
<br />
Also, more silver lining, my dad says that a lot of the vendors who were stationed outside reported a sudden, significant influx of business when we started playing. And who says you can't make money off death/thrash metal?<br />
<br />
Yar.<br />
<br />
<b>THANKS</b><br />
Hokay.<br />
<br />
Thanks to Gary "No Name" and Christina "Devil Woman" for tossing our name in the hat when it came to choosing bands for this event. You guys have been really going out of your way support us over the past year or so, and that has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.<br />
<br />
Thanks to my parents, known by their "patch names" as MFD and Skunk, for their continuous love and support, and telling the other members that hey, you should really give Hexlust a listen and check them out before we decide to have them on this bill, they are a very different sort of band.<br />
<br />
Don't let it be said that you didn't try to warn them.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the Back Creek Band for letting us use their awesome PA, and to the people running the sound who were met with baffled expressions when they asked us simple questions like how many mikes I wanted on my drums. One of these days we'll be a real band who immediately know the answers to such things, but for now, patience.<br />
<br />
Thanks to Jake, for driving all the way here and helping us out with the gear and the vocals, and to Ralph, Walter, Dylan, Chelsea, Tami, Casey Carson (who's been a family friend since before I was even born), and other friends who showed up and I forgot to mention and they'll be like "Screw you Dart where's my shoutout"<br />
<br />
Big Special Thanks to Combat Vets Motorcycle Association Chapter 23-5 for putting on this event, and everybody who showed up in support of a cause we all care about.<br />
<br />
Finally, thanks goes to all our veterans, past and present. Without your service I'm fairly certain I'd have to seriously watch my back when I walk around town with my long hair and my Strapping Young Lad "HELL YEAH YOU FUCKING SUCK" shirt. Thank you for fighting for my right to rock, so to speak.<br />
<br />
Metal forever, cause problems, die by the sword, and don't forget to never blow out that Eastern Candle.<br />
<br />
Into Everlasting Fire.<br />
<br />
Thrash til Alzheimer's.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-77507603784023843672014-06-21T23:52:00.000-07:002015-01-01T19:26:02.754-08:00Shfuxlust 4: The Dream Master<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b>Date</b>: Saturday, June 21, 2014<br />
<b>Venue</b>: Armstrong Center, Belton TX<br />
<b>Bands</b>: Buoyancy, Moniker, Shfux, Marla Strange, Hexlust<br />
<br />
It's been an oddly mild summer in Central Texas. It's the season for high temperatures and low precipitation 'round these parts, but this year, there has been hardly a day in the hundred's, and we've had some actual rainfall here and there. Though the skies were mostly overcast, with scattered showers around the Killeen/Belton area this past Saturday, nary a drop was reported to have fallen in nearby Holland, where residents and tourists alike took part in the third day of the city's 40th annual Corn Festival.<br />
<br />
Yessir, from morn til night, festivalgoers ate some catered barbecue, watched some live music, and took part in contests testing their mettle in feats such as corn cob bobbing, seed-spitting, and chicken-hurtling (?) along with such standbys as a three-legged race and a 5k run. From what I hear, it was quite a hootenanny, and fun was had by all.<br />
<br />
Not too far away from that setting of some Southern-fried Garrison Keillor monologue, a different set of fun-lovers were gathering for their own sort of festivity. The time had come for another Armstrong show, named after the community center and former schoolhouse on the outskirts of Belton that acts as the sole local venue for the bands and fans of the Bell County punk scene.<br />
<br />
Although Tony and I have attended one of these shindigs every now and again, we in Hexlust haven't actually performed since that <a href="http://hexlust.blogspot.com/2011/02/date-saturday-february-21-2009-venue.html" target="_blank">surreal evening in 2009</a> that ended with the presence of police, an ambulance, and even a damn <i>helicopter</i>. Over the years, we've had plenty of requests to come back and play again, and yeah we've wanted to; the BC punkers were our first real fans, after all. We could never get the scheduling right though. Finally, as I've explained before, our lives have leveled out somewhat, to where we were able to get things lined up just right, and come back to this place of dirt and bugs and not much else to play a whole album's worth of material for our hexcellence-starved friends.<br />
<br />
<b>BUOYANCY</b><br />
First up was Buoyancy, a part musical, mostly spoken word act fronted by Gary Spragg, who I've encountered at these shows before but didn't know was a performer, as well as band manager and show organizer. The dude practically crackles with restless energy even if he's just sitting in a booth at Whataburger, a quality which combines with his distinctive voice to make for one helluva public speaker. I was loading my drums in at this time so I couldn't tell you what he was speaking about, and I'm not super familiar with the art of the spoken word performance, but I can tell you Gary was passionate without being obnoxious, greatly preferable to that Levi guy who screams about Jesus, and was very dynamic, only raising his voice at the "emotional highlight" of his monologues. I don't recall hearing anything from the musical side of the act, but again, my body and mind were elsewhere.<br />
<br />
It was oddly fitting that his impassioned monologues served as the evening's opening act, since Gary also took on the role of a sort of <i>de facto</i> master of ceremonies. Between bands the audience would almost completely empty out, retiring to the outdoors where there was an awesome breeze that was much appreciated in the day's mugginess. At the end of these "intermissions," Gary would be the one to announce the band, even going so far as to march outside and yell, "MONIKER ARE NOW PLAYING, IF YOU WANT TO SEE THEM, GET THE FUCK INSIDE!"<br />
<br />
<b>MONIKER</b><br />
Speaking of, how the hell have Moniker been around as long as they have (their first album was released in 2010) and I'm just now hearing about them? I know my finger isn't exactly on the pulse of this scene, but I've been working with Walter on a semi-regular basis since 2011 for recording our album and have heard about everyone from Marla Strange to Burnt Fuse, so I wonder how I missed out on them. These guys were definitely the surprise act of the evening, grabbing everyone's attention and sounding pretty damn fat for a three-piece.<br />
<br />
They describe themselves on their Facebook profile as a "rock band that has mixed elements of punk, classic butt rock, and metal," but I would pin their sound as being grunge before grunge had a name, sing-songy and melodic but heavy and screaming and more than a little noisy, the way Nirvana sounded in their early days. Or, do any of you remember Tad? I got a huge Tad vibe off these guys and was transported through my memories to my CTC days, spinning the "Inhaler" album at 2am as I got started on a paper that was due in about eight hours.<br />
<br />
As is my luck, the moment I discover Moniker is right around the time they decide to call it a day. According to their Facebook, they'll be laying the band to rest after this summer's set of shows, and I dunno if I'll be able to make it out to another gig. Thankfully, they have a wealth of material up on their <a href="http://monikertx.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">BandCamp</a> page, so I'll definitely be digging in.<br />
<br />
<b>SHFUX</b><br />
<br />
"We're not dead yet! We're not dead yet! We're not dead yet! WE'RE NOT DEAD YET!!!"<br />
<br />
Damn I love that song! Shfux ain't going nowheres no time soon, and fuck you if you think otherwise! They've been around since at least 2002, so not only are they the one band still around from back when we first started playing these Armstrong shows, but they actually have us beat by a few years. Their lineup is almost the same as it was back in '08, except Dylan moved to drums to replace the departing Cole, Walter shifted to bass, and they brought in Matt on guitar. Still a strong trio, still angry, still plugging away.<br />
<br />
They played some of my favorites from their<a href="http://shfux.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank"> new album</a>, <i>Not Dead Yet</i>, including (of course) the title track and the epic, shifting "Doomsday Forever," along with an old Hexlust favorite "I Come From The Desert" (WHIFFLE BALL, WHIFFLE BALL!) while I started warming up on my drums and greeting some old friends. By this point I realised I was actually getting nervous, I was experiencing some no-shit stage fright, so if I wasn't catching up with folks I haven't seen since I left my job at the mall last year, I was pacing back and forth or smacking away on my practice pad.<br />
<br />
<b>MARLA STRANGE</b><br />
Now this band I've heard quite a bit of, as Walter would play songs from their <a href="http://marlastrange.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">album</a> <i>The Count | The Priest | The Gunfighter</i> in the studio from time to time. I dig the tunes, and I especially like their live presence. Here are two dudes, guitarist/vocalist Logan and drummer/vocalist Jason, playing the music they enjoy and having the time of their lives, as evidenced by their perpetual grins.<br />
<br />
What I found most endearing is that whenever Logan would play a lead or just come to some instrumental section, he would actually turn his back to the audience and look at Jason, and they'd be locked in with each other. Warms the cockles, it does.<br />
<br />
Just a quick aside from a drummer about a drummer, Jason is a damn powerhouse. It probably helps that he's a big dude, but he really packs a whallop, and his snare can be heard for miles. Tony mentioned a show he played way-back-when, a point where Jason had just started drumming and knew only the most rudimentary of beats. A year later, his technique had improved by leaps and bounds, apparently by listening to a lot of Rush.<br />
<br />
Lesson for you kids: Listen to Neil Peart. He won't steer you wrong.<br />
<br />
<b>HEXLUST</b><br />
So, true to the pattern I mentioned earlier, the audience emptied out after Marla Strange were done, leaving us to set up in an empty hall. I can't tell you how many times I've wished for an empty venue before we played so I could get my drums onstage without bumping into folks, so this was a dream come true. Even better, Walter put on <i>Altars of Madness</i> and blasted it over the P.A.<br />
<br />
Holy hell, you guys.<br />
<br />
I can't even begin to tell you what a rush it was for us, getting set up for this well-anticipated gig while an album that is near and dear to all of our hearts, an album each of us has admitted to listening to every day for at least a month at some point in our lives, an album currently celebrating its twenty-fifth year of existence and still holding strong, still a benchmark of blasphemy, booming and echoing through this empty hall, somehow sounding even grander and more evil with the reverb provided by the completely-tiled floor. It was an enormous adrenaline rush getting set up while making faces at my bandmates and growling along:<br />
<br />
<i>Suffocating evil smoke arise, cleansing the masses of iniquity! Cauldrons blaze in sanctifying ritual, VILE CREMATORY BURNS MY EYES!!!</i><br />
<br />
Even if this turned out to be the worst show of our career, this would stand out as probably the best pre-show ever.<br />
<br />
Of course, the set itself was fantastic.<br />
<br />
Not only were there some Hexlust fans from back in the day, but there were also some kids who were seeing us for the first time, in fact hadn't even really heard of us before, and had no idea what to expect. According to the open-mouthed reactions we got, some minds were blown, which is always gratifying to see.<br />
<br />
We were in fine form, as well; this is probably the most "animated" I've seen JT and Tarzan get in a good long while. Maybe the fact that we were playing right on the floor took away the possible danger of falling off an elevated stage, but they were all over the place. Tarzan was getting in the audience, even with his bass, and JT would come over and play in front of my kit while making faces at me, and even got over near once or twice. This is when I think we're at our best, when we're able to be fully mobile and engage not just the audience, but each other.<br />
<br />
We played the entire album, every original song we've written, and had a mosh pit going pretty much the entire time. Thankfully, everyone was also really great about not running into the microphones, which has been a problem at Armstrong shows past, and I know Tony was grateful for it. Probably the best part was the Frisbee that started going around at some point, zipping from one side of the hall to the other, and occasionally making its way to the "stage" area. One time it bonked Tony right in the noggin, and ultimately came to rest next to my drumkit, where it remained for the rest of my set. I was too busy killing myself playing an hour's worth of songs in the humid summer evening air.<br />
<br />
"But Dart," you say, "your tunes are pretty short and you only have a couple longer songs. For the whole album's material, plus between-song banter, I'm thinking maybe forty-five minutes, tops." Well, can you say, double encore?? That's right, all those songs and still it all felt too short, so by JT's suggestion we pulled out reliable ol' "Sodomy & Lust," probably the worst we've played it in a while. Tony was impressed he still knew all the lyrics, but by this point, is there any part of that song we could possibly forget?<br />
<br />
After that, Tony mouthed to me, "One more?" I responded, "NO, I can't." Fuck you, Tony, I'm out of water and can't lift my arms very well. But then I saw that Old Man Tarzan wasn't packing it in yet, and the audience didn't look like they were ready to go anywhere, and I saw Tony mouthing "Troops?" to JT, so I decided, fuggit, we'll go with Troops.<br />
<br />
PSHH, PSHH, went my china, and we launched into "Troops of Doom," which I don't even remember playing but I'm sure was just a big fuckerycloud of flubbed fills and slippery solos. Tarzan later reported feeling like he could play our whole set all over again and wanted to do "Evil Dead," but the rest of us were done. It was right around eleven by then, time to pack it in anyway.<br />
<br />
We received an offer or two for afterparty festivities, which we politely declined. I seriously don't see how any musician can go out gallivanting after playing. I need food and quiet, a sentiment echoed by my bandmates. Maybe we're just old. We went to Whataburger, got some food to go, and retired to Tony's apartment to unwind in peace.<br />
<br />
<b>SETLIST</b><br />
F.B.F.<br />
Toxic High<br />
They Conjure<br />
Baphomet Dawn<br />
Imminent Retardation<br />
Hellhammer<br />
Meganecropolis<br />
Tombs of the Blind Dead<br />
Sodomy & Lust<br />
Troops of Doom<br />
<br />
<b>CLOSING THOUGHTS</b><br />
When these Armstrong shows go well, as this one did this evening, they're a testament to the DIY method of setting up shows. Between bands, when the place was empty, somebody would be going around picking up assorted trash and tossing it into the bin. During the sets, nobody got too rowdy, and we had help dealing with the drunken idiot shithead who accosted my bandmates after we were done, along with having his keys taken from him. As we were packing in our gear, the floors were mopped up and chairs put away. No bouncers, doormen, or waitstaff necessary, nobody was hospitalized, and a good time was had by all.<br />
<br />
Our album, <i>Manifesto Hexcellente</i>, is currently in the mixing stages. Slow going as Walter is letting each of us oversee the sound adjustments of our individual contributions, but it's getting done. Even though we've figured out my drum sound, I'm going to be going back here soon to oversee the panning of my toms (there are quite a few long fills on this thing). After that, we have the "whole band" session where we listen to it and decide if we're happy overall, then it'll be time to unleash this abomination!<br />
<br />
A physical release is definite; vinyl a strong maybe since all the cool kids are hip to that jive now'days; new designs for shirts an absolute; other crap that real bands do, including patches and stickers and buttons and posters and windshield decals and trading cards and tin lunchboxes and pinball machines and inflatable pools and themed Putt-Putt courses, will be considered. No guarantees though.<br />
<br />
In fact, you know what, you might just get a download code, because fuck all that work. We can only be so competent, don'tcha know.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-18995517781762764582014-04-19T12:27:00.000-07:002014-12-18T05:25:09.055-08:00Return of the Nazarene Zombie Fest<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 2014<br />
VENUE: Limelight, San Antonio, TX<br />
BANDS: Morgengrau, Las Cruces, Flesh Hoarder, VBT, Cheese Grater Masturbation, Reign of Tyrants, Hexlust, Womanthrower, Richard Simmonz, USO<br />
<br />
<b>OH HEY, IT'S YOU GUYS</b><br />
A year (to the day) since we last played a show, we in Hexlust took to the stage once more to unleash our speedthrashing slap-and-tickle show on a paying audience. The venue hosting the evening's tomfooligans was The Limelight, a place I had never before heard of under its current name, but have heard mentioned in tales of glory-day gigs from back when it was named Wacky's.<br />
<br />
I was actually really happy with the place, and am surprised we'd never played there before. The stage was decently-sized, the staff were competent and friendly, and there was even an outside patio area where folks could get some fresh air without discarding their drinks. The venue itself is more deep than it is wide, and the stage's location at the back end potentially makes the act of getting gear to the stage an obstacle course of sharp table corners and unaware patrons. There is, however, a side door just past the table section where bands can pull up their vehicles and load in their crap.<br />
<br />
Of course, we did things the hard way, taking our stuff in through the front door, because we believe in building resilience in mind and body by taking the most inconvenient route in getting things done.<br />
<br />
Truth: we didn't want to move our vehicles, since the parking situation was either whatever free curb space you could find, or a pay lot across the street. We got there early and planned on staying put.<br />
<br />
So, what have we been doing for a year, you may ask? We've been finishing up an album, that's what! Yes, friends, we are finally in the mixing stages of our first full-length, <i>Manifesto Hexcellente</i>. Don't ask me what that title means, because I have no earthly clue. Like our band name itself, those two words just sounded cool together so that's what we went with.<br />
<br />
The story behind the recording is a long sad tale for another day, full of frustration, meth heads, thievery, location changes, sub-par performances, tendonitis, the band almost completely drifting apart, and - by far the biggest setback to this process - deciding we weren't satisfied (understatement) with what we had so far (just vocals and JT's solos left) and starting all. Over. AGAIN.<br />
<br />
Because we like Morbid Angel and Vader so much, we just had to follow their example, even the counterproductive aspects.<br />
<br />
In the months leading up to this show, when not finishing up the recording sessions, we were purchasing new equipment, holding more frequent and much more productive practices at an actual rehearsal studio, tightening up old songs, and even got starting work on new material. Unfortunately, we had plenty of riffs, but no actual songs completed and ready for the show. We hoped our wham-bam setlist of shorter songs (including "Imminent Retardation, which we rarely play) would be enough to get us through this gig without feeling too samey.<br />
