Terror at the Alamo!

Date: April 23, 2010
Venue: The Alamo, Ft. Worth TX
Bands: Live By The Sword, Preatcher, Amoricide, Insinnerator

PRE-SHOW
[Spoiler alert] BEST SHOW EVER! Oh my goodness, the exhileration, the pure inebriation that comes from a crowd of people appreciate your art, even if it is a relatively small audience of just about thirty or so! I mean yeah, we'd had great applause and adoration before, but never with this much ardor, and from such a large percentage of the overall assemblage.[/Spoiler] Wooh, ok. This was our first outing to the Dallas/Ft Worth area, so of course the initial challenge came in getting our bearings and finding the place.

Initially, we drove right past the venue, thinking our GPS's had to be fucking with us; all we saw were some shabby-looking buildings and what looked like an abandoned motel. Nothing resembling a music venue, no sign that said "The Alamo" on it. We drove a little further, found nothing approximating the venue, and ended up calling Pete from AltarEvil, the guy who invited us to this shindig. We met up with him, and he took us back to that derelict motel thing. The deal with that was it was indeed once a motel, but, now out of business, serves as kind of an impromptu strip mall. What were once rooms now were small businesses, a pretty clever idea in my opinion. The furthest "room" on the end served as The Alamo.

It was surprisingly spacious inside; either this room was once a "honeymooner" special, or it was the illusion of space caused by the lack of bed and other comfort furniture. The decently-sized stage, with the sound booth right next to it, took up maybe a quarter of the overall room, still plenty of space for a crowd and some booths set up along the side wall. In what was a very unique twist, a white screen was set up on the wall behind the stage, with a projector on the opposite wall, so bands could have moving images playing during their sets if they so chose.

Of course, before we could even think about asking if they had a copy of "Cannibal: The Musical" to project during our performance, we first had to accomplish the feat of getting our gear inside. With virtually no crowd yet, the stage right by the door, and close parking, this should have been a cakewalk. Unfortunately, a gaggle of young children were playing tag in the parking lot, paying little heed whatsoever to any cars trying to get through, while the mother focused her attention on her laptop, in her car. JT and Tarzan had themselves a time trying to back their vehicles into the closest possible spaces without accidentally glancing one of the frolicky little gremlins.

LIVE BY THE SWORD
After loading our stuff in and picking a spot by the stage to leave it, we took up positions (JT and Tony in the audience, Tarzan and I in one of the booths to start warming up) to watch Live By The Sword. What an awesome band to kick off the evening! Hard to put a finger on their exact style, it was like melodic blackened crust punk, if that makes any sense. Two guitarists, playing layered, catchy riffs and some eye-popping, well-thought-out solos, and a drummer whose main influence seems to be Mick Harris. The dude was a madman on the drums, chaotic blast beats and sporadic fills that somehow held it all together. Their lack of bassist was not even that big a deal, until they covered "The Trooper," which sounded hollow without the low end. All that aside, this band was truly a spectacle in action.

In fact, they proved to be too much of a spectacle. I saw a familiar look in Tony's eyes, and when I talked to him I found that he was indeed having a moment of massive insecurity. He felt those two guitarists, technicality-wise, could wipe the floor with him and JT. "How dare we try to follow this act, with our self-taught-isms and cheap equipment, what would the audience think?" I told Tony to relax. "These people all know who we are, they're not going to be surprised by our low-tech speed metal. They aren't here to see Hexlust: expert virtuosos giving a master class of high-end wankery; they're here to see Hexlust: fun-loving metalheads playing some catchy tunes way too damn fast!" Tony relaxed, and I did not hear about or see evidence of any insecurity for the rest of the night.

PREATCHER
In startling contrast to Live By The Sword's lack of low-end, Preatcher's bass was actually too loud in the mix! Granted this gave us all an appreciation for a bassist's role in a thrash band, but there were some slamming riffs and solos coming from this trio that were unfortunately not as audible as I would have liked them to be. No matter, they still had stage presence to spare and pulled out a kickin' version of Megadeth's "Skull Beneath the Skin." Also amusing, though rather uncomfortable with my parents attending this show, was the band's use of the projector to show a hentai film during their set. Thankfully, it was pretty straightforward human sex; I'm not sure how I would go about looking my parents in the eyes with tentacle rape going on within a close proximity.

