A Night of Surprises at the Music Vault

Date: Saturday, July 16, 2011
Venue: Music Vault, Killeen TX
Bill: The Final Burial (didnt play), Of Ruins (didnt play), Hexlust

PRE-SHOW/OPENING BAND
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!

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!"

Yeah.

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.

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.

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.

HEXLUST
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 very 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."

"Candlemass stomp" at 5:50

Taking advantage of our headlining status (and the fact that it was still very 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.

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.

Set List:
Intro
FBF
Hellhammer
Conjure
Baphomet
Meganecropolis
Tombs
Encore 1: Agent Orange
Encore 2: Troops of Doom

POST-SHOW
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: any) profit.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
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!

Metal for the Masses

Date: July 23, 2010
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Bands: Inbreed, Desmortes, Heavens Declare War, PainFilled Silent

PRE-SHOW
Fun show for Hexlust this evening! Not only were we at the Music Vault, where we've become accustomed to reliable sound, spacious stage, and an enthusiastic audience, but for the first time in a long while (if ever) we were booked for a local gig almost completely filled with bands in which we had friends as members! Additionally, along with our usual crowd of family and friends, we had out-of-town fans Jake, Tony, and Victor visiting to watch us play on our home turf.

Since I like the bands on this bill so much, I'm going to spend a little more time than I normally do talking about each group's background. By now we have some readers outside of the Central Texas area, so hopefully this helps gain these great bands a little more exposure.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
At the Vault, our sound is normally serviced by sisters Elizabeth and Dorothy, supervised by their dad whose name escapes me. Elizabeth was on a trip to Washington DC at this time, and Dorothy is still pretty new to the audio-tech game, so the sound this evening was shakier in quality than usual. There were many complaints among band and audience members, but I personally didn't notice too much, so I won't really be addressing it in this post unless I absolutely have to.

INBREED
First band of the evening was Inbreed, a local thrash three-piece who have actually been rocking out in Central Texas bars and clubs since the mid 90s, have independently released five CDs, and even toured Japan and Indonesia in the early 2000s. Their admirable devotion to their day jobs has resulted in their on-again-off-again status, which explains why I had never heard of them until just before this very gig.

My first impression: absolute awe at their drums. Inbreed's skinsman played a seven-or-eight-piece black Tama kit, with four huge rack toms and two floor toms that all sounded like cannonfire when played during their soundcheck. And that's what they sounded like before the mic's picked them up and blasted them over the PA. I was one coveting bastard for a whole minute.

Overall I can't say I was too terribly enthralled by the band, their metal pedigree including the likes of Testament and Pantera. Catchy and headbang-worthy, but I was more content to stay in the backstage area and tinker with my kit. If you readers dig the more mid-tempo, groove-sprinkled kind of thrash though, I would definitely recommend checking this group out, they're simply too devoted to their music to remain as overlooked as they are.

[EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: An interview with Inbreed can be found here]

DESMORTES
I had just seen these guys in June at the Lone Star and was happy to be checking them out again. Rick and Byron of course had excellent guitar interplay, except for one song where Rick broke a string and spent the whole rest of the tune re-stringing and tuning. Hearing Byron play by himself really drove home how bare their overall sound is without a bass player. Hopefully they get the opportunity to rectify that issue soon, although I know as well as anybody how lacking the Central Texas area is in dependable metal bassists.

There was plenty of boom supplied by John, however, rocking Inbreed's thunderous drumkit (Inbreed's drummer is John's stepdad or something) with heavy, steady beats and whalloping, well-placed fills. I really want that kit! Josue was his usual smiling, Dickinson-wailing self, always having a good time at every gig I watch these guys perform.

Although I enjoy their guitar work and drumming, the only gripe I've come to have about this group is that their songs are quite lengthy and rather lacking in variation. Same tempo, same riff style, maybe the same scales but I suck at theory so I'm not sure. I think all the songs were written and arranged by Byron, though, so hopefully as they mature and write more songs they'll be able to mix up the style more.

HEXLUST
By the time we took the stage, a considerable crowd had gathered, our largest and most vocal audience hosted at the Vault since the Battle of the Bands we played here two years ago. I know it had more to do with how many of our friends and family members showed up than any kind of actually "following" being built up around here, but the support is appreciated nonetheless, especially since they were actually enjoying themselves and singing along in all the right places!

Overall, not the tightest set in our history. We were so energized and high off crowd response, we spent almost the entire set going a thousand miles an hour. As a result, vocals were occasionally out of step with the riffs, drum fills went a little overlong or seemed to stop too soon, hell Tarzan got so caught up in the rush that he went into the outro riff of "Toxic High" too early. If you watch the video, he clearly hits his final note while the rest of us are still going, haha! (warning to you seasick folks: the videos of this set are quite shaky)

Minor grievances, though, minor grievances, we were having too much fun to get caught up in them. Audience members were dancing during the verse parts of "Baphomet Dawn," and damn near the whole crowd sang along to the chorus of "Agent Orange." You could tell who had never heard the song before though, they'd still be yelling "AGENT ORANGE!" when they should have been on "the FIRE that doesn't BURN!" Maybe next time they'll have it, haha. "Tombs," of course, was probably our messiest song, we had so much momentum built up that our big finale turned into one huge blur, and mistakes were plenty. We were still smiling five minutes later when the song ended, and were patting ourselves on the back as we unloaded into the backstage area. Yet another stellar feather in the golden cap of shows we've played this year so far.