<br />
Redudancy quickly fell a few notches on my list of worries, though, as something felt wrong halfway through the first song. Especially worrisome was the sureness that it was something wrong with me. Shifting into muscle memory, I took quick stock of my kit: all stands were upright, sticks were intact, double pedal was working fine, kick drum was anchored in place. Everything that has ever been wrong before was hunky-dory, so why was my mental "CHECK ENGINE" light still on? It wasn't until we were a couple more songs in that I checked the underside of my snare and saw that my resonant head had burst, resulting in a neutered "tonk" instead of the robust "CRACK" I go for. Precisely how the awaiting hell did I accomplish that? Granted, the head was pretty old, and it never takes any direct damage so I rarely replace it, but why now of all times?<br />
<br />
Thankfully, although it did distract me and leave me off my game for the rest of the set, the busted reso head didn't affect our sound in any significant way and we were able to continue uninhibited.<br />
<br />
The audience energy took a few songs to build up, but things really got going once Tony announced the album. A genuine excitement was charged up once folks heard about our little<i> Manifesto Hexcellente</i>, and when we launched into "Imminent Retardation," the room really started to move.<br />
<br />
Of course, right after that very song, we were saying goodnight and getting ready to pack it in. This was a festival-type lineup with like 11 bands, and even though a few had dropped off the bill by this time, it was still prudent that we get off the stage ASAP and keep this train rolling. The audience, however, weren't having that nonsense. Jake from Morgengrau was kind enough to point out, "It's only 8:50!," and we were quickly hit with requests for one more song, one more song, uno mas, uno mas! They specifically wanted to hear Tombs of the Blind Dead, the tune we mindfully left out due to its length and drawn-out ending (Baphomet Dawn was given the same consideration).<br />
<br />
Being that we still had some time, we decided to give 'em what they wanted. I counted off, Tony launched into the beginning riff, and once the whole band came in with the audience-participation falsetto, shit went nuts. A pit started up immediately, people off to the side were headbanging, everyone was singing along to the chorus, some dude even spun his can in the air, which caused beer foam to spiral out and get all over the place, it was pandelerium!<br />
<br />
We put a short end to Tombs (as short as we could, anyway) and STILL they weren't letting us go! This was slightly awkward for us, as everyone hates that band who play halfway through the night and take even the slightest provocation as the chance to play an encore, and you can bet that even more ire is felt toward those who throw out one more song after that, but this was a genuine crowd request, and we estimated that we still had a couple minutes to do a really short number. We once again went with the crowd's whims and pulled out our tried and true cover of "Troops of Doom," another song we were sure we wouldn't play just because we wanted to play all originals during our short set.<br />
<br />
And what would a cover of <a href="http://youtu.be/CYdA5sqVrQo" target="_blank">"Troops of Doom"</a> be without Jake's participation?<br />
<br />
Although I was feeling rather underconfident about our performance, I was assured (with raised voices through wide smiles) that this was a solid, even great outing for Hexlust, and a hell of a note to come back on after a year off the stage.<br />
<br />
The rest of the evening was spent talking with friends, so I didn't get around to watching a lot of the other bands. We caught up with Ralph, former vocalist of JT and Tarzan's high school band Nautilus, who just got out of the Marine Corps and surprised us all by showing up unannounced; I got to spend time with my brother, who moved out here to San Antonio in January, and my parents, who never miss a Hexlust show if they can help it; and JT, Tarzan, and I were regaled by Jeff AD, at our urging, with stories of AVRS tours and opinions of current metal releases while grabbing some decent Mexican food from the taco truck next door.<br />
<br />
I did, however, catch <b>Morgengrau's</b> headlining set, and they have yet to disappoint me. Tight as ever, with furious energy, they played four new tunes that were very well-received and show a lot of promise for their future release, along with a super sped-up version of Pestilence's "Chronic Infection." The crowd - what little of it remained at this hour - were really into them, with lots of headbanging and moshing, which is really saying something considering it was 1:30 in the morning.<br />
<br />
It's a sad fact that a couple fights broke out, which a) scattered the crowd and took their attention away from the stage, b) threatened to spill over onto the stage more than once, and c) wound up involving my bass player when he tried to help pull a fight apart and was mistaken for a combatant.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, that particular matter was cleared up peacefully when it was all revealed to be a misunderstanding, and if anything Tarzan made a new friend out of the ordeal. At the end of the night, I think he was more upset over the beer that was spilled on his pedals than the scuffle itself.<br />
<br />
Overall, a wonderful evening. Everyone in the band was happy with the performance, we had a great time catching up with all our friends, and we're really looking forward to finally releasing this damn album. I'll do my best to keep everyone up-to-date on release dates and whatnot.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-22725037142794695942013-04-19T00:48:00.000-07:002014-12-26T21:55:57.458-08:00Polymorphic Communion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-byOU1fCKGPE/UTRfuCm-qQI/AAAAAAAAAeA/I3g8Vwh3c8U/s1600/2013-04-19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-byOU1fCKGPE/UTRfuCm-qQI/AAAAAAAAAeA/I3g8Vwh3c8U/s320/2013-04-19.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Friday, April 19, 2013<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Zombies, San Antonio TX<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Hexlust, Morgengrau, Plutonian Shore</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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, <i>Extrinsic Pathway, </i>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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Things were off to a rather awkward start as the night's opening act, the very promising <b>Nymesyn</b>, 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. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEXLUST</b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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, <i>we kept playing</i>. 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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As usual with any band that goes on right after us, I missed out on a significant chunk of <b>Plutonian Shore's </b>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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">MORGENGRAU</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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" <i>without Reba having to keep time with her hi-hat pedal</i>, 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. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">POST-SHOW THOUGHTS</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At times, it actually sounded like crying.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>DRUMMERS CORNER</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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 <i>gangly</i>? When did I get spaghetti noodles for arms?")<b>. </b> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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.<b><br /></b></span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-62190204793851772302013-04-13T00:47:00.000-07:002014-12-18T04:35:02.920-08:00Spondiferous Thrashtacular<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZDEx2IsC6k/UTRfOOkm-wI/AAAAAAAAAd4/rclg3h5DWTA/s1600/2013-04-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZDEx2IsC6k/UTRfOOkm-wI/AAAAAAAAAd4/rclg3h5DWTA/s320/2013-04-13.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Saturday, April 13, 2013<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Army of Drunks, Aggravator, Hexlust, Insinnerator, Lich King</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It was July 2010 when we last rocked the house with Insinnerator. Since then, they released an acclaimed album (<i>Stalagmite of Ice</i>) and an even more widely celebrated EP (<i>Hypothermia</i>). We in Hexlust... did stuff. Over the two and a half years since, we kept in touch, sharing early-Nintendo jokes and guilty pleasure pop videos, making fun of new Anthrax, and sending promises back and forth that we would soon enough share the stage again. And oh, what an occasion that would be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Finally, on a mid-April Saturday night in San Antonio, an occasion arose. Insinnerator, hopping on board the Texas leg of Lich King's Born of the Bomb tour (in support of the album of the same name) came to the Ten Eleven to join forces with Hexlust once again for a real, honest-to-goodness nut-busting thrash show. No arbitrarily-booked core, post-black, or Pantera-worship bands on the bill tonight!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>ARMY OF DRUNKS/AGGRAVATOR</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As with the M.O.D. show, this audience needed no extended warm-up; they came ready to rock. There was head-banging, fist-pumping, and a few unprovoked choruses of "Hey! Hey! Hey!" during <b>Army of Drunks</b>, who, for a band with one guitarist (exclusively rhythm), no bassist, and a meat-and-potatoes drummer, really know how to get a show going. Their songs are a well-balanced arrangement of fast and aggressively mid-pace, and they're no slouches in terms of stage presence, constantly moving and headbanging. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Their guitarist spent the rest of the evening trying to get a member of Hexlust to have a beer with him, an uphill battle considering half of us are stubborn (yet polite) teetotalers and the other half would greatly prefer to drink in the privacy and safety of their own home, if they ever drink at all. Being the great guy that he is, JT eventually fell on that sword and accepted a Lone Star, earning himself ten diplomacy points and... well, a beer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Aggravator</b> continue to be San Antonio's most persistent work-a-body band, releasing a kickass album (<i>The Age of Combat</i>), going out on tour,<i> </i>and even playing a few shows in Norway over the past year, in addition to making themselves continually available to play any local metal show offered to them, whether as openers or headliners. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hard work and a busy schedule indeed have their rewards, as these guys continue to get better and better every time I see them. Their performance tonight was super tight and hella punchy, building even further upon their modern-day-Megadeth method of raw, aggressive thrash sweetened with melodic lead guitar work. Speaking of lead guitar, did that guy grow hair?? Holy hell, I guess it has been a while since we've seen Aggravator!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEXLUST</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I started counting off the first song and shit immediately started going wacky. My hi-hat stand was half on the drum carpet and half on the smooth stage floor, so we weren't even out of the intro to "FBF" before my pedal-pumping action sent it sliding away. This continued throughout the whole rest of the set. Thankfully, my kick drum was rooted firmly on the carpet, but my side hi-hat was also half on the stage floor, so I couldn't even rely on that like I usually do when something goes wrong with my main hats. The fact that the side hats share a stand with my china cymbal give me two different opportunities to send that one stand moonwalking into Tarzan's bass amp. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Shit, this was going to be one of <i>those</i> shows, where I play mostly from muscle memory because my actual attention is focused on keeping my kit from being all "Bye, Dart!" and abandoning me altogether. My floor tom, which I guess felt bad for me and wanted to give me a hug, was sliding <i>toward</i> me instead of away, at some points grinding on my thigh. This was not only way christing uncomfortable, but also got in the way of pedal work. I held up quite a few songs having to disentangle stands and pull everything back in even after Tony had announced the next tune.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wasn't alone in dragging down the momentum of our stage show. At one point Tarzan had to re-tune his bass, and he doesn't have a pedal so he had to pull the plug out of the amp, plug into a tuner, do his thing, and re-plug his amp back in. Yep, <i>after</i> Tony had announced the next song. And poor JT had to once again spend some time fiddling with the settings and getting a decent sound out of an unfamiliar amp, since he still hasn't bought a new one and was borrowing Fry's.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tony was not a happy camper. He was also nervous as all get out, since at some point in the evening some beer had been spilling on and around the outlet into which his amp was plugged. He did his best to dry it off but was still operating under the terrifying premonition of his amp exploding. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Even though all the technical nonsense weighs heaviest on my mind, we played pretty damn well tonight. My drumming was uninspired but spot-on, guitar solos went off without much of a hitch (although JT did lose track and overextend his solo in "Toxic High," which is captured in the video I posted below). Tarzan did have some trouble with his arm cramping and his voice going out, but he held it together very well. The crowd was really supportive in spite of all our crap, and genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves. Big thank-you to everyone in the audience that night, including the ever-supportive Hellbound Jeff and BJ, Tony Rivera, Insinnerator's Chris Atomic-Thrasher, my brother Damiyan, and the surprise appearance of Humut Tabal's Grimzaar.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="userContent"><b>Set List:</b></span><br />
<span class="userContent">FBF</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Toxic High</span><br />
<span class="userContent">They Conjure</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Baphomet Dawn</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="userContent">Meganecropolis </span><br />
<span class="userContent">Tombs of the Blind Dead</span><span class="userContent"></span></span><span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><b></b></span><br />
<b><span class="userContent"><br /></span></b>
<span class="userContent"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">INSINNERATOR/LICH KING<br />Insinnnerator</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> ruled the night from the instant they counted off. The energy was high, the headbanging was immediate, and the moshing was continuous (ol' JT busted his lip pretty well participating in the pit that night). Juan Speed is a monster on the kit; it might just be because he's a bigger dude but every stroke of his sticks seemed to be brought down with the entirety of his power. His poor drum heads, he must have to replace them every week! Brutal Ben handled bass and vocal duties very well. What surprised me is that he played with a six-string bass. I didn't get a good enough look at his playing to determine how much of the increased stringload he used, but I'm sure he wouldn't bother if he didn't feel it necessary. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And of course, we have Christopher Atomic-Thrasher, whose classical training (as in a legit college degree, not just a few half-ass lessons) informs his playing very well without being obnoxious. In fact, unless you knew what to look for, you'd hardly know it's there. Tarzan told me he saw Chris making some very unusual chord shapes in one of their songs, the type only a learned player would know and a well-practiced one could pull off at those speeds. His solos were just the kind I like, a mixture of tight, accurate shredding and noisy whammy bar abuse, with just the right hint of melody. Insinnerator are far and away my favorite of the current generation of thrash bands, and they ruled the evening with their insane talent and boundless energy. They even played "Nightmare Theater!"</span></span><br />
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We only stuck around for about half of <b>Lich King's </b>set, and most of that time was spent saying goodbyes to our friends and comrades. I didn't hear much of Lich King's music but I did meet their drummer and guitarist, who were incredibly friendly and humble dudes, so the impression I walked away with was a good one. </span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oQN5-WHIx5c/UTReF6g_FCI/AAAAAAAAAds/GcWru3eOCU0/s1600/2013-03-08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oQN5-WHIx5c/UTReF6g_FCI/AAAAAAAAAds/GcWru3eOCU0/s320/2013-03-08.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Friday, March 8, 2013<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> The Korova, San Antonio TX<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Cerebral Desecration, Cannibal Bitch, Hexlust, M.O.D. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ever have one of them gigs where you just <i>know</i> you can't fuck up?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We got to the Korova as <b>Cerebral Desecration</b> were in the midst of their instrumental technical death metal assault ("instrumental" because their singer had to work this evening), and there were already people moshing. This was the opening act, the sun was just barely setting outside, and folks were getting their pit on. I'm sure this is as much a testament to the band's brutality and precision as anything else, but we all know that if you're the opening act, you're lucky if people are standing up, much less moving around. This was an audience who were truly excited, chomping at the bit and ready to <i>thrash! </i>And who could blame them? M.O.D. were playing tonight! For what was certain to be a helluva show, we had the honor of going on before this legendary band.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm sure any other direct-support act would see this and think, "Oh boy! Our<i> </i>competent musicianship, consistently functioning equipment, and pro-grade songwriting are going to blow these people away!" <i>We,</i> however, were faced with the fact that our caution-to-the-wind playing, bargain-bin gear, and slapped-together set list would have to be the center of these fine folks' attention for forty minutes and <i>not</i> have anything go horribly wrong.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Shit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had plenty of time to ruminate on this; <b>Cannibal Bitch</b> finished their set relatively early, so by the time we had our gear set up and soundchecked, we actually had a good fifteen or so minutes before we had to play. In that time, more and more friends of ours showed up, some of whom we haven't seen in a good while. Some of them were wearing Hexlust shirts, and all of them were talking some crazy mess about looking forward to seeing us play. When our name was called to take the stage, we were giddy and giggly, chock full of that positive energy that comes out of stage fright being handled well. We were ready to show these people a thrashing good time!