HEXLUST
We were supposed to headline. Everyone who talked to us was looking forward to us headlining. Hell, we were looking forward to headlining, it had been a good while since we had received such coveted billing! Unfortunately, the Dallas/Ft Worth area was an even farther drive from home than San Antonio, a fact made all the more foreboding by news of a vicious storm headed our way. Nobody liked the idea of a late-night three-and-a-half-hour drive through windshield-obscuring rain on slippery roads, so we opted to take the middle slot and be on the road by midnight.

What a show. Oh my god, what a show! As I said earlier, inarguably the best show we have played up to this point, all thanks to the audience. Every member of the crowd was cheering our name after every song. That's right, not just at the end of the set, but between tunes! What a rush! The best part was they were well-behaved! See, my drum kit took up nearly the whole stage with just enough room left for amps, putting the guys on the floor with the audience not three feet away. This gathering of metalheads, while headbanging and moshing and thrashing like maniacs, exercised fantastic control, never coming too close to Hexlust's front line.

What made this even more impressive was the overall lack of crowd control. In Killeen, if you put on a free metal show, BYOB, with no bouncers, there's a good chance people are gonna get hurt and that venue's getting destroyed. My mom, talking about the Alamo crowd, put it best: "They weren't here to get wasted, act a fool in public or to try to get laid; nobody needed a baby-sitter because everyone in attendance was there for the music." I hadn't heard my mom say anything like that about an audience since our days of playing punk shows with Shfux. What we had here was a pure, honest-to-goodness metal show, and we it owe it all to everyone in attendance.

Guess I should talk a little about us now, haha. Thanks to the high supplied by the audience response, I hardly kept track of any minor mistakes that were made. Tarzan's arm started cramping again, a leftover concern from our last show the week before that was now starting to worry me. Thanks to a monitor positioned right behind me, I was able to clearly hear Tony's vocals for the first time ever. He was in fine form tonight, every lyric full of charisma and energy. He overdid his opening scream to "Tombs," however, resulting in a headrush for him and almost no lyrics at all during the song's two main verses. Thankfully, this did not affect his lead work. Feeding off the audience energy, he and JT turned out some of the most frenzied, scale-blazing, whammy-abusing solos I've heard from them in a while.

Oh, and the audience went apeshit for "Agent Orange," once they recognized it (we decided to be tricky bastards and not reveal the title). Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves another crowd-pleasing cover!

POST-SHOW
It started sprinkling as we were packing the gear back into our vehicles, a sure sign that we needed to get a move on. We said goodbye to Pete and all the new friends we'd made, including the members of Amoricide (AltarEvil's last-minute replacement in the wake of their sudden dissoution) and Insinnerator, whose performances we unfortunately did not get to enjoy, and set off for home. We were maybe an hour into our journey when the rain hit.

For the most part it was actually not so bad, we could at least still see the road. We still had ourselves some adventures though. Passing an eighteen-wheeler that was going this much too slow was scary as hell, those many tires were splashing heavy water onto our windshields whether we were behind it or beside it. I totally screamed. Then we had to deal with Central Texas Expressway. There was construction being done around that time, allowing the storm to turn the narrow road into an obstacle course of traffic barrels, barricades, and splintery kindling that had once been detour signs. Yeah, I was wide awake when I got home.

PHOTOS

Warming up

Scoping out the stage (note the projector screen)

YEAAAAAAAH!

Awesome audience

Befuddled audience, before they recognized "Agent Orange"

Woooooooh!

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

Parasites Derp!

Date: February 19, 2010
Venue: Headhunters, Austin TX
Bands: Birth A.D., Sarcolytic (replaced by Disfigured), Rotting Corpse

PRE-SHOW
I still cannot believe how awesome it was seeing our name on a marquee. Sure our logo’s been on flyers, our name’s been on a hastily typed sheet of paper taped to the wall behind the stage showing what time we went on, marquees have shown “METAL NIGHT WITH [not us] PLUS OTHERS!” when we played. To see our name, in thin plastic letters, behind a glass shield, with LIGHTS surrounding it, though, was really something else. I was so ecstatic I took a picture of it and sent it to my parents! Then Tony’s girlfriend took a group photo of us commemorating this very special moment.

