Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009
Venue: The Warhol
Playing with: War Criminals, Hod, Witchaven, Exmortus, Bonded by Blood
PRE-SHOW/WAR CRIMINALS?
Back in San Antonio! Hells yeah son! Not only were we playing with our “older brothers” in Hod, but Exmortus were coming back into town! We had sharpened our skills considerably in the time since October, having spent time working on stage presence, song precision, and especially pre-show rituals, to include warming up. Of course, there was a lingering thought in my head that Exmortus wouldn’t even remember who we were and that our efforts were purely for personal vanity. After all, they’ve been on full tours. They’ve played in a few weeks the number of shows we’ve done in two years. Why would they remember us?
So we were standing outside waiting for the Warhol to open its doors. A familiar van came coasting down the road, and Balmore poked his head out and screamed “HEXLUST!!!” All doubts were now erased, and we were fully confident that this would be an awesome show.
Also, apparently War Criminals actually played this evening. I don’t remember that, but my memory’s faulty, and I found a blog entry from Bonded By Blood’s MySpace that said this band did in fact play. Wacky. Sorry guys, if you’re reading this, I do not remember hearing you.
HEXLUST
After spending some time in polite chit-chat with friends, it was time for us to take the stage. I had a slightly stripped-down version of my kit, absent of rotary toms or the second floor tom. For the first time, we tried putting the bass amp behind me. Due to space reasons, we kept Tony and JT’s amps more off to the side. By the bye, Hexlust were playing this show with updated ampage! Tarzan got a second half-stack; JT had a B-52 head atop a B-52 cab; and Tony embiggened his sound with a Peavey 5150 head atop a powerful Behringer cabinet. Unfortunately, in the midst of all this newness, JT wasn’t able to play with his spiffy new red Jackson guitar. It needed repairs, so it was dropped off at Heart of Texas in Temple and JT’s black Jackson was used.
Speaking of which, photos of this performance show Hexlust decked out in black all the way across. In terms of guitars, JT had his “Blackson,” Tony had his own Jackson, and Tarzan used the same black bass as always. And with clothes, only Tony’s light blue jeans stopped the “front line” of Hexlust from being garbed entirely in ebony. I was wearing a white puppy shirt, but I was hidden behind my BLACK DRUMS. Thankfully we were contrasted against the Warhol’s red walls. Speaking of photos, if you go to Tony Rivera’s MySpace profile, you will see the funniest pictures ever taken of us. Somehow this guy clicked the shutter right when Tony, JT, or Tarzan was making the most ridiculous face imaginable.
The performance itself went off with minimal hitchery. We used our now-standard Intro/Troops/Toxic/Hellhammer/Imminent Retardation/Tombs/Open Casket/Sodomy set list. By this point in our San Antonio visits, we had a pretty good crowd going (especially in comparison to the one line of people back on July 10th) and at least one decent mosh pit. The best part of the whole set, though, happened after Tombs ended. Tony asked whomever it concerns how much time we had left. Two fingers were given, which Tony interpreted to mean “two more minutes.” Now, in retrospect, even if that were the correct signal, any other band would probably say “Two minutes? We’re pretty much done.”
Hexlust, however, said “Two minutes? Let’s squeeze a five-minute song into that timeframe.” Thus began THE FASTEST RENDITION OF “OPEN CASKET” IN HEXLUST’S HISTORY. I have never double-bassed that fast while being that much on time in my whole drumming career. Even after the double-bass ended, we were running on high, turning even slow-paced riffs into jogged or power-walked parts. When all was said and done, I was badly in need of something to drink and ready to quit. Unfortunately, it turned out that the two-finger signal meant “two more songs.” Oh hahahaha, all that full-speed-ahead was for nothing. So, since we still had time for one more, we did “Sodomy and Lust.” ANOTHER five-minute song. I did my best to pace us more evenly on this one, saving all my remaining speed for the last verse and keeping my fills to a bare minimum. I call this my “Ringo Starr of Thrash” playing. Final stinger, bring it to an end, hip-hoorah, everyone shaddap and get me some water.