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEXLUST</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We did the intro to FBF, held that note out, Tony announced our name and what song this was, I did my little triplet fill thingy, the band came in going a thousand miles an hour and people went <i>nuts. </i>We had a large crowd gathered and that mosh pit went into motion almost immediately, not slowing down at all as long as there was music playing. Those not pitting were crowding the front of the stage, banging their heads and doing that thing where they pretend to claw their way onto the stage. Lord, it was fine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In addition to our main set list of originals, we pulled out the same covers we did last show at Jake's request. He even got up onstage with us to belt out the vocals to Troops of Doom, just as he did at that <a href="http://hexlust.blogspot.com/2011/07/omelette-table.html" target="_blank">Humut Tabal show</a> from like a year and a half ago. The audience nearly tore themselves apart during Sodomy and Lust, shouting along to the chorus with every repeat. Somehow, we still had energy for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mY2VN3ZhI4" target="_blank">"Tombs of the Blind Dead"</a>, and we threw everything in the pot. So much so, in fact, that we almost fell apart in the beginning, all of us just taking off as fast as we could and being out of sync from the get-go, finally bringing it back together with the first chorus. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SNAFU's were few. For one, JT busted a string on his main guitar and beat on his backup so badly it went out of tune, resulting in him finishing the set with Tony's backup guitar. Tarzan also had a bit of trouble; his amp's power cable came apart at the plug, so by "They Conjure" his sound was gone. What was funny was that this particular song has a strong vocal contribution from him, so he had to fiddle with his amp, run over to the mic and sing his part, then run back over to fix his problem. Lol's were had behind the drum throne.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oh, one more thing: Tonight was Tony's first show using his boss-ass new delay pedal. You can hear it really well during his solo at the end of Tombs in the video link.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Set List:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">FBF</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Toxic<br />Troops of Doom</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conjure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hellhammer<br />Sodomy & Lust</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tombs </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>M.O.D. </b> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Among the members of Hexlust, Tony is the only fan of M.O.D. (he even brought along a copy of <i>U.S.A. For M.O.D. </i>for Billy Milano to sign), so he got to have his fun standing stage-side while the rest of us guarded our gear at the back of the club. Ya know what, even for a non-fan lounging on the Korova's comfy couches, it was a pretty fun set! The musicianship was tear-the-roof-down heavy yet still very tight and precise, which is almost expected when the band includes local guitar stalwart Mike De Leon of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFZxEp_Cr7I" target="_blank">Disfigured</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmw7gWxr2bc" target="_blank">Flesh Hoarder</a> (plug plug plug). The song selection was pretty sweet; there were some M.O.D. tracks I actually know and like, such as "Get a Real Job," "Aren't You Hungry?" and a special Spanish version of "Bubble Butt," along with a decent handful of old S.O.D. songs, like "Pussy-Whipped" and "Fuck the Middle East." Of course, there were the played-at-every-show S.O.D. warhorses "Milano Mosh" and "United Forces." The crowd was huge, taking up almost the entire floorspace of the Korova. The mosh pit never stopped, and the roar of the audience singing along to the "gang vocal" parts at times overtook the vocals of the actual musicians.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The true highlight of the set was, of course, Billy Milano's between-song banter. The man is hilariously brash, offensive, clever, and just overall awesome, showing no signs of slowing down or going soft even at age 50 (his age was the basis for a lengthy joke at the beginning of the set about how long he's been... appreciating the finer points of female anatomy).</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> He even gave a shout-out to Hexlust: (Paraphrased) "What's the name of those motherfuckers who went on before us? ...Yeah? Yeah, they must have drank like seven gallons of soda before going onstage." I'm glad I caught that before we went outside to bring the trucks around and load our gear. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Overall, this was a fantastic show, both to witness and be a part of, one that the local headbangers and hessians of San Antonio had been fervently looking forward to for a while and were sure to never forget. We were happy to have this feather in our cap, and here's hoping the rest of our shows this year go just as well!</span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-22400632390827393132013-02-21T20:44:00.000-08:002013-03-08T01:00:51.156-08:00Dorkery and Lust<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b>Date:</b> Thursday, February 21, 2013<br />
<b>Venue:</b> Korova (basement), San Antonio<br />
<b>Bill:</b> Army of Drunks, Last Stage of Decay, Reign of Tyrants, Hexlust, Weap<span class="userContent">önizer</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Has it been seven months since the last gig already? Last year was a busy one for us, more personally and professionally than musically, which is why the metal world only got two Hexlust shows and still no album in 2012. In fact, we only played those shows because we had them booked months in advance so we could have time to align our planets correctly. Anything offered sooner than that had to be turned down.<br />
<br />
Hopefully, now that everyone's lives have evened out, 2013 will see us playing more shows, with an emphasis on venturing more outside of our San Antonio stronghold. We've already made progress in this direction by booking five shows from February to April, all in San Antonio.<br />
<br />
Yeah, adventure scares us.<br />
<br />
Completion and release of the album will be discussed eventually, but we can't even sneeze into a mic unless we have money to book studio time, so shows are the priority for the time being. <br />
<br />
<b>PRE-SHOW</b><br />
I don't think we've ever played a set list as improvised<b> </b>as it was tonight. Sure, we've come up with sets in the parking lot before shows and even on the fly onstage, but when we do that we pick from a pool of well-rehearsed material, not from the nether reaches of songs we haven't even seriously practiced in well over a year! Well, after Tony and I got to the Korova and greeted our bandmates, we all observed Weap<span class="userContent">önizer maneuvering into a parking spot and talked about how they cover "Sodomy and Lust," and hey, maybe we should play that song tonight as well! Wouldn't that be a gas?</span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent">Granted, for the past couple years we'd been sticking with "Agent Orange" when it comes to covering Sodom, and yeah it'd be less redundant to have a different cover to put up against </span><span class="userContent">Weap<span class="userContent">önizer's, </span>but that song is long-winded, mildly technical, and consists of more than three riffs. It requires some actual rehearsal before whipping out for a paying audience. "S&L," however, is simple in structure and technique, plus it's so far pounded into our systems from having covered it since our very first show that we figured we could pull it off with absolutely no practice at all. We even ran this idea by the </span>Weap<span class="userContent">önizer dudes and they were all for it.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent">Even if they didn't like it... yeah, we wouldn't have played it. What else would we do, rumble for it? Have you SEEN those guys? I wouldn't fight them with fifty friends!</span><br />
<span class="userContent"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-72gMYlZYVFg/UTbham3ex0I/AAAAAAAAAeU/Q9rTsUoVZ8g/s1600/weaponizer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-72gMYlZYVFg/UTbham3ex0I/AAAAAAAAAeU/Q9rTsUoVZ8g/s320/weaponizer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="userContent">Nope.</span></div>
<br />
<span class="userContent"><b>REIGN OF TYRANTS</b></span><br />
Tony and I got there too late to catch <b>Army of Drunks</b>' set, and gear load-in kept me distracted from<b> Last Stage of Decay</b>. All I had left to do was put my drum kit together off to the side of the stage, so Reign of Tyrants had my semi-divided attention. Admittedly, most of my focus was centered on that sweet-ass drum kit they brought onstage. Cymbals galore, a stuffed Animal (the Muppet) perched on the center stand, and Octobons! The man wielding the sticks was a play-for-the-song sort who played thrashy, occasionally blasty beats to match the riffs, but every now and then he cut loose with a crazy fill that raced up and down those tubular toms and the standard rack toms. Excellent! The vocalist was very animated but his voice is an acquired taste that reminded me of Proscriptor on <i>Tara</i>: higher in pitch yet still very throaty and a little gargly. If that makes any sense at all.<br />
<br />
Come to think of it, I wonder if the band was influenced by Absu, because like the legendary Texas black/thrashers, Reign of Tyrants' songwriting is no joke, amigo. Most of their tunes exceed the five-minute mark, containing the standard three verses and choruses but having many different tempo shifts, off-the-wall riffs, and spidery solos between and around them. Two songs stick out in my mind, to which I have the titles thanks to patient YouTube research: "Mortal Sufferstream," which I at first thought was a cover of Voivod's "Tribal Convictions" because of its beginning drum beat (I bet they get that a lot); and "Sinister Realms," which has a chorus that slightly resembles "Highland Tyrant Attack" (you know, the part that goes "HIGH-LAND-A-TY-RANT-AT-TACK!"). By the time the last chorus came around, I had all my bandmates singing along, albeit with the Absu lyrics.<span class="userContent"><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><b>HEXLUST</b></span><br />
Things did not begin optimistically for us. Tony plugged in his amp, flipped it on, and his effects loop immediately died. Zero signal. At some points during our actual set, both of his guitars went out of tune, one after the other. I was actually happy for the lapses this caused, as my double pedal was giving me some strange issues. Throughout "FBF" and "Toxic High," I felt the main pedal start to wobble, a sure sign of its grip on the lip of the kick drum coming loose. After multiple inspections, I found that the problem wasn't the grip on the lip, but that the spikes holding the pedal to the carpet were set to different lengths. A quick adjustment and I was good for the rest of the show.<br />
<br />
After those minor hiccups, we actually had a great set. Tony took his technical issues in stride and remained outgoing and charismatic throughout the whole show, as opposed to losing his balls and hiding behind his hair as he used to do in the face of equipment SNAFUs. Tarzan had told me that he and JT had been practicing together lately, and it showed in their playing. Not that I could <i>hear</i> them very well; I had neglected to bring earplugs onstage, so all the amps were putting out fuzzy fart noises so far as I could tell. Despite that, I could feel the vibrations of Tarzan's bass better than I could hear it, and JT's tone cut through a little better when he soloed, and they both felt/sounded focused and confident.<br />
<br />
"Sodomy and Lust" went exactly as I thought it would, with me not even thinking about what I was playing, just going with the flow of pure memory. I occasionally slipped up on a fill but nailed all the right beats and tempo changes, including our big slow-down right before the "Madness... crime... disgrace..." breakdown. As we always did when we played this song, we held that last chord out after the word "kill," I counted off, and came flying in just as fast as I could possibly play, casting out a small wish that the guys could still keep up with me. Lightning solos, big fill going back into the last verse (which I messed up), final chorus, big finish. Crowd loved it, and we were happy. Show well played, let's pack it in, I can barely lift my arms anymore and am well dehydrated because I'm stupid and left my water in Tony's truck.<br />
<br />
One small thing...<br />
<br />
We had made a last-minute decision to leave out "Meganecropolis" because, well, that song's hard and we didn't feel like playing it. What we wound up with, however, was a gap in our set we didn't realize existed until after we finished "S&L" and the sound guy told us we still had time for one more song. What could we possibly play that wouldn't kill us? We had just finished going fuck-you fast (as JT likes to call it) during the Sodom cover and were running on fumes. "Mega" was out of the question, as was our stupid-technical speedfest "Imminent Retardation." Thankfully, we still had a cover that fit perfectly: "Troops of Doom." Another warhorse from all the way back to our first show, the song is only speedy for a third of its running time, and even that's broken up into little chunks. We pulled it off with no thought and little effort, and trudged offstage to cry ourselves to death.<br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><b>Set List:</b></span><br />
<span class="userContent">FBF</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Toxic High</span><br />
<span class="userContent">They Conjure</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Hellhammer</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Tombs of the Blind Dead</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Sodomy and Lust</span><br />
<span class="userContent">Troops of Doom <b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><b>WEAP</b></span><span class="userContent"><b><b class="serif">Ö</b>NIZER </b></span><br />
After loading all the gear back into Tony's truck, I took a long moment to breathe in some fresh air and tag-team my bottle of water with the similarly-parched JT. I was soon enticed back inside, however, by one of the ugliest, most evil guitar tones I've heard in a good while (and yes, I meant that in a very good way), the signal that Weap<span class="userContent">önizer</span> had begun their black/crust/thrash assault on everyone left crammed into the Korova's basement venue. <span class="userContent">How to describe them to you folks? If you've heard Midnight or Vomitor, these guys are very similar, only faster and... dirtier. High-speed drumming, with lots of blast beats, combined with guitar playing that's fast without going into tremolo picking, lots of chugging palm-muted riffs and held-out chords, the riffs more strummed than picked most of the time. Way high on the Hellhammer/old Celtic Frost, </span><span class="userContent"><span class="userContent"> Mot<span class="userContent">örhead, and </span></span>Venom </span><span class="userContent"><span class="userContent"></span>influence.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent">Speaking of Venom, after bashing the audience in the teeth with their iron-knuckle originals, bassist/vocalist Barbarian announced a cover of the classic "In League With Satan," and drummer Shaggy immediately got heads banging and fists pumping with that distinctive tom beat. Towering guitarist Ale </span>Wülf then called out a Hexlust cover, bringing a quick chuckle from the audience as they launched into their own rendition of "Sodomy and Lust" and we in Hexlust all joined the surge at the front of the stage to enjoy the song from the other side of the mic for once. We marveled at how their other guitarist Nuke was playing so fast, with such intensity, yet with a laid-back, confident stage presence. By comparison, our heads pretty much match our hands; the faster we play, the faster our necks snap. That's probably how we end up feeling as if we got hit by a bag of trains (whole bag, all at once) by the end of every show. Getting back to the shared cover, I'd say our version of that most recognizable of Sodom songs is faster, while theirs is by far more grinding and menacing. <br />
<span class="userContent"><br /></span>
Weap<span class="userContent">önizer closed out the evening with "Warbastard," and I almost lost my mind when they got to the end and Shaggy started slamming his snare drum in lock-step with the palm-muted chugs. They could have gone on doing that for five whole minutes and I never would have tired of it. Fantastic band all around, some true-blue intense black/thrash combined with a genuinely intimidating one percenter biker-type physical presence. Talking to them after the show, the idea was thrown out that we should head up to their home state of Colorado to play a show or two with them someday. Tony has family up near the Denver area; could this be where Hexlust finally plays an out-of-state show? A potential link in a possible touring chain? Time will tell. </span><br />
<span class="userContent"><br /></span>
<span class="userContent">Although knowing us and how good we are at this whole ambition thing... nope.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent"><b>POST-SHOW THOUGHTS </b></span><br />
<span class="userContent">Speaking of touring, how the hell do metal bands do that without completely destroying themselves? As I said earlier, we in Hexlust end every gig night with every muscle in our bodies screaming at us. We need the entire next day to recuperate, and even the day after that we're still not 100% crisp. We get up on that stage and throw every ounce of our energy into entertaining our audience, tossing chiropractic caution to the wind in favor of giving the paying customers a balls-out thrashfest. Not something we planned on doing, it just sort of happened naturally. We'd watch the headlining acts of the shows we played, some of them part of a touring package, and say "Yeah, the music's great, but the dudes themselves are kinda conservative with the metal-thrashing madness. They only really let loose in certain parts of the songs, and besides that they're all reigned in. Are they afraid of hurting themselves?" Now that I think about it, yeah they probably are!</span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent">Even when we say to each other, "Ok guys, tonight let's dial it back a notch. Reserve the headbanging for the really intense riffs, conserve energy, pace ourselves," that inevitably flies out the door. Two or three songs in we're playing as if it's the last tune of the last show we'll ever play. To be able to play every night for two weeks or more, we'd have to find some way to truly moderate our onstage energy, </span>to dole out the thrashery based on the ebb and flow of the songs themselves. Would it be the same though? Would it still be hexcellent? Most of the praise we get has to do with our live shows, how we hit the ground running and don't even slow to a jog until we hit the finish or our feet fall off. I suppose the alternative would be to hire a yoga coach and a massage therapist to cram into a van with us and snap us back into place every night. Ideally, they'd have to be able to speak entirely in Simpsons quotes and put up with a constant tirade of dick and fart jokes.<br />
<br />
Maybe we should just learn to dial it back. Or just never tour. Again, considering how we are with getting shit done... let's concentrate on playing these shows, then finishing an album. We'll see.<br />
<br />