HEAVENS DECLARE WAR
Heavens Declare War have been around since like 2005, ever-popular but always going on hiatus for one reason or another. They've also had a revolving door of members pretty much since their inception, with the only constants (since I noticed them, anyway) being singer Brendon and guitarists Spanish and Randy. At one time, their bass and drum slots were filled respectively by Russell Smith and Jordan Dixon, former mainstay members of the now-defunct local death metal act I, Misery. Now they feature Shawn on bass, who was in a deathcore band called My Bitter End who apparently had an enormous following in the New York area, and Dominic, who used to play drums for JT and Tarzan's old band Nautilus. Dominic is a hellacious drummer, very Hoglan-esque in his technique and precision, and it was a load of fun watching him rock the hell out of my own kit backstage during Inbreed's soundcheck. (Also fun to note: Shawn was a co-worker of Tony's back when he was employed Acer Computers)

Musically, Heavens Declare War are hard for me to describe, as I don't normally listen to the bands which influenced them or the sub-genres they include in their own description. I guess "math metal with a progressive leaning" sums it up just about right, but I'll post up a video so you guys can draw your own conclusions. What I can say, though, is that this stuff is heavy, with breakdowns aplenty and a sweepy solo in every tune. I was never drawn into their older material but am really digging their newer songs, my favorite being the "The Secularist" with that awesome opening riff and the oh-so-shout-along-able chorus ("YOUR GOD IS DEAD TO ME!")

As good a time as I was having ingesting the tunes, watching HDW play was a bit of a chore thanks to their light show. Brendon is a skilled electrician, and while the light boxes that were set up at the front for the band members to stand on were really cool, the towers of light bulbs set up a little further upstage were annoying. They shone so powerfully in the eyes of the audience that the discomfort level toed the line of "painful," which, when you factor in how late it was, made for a grumpy, grumbling audience. Some straight-up left. Hopefully next time they play they leave at least one of the towers at home, or maybe get some lower-wattage bulbs.

PAINFILLED SILENT
I felt kinda bad for PainFilled. It was like one a.m. when they took the stage, they were facing a cranky, steadily-dwindling audience, and their unconventional song structures were winning them no new fans. I'd seen them a few times by now and thought I could hang, but even I left, conversing with friends outside and wishing they would just cut their set short so we could all collect our money and go home. Fortunately, the band have, over their many years of playing together, developed a very devoted core audience who stuck around til the very end and cheered every song.

I wasn't exaggerating when I said "many years"; though they've only been known as PainFilled Silent since 2007, Chris, Jason, Phil, and Vinnie have been performing together with no lineup changes since 1996, making this a show that was book-ended by groups of metalheads who showcase an extremely admirable devotion to their music and to each other as comrades-in-arms.

POST-SHOW
After PainFilled left the stage and packed their shit away, I met with Phil of PFS and Spanish of HDW in Rich's office to collect our earnings. Inbreed and Desmortes had all split, so the money was going three ways, which I sure wasn't arguing against. The disappointing part was that somebody on the bill had abused the bejesus out of the guest list; it was estimated that nearly fifteen people for one band had gotten in for free. I thought back to shows where I said to myself "only two people per band on the guest list? That is whack!" and now saw why such a policy was in fact totally legit.

Rich also commented that Hexlust, Heavens Declare War, and PainFilled Silent were arguably the best, highest-drawing metal bands in the Central Texas scene and that we should definitely try to arrange more shows like this in the future. Here's to doing this again! It was certainly a fun evening, hopefully next time we can cut down on the flaws and make this a completely enjoyable show for all.

[EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: As of now, early 2011, Heavens Declare War dissolved and reformed as Wake the Colossus, with a little more of an experimental kick in their sound, and are expecting to be playing live again real soon. Desmortes fell apart, and to my knowledge are not reforming anytime soon. I'm not sure what Inbreed are up to, but Hexlust and PainFilled Silent are still going strong.]

Night of the Hex-Trio!

Another flier by Tarzan!

"Official" flier

Date: May 1, 2010
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Playing With: American Lab Rat, Untitled We Stand, Killing In Apathy, Dear Cyanide, PainFilled Silent, Periwinkle Massacre

PRE-SHOW
When we arranged to play May 1 at the Music Vault, we did the usual thing of telling all our friends, slapping the flier on MySpace, and of course putting in our requests off at work. It worked out for everyone, except JT. He had scheduled a meet with a counselor at the mortuary school he wanted to attend, which happened to be the week of or after the show, and Starbucks was only letting him have time off for one event: either the gig or the counselor meet. He went with the latter, and Hexlust were, for the first time ever, playing a show as a three-piece.

Some people love the hell out of "power trios," especially in thrash metal, and for the life of me I can not figure out why. Sure, on the recordings everything sounds ok, but that's because the artists can beef up the tones and multi-track guitars. Live, the one guitar usually sounds very thin and naked, and it's awkward come solo time because, unless the bass is beefy enough to be heard well, all the backing rhythm just drops out altogether. Hexlust started off as a trio, and I wanted so bad for so long to find a second guitarist. I wanted a thick rhythm sound, and multiple leads. JT's arrival was an answer to my prayers, and now we were having to do without him. We knew this would end up being weird and awkward, so we actually did the opposite of "good promoting," telling our friends not to show up unless they were willing to watch a half hour of us looking confused.

Considering the prospected result, the set times actually worked to our favor. We were originally slotted for second, but the Periwinkle Massacre didn't show up in time. We were bumped to opening band, allowed to load directly onto the stage, and proceeded with the assurance that our set would be over by the time the crowd started thickening. Now all we had to do was get through the performance itself.

HEXLUST
At first, things didn’t feel too off, with the intro and most of “Toxic High” working well enough with just one guitar. It did feel a bit weird without the thickness happening, but rhythmically everything was as it usually is. I actually started to feel comfortable. Until the solos. Tony of course performed his lead with panache and confidence, a thing of beauty. When it came time to perform JT’s solo, Tony was forced to improvise, relying mostly on scale runs. Turns out the J-Tizzle’s style wasn’t very easy to imitate at all, and Tony was left grasping at straws. Hey, it was better than Chuck Schuldiner playing empty rhythm parts and looking unhappy.