Being that we were the first band this evening, we got to kind of take our time loading our gear onto the stage, with nobody in our way. I re-introduced myself to Billy Milano (whom I initially didn’t recognize on account of he had shaved) and he gave me advice on how to angle my drum kit to best be captured by the stage’s one overhead mic. I shall treasure that moment always.

After everyone had their gear squared away onstage, we went through a sound check, which was actually rather embarrassing. Billy told us to go through a song right quick; we settled on the chorus to “Toxic High.” Problem was that Tarzan and I think even JT were lost on what part of that song was the “chorus” (we rarely discuss such things) so we came off sounding like Snakes n Barrels at their first reunion rehearsal. Yeah, embarrassing. Billy encouraged us to try again, “Play a song you guys actually know!” I think we went with “Hellhammer,” my brain was numb with humiliation by that point.

HEXLUST
Yep, this was definitely gonna be a different show than the one we played at this club almost two years prior. The most siginificant difference being that there were actually people here this evening! A goodly-sized crowd had gathered at this early stage of the show, so we had a lot of eyes on us when I counted off the first song. And guess what? No, I didn’t drop a stick. Even better! I forgot to take the practice pad off my snare before I counted off the intro song. I went to started slamming away on my snare and was hitting soundless gum rubber. Whoops. Thankfully, watching the video footage, it sounds as if I was deliberately withholding the snare for the first four bars and came in with it at a strategic point, so I lost no cool points.

Hexlust were truly a band on fire this evening. We came flying out of the gate with “Toxic High,” slamming through those first repetitions of the riff faster and harder than we ever had before! The best part was that it was fast, hard, and accurate. This truly was the best we had played in a good while, and it felt great. The awesomeness continued through Hellhammer, until some point into the second verse when I realized something was missing. I couldn’t place my finger on it, but our sound suddenly got very thin. The thickness returned just as quickly and I realized that Tarzan’s bass was cutting in and out. I made him aware of this after we finished “Hellhammer”; he surmised that it was a faulty cord and made a quick change.

Minor problems continued during “Baphomet Dawn” and “Open Casket.” We still hadn’t worked out all the bugs in our seven-minute-plus behemoth; we lost a bit of the tightness going into the fast middle part, Tony’s solo was sloppy, and I flubbed fills here and there. We fared a little better in our Death cover, though, with slight groove loss during the double-bass and bad counting-off on my part being the only points against us.

Whatever little mishaps occurred didn’t dent our confidence, though, and we ended the main set with "Tombs of the Blind Dead.” Similar to the high points of our performance thus far, we blasted through this tune with speed and precision, resulting in what I must say was a perfect rendition of this song.

When I said “main set” earlier, it’s because we got a chance for an encore this evening, which, being the opening band, we definitely weren’t expecting. However, after we finished “Tombs,” we were told that we actually had time for one more song. So we ripped through “Sodomy and Lust,” going so fast we almost fell apart in a few places. With that tune, however, the threat of derailment actually works to its advantage.

BIRTH A.D.
Gear re-loading took a little while, especially considering we were parked across the street and a little up the block from the venue, but we were back inside in time to catch Birth A.D.'s set in full swing. Man was I missing out on having not caught their performance the first time we played with them, this was a band that was fast, aggressive, and best of all fun. Bassist/vocalist Jeff seemed to be smiling even as he was vocalizing his lament over the sorry state of our world, and entertained the audience between songs with sharp sarcasm.

Even though I had missed their performance before and had never listened to their songs, songs such as "Parasites Die" and "This Scene Sucks" were easy enough to catch ahold of (in that the phrases "parasites die!" and "this scene sucks!" were shouted many times in each tune) that even I was singing aloud, providing no excuse for anybody not to be putting their fist in the air and shouting along.

