Duck Hunt? Duh, Cunt!

Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008
Venue: Rock Bottom Tattoo Bar, San Antonio, TX
Bands: Abbatoir, Hexlust, Ayasoltec, Plague, Hod, Deceased

PRE-SHOW
Our first San Antonio show! I remember this day quite vividly. I was at JT’s house at like 9:30, we loaded into Tony’s family van, which we had dubbed the HexBus, and we were on the road by about 11. Phil was with us that day, taking pictures (which I have yet to see by the way) and was crammed into the back-most seat with some of the amps. Keith and I were in the middle seats playing Donkey Kong (the HexBus had a SuperNES hookup!) and JT and Tony up front. JT’s mom followed in his car, carrying some of our other amps and guitars. Also headed to our destination, though not traveling with us, were my dad and brother.

First thing we did was find JT’s sister’s apartment and unload our shit there. Then we piled into his car (Tony driving) and set out to find the club at which we were playing. This was before Tony got his Garmin, so we were going by directions printed off the Internet. Confused fun ensued. See, those directions were screwed up in some way, I think they were backwards; we would read “get on highway at this intersection” and not be able to find it. Tensions rose and tempers flared, but finally we found the place and everything was hunky-dory again. We headed back to the apartment to unwind before the show. (Note: this is when Keith, having acquired a pack of donuts from a gas station, uttered his immortal line “I got donuts, donuts I got!”)

First impressions of the Rock Bottom Tattoo Bar were reflected in its surroundings. Located in a part of San Antonio literally right by the Riverwalk, it was located across the street from some buildings which were either falling apart or abandoned in the middle of construction. Either way they were empty, windows were broken, and there was graffiti on the walls. This was starting to feel like when we played at Headhunters less than a month before, when we were on the lookout for crazy people to come and rob us.

ABBATOIR
The show itself was ok. Abbatoir played first, and were different considering they didn’t have a bass player. Not by principle, theirs was somehow elsewhere at the time of the event. Some cool leads, rather technical. The best part about the band honestly was the drummer, a big dude who had some serious skills on the kit (I heard him warming up to the last part of Opeth’s “Deliverance” before the show) along with some rotary toms.

HEXLUST
We played second this evening. My dad took footage of this momentous occasion, our first San Antonio show, and it shows us being very nervous. Not a whole lotta stage presence at all. We were just standing there, good lord. This was not helped by the fact that I looked like a total dork with my glasses, thanks to an eye infection I’d been battling which made contacts a no-no. The set list this evening was our classic Intro-Troops-Toxic-Hellhammer-Tombs-Sodomy lineup.

We came off the stage relieved just to have made it through ok. We were in a club with no actual friends and were very grateful by the one line of, like, seven people (including my dad and brother) who watched us, and were very intimidated by this group of black-clad mountain men who were there to play the show. These men turned out to be the band Hod, and showered us with compliments. We felt very cool thanks to that and Deceased, according to Tony, commenting that we were “very fast."

PLAGUE
I had never heard of Plague before this, have not heard of them afterword, and they weren’t particularly awesome, very Hatebreed/Lamb-of-God-ish. The lead singer, another LMS-afflicted “well-read” metalcore frontman, tried multiple times to incite the crowd into cheers with bullshit like “How ya fuckin' doin' San Antonio? I can’t fuckin' hear ya!” and really dumb pothead jokes.

AYASOLTEC, HOD, AND DECEASED
I thought Ayasoltec were particularly awesome, short on the vocals and long on the guitar solos. Too bad I haven’t seen this band since. Hod then took the stage and were AWESOME, they had SWEET equipment and STAGE PRESENCE and a CROWD, everything we wanted that evening. We had already taken a liking to these dudes thanks to their friendliness, now we found ourselves looking at our musical big brothers. By the time Deceased took the stage, Tony and I had tired of the club and the music and took a walk around the neighborhood, the gear safely stowed in the Hexbus. We found that, though the club itself was surrounded by dilapidation and decay, just a block away was a happenin’ VFW center. Which was, of course, on the Riverwalk.