"Hellhammer" ran smoothly, with Tarzan’s distorted bass filling in most of the thickness. We skipped JT’s solo altogether, charging from the end of Tony's middle-section lyrics straight into the Celtic-Frost-influenced breakdown. “Baphomet Dawn” was pulled off by skipping JT’s first solo and shortening the intro riff by four reps. Tony awkwardly performed JT's middle solo, which thankfully is very short, and then was allowed to comfortably play his own. The funny part was that Tarzan got the inspiration to try something Sabbath-y and so some noodley, scale-climbing bass lines under Tony's lead, as opposed to just playing the riff. It just sounded weird and after a while he went back to just playing the riff.

“Agent Orange” never felt truer to Sodom’s performance than it did on this night, haha. Playing the leads turned out to be no problem; Hexlust had been playing "Sodomy and Lust" since before JT joined, with Tony doing the whole solo that went from the verse into the chorus, and let's face it, "Agent" is the same damn thing. Our rip-roaring finale, "Tombs," was surprisingly easy to pull off. JT has two leads during this tune; Tony just didn't play the first one, and for the second "long" one, we just cut that part out altogether. The lack of awkwardness allowed us to finish the set strong, throwing our usual confidence and energy in for one last hurrah to end this weird experiment.

POST-SHOW
Yeah, we totally left after our set, compensation be damned*. Tony's girlfriend had brought friends, and they wanted to go out for some food. Tarzan didn't feel like staying, my ever-supportive parents decided to move on to another bar, and I sure as hell didn't want to be left there by myself. I would have stayed to support PainFilled SIlent, but they were going on much later in the show. I made a mental promise to stay for their set the next time we played together, and absconded for IHOP with Tony's group.

I certainly hope we never have to pull this "power trio" nonsense again. The dynamic may work for other bands, but Hexlust were meant to be a two-guitar ensemble. Even getting away from the whole "sound" issue, the stage presence and balance were thrown off. It's no secret that JT brings a lot to the table in terms of energy and shenanigans, and it just looks right with him and Tarzan windmilling on either side of Tony. Now that I think about it, that would be the upside to this whole show: it gave us a deeper awareness and appreciation for what each of us contributes to this band, something I sure will never take for granted again.

*For those not in the know, bands usually get paid by having at least one member stick around until the show's ever, when all the door money can be divvied up.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE "Can everybody hear me?"

The Vault's sound crew

The Hex-Trio attacks!

Back to the Vault!

Flyer by Tarzan!

Date: April 17, 2010
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights TX
Playing With: Awake At Dawn, Faint The Fiction, Dear Cyanide (Dead By November scheduled, didn't play)

PRE-SHOW
By the time we finally made it to the Music Vault (we had to stop midway and drive back to my house for Tarzan's pedals) we were surprised to find ourselves loading with a few of the other bands playing his evening. Normally when we take the time to get there extra-early we are the only ones there. No complaints from our end, however. Since there were only three other groups this evening, there was plenty of space for all of us to set up our gear in the Vault's spacious backstage area while Awake at Dawn loaded right onto the stage.

AWAKE AT DAWN
First performance of the evening came from Awake at Dawn, who sounded like Days of the New on a Cynic trip; dark, moody post-grunge with a variety of guitar effects used and even a synthesizer, set up right in front of the lead vocalist. It was a rather low-key way to start the evening, especially for an audience ready for something heavier, so there were only one or two people standing directly in front of the stage. I certainly dug them, the musicianship was advanced yet tasteful, and the tunes were certainly catchy. Best part in my opinion was when the aforementioned synth was brought in to double a lead guitar line, I really get a kick out of trippy stuff like that.

HEXLUST
Our first time playing at the Vault since that last-minute show in November, and we were excited to show people how much we'd improved in the months past, and to gauge their reaction to the new addition to our set list. We'd recently been contacted to play a show in the Ft Worth area, a "pure thrash" gig for which we'll be the headliner, so we decided we'd learn "Agent Orange" by Sodom for the occasion. Tonight would the be test drive for our new cover.

A decent size audience of family, friends, and local support had built up by the time we hit the stage, and a roar of cheers went up as we went into the intro song. The positive, responsive crowd helped Tony feel more confident, resulting in better playing from our anxiety-ridden vocalist and looser, funnier banter between songs. "Toxic," "Hellhammer," and "Baphomet" went off without a hitch, and we had the room singing along to "Agent Orange" by the second chorus. I'm really looking forward to playing that song more in the future! It's less technical and less structurally weird than "Open Casket," so I'm able to relax and basically let the song play itself, a huge relief when we're past the halfway point in our set list. Of course we closed the show with "Tombs," during which JT dropped his pick in the midst of his long solo (oh, did we tease him about that), and left the stage feeling pretty damn good about ourselves. Another successful set in what is shaping up to be a fantastic year for Hexlust!

FAINT THE FICTION
I came back from loading gear in time to catch the last half of Faint the Fiction's set. Not my cup of tea musically. They employ that "alternative metal" sound from the early-to-mid 2000s like Nonpoint and Shadows Fall (the singer even had dreadlocks), but they had talent and energy to spare, and I admired their use of stomp-box lights. The audience certainly dug it, this was not a mosh-happy crowd but folks were nodding their heads and cheering after every tune. I admit I smiled and sang along when they pulled out an energetic cover of Killswitch Engage's "End of Heartache," good memories of senior year come back with that song, and I think they followed that up with a Salt n Pepa cover, although for the life of me I couldn't place the actual tune.

DEAR CYANIDE
This was not Dear Cyanide's night. For one thing, they were very tired. Talking to Mike (lead vocalist) before the show, we found out that the band had just hours ago got back into town from a show they played the night before, some festival out in the middle of nowhere at which they didn't even take the stage til like four in the morning. I'm sorry, may I'm the world's youngest old man, destined to have my band blacklisted for wussing out of a performance, but anytime after two-thirty is bedtime, cousin. Especially if we have a show the next evening.