DISFIGURED
We took a break and grabbed a slice at the pizza joint next door (only in Austin have I found a pizzeria that "proudly serves Teese," a brand of vegan cheese), and decided it was about time for us to ship out. Some would stay behind to watch Disfigured, because we liked them and they were so enthusiastic for our set. Nobody was particularly excited about Rotting Corpse, and a few people were disillusioned by their lack of interaction, how they seemed to prefer staying in their bus decorated with one of those stupid MMA-clothing brands. I found it funny how I was looking forward to playing an out-of-town show so I could get away from the shitty Tapout shirts so popular among Killeenites, and look what was staring me in the face, parked right outside the venue.

Until next time, thrash til Alzheimer's!

"Surely they'll play 'Shot in the Dark.' Any minute now..."

Date: January 30, 2010
Venue: Red 7, Austin TX
Bands: Desmortes, Suicide Solution, Drifter

INTRO
Austin, TX. Live music capitol of the world. A year and a half prior, in the summer of twenty-odd-eight, Hexlust played two shows in this city, one at Headhunters, the other at The Parlor, then never went back again. Not that they were bad shows; we were well received by the not-metal crowd at The Parlor (and got a free pizza!), and Headhunters was cool in that we got to meet Billy Milano! It’s just that not long after the second Austin show (seven days actually) we played in San Antonio for the first time. In that first outing, we made some friends, discovered some really cool bands, and had a convenient place to stay after shows (which probably helped the most).

Eighteen months later, an opportunity comes up to play with a band called Desmortes in Austin. Two of their members actually had some history with us; John and Rick (drums and guitar, respectively) had been in a band with Tony called Catholic Sodomy back in 2004, and John handled drums for a while in JT and Tarzan’s old band Nautilus.

Anywho, Desmortes invitee us to play with them, an Iron Maiden tribute band called Drifter, and an Ozzy cover band called Suicide Solution. We happily accepted and looked eagerly forward to our second stab at Austin.

PRE-SHOW
We all met and loaded up at my parents’ house instead of JT’s, since driving to Austin meant not having to go through Copperas Cove. I started off riding in Tarzan’s Jeep, but JT was alone in his vehicle and needed somebody to help watch his blind spots, which were obscured from his view by cabinets and guitar cases and whatnot. The reason I was picked for the job was that Tony was gonna stay with his girlfriend in Austin that evening, so he took his own truck. My parents were already on their way there, having not attended one of our shows since last April, and my high school buddy Branden was also en route from Houston with his girlfriend, whom I would be meeting for the first time.

Upon arrival, we realized that there was no place in front of the club to park and load in our gear, so we went about paying for parking spots under the overpass right down the street. We walked back to the club and ran into Erika from Drifter, who took us back to the parking lot and worked out a deal with the dude in charge wherein we could leave our spots, unload, and come back with our spots untaken. We took the vehicles back to the club, got our stuff out with the help of my dad and Branden, re-parked the vehicles under the overpass, and walked back again.

The Red 7, during the summertime, would have been an awesome place to play. There was no actual front door, just kind of a… front porch-type area where the door-worker was positioned, which led right into the club proper, allowing for an outdoor-venue kind of feeling. Again, awesome in the summer. Unfortunately, it was January, and boy was it cold. The presence of walls shielded us from the wind, but that didn’t stop the temperature from being low. Anyway, there was a bar, a decently sized stage, enough room offstage for pre-performance gear storage, and booths in which to sit. And sit I did!

I talked mainly with Branden and his girlfriend, although I use the term “talked” very liberally since I suck at meeting new people and tend to get very shy and not-talkative. Thankfully, she was very outgoing and kept the conversation going. As it happened, a few of our friends from Heavens Declare War also happened to be in Austin this evening; Tarzan and JT mainly chatted them up while Tony played the role of social butterfly, flitting about to different groups of people and talking for a while before moving on again.

After a long while of that nonsense, Desmortes soundchecked, and then… nothing happened. There was another fifteen-minute wait before the actual show started, even though it was, by then, the time at which the show was actually scheduled to start. Since I’m the kind of guy who likes to give the benefit of the doubt, I’m willing to believe the sound guys needed that time to work some technical issue out.

