A Ball to Close Out the Year!

Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Venue: Rock Bottom
Event: Goregrowler’s Ball

PRE-SHOW
This was a show we had been booked for WAY far in advance, like since June or something, and was the show to which we were the most looking forward. We were told we’d be among the opening bands of the festivities, going on like at 4 or so, which we did not mind at all. We know our place on the totem pole, and liked the idea of playing early, packing up the stuff, and having time to watch some of the other bands before leaving.

We got to the Rock Bottom and were told that we had been moved up; a few of the other bands cancelled at the last minute and we had been promoted from 4:00 to like 6:30! This would have been great if we had not already arrived at like 2:00. Instantly I felt tired. The club wasn’t even opened yet so we spent a goodly amount of time just chilling outside the club. JT tried to go to sleep in his car, I warmed up on a practice pad, and Tony and Tarzan walked around talking to folks.

CORNUCOPIA OF BANDS
The doors finally opened and the festivities began. Thus began a huge collection of bands that I either saw and do not remember or was not watching since I was busy setting up my drum kit.

HEXLUST
I swear our audience gets better and better every time we play in San Antonio! With every show there are a few more people and the response gets a little bit better. The sound check went pretty well; Tarzan wanted his own microphone so that he could start working his backing vocals into the show. The sound man warned me that this would result in one less of my toms being mic’d, which I didn’t mind, hell I mainly use the two right in front of my snare anyway. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really hear his (or anybody’s) vocals this time, so I couldn’t tell you if he did a good job or not.

As you have probably guessed, by now we had a never-fails set list of Intro-Toxic-Hellhammer-Baphomet-Tombs-Casket. It started feeling kinda samey to us, but 1) we were sucking at coming up with new material and 2) it’s not like our audience is at every practice with us. At the time there only three videos of us on YouTube, we still have only the one recording out, and we play in San Antonio maybe once every two months at the most. I didn’t see people getting sick of our songs anytime soon.

I’m digressing a lot. This show went very well, I did not drop a stick once this performance, although I did screw up horribly during "Open Casket." Nothing we couldn't bounce right back from though! Besides that, I don’t remember many details, which is good, because it’s usually screw-ups that stick out in my mind! I promise, dear readers (those of you left who haven’t been driven away by my writer’s laze) 2010 will be a much better year for show coverage, mostly because I won’t be behind so much!

POST-SHOW
We stuck around long enough to see maybe one more band, and then left for home. By the time we got back to Killeen and I got my stuff unloaded, it was nearing 11:00, I had school the next morning, and I still had homework to do. I attempted it for about a half hour and then went to bed.

Friday the 13th: The 11th Hour

Date: Friday, November 13, 2009
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Playing with: DownsiiD, Amicicide, some others.

MOST LAST-MINUTE GIG EVER
As I got done helping a customer at work, some dudes came up to me and asked if I’m in Hexlust and if we’d like to play a show that evening at the Music Vault. I was down for it but told them I’d have to ask the others. Turned out they knew Tarzan from high school or something, and even had his number. Tarzan thought it’d be a great idea, so all we had to do was get Tony and JT on board and we had a show this evening! Oh, and those dudes who approached me were members of the band Amicicide, of whom I had never heard before this evening but was glad to meet.

JT and Tony were of course down, and we were already set to practice this evening so it’s not like we had to do any schedule shuffling to be able to play. There was something which had the potential to ruin the evening; when Tony got to my parents’ house he asked me to come out and talk to him for a minute. Turned out his family dog had just been put down that day. We sat out on the back porch and got it out there all manly-like and whatnot, and he assured me that he would be good to play and would be having no emotional breakdowns onstage.

So we got the gear loaded up and headed out to the Vault, a place at which we hadn’t played since… poking through the archives… November of ’08, almost a full year before! And that last time, as you readers may recall, was quite a disaster, the time my bass drum flew off the pedal and Tony suffered a case of stage fright and everything basically went to hell. Coming back though was like coming to some kind of class reunion, Big Mike and Rich recognized us and gave us hearty handshakes and expressions of “how the hell ya been?”

We were the first act this evening and so had the luxury of being able to set up on stage without feeling rushed. The sound people weren’t even there yet, so I had time to make sure my toms and cymbals were in comfortable reach and not interfering with each other. It was then I discovered that, in spite of all my usual precaution, I had forgotten one very important can’t-live-without-it item: my throne. JT had taken off to pick up his girlfriend but was already most of the way back to the club by the time I discovered this. I sent Tarzan to see if any other drummer would be generous enough to offer up a seat for my temporary use. I got one, and the seat was comfy, but the height was set very high and kind of stuck in place. This didn’t affect the performance too horribly though, it was just a little awkard on the knees during the double-bass parts. I sure as hell wasn’t complaining.

HEXLUST
Not too shabby of a set, definitely a make-up for the shambles that was our last outing at the Vault. We came back with our newfound habits of drinking water onstage and not putting all our energy into the first few songs; our streamlined set list of Intro-Toxic-Hellhammer-Baphomet-Tombs-Casket (that’s right folks, no more Sodomy and Lust); and a mega-boosted stage presence thanks to a year of playing mostly in San Antonio, where we had just recently started to really feel accepted. What also helped was that we had great sound equipment amplifying us. I tell ya, after a year of shows at the Sports Shack and the Armstrong Center and especially all those shows at the Ten Eleven, I had almost forgotten how great it feels to be able to say “Can I get some of Tony’s guitar in my monitor?” Also: LIGHTS, which also were absent at many of 2009’s outings.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the biggest audience to show off our improved Hexcellence; due to the VERY last-minute nature of the show we couldn’t get a lot of our friends, not even my parents, to come out. Also, again, we were opening, so we were basically playing to Amicicide, Dear Cyanide (I forget if they were there to actually play this evening or just hang out) maybe another band, and a few of those bands’ friends. Not that this affected the quality of the audience, they were very much appreciative and cheered enough for a roomful of folks!

As for the set itself, it almost seemed to go by too quickly. Smooth playing, no muscle cramps, no dropped sticks or picks, no equipment malfunctions, everything went swimmingly. Tony even took a moment to pay tribute to his dog, which was greeted by a “WOOOOOOOOOOOOH! YEAH!” from some douche in the audience who was quickly silenced.

BAND?
Honestly, I forget who played next. I know it was the band whose drummer was generous enough to lend me his throne, to whom I lent a pair of sticks in return. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to see them, since I was busy breaking down the kit and fielding questions and compliments from some very appreciative benevolent audience members.

After that, it was time to go. No, we didn’t have a long drive ahead of us and no, we weren’t restricted from sticking around because of our gear; yes, I live like ten minutes away and yes, that may have made us seem rather douche-y, but dammit I had to work in the morning! In fact I think most, if not all, of us had to work that next morning (and for JT, that shift starts at like 7 a.m.) so we all took off early this time.