Another thing pointing to a bad night for DC was the lack of a devoted audience, which in retrospect may have been a blessing considering what was about to go down. Dear Cyanide are one of the most popular bands in the scene right now, helped by the fact that they are mostly or all military (their lineup changes often), and while those in attendance were receptive, this was not the usual crowd of enthusiasts. If you look at their live pictures on their profile or find one of their videos on YouTube, you see a stage deluged with sweaty, shirtless soldiers ready to mosh it up. What they had on this oddly low-key Saturday evening were mostly close friends and family of the bands, and even a few Boozefighters thanks to Remo, former drummer of now-defunt Remo Gotzi, being in DC. (NOTE: Pogi, former Gotzi guitarist, was also in the band but not present this evening) However, even that audience was dwindling by the time the band took the stage at close to one a.m.

After an agonizingly long soundcheck (O-Zone kept running into problems with his bass rig, I think Lucky Sevyn was having amp problems as well), DC launched into their set, and while they played as competently as any well-practiced band, it was obvious they all had other places they would rather be, all involving a bed. After a few songs, the sound problems started up again, leading to confusion as to what to perform next and a few members looking like they were ready to throw down their instruments and walk the hell out. Somehow a cover of Korn's "Blind" got started, and that got a warm reception, then they went into something sounding like a Primus cover with a long intro. They never made it past that intro, though, it sort of meandered and petered out and they just stopped playing. They didn't attempt another song. That was it, they were officially spent.

POST-SHOW/CLOSING THOUGHTS
I felt bad for DC but knew that this was just an off-night for them. Neither their stability nor their reputation were damaged, I was sure that next time they played it would be business as usual, ruling the night with the audience in the palm of their hand. We in Hexlust got paid and got on our merry way, with me thinking about off-nights and when ours might be. Would it be the kind that only the band can sense, with the musicians downtrodden but the audience convinced it was the greatest show ever? Or would it be a really obvious hiccup, where the band can look forward to a) polite avoidance, b) excuses ("that sound guy clearly did not know how to work a monitor!") or c) brutal honesty from the audience ("Yeah, y'all sucked tonight. The hell, bro?") Hopefully next week won't be an off-night, we're all looking forward to bringing the hexcellence to Ft Worth!

PHOTOS

BUDDIES!

Backstage

Onstage

Ripping solo

JT's "Tombs" solo

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.

What Was and What We Wish Wasn't

Date: Saturday, November 8, 2008
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bill: Hexlust, Burying the Trend, An Hour to Kill

OOPS!
This show… didn’t happen! We got to the Music Vault, started setting up our gear, people started showing up… and we got called into the manager’s office. Turned out one band’s singer was sick and the other band hadn’t been in contact in recent days. One band with forty minutes of material equals not worth the time. Plus, each band sold tickets for this show. One band equals a third of potential money, which means not enough to pay security, lights, and sound people. Show cancelled.

I felt pretty bad for our friends who drove up from Belton, and I felt very bad for my friend who had already made it all the way from Lampasas. To those not in the know, Lampasas is about a forty-minute drive from Harker Heights, if traffic is ideal. Tickets were refunded or held until the date of the postponed show, which was set for November 21.

Date: Friday, November 21, 2008
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bill: Robots Are Evil, Hexlust, I Deal Suicide, Escape the Night

PRE-SHOW
We spent the next two weeks selling more tickets, getting other bands to play, and promising our friends that this time, an actual show would happen. And what a show it was going to be! We had our friends in Robots Are Evil opening the show, an awesome duo consisting of a bassist and drummer (good buddy Frank, who worked in the drum department at Guitar Center at the time.) We would go on after them, and then I Deal Suicide and Escape the Night would close out the night. Both of these bands were from the Burnet area and had a pretty well-established fanbase which they brought with them, so this would have been a great chance for us to grab the attention of their fans and vice-versa.

Notice I keep saying shit like “was going to be” and “would have.”

ROBOTS ARE EVIL
Robots Are Evil were on first as scheduled and they were awesome. This was my first exposure to them and I was hella impressed, especially when they opened with an instrumental version of Primus’ “Here Come the Bastards.” From then on it was an awesome batch of guitarless slap-pop groove with awesome beats and fills.

HEXLUST
We were on stage next and we were ready to impress. We had learned from our experience with Exmortus and were more than warmed up. We had rehearsed our set that day and had definitely practiced the shit out of our cover of Death’s “Open Casket,” which we were debuting this evening. It was gonna go Intro-Troops-Toxic-Hellhammer-Tombs-Open Casket-Sodomy and it was gonna be fuckin’ magical. There was even the pretty-woman factor! The object of Tony’s October-11^th game-spitting was there, as was my friend Sheila. And let’s face it: when a pretty female is in the audience, you strive to play better. Again: fuckin’ magical.

The intro was great. Troops of Doom was solid. Toxic High, still going strong. By Hellhammer, though, something was up, and that something was Tony. Something happened in front of all those unfamiliar faces and he lost all his pizzazz. Normally very good at crowd control, Tony started hiding behind his hair and looking straight down at his fret board when he was playing. Announcing Hellhammer though was the straw that broke the camel’s back, when only a handful of people cheered when he asked if anybody in the audience was a fan of Celtic Frost or Hellhammer. From then on, our mighty frontman was a stuttering mess.

Not that that would have affected us that greatly. He’s had a few bouts of confidence crisis before and we soldiered through. This was only our… fifteenth show, and there were still a few times when stage fright got the best of him. No problem. The problem started showing its face during Tombs. My bass drum started creeping away from me and almost slipped away entirely, taking my toms with it. I thought it was simply a matter of it not being anchored down enough, so when the song was over I dragged the thing over and drove the spikes on the pedal a little deeper into the carpet. Then came Open Casket and POW! It was all downhill from there.