DESMORTES
For a band that didn’t have a bass player at the time, Desmortes had a really good groove going on. It was mostly mid-tempo stuff, with lots of guitar harmony going on. John’s drumming was solid, nothing too flashy yet not boring either, with some cool fills thrown in on his huge-ass toms. The singer really impressed me, this dude had a great range for power metal-type vocals and a very… positive stage presence, he never seemed to stop smiling!.

It was really cool to finally see Rick play live; the only problem was that I could see him, but I couldn’t really hear him. The mix started out pushing both guitars equally, but either because of PA weirdness or Rick’s own amp, by the set’s end he was considerably quieter compared to the other guitarist, Byron. Oh well, I still got to hear the man play, and I was not disappointed.

HEXLUST 
A considerable crowd had gathered during Desmortes’ set, and they were an energetic bunch, cheering after every song and throwing up horns and whatnot. As we were taking the stage, I knew this return show would have one of two outcomes. We were either gonna get mass movement and enthusiastic applause, or befuddled expressions and the “slow clap.” I was mulling over this so hard I neglected to fully tighten one or two things in my kit. (Dun dun DUNNNN!)

Right from the intro song, we had the audience groovin’ and cheerin’. Tony’s confidence was still a little shakey, but I knew that after this great start it had nowhere to go but up. “Toxic High” came out phenomenal, probably the fastest and most precisely we’ve played that song in a live setting up to this point (Due to it being “the warm-up song,” one of us, usually me, gets a little sloppy occasionally.) The energy carried over into “Hellhammer,” when I started noticing something funny going on. My kick pedal felt a little floppy. No worries there, at least it wasn’t coming fully off. When we finished the song, I had Tony stall a little bit while I clamped the thing down extra tight. Good to go, right?

Wrong-o. I solved the tightness issue, yes, but I neglected to move it back into position before tightening it. Instead of having a strong grip on the drum hoop, the pedal had a fingertip hold on the very edge of the hoop, resulting in my kick pedal flopping around as I stomped it. A lot. During “Baphomet Dawn.” The SEVEN MINUTE LONG song! I’m not sure how the pedal made it all the way through that tune without just giving up and letting go, but it did.

After the final tom slam, I called another break, hoping Tony had enough confidence worked up to keep the crowd entertained. I telepathically suggested he pull out the “selling a chicken to a deaf guy” joke as I set about loosening, moving, centering, and re-tightening the pedal at both points. I made absolutely sure the thing was fastened and good to go, and signaled Tony. Good thing, too, because I have learned from past experience that playing “Open Casket” with a dodgy pedal is just asking for heartache. We pulled that song off and went into “Tombs” going full speed ahead. We recently decided to make this song our finale since we weren’t doing “Sodomy” on a regular basis anymore. As always, "Tombs" was the song on which we played the fastest and had the best stinger, during which I did a little drum solo. We finished the set to huge applause and smiles on our faces.

SUICIDE SOLUTION
The gear was broken down, but loading it up would require bringing the vehicles back to the club, in which case we would be screwed out of a parking spot. We opted to leave the stuff safely tucked away by the stage and got to see the bulk of Suicide Solution’s set. I'm not the biggest Ozzy fan or the most knowledgeable of his career, but I was very excited to hear such favorites as “Over the Mountain,” “Flying High Again,” and “Bark At The Moon.” I think they also played “Believer,” come to think of it. Dudes didn’t play “Shot in the Dark,” though, which made me a sad panda.

I was able to overlook the absence of my favorite Ozzy tune, though, because the songs were performed so damn well! The singer went to great lengths to emulate Ozzy’s vocals and even his stage mannerisms, being all slightly hunched over and doing that retarded jumping-and-clapping thing. The guitarist pulled off all the awesome riffery and solos and made ‘em look easy. The drummer had a spiffy shiny kit and held a tight groove while throwing in a few awesome fills here and there, including an impressive display during a stinger. The bass player… looked like Nikki Sixx! The hair, the painted fingernails, even the way he held and played his bass, totally Sixx! My mom, however, held the belief that the dude looked more like Richie Sambora.