We came back into the club just in time to catch Deceased going into a happenin’ version of Venom’s “Black Metal.” At this point in time, I hadn’t listened to Venom in like a year, but when I heard those lyrics and recognized that riff, I ran right into the crowd and started singing along like I had just heard the song yesterday. A very excellent way to close out a fantastic first show in San Antonio.

Presidential Flash Cards?

Date: Thursday, July 3, 2008

Venue: The Parlor, Austin TX

Bands: Girlfrend, Fake Blood, Hexlust, Boogdish

Setlist:

-Intro

-Troops of Doom

-Toxic High

-Hellhammer

-Tombs of the Blind Dead

-Sodomy and Lust

PRE-SHOW

I think Hexlust may one day endorse CEFCO stations. They have the cheapest gas with the most pumps, the only store around here that carries the big cans of Monster, cheap water, good taquitos, and best of all the one here in Killeen has a Quizno's next to it! It only made sense that we stopped there to fuel up and grab some munchies before we took off for Austin. I was riding with Keith, with the amps and guitars stuffed into his Jeep, following JT's Expedition, containing Tony and my drums… and James! Holy crap, this was starting to feel like a case of déjà vu!

Preparing for and getting to this show went pretty much the same way as the one four days prior, only this time James was riding with Tony and JT and we weren't headed to Headhunters, a rock/metal club. We were off to The Parlor, a pizza place! The "That Thing You Do!" similarities continue.

After getting lost, getting back on track, and getting lost again, we reached our destination and saw that it was really fucking small. Tony was the only one not surprised, as he had been here before; however, none of his prior warnings prepared me for just how "cozy" this place was. I think the pet store at which Keith and I work is about the same size, if not a bit bigger. It's definitely cooler; I had no idea how sweat-inducing being in a confined space with blasting pizza ovens could be. It was like Club Spontaneous, only better-smelling.

We met up with my parents and Mr. Jeff Lewis, a family friend from before I was born, and I was asked if I was planning on using the whole drum kit I brought. See, the "stage" was a table-less area near the front door with plenty of elbow-room. If you're playing in the White Stripes. For Hexlust, a band formed on the philosophy of "'Bigger' isn't big enough!" this was looking to be one cramped performance. Thankfully, as stated earlier, we just played at Headhunters four days earlier. I managed to fit my considerable kit plus my bandmates and their amps onto that rinky-dink stage with no problem, so I was not sweating this at all.

One more thing to note before we get into the first band is that this was definitely not our normal audience. Not that we have any sort of following per se, but at all of our previous shows we were guaranteed to see at least one of two sets of characteristics: buzz cut, tribal tattoos, and Pantera shirt; or colored mohawk, checkered pants, and obscure crust patches. At least one Misfits shirt is found in either set. Not here, though. None of that. I don't even know what to call it, or even pick out some stereotypical standardized dress code, although there were quite a few chicks with short hair and thick-framed glasses. These seemed to be the kids who were too soft for Summer Slaughter but too cool for Warped Tour. And boy howdy was I sure they were going to hate us.

GIRLFREND

The drum kit consisted of a snare, a floor tom about as big in diameter as the snare, hi-hats, and a crash/ride cymbal. The only other instrument was a bass guitar. There was still one more position to be filled, that of lead singer. Three girls, with enough gear to tour using my car, playing God-knows-what. I'm not talking smack about them, I just didn't get it. I had no idea what they were singing about, and individual songs sure as shit don't stick out in my head six days later. Oh well, they were all cute (in an "Aw, you're so kyoot!" way, not a "Dude, she's cute!" way) and were entertaining to watch, so I definitely wasn't bored.