Those who know the song knows it starts off with a horrendous amount of double-bassing. I flew into it right on time and was pounding my heart out when suddenly… nothing. My feets were moving pedals, but the pedals were hitting air. It took me a few horrible stage years (read: about two awkward seconds) to realize that the problem wasn’t the anchoring; it was the grip my pedal had on the drum itself! By not tightening the grip and making the pedal more stable, I kicked the drum right off the pedal! Oh it was embarrassing. I spent the rest of the song pulling the drum up in front of the pedals whenever we had a sustained note and even took a few extra seconds to try to put the drum back into the grip in time for the second round of double-bassing, but that eventually failed. The song was a disaster and I was panicking.

Funny thing about panic: if you don’t get it under control hella soon, you start lashing out at people, even when they’re just trying to help. When Open Casket was over, I went right to work pulling the bastard bass drum onto the stupid pedal and tightening the grip as hard as it would go. JT (poor JT) came over and generously asked if I was OK and would I need some time to fix my problem, and I responded with “SHUTUP!!!!!!!” Boy am I proud of myself. I found out later that Tony then told JT to leave me alone, and the thoroughly hurt and humiliated JT had considered quitting the band right then and there. So, to recap: You had a front man in a self-esteem crisis, a guitarist ready to throw his instrument down and run out the door, and a drummer ready to kick his kit over and just have himself a good hard cry. And we still had one song left!

I wish I could say there’s a huge void where Sodomy and Lust went but I remember it very well. My pedal continued slipping. It turned out there are two points on my pedal which control the grip on the bass drum, one on the side which you crank with your hand and another right on the gripper which you turn with a special L-key. I serviced the former, which at least kept the drum from slipping all the way off. Also, Keith may think he was immune to screwing up, but he spent the last half of the song one fret above where he should have been. Fucker.

EVERYTHING ELSE
I spent the rest of the show taking my kit apart, loading it into my car, and hanging out with my bandmates and friends outside talking about the show. I kept telling myself that in ten seconds I was gonna go inside and check out the other two bands but it never happened. Sheila gave me a hug and assured me that it was great and she had a good time; normally I would say bullshit but I’ve known her to be an honest straight-shooter type so I was willing to think she actually enjoyed it. Eric, also a non-bullshitter, gave us the WTF we so rightly deserved.

To be honest, we didn’t and still don’t know exactly what went wrong. Probably just one of them “bad shows” that come along for no reason, even when you’ve already had a performance which wasn’t so stellar. On my part, it was simply a matter of not familiarizing myself with new equipment, as my double pedal was still new at the time. I spent time after that examining every part of the thing and experimenting with the grips to get the best possible anchorage, but we played no shows for the rest of the year. Finals came, as did the Christmas holidays, and we hardly practiced at all. We had a show set up the second day of the new year, though, and were hoping it would go better.

Hint: it did

Haaaaaaaands Down!

Date: Saturday, October 11, 2008
Venue: Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bands: Hexlust, Hands Down, Anesthesia

PRE-SHOW
It’s a well-known principle that a band should sufficiently warm up before playing a show, to make sure that all the music muscles are fully stretched out and ready to go full speed when the song calls for it. If the warm-up ritual is not performed correctly, the gig suffers as a result. Well, sometimes, for whatever reason, a band does not sufficiently warm up. In an even rarer occasion, the performance goes swimmingly anyway. Instead of thanking their lucky starts and promising to do better next time, the band develop feelings of awesomeness, that this stroke of magic good luck is in fact a perfectly natural part of their capabilities. It’s usually the show right after where their new perception of their skills is not only shot down by a bad performance, but rubbed right into their faces by the superior performance of a better band. That tragedy would occur in the next show; for now, though, the unwitting victory.

We got to the Music Vault early, like eight o’clock, so of course it was empty. Which was fine by me, I like setting up my unnecessarily large kit well before showtime, and I hate jockeying for space with a bunch of other bands and all their shit. Twenty minutes later I get that done… and it’s still empty. No problem, it’s only like 8:30, so we wait around and warm up a little (emphasis on a little). Nine o'clock, the doors to the club open, and nothing.

We spent a good like forty minutes milling around, talking to whoever came in. It was excruciatingly boring, at least for me. JT’s then-girlfriend had been there the whole time so he had someone to talk to. Tony met some chick and was spitting mad game, as only Tony can. Finally, our friends in Hands Down showed up and I passed the time talking to Sheena and helping decide on a one-set songlist. For those who don’t know, Hands Down consist of Sheena, her dad Russ, her mom Darlene, and family friend Dan, who plays the only drum kit in Killeen I envy for being bigger than mine. They play some originals but mostly covers. They typically do two forty-minute-or-so sets but since they opened the show this evening they had to pare it down to one.

HANDS DOWN
So Hands Down go on first and do their thing. Tunes included “My Own Worst Enemy,” “Flagpole Sitta,” “Inside Out,” and “Cumbersome,” all of which were well-received by my dad. OH, and they played “Welcome to Paradise,” I remember that cuz Tony and I were singing along to it. The funniest part was when Sheena gave Tarzan her camera with which he could take pictures; he got bored and handed it to my dad, who thought it was our camera and instead started taking cute shots of him and my mom together! I wonder if Sheena still has those.

HEXLUST
Our set does not stick out much in my head, probably because not much happened in the way of badness. I remember we had a fantastic soundcheck with some new guy we’d never seen before who perfectly balanced the two guitarists, put just the right amount of Tony’s guitar in my monitor, and did it all in little to no time. Communication had been an issue during the Battle shows. Same setlist as before, Intro-Troops-Toxic-Hellhammer-Tombs-Sodomy. We had started working on covering Death’s “Open Casket” around this time but were still not ready to debut it live yet. As I said in the first paragraph, we squandered all our extra time by not warming up much, and still had a pretty successful set. This feeling of effortless victory would not last another show.