DRIFTER
Totally did not get to see Drifter play. Towards the end of Suicide Solution, we were itchin’ to get our gear stored away, which would of course mean abandoning our coveted parking spots and just going ahead on home. Neither of us was too sore with that idea, except for Tarzan, who really wanted to see Drifter. He even suggested that he and I just wait til after the set and make a bunch of trips to take my kit to his Jeep a little bit at a time, which was just a bad idea. That would have been a very long process, at an even later time, in even lower temperatures.

Half hour later, we were bound for home, with Tarzan not very happy with the turn of events but thankfully understanding my unease about my equipment being out in the open. After all, I'm sure this won't be the last time we get to play with Drifter, and maybe if it happens again, I'll have actual storage devices for my kit that will facilitate faster loading no matter how far away we're parked. Here's lookin forward to it!

Cosby Sweater Buddies!

Date: January 9, 2010
Venue: Ten-Eleven, San Antonio TX
Bands: D.R.H., Exmortus, Vektor, Birth A.D.

PRE-SHOW
Again, our first show of the new year was in San Antonio. What made it even more special was that it was with our buddies in Exmortus, so we were (or at least I was) taking extra care to be nice and warmed up ahead of time to be sure that we not make ourselves look like fools in front of them. Another band we were looking forward to seeing was Birth A.D., who were headlining this evening. We had previously played with them in July ’09, and really dug their hardcore-isms and friendly attitudes.

Someone we were not looking forward to encountering but we knew would be there was Old Man Winter.

Sure enough, it was COLD. “Doi Dart, it’s January, it’s gonna get more than a bit chilly. Plus didn’t you already bitch about low temperatures in your last Armstrong show blog? Man up sissyboy!” Well I’m sorry but cold weather and I do not make agreeable companions. I even came prepared, sporting my awesome Cosby sweater, and was still shivering.

Speaking of Cosby sweaters, I was not the only one garbed in such potentially-embarrassing attire! As soon as we parked across from the Ten Eleven we ran into Exmortus, and Balmore was wearing this snow-scene sweater, complete with a snowman. According to the man himself, this was such an aesthetically displeasing garment that his wife would not even let him wear it back home! I wish I had brought the camera I got for Christmas with me so I could get a picture of us in our awesomely bad threads.

The other guys in Hexlust were, as usual, all for hobnobbing and elbow-rubbing, but I’m no flibbity-ibbity-gibbit! (cool points to whoever can tell me what cartoon movie I got that from) I had a kit to set up and have ready to go onstage, which would happen after the first performance, given by Dead Rotting Hood.

D.R.H.
I didn’t actually see this band, as having the room necessary to set up my drums involves being outside, but those who ventured inside described them as looking pretty damn out of it. I think they were from Corpus Christi or some such, so I imagine they were pretty pooped after that drive. I did manage to sneak a peek inside and get an eyeful of the drummer’s setup, which was pretty dang sweet. He had two bass drums, plenty of cymbals, and scores of toms, which he used to perform long rolls in just about every song. The music itself was mid-tempo stuff with what seemed to be a constant guitar lead going on. I guess I’m being generous when I say “lead,” it was more commonly described as “noodling.” Overall, not my favorite music, and apparently not a very selling performance. Hopefully they have their shit more together back in Corpus.

HEXLUST
We seem to have an unspoken vow to make 2010 the year with the least amount of fuck-awful shows thus far. After two years of playing shows together, we have our stage presence figured out, our tunes practiced to death and personalized to beat hell, our pre-show warmup regimen more or less down pat, and the secure knowledge that we need to drink water between songs and pace ourselves throughout the set. Here’s a-hopin we spend the rest of the year making good on these hard-earned lessons.

As for this show: another proud feather in our hat and a great way to kick off the new year. There was a mosh pit going on during “Toxic High,” which, considering “Toxic” is the second song we play, was quite a compliment! Tony got a nice, huge Tom G. Warrior roar from the crowd in announcing “Hellhammer.” I started feeling the burn and running out of breath during “Baphomet Dawn,” and realized I had neglected to drink any water up to that point. I finished the song and took nearly half a bottle down in preparation for the final two. We plowed through “Tombs,” and I pulled a long (feeling) solo out of my ass for the stinger, basically just ripping up and down my toms in a mostly improvisational manner.