HOD
Hod have got to stop playing right after us, haha. I’m always in the midst of breaking down my drum kit and packing it away while they’re playing. Granted I could still hear the music, and the music was nothing less than impressive as always. I later overheard members of Exmortus talking about how awesome Hod were, and Balmore later announced a song as a tribute to Hod and their astounding masterdom.
WITCHAVEN
Tony described Witchaven as “fun.” When I think of fun, I think of Devin Townsend-style wackaloonery, which this band was not, so I remain befuddled by that adjective. This band was awesome indeed, though, lots of Morbid Angel-style whammy tricks in the guitar solos and very energetic drumming. Couldn’t tell you a thing about the bass and vocals, both were drowned out from where I was standing.
I bought one of their CD’s, which was actually a compilation of demos. Cool stuff, although it drives me bonkers since the production values shift every few songs. I’ll be jamming in my head with an awesome guitar tone and a nice powerful snare, next song is sub-tar guitar and terrible TONK-y snare. Overall, though, not a waste of money, and not a waste of time.
EXMORTUS
What is there to say, really? They were amazing yet again! Thankfully, this time it wasn’t an insult-to-injury thing; we had held up just fine with our own set and were watching these guys “tear it up” with our heads held high. As an added bonus, I actually knew some of the songs, thanks to having listened to a borrowed copy of their CD. “In Hatred’s Flame,” “Triumph By Fire,” and the instrumental shred-fest “Axes of War” sounded just like the recordings! No covers this time though, as they were not the headliners and had a bit of a time restriction.
Was it me, or did Balmore play less solos this time? He seemed to have assumed more of a strictly rhythm guitar status with occasional double-tapping fills. Not that there’s a damn thing wrong with that, but still, last time it seemed like the lead work was more shared. I forgot to bring this up to them. Also, with this show I saw something else Mario could do that I envied. Not enough that he can blast beat and double-bass hella fast, but he can also twirl sticks while playing! I should work on this.
BONDED BY BLOOD
Holy hell, lookit that spiffy equipment! The amps looked the control deck of a spaceship, so many lights and dials! The guitars had hella cool designs, and the drum kit was nothing to spit at. Unfortunately, by this point, I was quite pooped and had a slight headache, so I made my way outside to get away from the volume and chat it up with my bandmates and members of Exmortus. Now, I could still hear what was going on inside, and apparently these dudes were having a mad good time. Their brand of Exodus-y thrash doesn’t hold my interest very long, but the audience they had ate it all up, encouraging the band into three (yes, three) encores!
POST-SHOW
By the time the sticks were put down and the amps shut off, it was exactly if not a little after two o’clock and we were ready to crash. We collected our pay, said goodbye to friends old and new, and headed back to JT’s sis’s apartment for food, showers, and rest. Little did we know that we would be headed back here for the last time. Sometime in April or so, Kristi found new living arrangements in the form of a smaller apartment in a reportedly not-gated community, and since this show we have driven back the night of a San Antonio show. This not only meant games of slap-the-driver-awake, but it also means leaving earlier. As a result, shorter San Antonio blogs until we find a place to crash of which we all approve.
Hexlust shall take this moment to say a fond goodbye to that apartment. It was clean, surprisingly spacious, and air conditioned, with a toilet and shower at our willing disposal, a refrigerator at the ready, and even a small garage if we felt like unloading some gear. Also, Kristi was always sweet to us and never anything less than a gracious hostess. Even better, the apartment was located only ten minutes away from the Rock Bottom/Warhol, and was literally right up the street from the highway.
There were many good times had before and especially after performances: making fun of Tony for bringing an air mattress when there were plenty of couches and square feet of floorspace available; beholding Tarzan in his awesome/ridiculous boarding shorts he wore to sleep; lying on the floor next to JT not knowing if I would wake up with his balls on my face or not, which thankfully never happened; and finally, bullshitting til slumber (song/album title!) like we were eight-year-olds at a sleepover. Apartment: It was hexcellent.