ANESTHESIA
Up next was Anesthesia, purely covers. Come to think of it, this show was a night for bands with big drum kits who played covers, cuz the drummer in this band had a sizeable double-kick kit! What made Anesthesia stick out was that they had no vocalist; one guitarist, one bassist, and a drummer. But damn did they play some memorable tunes! They opened with “Walk” (ugh) and played some Iron Maiden tune I can’t recall. They also did “Live Wire,” which made me shriek with joy since I’m such a big Crue fan, and “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” which I got a kick out of since Hexlust had been playing that song for, like, ever. I tracked Tony down and was all “Dude! Duuuude! Dude!” but he was still spitting his mad game so he wasn’t interested. Whatevs.

Not much else interesting happened this evening. Sheena talked to some of the members of Anesthesia about starting a possible metal project, something she's been trying to do for ages, but I don't think anything ever became of that. (EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: Nope.) All in all, a totally ho-hum show.

Note: The title of this post is a goofy in-joke among us, saying that band's name all drawn-out with a Southern drawl. With every successive time we say it, we stretch the "hands" part out longer and longer.

Battle for the Vault, Pts. I and II

PART I
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2008
Venue: The Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bands I remember: United, Hexlust, Kill the Queen

Our first ever battle of the bands-type show, our first performance at the then-recently-opened Music Vault, and our first show for which we’ve ever had to sell tickets. The number of tickets sold determined the playing order of the evening (bands which sold the least tickets played first, those which sold the most played last). I think the bands competing this evening were United, us, and Kill the Queen, although I know there was a fourth in there somewhere.

United was a standard rock band that only stuck out in my mind because 1) Channing Heath played bass, the dude who used to gum up the comments section of our MySpace with invitations to his “open mike jam nights,” and 2) there was not only a drum solo but a guitar solo as well. The drummer was much better than I was, which was awesome to listen to, and the guitarist was also talented, though it was obvious this dude LOVED Kirk Hammett. Well, Kirk or some other guitarist who said “You know what this guitar solo needs? WAH PEDAL!”

I wish I could tell you more about our set, other than we played well and we had the same set list we’d been doing for a while, but my memory is fuzzy and video footage is nonexistant. Kill The Queen, having sold all their tickets, went on last. They played a cover of Limp Bizkit’s cover of George Michael’s “Faith,” and had some other song where the singer slipped on a mask (“I’M TRANSFORMING!!!”) at the beginning. I think the song was called “Cereal Killer” or something. I dunno.

Anyway, of all the bands that played this evening, we and United were chosen to move on to the final round in two weeks. Which meant more tickets to sell.

PART II
Date: August 30, 2008
Venue: The Music Vault, Harker Heights, TX
Bands: Grymfutures, Hexlust, Shfux, United, Remo Gotzi, Kill the Queen

So it came down to the final round. Four bands (two from each preliminary round) and a wild card from each prelim equaled six bands total. Grymfutures, the wild-card from the first prelim show, went first, a rap-metal project featuring no instrumentation (music was played over the club PA from a recording) and two vocalists, a light-skinned screamer and a black rapper. We all think the rapper was lip-synching. Kill the Queen, formerly Black Hymns, went on next, though I don’t remember their set. Like, at all. United played… the same set as last time, including the drum solo and the guitar solo.

I think Hexlust were on next, and our set was kickin. Tony had excellent crowd control this evening, and not only did we have basically the same audience as last time, but we had the added attendance of the punk kids, here to see the Shfux and appreciating us! Lord, it was fine. Again, typical Intro-Troops-Toxic-Hellhammer-Tombs-Sodomy setlist, but we made those tired old songs really sing this evening. I’m never one for self horn-tooting, but this was one of the best sets we’d played in a good while. The only awkward part of the whole evening needs a whole paragraph of explanation.

See, Remo Gotzi were playing this evening, and they were in tight with a local biker club called the Boozefighters. So in addition to band-supporters and punk kids, there were tough-lookin dudes with leather vests in the building. My mom thought it would be a great idea for Tony to give them a shout-out during our set, which made me uncomfortable. Not that I have any problem with bikers or anything, but they’re not our friends and I didn’t wanna look like a tool. For some reason I’m itchy about crap like that. So Tony took my mom’s offer and gave them a shout-out, which got a couple claps and a nod from a few Boozefighters. The shout-out fell dead and I felt like a fool by association. As I said though, that was the only awkward part of an otherwise amazing set.

Shfux went on after us. I don’t remember their set, not because of fading memory but because I was in the back, breaking down my kit and talking to friends. I do remember that this is the gig where the power inexplicably went out during their set, leading to a five-minute (decades in stage time) delay while they figured the problem out. Other than that I heard they played a great set and had mucho crowd appreciation, not just because of the contest setting but just because they are the top local punk band.

Interesting story, I was hanging out in the back room after my kit was all taken apart when the drummer from Remo approached me, saying he was in need of a crash cymbal for the evening’s performance. At the time, I used two crashes, both big, loud cymbals, which is great for Hexlust but I was nervous about how it would sound in the Remo context. (Note to self, band name: The Remo Context!) I gives him the 18” crash anyway, and not only did it sound fine in their performance but suddenly I had Boozefighters talking to me, saying that the favor I did for Remo was a favor I did for them. I felt this redeemed us pretty well for the shout-out fiasco from earlier.

So Remo Gotzi go on last, they’ve sold the most tickets so they have the most audience (not just Boozefighters) They finished their set with BALLOONS (genius!) and inviting audience members onstage for their final song, some wackaloon tune that bounced back and forth between polka honky-tonkery and distorted metal-ish shrieking. Not that I hated it, it was actually quite entertaining, but still, wacky. All of this added up to them winning the battle, prizes including studio time, coverage in some local musician magazine, and free tattoos from a local artist. Remo Gotzi put these prizes to excellent use by… breaking up months later.

So there was our first, and so far only, battle-of-the-bands type show experience. Overall I was satisfied, there were cries of us being “swindled” but I knew in my heart of hearts that we wouldn’t win. Remo had the audience, the accessible tunes, and best of all, the BALLOONS!