For the closing cover, Tony decided to ask the audience if they wanted “Open Casket” or “Sodomy and Lust;” The majority of the applause was for the latter. While I’m always more than happy to play that song, especially in a live setting, we had not done such a thing for a few shows now. We had practiced the number even less, so while apparently we did a good job, it felt kinda sloppy to me.

As soon as the amps were flicked off, I was hurrying to get my drums outside and broken down. The adrenaline flowing through my system enabled me to feel warm, and I knew I didn’t have long before it died down and I was left shivering again. I got my stuff packed away just in time to start feeling the chill, and changed into a fresh shirt and my Cosby sweater.

VEKTOR
Unfortunately, I missed most of their set. JT and I were both suffering from a serious case of the munchies and set off for the Valero station not far from the club. By the time we got back the set was almost over, but I was in time to hear this really sweet clean electric guitar part of one of their songs. The band instantly had my respect! The rest of the song(s) enforced my admiration, they are a really tight band with an awesome drummer and a great set of lungs on the singer.

After their performance, we wound up talking to a few of the members (yes, I actually joined in on a conversation!) about life and college and whatnot. Turns out, as soon as classes let out for winter break these dudes were on the road, and the day after they get back is when they start classes again for the spring semester. I highly admire them for this as I couldn’t do it. Being a heavy procrastinator, I wouldn’t be registered for my classes ahead of time, and even if I did, I’d be walking into class that first day thinking “Wasn’t I just here?”

EXMORTUS
The highlight of the evening for me, and the only set (besides ours) for which I stayed all the way through. Not only that, but I was up front the whole time. I was positioned just in front of Daniel (bass player), meaning I was up against the stage-right monitor and just out of the mosh pit’s reach. This gave me a close view of Exmortus playing their songs, as well as an insight to how much Daniel contributes to their music. This dude doesn’t just hold down the root notes, he uses all four of his strings and does just as many scale runs as the guitarists do, although in very “tasteful” ways.

What made this show even more enjoyable for me was the fact that I had recently begun to really listen to their album, allowing me to recognize and appreciate more of the songs they played. I forget the exact order, but I know they did “In Hatred’s Flame,” “Onward to Battle,” “War Gods,” “Axes of War,” a new song about a pharaoh’s tomb or something, “Fimbulwinter” and closed with (personal fave) “Triumph By Fire!” No headlining status meant no Slayer-rific encore.

About that new song, I really enjoyed it. It was longer than most of their other tunes, it had a crap-ton of trade-off guitar solos, and Konan sang lead! I knew he was responsible for the backup vocals but didn’t even know the dude had it in him to take the lead for a whole song. Thanks to my positioning relative to the P.A. speakers I couldn’t hear him very well, but Tony and Tarzan said that his voice was a little deeper than Balmore’s. Very interesting.

BIRTH A.D.
Did not get to see them! It was getting late, we were still without a reliable place to stay in San Antonio, and it was time to hit the road.

POST-SHOW
By the time we got to J.T.’s place in Cove, it was 3 a.m. and still very cold. I cursed my instrument of choice the entire time I spent loading my drums, stands, and cymbals from JT’s vehicle into Tony’s truck bed. On the way to Killeen, I called my roommate to have him open the garage door for us. We slapped the truck in there and hit the hay.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Not long after the end of this tour, Exmortus parted ways with Balmore. Of all the bands whose split-ups or firings I have seen coming a mile away (or, in some instances, have really hoped for) Exmortus’ split with their front man really kinda came outta left field for me. I’m sure the band will find another awesome singer (or guitarist, since Konan has proven himself a worthy vocalist) but I’m gonna miss seeing that dude at shows. He was nice to us, always taking time to thank us for playing a show with them. He was the one who, back in March of ’09, leaned out of the van and screamed “HEXLUST!” at us, just as I doubted they’d remember who we were. Of course, he and I will always have our Cosby sweater connection. Good luck to Balmore with whatever he’s gonna do now, and to the rest of Exmortus in keepin’ on keepin’ on.

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.