<span class="userContent">For this, our first of hopefully many shows in 2013, and our triumphant return to the Korova, we in Hexlust thank </span>Weap<span class="userContent">önizer, Reign of Tyrants, Jaime for booking us and believing in us, the throng of crust kids who regarded us well, and the ever-supportive Beer, Hellbound Jeff, BJ, and Hellpreacher Johnny, who insist on coming to our shows and liking us in spite of our non-stop humdickery.</span><span class="userContent"> See you all next time! Keep it hexcellent, and thrash til Alzheimers!</span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-1300431893255894002012-07-13T22:39:00.000-07:002013-03-08T00:59:34.788-08:00You Know, That Song From 'Dumb and Dumber'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9U_1L9_U7zs/UQYfjsigqEI/AAAAAAAAAc8/a467akNHPco/s1600/2012-07-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9U_1L9_U7zs/UQYfjsigqEI/AAAAAAAAAc8/a467akNHPco/s320/2012-07-13.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Date:</b> Friday, July 13, 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Venue:</b> Ten Eleven, San Antonio</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Bill:</b> Cannibal Bitch, Aggravator, Hexlust, Age of Fire, Machinage</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In June of 2012, Hexlust held two full-band practices, something we hadn't done in... I don't even remember how long. Since JT moved to San Antonio in late summer of 2010, and Tarzan followed a year later, I really don't think all four of us had got together to stretch our muscles in the proverbial woodshed even once. A shame, really, not only because it combined with our late-2011 setbacks to bring about our fuckeryfest of a show this past March, but also because Hexlust is a band practically founded on the concept of a group of friends getting together just to play fast music and tell dick jokes for shits and giggles. With these two practices, we were determined to get the magic back and have a hellaciously hexcellent show to put on when we played with our Brazilian friends Machinage.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That first session, we plowed through literally every song we've ever played together: all eight original songs and all the covers, even numbers like "Open Casket" and "Chainsaw Gutsfuck" that we haven't played live in years. Most of it was great, some of it was shaky (especially toward the end of that hour and a half thrash fest), but all of it was <i>fun. </i>We were smiling and laughing and cracking joke riffs, throwing out the first few bars of "Photograph" (by Def Leppard) and "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," just like we used to. The second practice was just a little more serious-face, with the focus being more on crafting and rehearsing a set list for our upcoming show. We decided on our five "major" songs plus an old favorite, "Hellhammer," our stylistic tribute to the early works of Tom G Warrior.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Warming up on my snare-mounted practice pad outside the Ten Eleven the night of the show, listening to the surprisingly catchy <b>Cannibal Bitch</b> and the familiar, energetic <b>Aggravator</b>, I went through every tricky beat and complicated fill in our songs, traded hahaha-hope-we-don't-suck cracks with the guys, and checked out every fail-potential piece of my kit, from the arms of my cymbal stands to the nuts holding my double-kick pedal together. We may have had the Hexmagic back and were perfectly happy just hanging out and jamming together again, but getting up onstage in front of these folks tonight and not sucking would really, ya know, be totally awesome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>HEXLUST</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;">Our
set was fantastic. Worries be gone! All six songs we played went off without any
major hitches, nobody dropped a pick or accidentally unplugged their
guitar by stepping on a cable, and I
didn't drop any sticks or have my floor tom fall over on me. The crowd
was responsive and supportive, though <i>very</i> small, maybe 25 people
tops. Friday the 13th is a very choice
night for metal shows, so audiences are almost always split. In fact,
there was at least one show going on in San Antonio and another in
Austin featuring bands we associate with, so we knew we would be without
the support of many of our musician friends and usual fans.<br /><br />We
had only two <span style="font-size: small;">gripe</span>s concerning our performance<span style="font-size: small;">, and even they <span style="font-size: small;">are pretty small</span>:</span> Tony was <span style="font-size: small;">having himself a slipper<span style="font-size: small;">y-hand kind of evening, I d<span style="font-size: small;">on't know if<span style="font-size: small;"> it w<span style="font-size: small;">as the moisturizer he use<span style="font-size: small;">d or the soap <span style="font-size: small;">in the bathroom or <span style="font-size: small;">if he was just a sweaty-palmed dude that night, but his solos were<span style="font-size: small;"> a little sloppy and he couldn't hi<span style="font-size: small;">t a harmonic to save his <span style="font-size: small;">hair</span>. This took a l<span style="font-size: small;">ot of <i><span style="font-size: small;">oomp<span style="font-size: small;">h</span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> o<span style="font-size: small;">ut of his whammy dives, <span style="font-size: small;">of which there are plenty in Hexlust songs</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The second complaint was my own,
that no matter how much I warmed up before going onstage, I wasn't able
to achieve <span style="font-size: small;">my</span> effortless speed, where my
super-fast hi-hat and ride patterns are as simple as
flexing my wrists, allowing me to relax more. It normally takes about
one or two full songs for me to "break through the wall," so to speak, so
it was rather frustrating to find that we were into the second half of
our set and I was still having to actually "push" for my speed. As a
result, I thought my individual performance was sluggish and forced, but
of course no one noticed, not even my bandmates. Everyone was just all,
"<span style="font-size: small;">T</span>hose fills were really smooth Dart!" and "<span style="font-size: small;">H</span>ey Dart, you didn't drop a
stick this time!" <span style="font-size: small;">As long as everyon<span style="font-size: small;">e's happy, I can sleep at night</span></span>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Speaking of sticks, a quick little side note<span style="font-size: small;">.</span> About an hour and a half into the drive
to San Antonio, I realized I had left my stick bag at home, so I texted
JT and asked if he could pick me up a couple pairs of sticks, any brand as long
as they were size 5B. When I arrived, I was met with "Dart, these
sticks were like $1<span style="font-size: small;">3</span> <span style="font-size: small;">a pair</span>! Why are they so expensive!" I explained that
they're usually not, and then saw that
he had bought two pairs of Pro<span style="font-size: small;">-</span>Mark Shira Kashi Oak, said to be the
highest-quality, most unbreakable sticks offered. <span style="font-size: small;">It was immediately obv<span style="font-size: small;">ious that</span></span> he had
simply told a clerk at Guitar Center to get him two pairs of any 5B
sticks, giving the guy license to do what any competent sales clerk would do: go
for the high-ticket items. <span style="font-size: small;">My fault for not being more specific<span style="font-size: small;">. Oh and</span></span> let me tell you, those high-dollar
"unbreakable" sticks didn't last three Hexlust songs without one of them
breaking at the tip! Yeesh.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Set list:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">FBF</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conjure</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Baphomet </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hellhammer </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Meganecropolis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tombs<b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>AGE OF FIRE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(To the tune of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Once, there was this band who</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Back-lined for Machinage, they went on after Hexlust</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>And when, their time to play came,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>That, band, had disappeared from the venue</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>We couldn't quite explain it, they'd only just</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>Beeeeeeeen theeeeeeeeeere</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>MACHINAGE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With Age of Fire oddly absent, we happily volunteered our own gear for Machinage's use. In fact, my drum kit wasn't even broken down yet, so getting things set up for them was a simple matter of putting stuff back onstage and rearranging it in a playable fashion. Folks, if you ever get a chance to be in the audience while pro-grade musicians play music on your equipment, by all means <i>take it. </i>It's an oddly gratifying experience hearing quality metal being blasted at you on gear that, a few hours earlier, had been taking up space in your parents' spare room. It's almost as if their professionalism is injected into your gear and actually makes it sound better than it really is! We experienced this before, back in 2009 when we played with the mighty Midnight, though thankfully this evening's performance didn't end with Tony nearly on the brink of tears over his blown-out amp.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Machinage really brought the fury to that small audience in that tiny club, plowing into the attendees with their groove-heavy take on modern thrash, dazzling those close to the stage with their top-notch musicianship. Both guitarists possessed an enviable tone that was equally thick and sharp, and the solos, while not as shred-heavy as I prefer, were strategically placed and expertly played. The lead vocalist,<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: small;">Fábio, even sang while <span style="font-size: small;">soling on occa<span style="font-size: small;">sion.</span> Drummer Ricardo is <span style="font-size: small;">of that rare breed of skinsman who is both c<span style="font-size: small;">apable beatsmith and consum<span style="font-size: small;">ate showman. Between his crushing<span style="font-size: small;"> rhythm</span>s and smooth, linear fills, he was always finding <span style="font-size: small;">a<span style="font-size: small;">n opp<span style="font-size: small;">or<span style="font-size: small;">tunity to throw a thumbs-up or the metal <span style="font-size: small;">horns at the audience, or to make a face for <span style="font-size: small;">the camera, all without once breaking cadence. Even when <span style="font-size: small;">my snare stand <span style="font-size: small;">fell b<span style="font-size: small;">a<span style="font-size: small;">ckward ove<span style="font-size: small;">r the double pedal and popped his snare drum out <span style="font-size: small;">onto the <span style="font-size: small;">floor, he simp<span style="font-size: small;">ly moved his snare hits to <span style="font-size: small;">the toms<span style="font-size: small;">, not up<span style="font-size: small;">setting the song a<span style="font-size: small;">t all as I wormed my way on<span style="font-size: small;">stage to fix the issue. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">A cover and a half we<span style="font-size: small;">re present in Machinage's set list: <span style="font-size: small;">A full rendition of Sepultura's "Terri<span style="font-size: small;">tory," one of <span style="font-size: small;">the highlights off a very hit-and-miss album, </span>for which we were all on b<span style="font-size: small;">oard</span>; and a teas<span style="font-size: small;">ing bit of <span style="font-size: small;">Pantera's "Walk<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">," <span style="font-size: small;">which pleased many in the audience but left me a l<span style="font-size: small;">ittle ambivalent. Hexlust<span style="font-size: small;">'s opinion of Texas' go-to metal act isn<span style="font-size: small;">'t necessarily we<span style="font-size: small;">ll-documented, but if you<span style="font-size: small;">'ve talked to us ab<span style="font-size: small;">out music<span style="font-size: small;"> for any leng<span style="font-size: small;">th of time you've likely heard our apathetic-at-best take on Dime and the gang. I was h<span style="font-size: small;">appy it was just a tiny bit of "Walk" played, and didn't let it color my opinion of <span style="font-size: small;">these guys <span style="font-size: small;">in the <span style="font-size: small;">slightest.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>POST-SHOW</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think I had three instances of Ricardo walking up and giving me a big hug and a heavily-accented "Thank you, man!" after the set. In fact, all of Machinage were very liberal with expressing their gratitude to us for the use of our gear. All we could do was thank them right back for showing us how good our bargain-price contraptions sound in the hands of the well-practiced. We spent a short while engaging in that wheel-greasing and fat-chewing, then decided to hit the road. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By the way, Age of Fire did show up, when Machinage were already onstage. Apparently they had gone to get a bite to eat and had taken a little longer at Pizza Hut than they had anticipated. Sorry guys, gotta call a technical foul here. If you haven't even gone onstage yet, a "bite to eat" should consist of a hot dog and chips at a gas station ideally no more than five minutes away from the venue. Any place that involves sitting down and ordering is out of the question, and if the band right before you is already playing, forget it, no matter where you plan on going. It's just too big a risk.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VfPSmHcHtc/UTRb2d0_e5I/AAAAAAAAAdc/Xb-9OjcLHTQ/s1600/technical+foul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VfPSmHcHtc/UTRb2d0_e5I/AAAAAAAAAdc/Xb-9OjcLHTQ/s1600/technical+foul.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Anyway, AoF went on after Machinage. I have no idea how many people stuck around for them because we took off. Our obligation was fulfilled, and the headlining band had already played, so for us the show was over. I hope they had a decent set and have learned from this evening's judgement lapse. We'll see what the future holds, maybe we'll even get another opportunity to play with them if we ever make it back out to the Dallas/Ft Worth area.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b></b></span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-32750460079830533252012-03-17T21:42:00.000-07:002014-12-18T05:23:53.752-08:00The 'Lust Machine Took a Shit & Died<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VFxYgWQc4AM/UQYKax4AnnI/AAAAAAAAAcs/a0Xzizuo7zg/s1600/2012-03-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VFxYgWQc4AM/UQYKax4AnnI/AAAAAAAAAcs/a0Xzizuo7zg/s1600/2012-03-17.jpg" /></a></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<b>Date:</b> Saturday, March 17, 2012<br />
<b>Venue:</b> Ten Eleven, San Antonio<br />
<b>Bill:</b> Hexlust, Spellcaster, Speedwolf, Bonded By Blood, Witchaven, Exmortus<br />
<br />
<br />
The hell were we thinking?<br />
<br />
Hexlust experienced a few setbacks after our last show in October. JT's amp was stolen, and Tony developed severe wrist issues that left him unable to play guitar for about four months. As a result, production on the album ceased (which was ok, considering we no longer had a recording space and ran out of money), and we experienced a small lull. <br />
<br />
Cut to five months later. Tony recovered swimmingly, but only just in time for our show on March 17. He and I hadn't put in a whole lot of practice together. With JT and Tarzan living in San Antonio and Tony being unable to play, I had fallen out of individual practice. JT had no new amp, since those things tend to be expensive and his car insurance didn't reimburse him for his stolen one. Somehow, in light of all this, we thought it would be a fine idea to get up onstage and just see what happens. Half a year of the whole band not even being in the same room together, let's just get JT his dodgy old Marshall amp from way back in Hexlust's early days, go up in front of a paying audience, and see if some of that ol' Hexmagic can make us come out like champions!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2j8BZwZBfGI" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
The HELL were we THINKING? <br />
<br />
The instant we hit that first chord, it just felt wrong. We were out of shape, out of sync, four separate guys trying to play the same song at the same time instead of a tight band playing the tune as one. JT's tone was weak, and his amp was just loud enough to be very audible, so yippee skip there. The audience weren't responding that enthusiastically, which was understandable considering a) we sucked, and b) we were the opening act and nobody's ever all WOOHOO at 8pm. All this added up to Tony immediately losing confidence; you can clearly see in the above video that he was playing with his eyes shut.<br />
<br />
The rest of our set is a blur, as I set myself to just turning off my observational senses and powering through the remaining songs. I remember Tony having the audience wish me a happy birthday between songs at some point (this very day was my 25th), but beyond that I got nothin'. There is video evidence to suggest that we started tightening up a little, and even got a little mosh pit out of the attendees.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gtnA8W8BRTY" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And holy hell, I even got my first ever drum cam video!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9JKxuOq8OKU" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Overall, however, this show was a dud, and we all knew it. We didn't even stick around very long after our set, we were just so embarrassed. We watched Spellcaster (awesome, with a rousing rendition of the classic "See You In Hell") and a little bit of Speedwolf, said hi to our buddies in Exmortus, and were gone.<br />
<br />
2011 was all in all a pretty good year for us. Our last show was such a success, and sure, we had bought into so much of our own hype as an energetic and rousing live band, that we thought the awesomeness would just carry over across <i>half a year </i>of inactivity. We had taken the Hexmagic for granted, and it bit us in the ass. That is surely not going to happen again; not with our next show, and hopefully ever again.<br />
<br />
Of course, watch me write another entry just like this in two years. We're awesome like that.<br />
<br />
<b>Set list:</b><br />
FBF<br />
They Conjure<br />
Baphomet Dawn<br />
Meganecropolis<br />