Shfuxlust! Part 2: Spontaneous Buttfucktion

Date: Saturday, April 26, 2008

Venue: Club Spontaneous, Harker Heights, TX

Bands: A.I.J., Hexlust, The Shfux, Sober Daze, The El Paso Heist

Setlist:

-Intro

-Troops

-Toxic

-ED

-Tombs

-Baphomet

-HH

-Sodomy

PRE-SHOW

The evening started off pretty well, just hanging out at my house with Keith, his friends Lacey and Kristen, JT, and Zach, chatting and watching videos. Very relaxed and relatively stress-free. I got my drums and stuff packed up at a reasonable time, so by the time Tony, Jade, Glen, and Ralph showed up, there was still time to B.S. before it was time to head out.

Ever met somebody and you could just tell right off the bat you're not gonna like them? That was my reaction to the door crew at Club Spontaneous. I said absolutely nothing getting carded and stamped and didn't even offer a smile as I loaded our stuff in. Speaking of which, I think I had the most drum stuff out of any band there, something which at the time was funny but would later prove to be a lumpy pain in the tits.

Now, my first impression of the club wasn't as immediate, but it did happen pretty damn quickly, as in my first ten steps inside: that it was HOT. And not like "Yo, dawg, dis club is HAWT, it's off tha cheesy!" I mean like "Am I back in Houston? I just stepped into this atmosphere and already my shirt's sticking to my back, my balls are sticking to my thighs, and I wouldn't be surprised to get attacked by mosquitoes at any moment!" Climate aside, the club wasn't that bad, aesthetically speaking. It was definitely roomier than Area 51, the bar was long enough to where I wouldn't be elbow-to-elbow with assholes just so I can get a Dr Pepper, and the center-catwalk-platform-thingy was a nice touch that proved handy for my dad in taping our performance. Plus, depending on which direction you were facing and how much gear you had, the rectangular stage was quite roomy.

The only thing that could have been improved on is space for gear. We piled (in some cases literally) our shit behind the stage with everyone else's stuff in this cramped little back hallway. Of course, it beats being off to the side of the dance floor where it can get moshed on, so I'm definitely not complaining. Much.

Well, by now it comes as no surprise to me that we must now hurry up and wait; now that all our crap's unloaded it's time to do nothing until it's time for us to do something. To pass the time I figured I'd get some fuel to burn so I follow JT and Zach next door to this really awesome pizza place. We spent the next I-dunno-how-long munching really good pizza and swapping manly sex stories. And by that I mean I listened to Zach tell really funny sex stories and wished I had something to contribute.

A.I.J.

After pizza, I greeted my parents, went back in the club, and chit-chatted with Danielle, who was kind enough to show up. Any time not spent yakking I spent warmed up on bar stools until it was time for A.I.J. to go on. They plugged in and took off… and already we're running into a problem. Not with the band, but the audience. Turns out the good people at Club Spontaneous, putting about as much research into the bands on the bill as a fly puts into a pile of dogshit, decided to not allow moshing. Sure as the day is long, a pit starts up in the first twenty seconds, and here comes Bubba McCornfed, marching into the pit to break things up. The second time that happened, with a different bouncer, I think the kids were threatened with being thrown out.

Anywho! A.I.J. put on an awesome show; I wasn't too familiar with the songs at that point so there wasn't a lot I was doing as far as singing along, but one thing I'm able to get into no matter what though is the endless energetic vibe Kwame puts off.

Of course, it's not even like I was there for a lot of it; I mentioned earlier how my having the most drum stuff there would prove to be a pain, and to lessen it as much as possible I took the liberty of going over and setting up my cymbal and tom stands about halfway through A.I.J.'s set. No sooner had I had my last stand set up than they got off and it was time for us to go on.

HEXLUST

Setting up my kit was nerve-wracking; even though I had my stands set up I was still pretty much working by myself, since my helpful roadies from last time weren't able to show up this time. The last thing I wanted to be was the dick whose huge amount of stuff was going to eat up valuable playing time, so I was trying to work at double the pace but ended up just having a lot of brain farts. Looking back I shouldn't have worried so much; after I had my kit comfortably configured I had some leftover time to warm up while my band mates continued checking their guitar sounds.

The question was raised about miking my drums. The obvious answer was yes, but out of a combination of irritability, restlessness, and the desire to waste no more time fucking around with cables and stuff, we opted not to and went right to business with the hopes they'd hear me anyway.

The intro went off like a dream. This was the first time playing it, live or in practice, where I didn't screw something up rhythm-wise. Yay me! "Troops" was a blast as well, near-impeccably played, although already there was something up. JT was having guitar trouble, and ended up switching guitars with the very benevolent Walter towards the end of the song.

"Toxic" was utterly fantastic, watching the video I got an adrenaline rush when we all came into that main riff and the pit went KER-SMACKY! My only gripe had to do with my un-miked drums, resulting in us getting off-time during the pre-chorus. Extra praise goes to JT, who totally FLEW on a guitar that wasn't even his during his solo.

"Evil Dead," once again, was the song where things started to go to poop time-keeping-wise. We'd lose it during the initial chorus run, re-gain it during the verse, and it'd be right back to poop for the chorus. Not the way I envisioned our last time regularly playing it*, but we made do. This time the extra credit is awarded to Tony, for his blistering solo on this song.

Things went smooth for the most part in "Tombs," although I knew then and still know now what our lone problem was: Me. I came in on a massive adrenaline rush, going way too fast and for some reason could do nothing but stay that way through the whole song (Even the slow part at the end!). Even when we were blessed enough to be on time there was still this very "rushed" feeling to it. In the future I'll have to try and slow myself down just a wee bit so the song can breathe a little more. Another thing I'm going to do in all future shows is end the song with a stinger like I did in our show a week prior; the whole fade-out thing is cool on a recording, but live it's kind of a downer.