Tombs<b> </b> Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-23778556932352827352011-10-07T00:48:00.000-07:002011-10-16T10:26:29.963-07:00All We Hex Is Lust! Birth Holes!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tibe7KArF7I/To6uzuja_8I/AAAAAAAAAXA/sIp2EsA4Pok/s1600/2011-10-07.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tibe7KArF7I/To6uzuja_8I/AAAAAAAAAXA/sIp2EsA4Pok/s320/2011-10-07.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660653985344454594" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Friday, October 7, 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Headhunters, Austin TX<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Aggravator, Morgengrau, Hexlust, Birth A.D., Whore of Bethlehem<br /><br /><u>A note on the title:</u> I've had it in mind since the day we announced this show. If you're Facebook friends with members of Morgengrau, Birth A.D., or Hexlust, you'll recognize the wacky little quotes I'm toying with here. Of course, now that I look at it, "birth holes" seems like an odd choice of words, haha.<br /><br /><b>PRE-SHOW</b><br />It's amazing how quickly something as simple as gear load-in can dissolve into chaos when already limited space starts running out. When we in Hexlust arrived at Headhunters, the early-evening singer-songwriter show was still going on, so we didn't feel the need to unload yet. After grabbing some pizza next door and catching up, we went back to Headhunters and chatted with the members of Morgengrau. They went about bringing their gear in, and the question was then raised if we should unload as well. As much as I'm all for getting things set up as early as possible, I insisted that we wait; we were going on third, so it would make more sense to load in just before Morgengrau's set than to take up room in the tiny club hours in advance.<br /><br />Then I saw another amp being wheeled into the club, piloted by somebody I didn't recognize. This could only be stuff from Whore of Bethlehem, who were the evening's headliners. Aggravator and Birth A.D. hadn't even arrived yet, and already things were getting crowded. A hasty decision was made, and twenty minutes later, about half of the audience floor was taken up with assorted amps, bass rigs, and guitar cases. Not one thread of organization was applied to this, where maybe we'd have Morgangrau's stuff closer to the stage, then our stuff, then Whore's. Nope, it was a big hodge-podgey rat's nest, from which one band's equipment would have to be extracted by shuffling everyone else's crap around.<br /><br />Jeff A.D. showed up, took a look at the steaming batch of equipment jambalaya we'd made, and asked me if that was all our stuff. I gave him a huge smile and said it was everyone's stuff, and wasn't it fantastic! He gave me a look that brought to mind Kurt Russell in <span style="font-style: italic;">Tombstone</span> going "Ahh, hell," and went back outside, presumably to vent his frustration into a ninety-nine-percenter's face with his boot. (Not too big a stretch, there was supposedly an Occupy-Everywhere thing going on in Austin that weekend, so they were around!)<br /><br /><b>AGGRAVATOR</b><br />My parents, who were in town to catch the show, really liked Aggravator. My dad in particular noted how catchy their songs were, and how there was a large emphasis placed on rhythm, from the drum beats to the memorable riffs that were played even as Jesse was ripping out a lead. I shared my dad's appreciation for their talents, but noticed that the band looked rather tired, and less spirited than usual. I later found out that they were double-booked over at the Dirty Dog on 6th Street, so they were probably conserving energy for a later performance.<br /><br />I stuck around for a couple tunes, then retreated to the second floor of Headhunters' patio area where I warmed up for our performance and talked to Njord from Humut Tabal. I eventually realized that time had gotten away from me, and retreated back into the club proper, expecting to find Morgengrau already performing, or at least soundchecking. Instead, they were just now getting their gear onstage, which I later found out was due to Aggravator finishing their set and then I guess just going somewhere, leaving their drum kit onstage and in Morgengrau's way. Sorry guys, that's what we call a technical foul.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-01fm8WJzkzs/TpJqfNrJjdI/AAAAAAAAAXI/G7ZXzgPiuNI/s1600/technical%2Bfoul.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 265px; height: 158px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-01fm8WJzkzs/TpJqfNrJjdI/AAAAAAAAAXI/G7ZXzgPiuNI/s320/technical%2Bfoul.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661704766037265874" border="0" /></a><b><br />MORGENGRAU<br /></b>Morgengrau's set was off to a shaky start before they even played one song. They had to hurry their gear onstage to prevent more time being eaten away, shuffle things around to fit everything onto the tiny, oddly-shaped space, and grit their teeth through a long soundcheck which ended with vocalist Erika hampered by a scratchy guitar sound, possibly due to a faulty cord. I've been through plenty of those frustrating pre-performances, where we would finish the soundcheck stressed out and feeling like the gig's already gone straight to hell. More than half the time, that's exactly where it would go, and I started to feel a sympathy headache coming on. Morgengrau don't believe in self-fulfilling prophecies, however, and through the power of their Christmas guitars turned in one hell of a performance that lifted the spirits and ensured that this was going to be a fine evening indeed!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_eyTgNDFBSs/TpN4phWg2vI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/_1lFmYuWaZY/s1600/Xmas%2BGuitars.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_eyTgNDFBSs/TpN4phWg2vI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/_1lFmYuWaZY/s320/Xmas%2BGuitars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662001811257613042" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:78%;">CHRISTMAS GUITARS!</span></span></div><br />Erika, known more locally for her soaring clean vocals in Iron Maiden tribute act Drifter, impressed everyone with the ferocity of her death metal growl, employed most impressively in the band's covers of Asphyx's "Apshyx (Forgotten War)" and Pestilence's "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXUaqMby0wQ">Chronic Infection.</a>" (Van Drunen fan, much? Hehe.) From what I saw she stuck with rhythm guitar duties, leaving the leads in Nick's very capable hands, and they both employed a very precise picking style, wrists rooted firmly in place, the hands themselves hardly seeming to move at all. Extremely impressive, especially when one is singing while doing so.<br /><br />At the set's beginning the audience's reaction was rather subdued, but they started getting more into it after the covers had warmed them up, moshing hard during such fantastic originals as "Grave of Lies" and "Extrinsic Pathway,' and throwing their horns or fists up after every tune. As a quick closer, Morgengrau pulled out yet another cover, this time allowing bassist Jake to take the mic for a raging rendition of Exhorder's "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ALe9S2H6ME">Anal Lust</a>." I'm not sure how he or drummer Reba still had the energy, between his seemingly perpetual headbanging and her endless thrash beats and double-bassery they were both in constant motion since the first tune. Plus I know <span style="font-style: italic;">very well</span> how hot it gets on that stage! Kudos to them and the rest of Morgengrau for putting their all into giving their audience a showcase in old school death metal, we all loved it and are looking eagerly forward to the next gig!<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IH5qwbM3ymE/TpsRBBvjKgI/AAAAAAAAAXs/-WTgXyDaDQU/s1600/Morgengrau_fun.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IH5qwbM3ymE/TpsRBBvjKgI/AAAAAAAAAXs/-WTgXyDaDQU/s320/Morgengrau_fun.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664139665693944322" border="0" /></a><b><br />HEXLUST</b><br />Not only did we kick undisputed ass after having not had all four of us standing in the same room together, much less playing as a full band, since our last gig in August; not only did we near flawlessly play almost all of our originals, including the tricky "Imminent Retardation" but excluding "Hellhammer" due to time constraints; and <span style="font-style: italic;">not only </span>did JT still headbang like the bastard he is after having had to recently chop his metal-god mane down to a Dwight-Schrute cut to appease the crotchety old fucks in charge of his higher education, but we did it all without the time-keeping assistance of my hi-hat pedal!<br /><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xxGo1Q6Zqn0/TpsRAzPnTvI/AAAAAAAAAXg/Me4LnWau4Cc/s1600/Hexlust_JT.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xxGo1Q6Zqn0/TpsRAzPnTvI/AAAAAAAAAXg/Me4LnWau4Cc/s320/Hexlust_JT.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664139661801901810" border="0" /></a>To understand just why that's significant, you should know that since our earliest practices I insisted that everybody follow <span style="font-style: italic;">me. </span>I'm the timekeeper and I take that role very seriously. One of my favorite tricks to use is stomping the hi-hat pedal, bringing those two cymbals together to provide that <span style="font-style: italic;">chik-chik-chik</span> sound that keeps us in time when, say, Tony starts a riff on his own. Sometimes my insistence on being the focus of time bites me in the ass, like when something malfunctions in my hi-hat stand and renders it useless. Before, whenever this happened, it tended to set everyone adrift, especially when sub-par sound didn't allow us to hear the guitars that well, so when the rest of us came in together it was with all the precision of blustery wind chimes.<br /><br />Tonight, however, we pulled out the best results in the worst time-keeping circumstance: not halfway into our first song, I smacked the wingnut holding the top hi-hat cymbal straight off the stand and into the black abyss of the stage floor. The cymbals fell together and stayed that way through the whole set, the stand's pedal now all but useless. I gave a heavy internal sigh, figuring I'd have to actually hit the cymbals during a break in the song, or maybe even substitute the <span style="font-style: italic;">chiks</span> with a kick drum <span style="font-style: italic;">thump.</span> When the time came to do either of those, though, I got caught up in the moment and forgot, stomping that useless pedal like the happy idiot I am. Something awesome happened, though: we all still came in together! I'm sure it helped that the small stage allowed us to hear the guitars a little better, but at the same time it was something more than that. It didn't feel like the guys were having to stop, listen for the guitar, and react from there; we all just simply <span style="font-style: italic;">knew</span> when to go. It was a fantastic feeling, being able to let go of that responsibility and trust that we would all come in on time.<br /><br />I told that long story that had a lot to do with me for two reasons: 1) I'm the author, so <span style="font-style: italic;">deal with it, suckas!</span> 2) I was super-proud of the fact that, after over three years of playing live with this lineup, we seem to have finally developed a group-sense of being able to stay on time with each other without an explicit guide. I'll be sticking with my hi-hat stomping anyway, due to force of habit, the sneaking suspicion that this could have been a fluke, and just feeling like the <span style="font-style: italic;">chiks</span> are a part of the music itself, as they are in the old Sodom records. Yay Hexlust, becoming more of a competent band with every gig!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7LwozMuVXXE/TpsRA_xyY_I/AAAAAAAAAXY/slZxbNcP2H0/s1600/Hexlust_fullband.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7LwozMuVXXE/TpsRA_xyY_I/AAAAAAAAAXY/slZxbNcP2H0/s320/Hexlust_fullband.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664139665166459890" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Drummer Stays in the Picture<br /><br /></span></div><b>Set List</b>:<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr7mNmgHqVI&feature=channel_video_title">Fucked By Fire</a><br />Toxic<br />Conjure<br />Baphomet<br />Imminent Retardation<br />Meganecropolis<br />Tombs<br /><br /><b>BIRTH A.D.</b><br />How did we go on <span style="font-style: italic;">after</span> these guys once upon a time? I mull that question over in my thinkin' brain every time I see Birth A.D. in action, thinking back to that show in August 2009 where their set preceded ours. How did that audience put up with our buffoonery after witnessing these guys set up, kick ass, and tear down like the seasoned professionals they are? Though the band itself has only been around for a few short years, the members of Birth A.D. have been playing in Austin-area metal acts since the early '90s. The benefit of their experience showed in the way they fit all their equipment onto the stage with seemingly few issues, blew through their whole set with nary a technical difficulty, and held the loyal audience's attention the entire time with Jeff's vitriolic between-song rants and humorous banter with drummer Mark. Inspirational.<br /><br />I have come into possession of a copy of their "Stillbirth of a Nation" EP since we last played with them in February, so I was now ready for Birth A.D.'s assault on my senses, having memorized most of the lyrics and the time changes (as in, "fast" to "mid-paced). Of course, the glorious thing about this band is that their choruses are so catchy and simple that even an uninitiated newblet will be singing along and pumping their fist by the last go 'round of each tune, but knowing the songs beforehand allows for less listening and more doing. I sang along to every tune and loved every second of it, finally able to feel like one of the cool kids who really knows the tunes.<br /><br />As I threw my fist in the air and ravaged my voice to their music, the true beauty of Birth A.D.'s hooks really hit me. Sure, they were choruses designed to be memorable, what music artist doesn't create something like that? What really matters is the intent behind the catchiness. Others make their hooks irresistible for the plain and naked sake of popularity, but Birth A.D. do it for the sake of spreading their messages. They want you to come away from a show having it in your head that you need to Cause Problems, Kill Everybody, and Bring Back the Draft, because we're living in a Failed State, with Equal Opportunity for losers in the job environment, and most of all, because This Scene Sucks!<br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PbTT_9rK_qQ/TpsTQJXPc2I/AAAAAAAAAX8/tpqxNVKhAfk/s1600/BirthAD_thrash.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PbTT_9rK_qQ/TpsTQJXPc2I/AAAAAAAAAX8/tpqxNVKhAfk/s320/BirthAD_thrash.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5664142124460766050" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />WHORE OF BETHLEHEM</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">/ POST-SHOW</span><br />A small, devoted crowd stuck around for Whore of Bethlehem's doom-influenced take on blackened death metal, but this audience did not include me. Tony was setting off on his long journey back to Belton, my parents were leaving for the hotel room I would be sharing with them tonight, and members of Birth A.D. and Morgengrau were finally getting around to packing their stuff up in their vehicles. All my friends were outside, so outside I went, engaging in those glorious long goodbyes where an utterance of "well, see ya later" was followed right up by, "Oh by the way dude, have you listened to [awesome band/recording] yet? Let's have another five-minute conversation about that!"<br /><br />I finally tore myself away at a little after 2, as I had to grab a few precious hours of sleep and be back in Killeen for work at 8:30 the next morning. It was really hard for me to leave, I appreciate every second spent talking to our awesome metal friends in the Central Texas metal scene, commiserating on life subjects and swapping awesome stories. Makes me glad that we hopefully get to do it some more when we share the stage with Birth A.D. again, opening for Exhorder the day after Thanksgiving!<br /><br />For those of you wondering what's been up with the lack of studio blogs, recording was put on hold for a little while so we could perform a change of location for the studio. Work is set to resume this Sunday, so I'll try my best to post that night or the very next day and keep you all up to date on what's going on with our first album. Until then, remember to THRASH TIL ALZHEIMER'S!Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-66060793056335767082011-08-29T21:28:00.000-07:002011-08-29T23:27:43.311-07:00The Faptrabulous Riffoonery of Tone-Deaf and Jar-Tard<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p9NGyHAtgaw/TlR_bGo_kZI/AAAAAAAAATc/WhTKNJPk5eQ/s1600/PROGRESS%2B2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p9NGyHAtgaw/TlR_bGo_kZI/AAAAAAAAATc/WhTKNJPk5eQ/s320/PROGRESS%2B2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644276336617820562" border="0" /></a>
<br />Just got home from Walter's house, where Tony and I were given the opportunity to listen to what's been recorded so far for Hexlust's first album (meaning all drums, bass, and rhythm guitars). After giving five of the songs a listen, on quality speakers instead of the grainy floor monitors in the studio space, it pleases me to report to you folks that so far I am quite the happy camper!
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<br />See, our true purpose was to troubleshoot the tracks to see if there were any horrifying mistakes that may have escaped us up to this point. From what we listened to tonight there are just a few sloppy hammer-ons or painful dead notes from the guitars, so Tony and JT will both have a little extra rhythm work to do when they go in for the leads next week. Granted, we know that little mistakes add "character" to a recording, give it that "human element" and whatnot, and we accounted for that; what we were searching for tonight were the <span style="font-style: italic;">extra </span>bad flubs that could reach out and slap us in the face after it's too late to do anything about it.
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<br />As for the recording of the rhythm tracks themselves, I was present for one day of recording for each guitarist. Tony's was an inspiring but rather frustrating day, his last of maybe three sessions. At one point he was having trouble with a riff where, when recording drums, I had suddenly and inexplicably slowed down (oops), which threw his concentration off and badly affected his playing. Walter tried omitting my drums, then tried phasing out Tarzan's bass, even tried telling Tony to just continue playing in spite of what he was hearing, all to no avail.
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<br />Finally, it was suggested that Tony simplify his picking style for that section, which did the trick stupendously. He was now able to just go with the flow, and the best part was that him matching my sudden slow-down made it sound deliberate and even gave the whole thing a kind of eerie feel. It's truly amazing what magic can happen when creativity is applied to a mistake!
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<br />As for the J-Tizzle, the one day I was there turned out to be the only day that mattered. How so? Because this fool somehow pumped out all his rhythm tracks in one seven-hour session! Were we letting him get away with first takes and sloppy runs? Hells to the no, JT was very good about policing himself but we also let him know when we spotted something he needed to do over again. It got a little tense in some places, and at one point he even asked that Tony and I leave on account of how scrutinizing we were. He got it done, though, and so far it all sounds great.
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<br />I also just want to say real quick that I love the sound of two different guitars from two different players. It may not be as perfect as the time-honored method of having one player track all the rhythms, but what matters is that the parts mesh well and they get the point of the song across. As long as that goal is attained, then it's a lot of fun listening in for the little stylistic ticks and foibles that distinguish each contributor. Some good examples of this are Cannibal Corpse's first two albums, before it was decided that Jack Owen would record all the rhythms for "Tomb of the Mutilated." I think Megadeth's early albums are the same way, though I have no proof of this and am surprised those dudes got <span style="font-style: italic;">anything</span> done considering how constantly blitzed they were.
<br />Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-30796671935583263322011-08-12T23:03:00.000-07:002011-09-12T20:58:13.308-07:00Thrash Til Death at the Dirty Dog!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jILfoLc6-Cc/TlSUlRlPPZI/AAAAAAAAATk/HXpkN9Q4qI8/s1600/2011-08-12.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jILfoLc6-Cc/TlSUlRlPPZI/AAAAAAAAATk/HXpkN9Q4qI8/s320/2011-08-12.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644299601097735570" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Friday, August 12, 2011<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Dirty Dog, Austin TX<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Hexlust, Numb Skull, Legion, Warbeast, Blunt Force Trauma<br /><br /><b>PRE-SHOW</b><br />Ahh, Sixth Street. That legendary haven of hedonism in downtown Austin, where Texans can pretend they have their own Sunset Strip, on which the venue hosting this evening's shenanigans rests. Sure the sidewalks are crowded, the traffic's perpetually congested, and one can't help but feel like they're choking in a miasma of empty-headed party-hardy escapism mixed with a particularly delusional brand of holier-than-thou snootiness seemingly exclusive to the "live music capital of the world." (*Inhale*) On the plus side, though... Umm... Hmmm...<br /><br />...<br /><br />Yeah, fuck Sixth Street.<br /><br />Since Tarzan now also lives in San Antonio, he and JT had already arrived and loaded in by the time Tony and I got there. We parked in an alley out behind the Dirty Dog and loaded in through the back door, which was insanely preferable to the option before us merely ten minutes prior: Park the truck in the sketchy lot on Red River and then take forever lugging all the drums and stands a little bit at a time two blocks away to the club.<br /><br />The venue itself impressed me; considering its downtown location and the fact that it's not Emo's, I came into this prepared for a small club with a tiny stage, barebones sound equipment, and almost nowhere to set up gear. Looking at its front exterior, about as long across as an average house, I figured it would be a little bigger than expected, but not much. However, the Dirty Dog surprised me with its interior that, deeper than it is wide, stretched far back enough to allow space for two full bars, a comfortable audience floor, an area by the back door for gear storage, and a comfortably-sized stage with a full P.A. system (my hi-hats got mic'd; that has never happened, <span style="font-style: italic;">ever</span>).<br /><br />As I've mentioned in previous posts, being the first band of the evening has the awesome perk of being able to load directly onto the stage and take a little more time setting up and getting comfortable. It also allows for more time to deal with small issues, like Tony forgetting his foot switch that changes his tone from rhythm to lead, and JT discovering a short in his own pedal. Normally something like this creates tense apprehension for the performance ahead, but the mood was eased with the sudden (first ever) presence of Tony's flashlight headband, which awarded him a high-five from Tarzan "for just not giving a fuck!"<br /><br /><b>HEXLUST</b><br />In honor of our twenty-five minutes of actual play time, a leaner and meaner set list was devised for this evening. We stripped away such excesses as the intro and our lumbering groove-hemoth "Baphomet Dawn," and emphasized our faster, more concise songs, including the re-entry of "Toxic High." This would have been another perfect night to bring back "Imminent Retardation" but, alas, the lack of full-band rehearsal. Also, I'm still wrestling with the fear that playing that song and "Meganecropolis" back-to-back at "live speed" may kill me. Soon, though, I promise!<br /><br />I must say, for this having been the first time all four of us have been playing our instruments at the same time in one place since our show in June, we did pretty damn well. Still as vicious and off-the-wall as usual! Just a couple hiccups on our behalf: Tony broke a string in the middle of "Fucked By Fire" (the first song), but had his back-up guitar plugged in and ready to go by the time he had to sing again; and my remote kick pedal came disconnected from the main one right before the big double-bass part in "Meganecropolis." It didn't drastically affect the tune itself, I was able to soldier on single-footed and then reconnect the pedal after the song was over, simply making sure to super-tighten the screw on the connector rod.<br /><br />We got a sweet audience response, too, considering it was nine o'clock and there was nobody present except for friends, other musicians, and a handful of early birds. This show was taking place the same evening that Macabre were destroying San Antonio, so we were surprised and very grateful to have even that many people there at such an early hour. Nobody really noticed our small blunders, and everyone was full of enthusiastic praise. Particularly remembered are the words of Jeff A.D., who offered that our sound this evening was much fuller than when he saw us a month ago at Headhunters, which made a huge difference in the impact of our songs. Grateful are we to the Dirty Dog's awesome sound equipment and the guy running it, who was patient and clearly-spoken during our sound check.<br /><br /><b>Setlist:</b><br />FBF<br />Toxic<br />Conjure<br />Meganecropolis<br />Tombs<br /><br /><b>NUMB SKULL</b><br />D.R.I. worship fronted by a vocalist who looks (and performs) like Phil Anselmo circa 1990. Not my bag musically but a group of really nice guys who play with big smiles on their faces, and I can always be won over by a band who are clearly having a good time doing what they do. I especially enjoyed watching their drummer from off to the side of the stage; he uses a very unorthodox style in which he sometimes leads off with his left foot despite playing right-handed, and for certain passages eschews riding the hi-hat or ride cymbal in favor of just punching the accented notes on the crashes. Overall a decent performance, one that was not captured on video (at least none posted online), so I give you a vid shot at one of their more recent gigs.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2G-E7uazmyI" allowfullscreen="" width="400" frameborder="0" height="255"></iframe><br /><br /><b>LEGION</b><br />Since our last show with these guys, the third Night of the Thrashing Dead back in February, Legion have been doing a good job of playing as often as possible in as many places as they can, really "getting their name out" and building up a reputation wherever they play. They have also said goodbye to that one guitarist who looked more bro-sy than thrashy and picked up a shredder who looks like one of the former guitarists for Bonded By Blood, the short one who never smiled. Hell, for all I know it's the same guy, Legion's Facebook profile doesn't list the name of their newest member. [EDIT: I recently found out the dude's name is John.]<br /><br />I was more impressed with their playing than I was last time, as they have gotten tighter and faster, leaving out some of those breakdowns that raised so many eyebrows in favor of more "traditional" mid-paced sections. That or they have a rotation system on their set list to cater to particular crowds, either way it really works. Vocalist/guitarist Drew played fewer leads than last time, limiting himself to tunes which required trade-offs or multiple solos. Their new guitarist John, bearer of the lion's share of the lead work, pulled out a decent selection of tasteful shred solos, notable for Hammett-esque wah-pedal manipulation.<br /><br />The highlight of the show was their well-known cover of Slayer's legendary "Angel of Death," to which the audience responded with loud enthusiasm. The best part of this performance, though, was watching from the side of the stage as drummer Brian dropped one of his sticks right before that famous initial scream. Having to go into that section with only his snare-hand going, he looked confused for a second and then looked at us off to the side for help. My initial thought was "Well, grab your spare, dude!" before seeing that he had no spares available. Yikes. I actually turned to go grab one of my sticks for him, trying to remember what size he played and hoping it wasn't something like super-light 5A that would contrast heavily with my own thicker 5Bs, but one of Warbeast's crew beat me to the punch and had a stick in Brian's hand before I could take a step.<br /><br />Even better: dude dropped a stick <span style="font-style: italic;">again</span> before the song was over! Not that I'm ever one to make light of another musician's faults, it's just one of those things I'm able to laugh at because I've been there myself. Talking to him after their set, he expressed dismay at his slippery grip, as he had been playing a whole string of shows lately without ever dropping wood, and then it happened twice tonight. I knew exactly how he felt; just a month ago at the Music Vault I was having a frustrating time dealing with my own sudden onset of butter fingers. Just one of them inexplicable freak flukes that comes with being a musician.<br /><br />Oh, and as if me talking about it wasn't bad enough, here's a video of that very song, thanks to Victor "Montopolis Thrasher"!<br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/A6MAEDMtFmQ" allowfullscreen="" width="400" frameborder="0" height="255"></iframe><br /><br /><b>WARBEAST</b><br />After loading the guitar gear up and saying goodbye to JT and Tarzan, Tony and I went back into the Dirty Dog to catch the evening's most anticipated band in action: Warbeast, a crushing super-group comprised of Texas metal veterans from such acts as Gammacide and Rigor Mortis. So no, this is not "TEXAS FUCKIN' METAL," that abomination of a phrase I hear shouted out at too many Killeen shows that makes me want to tear out my eyelashes in shame, used in reference to acts like Hellyeah and Texas Hippie Coalition (or just anything with an overly strong Pantera influence). This is some truly heavy headbanging material, played through ginormous amps which, even without the assistance of the P.A., had this music rumbling in my tummy and pulsing in my brain.<br /><br />I've never listened to Rigor Mortis and am not a big fan of Gammacide, but I really dug this act. The tunes were quite catchy and expertly played, singer Bruce Corbitt strode all over the stage (as a vocalist with no instrument should) and struck a variety of picture-worthy stances while screaming into his mic, and the drumming was tight yet frenzied, with a huge emphasis on "linear" fills involving interplay between the toms and kick drums. Best part were the guitar solos, though. Each guitarist put in an equal share of leads, all of which were lengthy and well-developed, with a lot of wah pedal use and even some much-appreciated whammy-bar abuse. A huge hit with the audience, which filled the whole dance floor with headbangers and moshers, definitely an act I would consider seeing again, after taking some time to become more familiar with their music and the work of their "original" bands.<br /><br />This, the only video I could find of tonight's performance, doesn't really capture the immensity of the band's sound, but you can really get a feel for how the crowd reacts to them.<br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x47i07BnSk4" allowfullscreen="" width="400" frameborder="0" height="330"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">"Tonight, Hexlust! ...Hexlust, right?" I un-sarcastically loved that. </span><br /><br /><b>BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA</b><br />We didn't stick around for the entirety of Blunt Force Trauma's set. Tony and I were both pretty tuckered out by this point, ready to load up our gear and get out of Austin, so he left to get his truck while I stuck around to catch a couple songs. Very impressive straight-up thrash, with a large lyrical emphasis on social and political issues, backed by hands down my favorite drummer of the whole evening. This man played high-speed beats and fills with an assured ease, and though he possessed a double pedal, he demonstrated an ability to pull off many double-kick patterns with just one foot. My only regret of this evening is that I didn't take more time to say hi and talk to him, maybe dissect his brain for some useful advice, but these guys got to the venue kinda late, and I didn't want to interrupt his process of setting up his kit and warming up. Hopefully we get another opportunity to play with these guys.<br /><br />It's a shame that they didn't have more of an audience. A goodly-sized chunk of the crowd left after Warbeast, who undoubtedly were the true headliners of the evening, relegating BFT to being more of a "cool-down" act to entertain their own fans and those of the audience who didn't feel like leaving yet. As this video of this evening's performance demonstrates, they are a truly relentless band, hardly taking a break between songs and keeping their momentum going for long periods of time.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HDifCJrvWkc" allowfullscreen="" width="400" frameborder="0" height="255"></iframe><br /><br /><b>POST-SHOW</b><br />As if trying to load into any club in downtown Austin isn't annoying enough, matters get further complicated as later in the evening Sixth Street is closed off from those parallel to it, turning traffic into one long line with no hope of cutting in or out. When loading the amps and guitars into Tarzan's Jeep, he was able to park on Fifth Street and we simply took a couple trips to wheel the shit down the block, no problem. For the drums, however, we wanted to be as close to the venue as possible. Thankfully Tony found a way into the back alley we used at load-in, which was also being used by Legion's vehicles.<br /><br />The process was going smooth until some meathead showed up and chastised us for our parking situation, doling out a "hey, you guys can't park back here!" Rather than argue that we were given permission to use the alley, or tell him that he was more than welcome to gripe as long as he was willing to help lug this shit back to a distant lot (and pitch in eight dollars for the parking fee), we simply told him we were working as efficiently as we could and focused on our task at hand. Between the two of us we had everything strapped in and were taking off just as his vehicle pulled back into the alley.<br /><br />He didn't announce any affiliation with any club or seem to have any official authority at all. Not that it mattered; if this guy really was a designated enforcer rather than just some douche who wanted to use the alley as his own through-way, then it just adds to my belief that this lauded entertainment district in the "live music capital" actually hates musicians. Get your shit together, Austin; things like this are the reason my buttcheeks clench when we get booked in your city, whereas I sport a big goofy grin when we get a gig in San Antonio.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AFTERTHOUGHTS</span><br />Thanks to: Tristan Spears, who set up a great show, was super-friendly, and did his best to scrounge up whatever money he could to pay us; Jeff and Erika, for not only the constant support but also the willingness to hold extended conversations with us and make us feel cool; Victor, sans Tony this evening for the first time that I've seen, for always being around and always documenting shows. Many of the videos I post in this blog are from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/montopolisthrasher">his YouTube channel</a>, go check it out for more awesome videos!Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-49927242852373583692011-08-01T20:15:00.000-07:002011-08-17T18:09:07.819-07:00PROGRESS!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2IF7rxAAq-I/Tji9Y-zmpnI/AAAAAAAAASY/0suxYd9DOWY/s1600/PROGRESS.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 298px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2IF7rxAAq-I/Tji9Y-zmpnI/AAAAAAAAASY/0suxYd9DOWY/s400/PROGRESS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636463170528126578" border="0" /></a>
<br />The month of August begins with all drum and bass tracks and half of Tony's rhythm guitar tracks completed for Hexlust's first album. There were a couple casualties along the way, the most obvious being "Sodomy and Lust." Though it was decided beforehand that we would lay down both our Sodom covers as bonus tracks or possible compilation material, I was so focused on rehearsing our originals that I put absolutely zero practice into "S&L". The result was a take so sloppy that we decided to just scrap the song entirely. Interestingly, it wasn't so horrible that Tarzan couldn't lay down a bass track.
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<br />Not long after this photo was taken, we also lost "Agent Orange" to accidental deletion. Not that I care too much, it was just an extra cover, nothing worth dragging my whole kit all the way back up to Temple (thank the gods). My only heartache comes from the fact that I put <span style="font-style: italic;">so many takes </span>into "Agent Orange," the most for any song in these sessions, which admittedly is due to my own lack of preparedness for these covers, but <span style="font-style: italic;">still! </span>Just about all of my fourth and final recording session was devoted to laying down both of those covers, and the fact that they're gone for good makes that whole day feel like so much dead effort. Thankfully I still had time to do a re-take of "FBF," as I wasn't satisfied with what I had laid down during my first session.
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<br />I was there for the recording of a few of Tarzan's bass tracks: smooth, fluid, and with an awesome tone! Walter set it up to where Tarzan's effects pedal/pre-amp thingy (I don't know things good...) was plugged directly into the computer, and also had a microphone positioned in front of his amp. The pedal result was like miking a bass drum's batter head, with a very "attack-based" sound, more high-end, where you could actually hear his fingers plucking the strings; the amp sound brought out the qualities of miking the resonant head, pure low-end "boom." By combining the two sources into one result, we got a bass sound that was sharp, yet punchy, able to be heard through the guitars while still providing the deep bulk for their frequencies.
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<br />Due to work schedules and Tarzan moving to San Antonio, nobody has been able to shoot footage of Tony as he lays down his guitar parts, so I'll try to get in there with him sometime soon to capture some of the action. While I'm at it I'll probably have Walter demonstrate Tarzan's bass sound, with the two parts separated and then together, which hopefully translates to the camera well. Speaking of which, I should have Tony post his footage of Tarzan's sessions to Facebook so I can slap it on this blog.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-55785237371386072222011-07-28T19:32:00.000-07:002011-08-17T18:10:15.246-07:00Hexhibition BoutVideos from the second day of drum recording, Friday July 8, 2011.
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<br />Flubbed take of "They Conjure," one of the more interesting tracks I play. Drumming-wise, it is a fairly straightforward song book-ended by:
<br /><ul><li>A two-part intro, part one consisting of triplet double-bassing and part two having an odd time signature (0:00 to 0:44)</li><li>An outro featuring some of the busiest, most fill-happy drumming I do in our set. It would have been captured in this video but I didn't make it that far before I messed up.
<br /></li></ul>The fact that the latter involves so much "heavy lifting" for me is the main reason I spend most of the tune keeping a steady kick-snare-kick-snare thrash beat, with a few flourishes here and there. Things pick up with the double-bass section after the first chorus, but it never really gets more intense than that. That way I store up enough energy to really slam into the long fills I do at the start of the outro.
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<br />Right at the start of the up-tempo middle section of "Baphomet Dawn." This was obviously one of the unrecorded "dry runs" we do to warm up on a tune before actually setting it in stone; otherwise Walter surely wouldn't be playing Chess and would be doing actual engineering. (Right? <span style="font-style: italic;">Right???</span>) As you can see, we had been at this for a while by now and cameraman Tarzan was pretty bored. Not that he's a particularly... "focused" cameraman all the time; he shot most of the videos I've posted so far, and you can see it's pretty hard for him not to make his short attention span evident. We say nothing about it because it almost always produces amusing results.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-73867609509421315942011-07-17T12:46:00.000-07:002011-08-17T18:11:03.812-07:00The Loss and Curse of HexcellenceVideos from Hexlust's studio work, laying down drum tracks. All three took place on the first session, Wednesday, July 6, 2011.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Studio tour</span>
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<br />Recording drum tracks (and everything else) for Hexlust's as-yet-untitled debut full-length took place in a sort of loft office over an old auto garage. Every day we recorded we get to the garage in the afternoon, with temperatures inside peaking at 110 F. The studio room itself was the only place in the joint that had precious air conditioning and a ceiling fan, both of which had to be turned off so as not to have the noise bleeding into the mics. The irony was not lost on us.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Competence</span>
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<br />Of the nine songs to be included on this album, eight of them were recorded with Tony laying down a "scratch" guitar track along with my "official" drum tracks. What he would do was plug directly into the computer through an effects processor and have the sound sent out to us through our headphones, so as not to have amp noise bleed into my drum mics. The only tune I recorded with Tarzan playing along was "Meganecropolis," which was written, and therefore easier to follow, on bass. This was a pretty solid run of "Fucked By Fire," interrupted by a pesky stick flying right out of my hand.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mercyful Banjo</span>
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<br />As usual, we in Hexlust offset our devotion to efficiency and diligence with a horrifying penchant for buffoonery. Here, Tony attempts to play the beginning lead part from Mercyful Fate's "Into the Coven" (<span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>"Duelling Banjos") on a four-string banjo (with one string broken) that was among the wall of guitars in the studio room. Fun fact: Tarzan cut the video right after Tony demonstrates the "typical" black metal riff. What you folks miss out on is Tony following that up with Averse Sefira-style dissonant chords, which sound oddly awesome on that instrument.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-65091350274891106472011-07-16T20:17:00.000-07:002011-08-28T20:03:32.150-07:00A Night of Surprises at the Music Vault<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DoB71gb8Ve8/ThkZ9OX77CI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/8Zd8Wq_xTJw/s1600/2011-07-16.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 173px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DoB71gb8Ve8/ThkZ9OX77CI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/8Zd8Wq_xTJw/s320/2011-07-16.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627557748997352482" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Saturday, July 16, 2011
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Music Vault, Killeen TX
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> The Final Burial (didnt play), Of Ruins (didnt play), Hexlust
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<br /><b>PRE-SHOW/OPENING BAND</b>
<br />Notice something about the band listing up there? Yeah, SURPRISE, two bands dropped out at the last minute. To their credit, Of Ruins let us know that they were having van troubles and wouldn't be able to make it. The Final Burial... well, no one's sure what happened to those guys. I think they were on tour with Of Ruins, so maybe van trouble for one meant van trouble for the other. Anyway, this brings me to a valuable lesson for bands: exchange phone numbers if you get an opportunity!