"Baphomet Dawn" was a trouble spot for us. Not from a technical standpoint, we nailed every riff and fill, but just for the fact that it's a mid-tempo "chugger" in the midst of this epitomized sugar high. Sometimes it's good to have a break in the speed to give everyone time to build their energy back up, but in this case we had too much of that good thing. We all came down in energy as a result, both audience and band, and after that we never fully recovered.

By the time we got around to "Hellhammer" we were in a pickle. The decline in energy from "Baphomet" combined with frustration at JT's continuing guitar problems** resulted in a debilitating onset of fatigue. Plus, in this song, my hi-hat came undone. A very minor problem, I mean the damn cymbals still worked, but just the fact that I wouldn't have any more control over how swishy my hats sounded made me a sad panda. Suddenly it felt like a chore to be playing these songs, which after this we still had one more to plow through.

I somehow made it through "HH" nailing every fill and roll, but after that I was finished. Going into "Sodomy" my energy and finesse were shot to hell and I turned into the Ringo Starr of thrash metal; I wasn't going to be throwing in any fills I didn't absolutely have to. Straight time-keeping the whole way through, which in a way helped me conserve enough energy to help us end the song, and the set, with a high-speed bang and a decent enough stinger.

POST-PERFORMANCE

Of course, the fact that we were finished playing didn't mean I was out of the pickle park. Now I faced the dilemma of breaking down my gear. The polite thing to do would be to take my stands and bass drum off stage and break it down there so as not to be in anybody's way. The cruel irony was that, considering the amount of room there was offstage, I would just be in somebody's way anyway. So I did the first thing that made sense: Break down my stuff on stage really fucking quickly and set it off to the side. Luckily I had my dad to help start loading things into my car, which I eventually took over, standing out by my car and loading things in as they were brought to me.

Tony opted to leave early, since he still had to drop Glen and Jade off at their respective residences. I was placed in charge of loading the P.A. in somebody's car (it was brought in to be used as a monitor system but ended up just sitting there on stage doing nothing) and telling Walter to hold on to our money until a later date since we would all be leaving before the (strictly proverbial) curtain went down on the last band. There was no rush; neither of these could be accomplished until Walter was finished performing.

THE SHFUX

I don't know if they did it to oppose our overly-long octathalon of a set or because they wanted to be finished before midnight, but the Shfux came flying in and went flying out with a very shortened set. I think it was like five songs max, but who the hell cared? As long as it included my favorite song, the one that's a tribute to black metal, I was a happy camper.

After their reduced display of awesomeness, I delivered my message to Walter, packed up the P.A., and went outside to bear witness to a very interesting spectacle.

THE STANDOFF

Sober Daze were playing onstage, which was a fine mess for their under-eighteen fan base, who were all catching an involuntary breath of fresh air. It seems that in addition to their no-moshing rule, which was lifted just after A.I.J. provided that nobody got slammed into anything, the folks at Club Spontaneous also neglected to mention their adherence to the whole "patrons-under-eighteen-go-home-at-midnight" policy (God I love hyphens) What they ended up with was a group of mildly annoyed young punkers standing in the parking lot demanding some form of justice, be it admittance or a refund.

Well, some words were spoken, some arguments were had with their ooh-tough-guy management, and basically two plus two ended up equaling four cop cars showing up. Now, my mom works for the KPD, but these were Heights cops. If I got into any kind of stew, there would be no way for my mom to take advantage of the bubba system to get me off easy. Therefore, it was time to exit, and exit we did, leaving Club Spontaneous, and one wacky evening, behind us.

AFTERTHOUGHT

I'm very torn in how to consider this outing; on one hand, with the audience participation level and our on-stage energy level, this was probably our best show ever. On the other hand, with the on-stage tension arising from technical difficulties in addition to my near-inaudible drums, this was also one of the worst. It's not bad enough to beat our second journey to Denim and Diamonds, but it's down there alright.

Overall I'll chalk this one up as a success. The commentary I've received says that sure there were some problems with the equipment, but dammit we put on a good show. And when it comes to live playing, that's what really matters when ya get right down to it.

For this, our fifth foray into the world of live music, I would of course like to thank every band on the roster that evening. Sorry we didn't get to see Sober Daze or El Paso Heist, hopefully next time dudes!

Big fat loving thanks also goes… to our audience at this show! The past four shows of our existence were spent mostly playing to a crowd of Stationary Stanleys. Very generous with the cheers and applause, but not quite up to the task of doing much more than looking. Not that I want a pit at every show, but some head-banging would be nice, maybe even a little fist-pumping. There were notable exceptions in the past; there was an awesome pit going on during "Troops" at our first show, and James, out of the lineup but far from out of the fan club, provided a healthy dose of head-banging at our April 19^th show. But this show tops them all! Looking at the footage of the performance I see everything, from moshing to head-banging to fist-pumping to stage-jumping to yes, even piggy-backing! Thank you all very much, we may have been playing the instruments but you guys were the ones who really made the show happen! So once again, thank you.

Special thanks also goes to my dad, for his excellent videocamera-weilding skills; Zack and Ralph, for their support in the audience and their help as our impromptu road crew; Glen, for his support and spiritual advisory…ness; Jade, still making it to damn near every show, you either have a lot of support in your system or nothing better to do with your Saturday nights, ha-ha; Oh, and that cool pizza place next door to Club Spontaneous! And last but definitely not least Walter; he put this show together, took all the flack when things went less-than-desirably, and helped JT out when he needed it onstage.

*We're deleting it from the permanent roster in favor of a different cover or two, but it shall be back in future shows if the audience has a hankerin' for "one more song"

**He ended up switching everything with Walter, chord, guitar, amp, everything. To say we didn't really blame him would be a lie; I know at the time both Tony and I wanted to reach over and strangle him, but that was a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. Looking back and looking at the footage, I give JT a hella buncha kudos for keeping a smile on his face and continuing to stomp and head-bang in the face of his technical difficulties.