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<br />See, Randy from Of Ruins (and formerly of A Devoured Deception) had sent me a message on Facebook that day asking me if the show was still on for that evening. I told him that as far as I knew, yes it was, that the Music Vault are fantastic about not just quietly canceling gigs out of nowhere. It then dawned on me, for a fleeting second, to give the guy my number and tell him to shoot me a text if any problems came up. Then came the thought "Balderdash, all he needed was reassurance, I'm sure everything will be ok!"
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<br />Yeah.
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<br />So of course I'm feeling like a jackass come nine o'clock, when it's just Hexlust at the Vault with some other band who I guess were added at the last minute (and whose name, unfortunately, escapes me). I called my roommate and asked her to check my Facebook for me, and sure enough there was the message letting us know of the vehicular issues. To this day I'm kicking myself for having not given the guy my digits, it would have saved us and the Vault staff an hour of confusion.
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<br />It was then decided that this other band would go on at ten, and we would follow at eleven. I think the Vault wanted to stretch this gig out for as long as possible, and also to see if more people would show up in the meantime. Compared to the usual crowd we play to, there was hardly anybody there: a couple guys I had never seen before, a few bar regulars, a handful of friends of ours, but that was about it. I felt a little guilty; we didn't have time to promote as strongly as we usually do since we had just been added on to this bill a week before, and at that time we were still in the midst of laying down my drum tracks for our recording and preparing for the Headhunters show two days ago. Also, again owing to the last-minute nature of the gig, our usual group of strong supporters (including my parents and all their friends) already had plans for the evening.
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<br />Gotta say, that first band went on like professionals. I don't think I ever once heard them complain about the circumstances of the show, and, watching them from the backstage area as I warmed up, I saw them headbanging, smiling, and having fun. They were a "-core" type group comprised of two guitarists, a bassist, keyboardist, drummer, and a female vocalist. Thankfully, this chick wasn't an annoying Iwrestledabearonce clone; she kept her vocals clean, without being too Amy Lee about it. In fact, they were often very bouncy and whimsical, reminding me of the singer from Morningwood. Kudos to them.
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<br /><b>HEXLUST</b>
<br />Once again, we were without the git-box services of Mr JT Bass, since he insists on devoting himself to such trifling fancies as education and employment. On this, our third outing as a trio, we were better than we were at Headhunters, tighter and more energized, without the emotional burdens of equipment issues. What helped immensely was the crowd; though only consisting of like fifteen people (including the opening band), they were actually <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> responsive and had a lot of fun thrashing along with us! These folks headbanged to every song, sang along to our catchier choruses, busted out some rave-style chem lights, and even played along when Tony implored them to do the "Candlemass stomp" during the slower parts of "Baphomet Dawn."
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<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:78%;">"Candlemass stomp" at 5:50</span>
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<br />Taking advantage of our headlining status (and the fact that it was still <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>early) we pulled out all the stops in our setlist, bringing back "Hellhammer" and doing a double encore of "Agent Orange" and "Troops of Doom." If JT had been here, I'm sure we would have also thrown in "Toxic High," although "Imminent Retardation" would have stayed off the set as we haven't rehearsed it in a good while. Even as it was, though, tonight has got to be the most songs we've performed at one time since possibly 2008! I didn't even know we had such stamina and was pleasantly surprised.
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<br />In spite of the gloriously lengthy set, the lively crowd, and the invigorated playing of my bandmates, I was having a rather embarrassing evening as I could not for the life of me keep a stick in my right hand. I'm almost positive I set a pesonal all-time record, dropping a face-palming total of five. The exact reason eludes me, as I was perfectly warmed up, experienced no tightness or muscle pain throughout our performance, and actually haven't dropped a stick at a show in a while. I guess if I had to blame it on anything, it would be that I set my kit up with everything in a little closer than usual, since on more than one occasion I came out of a fill on the floor tom to unexpectedly smack the underside of the ride cymbal. I play with a pretty relaxed grip so's to avoid horrifying joint problems, so things like that take the stick out of my hand every time.
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<br /><b>Set List:</b>
<br />Intro
<br />FBF
<br />Hellhammer
<br />Conjure
<br />Baphomet
<br />Meganecropolis
<br />Tombs
<br />Encore 1: Agent Orange
<br />Encore 2: Troops of Doom
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<br /><b>POST-SHOW</b>
<br />Our limited crowd may have been the most fun audience we've played to in a while, but that didn't erase the fact that there was still hardly any of 'em. After tallying up the door money and paying the sound tech, the Music Vault had no money for the bands, and we ourselves sold zero T-shirts. This makes the second show in a row from which we brought in no dough, which wouldn't be as disheartening if not for the fact that we have costly studio time coming up. Hopefully our next gig, which at this point is at the Dirty Dog in Austin, will yield a more substantial (read: <span style="font-style: italic;">any</span>) profit.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CLOSING THOUGHTS</span>
<br />Thanks again to the Music Vault, for once again providing us a local venue in which to play fast music and act like dorks under bright likes for forty minutes or more. Particular thanks to B Rich and Pete, for always being fair, professional, and best of all supportive. [Edit from the future] Not long after this show, the Music Vault announced it would be closing down, I guess due to all the not-populated shows lately. Which makes me wonder: were we the gig that broke the camel's back? Anyhow, they have since decided to simply re-model the place as a dance club with live music on Fridays. So far it seems to be very successful, with a full house on their special "theme" nights, so Hexlust may in fact still have a quality place to play in the future! Until next time!
<br />Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-53319582350794910992011-07-14T20:15:00.000-07:002011-08-28T19:31:14.898-07:00Omelette Table<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-swPYe4wL8m0/ThkZy3PJ4lI/AAAAAAAAAQw/Ci7KR8ytPVc/s1600/2011-07-14.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 207px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-swPYe4wL8m0/ThkZy3PJ4lI/AAAAAAAAAQw/Ci7KR8ytPVc/s320/2011-07-14.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627557570987811410" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Thursday, July 14, 2011
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Headhunters, Austin TX
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Trench Wrench, Feral Rex, Hexlust, Humut Tabal
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PRE-SHOW</span>
<br />I love surprises. One time while I was at work, my dad took my car using his copy of my key, had some repair done that it needed, filled up the tank, and had the interior cleaned. He also turned down the dial that controls how bright my headlights and display lights are, and deposited the car back in the parking lot, one row back and two spots over. All without even letting me know he was going to take the car in the first place. I had never felt more fucked with. SURPRISE!
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<br />So we get to Headhunters and SURPRISE, there's an imminent cluster-fuck going on in the lineup. Apparently one of the opening bands had dropped out due to their drummer breaking his arm, but he ended up saying fuggit and deciding to play the show anyway. In the meantime, a Facebook post went up asking if any band could fill in; according to Humut Tabal members, one band just showed up without confirming, leading to some confusion when it turned out the original band was playing after all. Complicating matters further, later word came that somebody in charge of the show had offered the opening slot to a <span style="font-style: italic;">whole 'nother band,</span> who I think also showed up. I'm not sure if that actually happened, or who went about fixing this mess; all I know is that after a tense, confused hour, the club finally put up a list of bands on their front door:
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SOME BAND? / TRENCH WRENCH / FERAL REX</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>
<br />The chalkboard in that picture up there says the band Terror Eyes went on first, but according to the <a href="http://humuttabal.blogspot.com/2011/07/baphomet-dawn.html">blog post</a> of Humut Tabal's Prokingu, the first act to take the stage was actually Parasitic Reign. I'm not sure who they were, all I know is that they played a Pantera cover. We in Hexlust spent the majority of their and Trench Wrench's sets in either the pizza parlor next door, talking to members of Humut Tabal, or on the outside back patio area chatting it up with Jeff A.D. When I was in the club proper during Trench Wrench's performance, I saw that they had quite a decent-sized crowd even at this early point in the evening. I had never heard of them before this show but apparently Austin metalheads have been shown a good time by this band on prior occasions.
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<br />Feral Rex's set was spent running gear into the club from the parking lot across the street, assisted by the ever-supportive Michael B. I had wanted to set up my drumkit stands in the little area by the front door, but the drummer from one of the previous bands had just left his gear there instead of breaking it down (thanks buddy) so I ended up doing that in front of the sound booth, right up against the back of the audience. Thankfully, though the crowd was sizable, they weren't particularly rowdy, so I was able to set things up in peace.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HEXLUST
<br /></span><span>Well folks, we had to play as a three-piece this evening. After our <a href="http://hallofhexcellence.blogspot.com/2010/05/night-of-hex-trio_01.html">performance as a trio</a> last year, we've been trying to avoid having to do it again due to how awkward it feels, but JT's academic commitments forced us to become the Hex-Trio once again. The good news is that since JT's been living in San Antonio for almost a year now and therefore not able to make as many practices, we've since gotten more comfortable playing without him in terms of stage presence and song structuring.
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<br />Not that this was an evening without its setbacks. Right off the bat as we were setting up, Tony discovered some frustrating amp issues, made all the more aggravating for him by the fact that he had just that week shelled out good money to have his amp head fixed. He was still able to play, but the frustration brought out a side of his personality which rarely emerges but always leaves me with mixed feelings. Sure he was loud, confident, and energized, but he was also cynical and a little derisive toward the audience, at one point openly mocking them after a weak cheer. Thankfully nobody seemed offended and everyone still had a good time. Guess that's the great thing about extreme metal audiences; you have people like George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher telling the crowd he's gonna rip off their heads and shit down their throats, and folks'll just be like "Yeah! SHIT DOWN OUR THROATS!"
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<br />Tarzan also admitted to having issues with his own playing, with a few notes missed and some parts just messed up entirely. He offered that he was just having an off night, though, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little more diligent practice. I myself spent our set struggling with my hi-hat stand. For some reason the little bastard kept sliding away from me, often being beyond my reach by the mid-point of a song. After "Baphomet Dawn," I grabbed Tarzan's bass case and braced it against the hat stand. Since the case was empty it didn't do a perfect job, but it at least kept the cymbals within my reach for a whole tune.
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<br />Beyond those issues, however, we had ourselves a good set, one which came with a little surprise for the audience. After "Meganecropolis," Tony called Prokingu onto the stage to provide vocals for "Troops of Doom," a song we use as a warm-up at almost every rehearsal but haven't performed live in I can't remember <span style="font-style: italic;">how</span> long. A little bit of awkwardness preceded the song, though, as we had worked out everything about Prokingu's participation except how to announce "Troops." See, when he gets into stage mode, he prefers to keep human interaction to a minimum, barely speaking at all. So he gets onstage and just fucking <span style="font-style: italic;">stands there, </span>and of course we're just <span style="font-style: italic;">standing there,</span> listening to crickets chirp. Finally, Tony grabbed the mic and announced the song, and we ripped into that Sepultura favorite full speed ahead, an absolutely ripping performance that had the audience headbanging and fist-pumping (<span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> like champs!)
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<br />We finished up with "Tombs" and called it a night. Or so we thought. The audience weren't ready to let us go yet, and called for one more song. An awkward situation we've experienced before. On one hand, YAY they think we're cool! One the other, we're not the headlining act, there's still a whole 'nother band set to go onstage after us, and the last thing we want to do is be that dick band that eats into everyone else's set time by playing an encore. The sound guy assured us that we had time, though, so we gave the crowd what they wanted: a toxic dose of Agent Orange! The performance almost killed me, I had forgotten to bring water on stage and was going through the whole set with just one swig from Tony's bottle, but it was well worth it to hear those cheers.</span>
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<br /><i><u>Favorite audience interaction</u>
<br />Jeff AD: "Play someone else's songs!"
<br />Tony: "Whoa, sounds like somebody's a fan of the new Morbid Angel album!"</i></span>
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<br /><b>Set List:</b>
<br />Intro
<br />FBF
<br />Conjure
<br />Baphomet
<br />Mega
<br />Troops
<br />Tombs
<br />Encore: Agent Orange
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<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">HUMUT TABAL</span>
<br />Through some miracle of metal science, we had all our stuff packed up and squared away in our vehicles in time to catch the majority of Humut Tabal's set. Mystical black metal which I'll take a stab and say is influenced by a mixture of high-concept black metal, such as Emperor and Averse Sefira, and thrashier BM like Absu and early-to-mid Immortal. Drummer Njord is an off-the-wall ball of energy, constantly blasting away on his hats or pulling off some long fill on his many toms. Although I had jammed with Prokingu before in a different musical context, this evening was when I really got to see what an able bassist he is, able to hold a steady under-rhythm at such high speeds while occasionally throwing in a fitting fill. Hravan and vocalist Grimzaar have excellent guitar chemistry, with many harmonized parts. I just wish Hravan would play more solos, I don't know how one could have a guitar that awesome and not rip out some leads.
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<br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W2O02scqRUs/TkshHQW1iiI/AAAAAAAAASo/KnDZSSEmX2s/s1600/hravan.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W2O02scqRUs/TkshHQW1iiI/AAAAAAAAASo/KnDZSSEmX2s/s320/hravan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641639366745229858" border="0" /></a>In the midst of this fantastic performance, a point of awkwardness arose in the form of an enthusiastic audience member. This large, bearded man heckled the Humut Tabal guys between songs, with such utterances as "Play some FUCKING EVIL SHIT, goddammit!" Sure, in retrospect we can all easily say he was doing it affectionately, but at the time nobody was really sure if the dude was seriously getting pissed or not, and I could see it made the band members a little uncomfortable.
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<br />By their set's end, it was almost two in the morning, and the Humut Tabal guys were ready to pack it in. The audience, however, had been served a scrumptious helping of metal-thrashing evil and wanted them some dessert, bombarding the band with requests for one more tune. The guys were initially resistant, none more so than Njord, who looked like he didn't feel well. I know from experience that when the drummer doesn't feel up to it, the band should just quit while they're ahead. I also know from experience that that sentiment is utter horseshit, and we should just pick up our sticks and man up, because these fine people want more and deep down we really do want them to go home happy. Oh, and <i>fuck you, drummer, that's why!</i> Sure enough, Humut Tabal turned their amps back on and blasted the audience with "Misanthrope ov the Barren Waste," which the crowd received with many cheers and much headbangery. Joke was on them, however; that song is like two minutes long.
<br />
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><u>Favorite audience interaction</u>
<br />Audience member: "Play one more song!"
<br />Hravan: "No."</span>
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">POST-SHOW</span>
<br /><span>After lending a hand in taking Njord's drum kit apart, I joined my bandmates in saying goodbye to our friends and hitting that dusty trail. No T-shirts were sold tonight, but I think at this point people are more excited about the full-length we just started recording (drum tracks finished earlier this week!) than anything else. </span>Tarzan goes in to start plugging his bass tracks this coming week, and until then we have another show at the Music Vault on Saturday with San Antonio friends Of Ruins. Although we'll be a trio again, it'll be great to show off our new tunes for our family and friends, and hopefully sell some shirts to help pay for studio time.
<br />Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-1856272157264501262011-06-25T20:10:00.000-07:002014-12-18T05:26:30.573-08:00Dehydration<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gBSVVlz34cw/ThkY1iyxEjI/AAAAAAAAAQo/qmVS3u7gTUM/s1600/2011-06-25.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gBSVVlz34cw/ThkY1iyxEjI/AAAAAAAAAQo/qmVS3u7gTUM/s320/2011-06-25.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627556517528015410" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 239px;" /></a>
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Saturday, June 25, 2011
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Ten Eleven, San Antonio TX
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Aggravator, Hexlust, Machinage, Death Rites 666, Hod
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">PRE-SHO</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span>
<br />
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.
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<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">AGGRAVATOR</span>
<br />
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.
<br />
<br />
"Sacred Disease" and "Power Surge," with its "Agent Orange"/"In My Darkest Hour"-ish intro, are by far my favorite Aggravator songs.
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="286" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sF1pBCW6mYA" width="450"></iframe>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">HEXLUST</span>
<br />
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.
<br />
<br />
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 <span style="font-style: italic;">best</span> set yet, with particular attention paid to our mid-set melding of "They Conjure" into "Baphomet Dawn."
<br />
<br />
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!
<br />
<br />
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.
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<br />
<b>Set list:</b>
<br />
Intro
<br />
FBF
<br />
Conjure
<br />
Baphomet
<br />
Mega
<br />
Tombs
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">MACHINAGE/DEATH RITES 666/HOD</span>
<br />
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.
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<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="286" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dHkk0GPrOIA" width="450"></iframe>
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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.
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6nMlaw0gxpA" width="450"></iframe>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">MORE MACHINAGE / POST-SHOW</span>
<br />
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.
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<br />
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!Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-65942497626363615302011-05-21T23:48:00.000-07:002011-08-28T21:08:33.515-07:00Divergence<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RavIK3ZIIjY/Tex4o-OxxlI/AAAAAAAAAPI/zWqj0SlItrc/s1600/2011-05-21.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RavIK3ZIIjY/Tex4o-OxxlI/AAAAAAAAAPI/zWqj0SlItrc/s400/2011-05-21.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5614995480719246930" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">
<br />Date:</span> Saturday, May 21, 2011
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> Mineshaft Saloon, San Antonio TX
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Hexlust, Exculterate, PLF, Hod
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PRE-SHOW</span>
<br />In our previous outing at the Mineshaft Saloon, we arrived at the venue to find a full parking lot and a still-populated attached restaurant. The former wasn't too bad, we just had to pull up to the front, drop gear off, and then park much further away then we're entirely comfortable with our vehicles being. The latter, however, pushed the show's start time back drastically, cutting into everyone's set times and resulting in The Oath only playing like four songs. When we were asked to play at the Mineshaft again, we were understandably apprehensive, as rushing onstage to play a reduced set at an unpredictable time (for no pay)<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>is nobody's idea of self-shitting fun. However, we're always down to play with Hod, and we were all excited to see P.L.F., so we agreed.
<br />
<br />Steeling our nerves, we pulled into the Mineshaft parking lot to find it... empty. We parked right up front, just across from the entrance, and took a look around. Nobody who was actually a part of the show seemed to have arrived yet, and the restaurant itself was sparsely populated. Guess it was a slow Saturday night. Fantastic! One of the guys from Exulcerate arrived soon after, who I guess was providing the sound equipment for this evening, so we were given the green light to load onto the stage.
<br />
<br />Frustration from the get-go on Tony's behalf; the positioning of his amp put him out of range of any kind of electrical plug-in, potentially setting us to shuffling the whole stage setup around just so he could get some power. Or we have him just act as a stand-alone vocalist while JT handles all the guitar parts, which I would find amusing but didn't want to put past him at the time. Thankfully, an extender was found that Tony could plug into, but even that was kind of stretched, so Jake was asked to take up a post by the plug to make sure no stray moshers knocked it out.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HEXLUST</span>
<br />Remember how, one sentence ago, I hinted at the possibility that some overly zealous moshers might cause problems for us? Well, I may have been overestimating the audience situation quite a bit. The reality was that we had a rather small and subdued group of attendees this evening, even with our regular supporters of Tony R, Victor, Hellpreacher Johnny, Derek from Aggravator, and Jake. This could really just be chalked up to the fact that we were the very first act of the evening, and this show would have still been a winner if everything else had gone well.
<br />
<br />Unfortunately, there was frustration coming from two sources: Tarzan's vocals and my drumming. Tarzan's vocalizing itself was just fine, but his mic was low, or cutting off altogether. We went through both his verses in "They Conjure" and his middle verse in "Baphomet Dawn" barely able to hear him at all. We were premiering "Meganecropolis" this evening (bringing us to a set list comprised of 50% new material) and Tarzan not only wrote that tune, but has yet another stand-alone verse, so having his vocals in the mix was imperative for the big debut. Unfortunately, the sound guy's diagnosis was that the mic may be non-functioning altogether. Severely frustrated, we went into "Meganecropolis" anyway, and thankfully the issue was all fixed by Tarzan's verse, his vocals cutting through very well.
<br />
<br />Now, when I cite my drums as a source of frustration, I'm not actually admitting to having a problem. Our performance this evening is hotly contested amongst the members of Hexlust in that everyone else insists that my playing was quite under par, whereas I feel I put in a solid performance. Not a single <span style="font-style: italic;">one</span> of the hornets' nest of issues I was having at our last show popped up; I dropped no sticks, had absolutely no pedal issues, my drums stayed upright, and my hands remained splinter-free. Additionally, I had put in some practice in the month since to ensure that I could more comfortably perform my fills on a once-again-downsized drum kit.
<br />
<br />Talking to the other guys, however, one gets the impression that I abandoned all sense of rhythm and cohesion as, I dunno, some kind of sick joke, trying to lead them through some of our most technical and dynamic material with monkey-screaming fuckery. It's all very vague, though, no one can seem to give me any specifics beyond my having "played a fill for half a beat too long in one song."
<br />
<br />It was all very headache-inducing, and the worst part was trying to figure out who to believe. I know myself and my abilities better than anybody, but I also have complete trust in my bandmates in terms of assessing my work. If all three of them found my performance lacking while I insist it was solid, where does the truth really lie? Could I have been blinding myself and overestimating my abilities, or were they venting their frustrations with the subdued audience and technical difficulties onto me? There was no video footage shot for the show, and audience members, while admitting that this wasn't our tightest outing, provided no headway in the direction of solving our argument. As I write this a week later, all I can say for sure is that we have agreed this gig is a non-winner, shall continue to practice and improve, and look forward to our next chance to prove ourselves, to our audience and to each other.
<br />
<br /><b>Set List:</b>
<br />Intro
<br />FBF
<br />Conjure
<br />Baphomet
<br />Mega
<br />Tombs
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">EXULCERATE</span>
<br />Exulcerate are the very models of airtight musicianship in technical death metal, with their Immolation-inspired riffs and melodies, off-the-wall drumming, and their bassist/vocalist who growls out the lyrics while alternating between traditional finger-picking and percussive slap-popping. Unfortunately, their brand of death metal doesn't hold my attention for very long. While I did spend a few songs admiring the drummer, I eventually found myself in a conversation with Hod's Trans Am (that's his name, he's the bassist) about his enviable participation in the early 90s Florida death metal scene.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PLF</span>
<br />Back in the spring of 08 or so, Tony and I attended a death/grind show at Emo's in Austin. Among the evening's successes (headliners Kill the Client) and letdowns (some opening act whose guitarists soundchecked with amazing sweep-picking and whammy dives and then did <span style="font-style: italic;">absolutely none of that</span> in their actual set) were a high-energy duo from Houston called PLF (Pretty Little Flower). This is the band that stuck with me long after that show, my interest piqued by their oddly catchy tunes, unrestrained sense of humor, and crushingly thick sound achieved with just one guitar and a drummer.
<br />
<br />Fast-forward three years, and here we were opening for the act that came out of nowhere and showed me that yes, I did have it in me to genuinely appreciate a grind act. I would have liked to have stood and watched them, but my right knee had started to hurt, so I opted to guard the merch table while Tony and Tarzan went to watch the performance. Of course, since PLF had to be up on stage, I actually ended up watching over two tables. Good thing nobody bought anything, I had no idea how much anything cost and didn't even want to mess with their change box. The band itself was just as high-energy as the first time Tony and I saw them, and still had their unbelievably thick sound. The audience certainly dug them, throwing out plenty of loud cheers and slamming into the evening's first mosh pits.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HOD / CLOSING THOUGHTS</span>
<br />Hod took the stage as the all-obliterating final act of the evening, amazing me with not only their consistently high-quality black/death ass-kickery, but also their ability to fit all their equipment and all the members (except Beer) onto the Mineshaft Saloon's tiny stage. Their performance was on par with the last time we saw them, complete with Lord Necron's awesome whammy solos that make me want to punch the nearest waitress! (Out of sheer happiness, mind you.)
<br />
<br />The only disheartening aspect of Hod's set had nothing to do with the band itself, but with the size of the audience. Although they were headbanging, moshing, and cheering enthusiastically, there was no denying that even this late into the evening the attendance had only picked up to maybe double what it was when we played. A far cry from the packed house at our last Mineshaft gig, or even any typical Hod gig. There was, however, a pretty big show at Zombie's the night before featuring Wings of Abbadon, and another much-publicized show going on this very night in Austin for Evil United.
<br />
<br />With that in mind, it's safe to say that this evening's attendance owed more to attrition and competition than the drawing power of the show itself, which, considering it was also free, I thought would have folks crushed up against the <span style="font-style: italic;">walls</span>. Oh well, such is the seemingly random nature of live gigging, and ya know, those who did show seemed to have a good time, which is all that really matters in the end. Personally, as an audience member, I love attending less-populated gigs. The Triptykon show from last year is a perfect example; from a performer's perspective, the attendance at Emo's was a let-down, but for me, since I was solely there to watch, it was heaven. I got an up-close look at Mr Tom G Warrior himself (and the vision that is Vanja Slajh) and didnt have to worry about getting kicked in the head or crushed between sweaty drunks.<span style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></span>Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988878179630186776.post-26719404423553169262011-04-11T14:06:00.001-07:002011-08-28T21:09:06.854-07:00Opening for AxCx is Gay<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RLqbWrET1VA/TaNvODI-J_I/AAAAAAAAAO0/0C41OYB48tk/s1600/2011-04-10%2BII.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RLqbWrET1VA/TaNvODI-J_I/AAAAAAAAAO0/0C41OYB48tk/s400/2011-04-10%2BII.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594437449276073970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Date:</span> Sunday, April 10, 2011
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Venue:</span> The Korova, San Antonio TX
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill:</span> Plutonian Shore (didn't play), Scumacide, VBT, Hexlust, Hod, Anal Cunt
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PRE-SHOW</span>
<br />The notorious Anal Cunt (aka A.C. or AxCx) had re-formed and were touring again, taking their anti-music loaded with Seth Putnam's comically offensive lyrics across America. For the San Antonio stop, Aaron Goregrowler put together an opening package consisting of the loudest, craziest bands the scene had to offer, and Hexlust are proud to say that we were included in such an off-the-wall grouping.
<br />
<br />Unfortunately, upon arrival at the Korova, we found out that Plutonian Shore would in fact not be participating in this evening's festivities, due to some drama within the lineup or something. This was rather disappointing news, we were looking forward to playing and chilling with them after the good times we had at the King Diamond Benefit back in February. Well, hope they get everything sorted out soon!
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SCUMACIDE</span>
<br />After getting our gear set up and stored away, we sat ourselves down on one of the Korova's comfy couches with Jake and a couple of his friends to watch the opening acts. Scumacide were up first, a local grind act that have been around for at least as long as Hexlust have been playing shows (the only video of them on YouTube dates back to 2007). The lineup was intriguing in that it included no bassist and two luchador guitarists.
<br />
<br />To my ears the music was nothing too special, it was fast and it was heavy and it was occasionally slow. One of the guitarists did play solos, which will always earn any band some points in my book. After their last song, the vocalist pulled out a bicycle and rode out of the club, which I think would be <span style="font-style: italic;">awesome</span> if they worked that into the set itself! Like, have the band go into a long stinger at the end of the last song during which that guy hops on his bike and leaves the venue. Maybe he'd also be waving sparklers or something, I dunno.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">VBT</span>
<br />Bringing their highly death metal-influenced approach to grindcore (and one MASSIVE bass rig) to the stage next were Vaginal Bear Trap, a name I find oddly ambiguous. Is it a bear trap for the vagina, or a vagina with the qualities of a bear trap? Not that it mattered, VBT were entertaining, with witty between-song banter from guitarist/vocalist Shane and each song announced as a short burst of guttural throat noise. They were also quite dynamic, throwing many different tempos in their songs, which ranged in length from two minutes to even as long as six. One of them <span style="font-style: italic;">felt</span> like it was that long anyway. Either way, VBT put on a great show and should be checked out by anybody who likes some kick-ass grind with a humorous twist. A great place to start would be Jake's <a href="http://hallofhexcellence.blogspot.com/2011/04/opening-for-axcx-is-gay.html">interview</a> with them.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HEXLUST</span>
<br />The set started off optimistically, with a large crowd gathering before the stage as we went into our intro song. This was a major confidence-booster, because up to this point there hadn't been much of an audience, but then as we started playing most of the people who had been sitting down, talking near the bar, or standing outside came up to witness the 'Lust in action.
<br />
<br />Unfortunately, this was kind of a weird set for us, compared to the knock-down-drag-out WIN fest that was our last Korova gig. There weren't any blatant mistakes made, but I was having some very frustrating difficulties with my drum kit that my bandmates picked up on, which caused them to be more on their toes than a truly comfortable performance allows. Rather than go through each song and tell you what happened when, I'll just list the issues I came across, sometimes simultaneously.
<br /><ul><li>Floor tom falling over, grinding against my thigh during almost all of "Toxic High".
<br /></li><li>Pin slipping out of pedal again, much faster than usual.</li><li>Multiple dropped sticks.</li><li>Splinter in my left palm from picking up a stick by its frayed end. This was probably the most annoying problem, as it made playing very uncomfortable, but Tony, with his earplugs in, couldn't hear me yelling at him to hold off on announcing the next song so I could pull it out.</li><li>General discomfort of playing on a smaller kit and having to go against muscle memory to adjust fills accordingly. This gig was originally announced as taking place in the Korova's basement area, so I nixed the rotaries and smallest toms to reduce the crap I would have had to lug down and back up a staircase.</li></ul>JT was also having a difficult evening, going up against a particularly horrible case of sweaty hands that resulted in some sloppy playing, and also completely unplugging his guitar by stepping on his cable. The weirdest part of all, though, was the compliments we received. I mean, these weren't just half-assed "Hey, nice set man," that anybody could hear at any gig. These folks were telling us that this was the best set we've played yet! I was dumbfounded, but I guess it shows how hard we work to be prepared for difficulties so we can push through them and still deliver an entertaining performance.
<br />
<br /><b>Set List:</b>
<br />Intro
<br />FBF
<br />Toxic
<br />Conjure
<br />Baphomet
<br />Tombs
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HOD</span>
<br />Up to now, it was pretty much an acknowledged fact that if Hexlust opened up for Hod, then we would go on before them and miss most of the performance thanks to time spent putting gear away, talking about our performance, and just wanting to be out of the noise for a while. On this night, however, we managed to have our shit squared away and be back inside by the second or third song. Good thing, because this was one hell of a performance by a group of top-notch black/deathers.
<br />
<br />Hod played mostly new material, in fact I think the only song off the "Serpent" album was "Demoralizer." While I was very unfamiliar with the songs, they were easy to get a hold of and appreciate, much less meandering and more concise than their old material. Also, what did I say earlier was a good way to get positive points from me? GUITAR SOLOS, son! Not just any ol' leads either, Lord Necron made that whammy bar his bitch in a way that was blaring and chaotic, yet oddly tasteful, possibly due to how well it blended with riffs he chose to solo over.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">AxCx</span>
<br />After Hod closed out their set, and then played an encore at the vehement behest of the crowd (I think the tune was "Beneath the Mountain of Scorpions" but don't hold me to that), it was time for the legendary Anal Cunt to take the stage and for me to leave. This show took place on a Sunday night, during the school year, and Tarzan had a quiz the next morning. This affected me in the sense that he was my ride to San Antonio, and my drums are stored in his vehice. If he goes, I go, so back to Killeen we went.
<br />
<br />Accounts of A.C.'s performance varied madly. JT and Tony reported that it was a terrible set, so disappointing that they left after two songs. According to them, the sound was terrible, Seth looked like he was dying on his feet and just wasn't giving a good performance, constantly sampling the alcoholic beverages lined up in front of him. Jake, however, thought the show was amazing, the highlight of which was an oi! version of "Staying Alive." JT was so crushed that he promptly deleted all the A.C. he had off his computer; Jake bought a t-shirt from Seth himself and swore to wear it to a concert he'll be attending later in the week.
<br />
<br />I guess this is one of those rare instances in which, whether you loved the band or hated them, nobody's really surprised by the reaction.Dartanionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14169792207987228655noreply@blogger.com