For the last song of the set, the bass player and drummer traded positions, although it didn't make a bit of difference in terms of playing quality on either instrument. I guess it's like Scott Ian and Charlie Benante trading places when S.O.D. perform "United Forces" live; it's not necessarily for the sake of musicality as it is for the sake of those particular performers just wanting to play those particular parts in that particular song.

FAKE BLOOD

Ya know, I actually thought it couldn't possibly get more minimalist than Girlfrend. Not only did this band have fewer members (two, one of whom was a guy), and a smaller not-drums instrument (keyboard) but they took that same drum kit and reduced it further by eighty-sixing the hi-hats. They did have an additional piece of equipment, though; a tape machine playing background noise consisting of birds, waterfalls, and other such nature-nut shit. It was on the whole time, providing soft background noise between songs. My mom thought this was a great idea, as it kept the audiences' attention between songs, instead of allowing them to drift off and be surprised by the onset of another song.

Besides a particularly entertaining little number that eschewed the evils of upper-middle-class suburban living, there aren't a lot of songs that stick out in my head. Again, there was a lineup switch for the last song, the drummer/singer and keyboardist trading places for an instrumental cover of some song I don't know (they mentioned neither the title nor the name of the band during their introduction). It was hella fun to watch though, especially during the middle of the song when the dude playing the keyboard just went on this wild tangent, randomly palming keys and creating total confusion while the drummer kept a chaotic but steady beat.

Loading our stuff in after Fake Blood's set, I felt like a member of Kiss, if ever Kiss went on tour with Marcy Playground and the Violent Femmes. The few amps and barebones drum kit were replaced by JT's Marshall cab with the ridiculously sized head, Tony's big Fender elevated by a stand, Keith's bass rig, and my seven-piece space-consumer. It actually didn't take us that long to set up, and all we needed to sound check were the vocal mics. Tony looked back at me and said "Well, take us there Sketch." It's actually "Skitch," but whatevs. I resisted the temptation to start off with the lead-in to "That Thing You Do" and counted off our intro.

HEXLUST

Well, once again, Dart can't get through the intro without dropping one of his sticks. I've come up with a few excuses for this. For one thing, it's the first song of the set, and even if I've warmed up my muscles before the show, I'm still not used to playing yet. Additionally, for being the first song in the set, it's awful strenuous on my right arm; it's not as fast as our other songs, but there are an awful lot of continuous accent-heavy whatever-notes on the ride and hi-hat cymbals. And finally, as it always is for me and pretty much any drummer, I am never able to fully recreate the comfortable practice-room positioning of my kit for the stage. My ride cymbal, I realized far too late, was positioned right beside me instead of diagonally. Very uncomfortable.

I fixed the ride position in the very short break between the intro and "Troops." The song itself went off alright, my blast beats still felt a little awkward and Tony came into his solo kinda late, but overall off to a good start. Tony and JT were out of sync for the beginning of "Toxic," a problem I contribute to my awkward count-off. There was a also a slight hitch during Tony's solo; the solo itself wasn't going according to how I was used to hearing it going, which is fine, that happens. Then suddenly Tony starts doing it how it normally goes, only a time thingy (Bar? Measure? Ted Danson?) or so too late, and now there's a slight dilemma for me: either I keep the timing and repetitions rigid and cut his ass off before his solo was done, or roll with the punches and let the part drag out for an extra amount of time. I chose the latter, of course, and it was sweet.

"Hellhammer" went off without a hitch for the most part, although I had a weird moment towards the end of JT's solo; I actually felt his solo ending at a point that coincided with the end of a certain string of time thingies (curse my lacking musical vocabulary). At the last minute my drummer mind said "Hey if we end this right here it would actually sound right!" and as a result I rushed the lead-in into the "climax" riff. Luckily the rest of the band followed me and the error wasn't that noticeable.

Nothing interesting happened during "Tombs," so I'm gonna take this moment to comment on the audience. Whereas before I was sure they would hate us or at least stare at us like we're weirdoes, they turned out to be very appreciative. The applause between songs was more than just polite "ho-hum, get off the stage" clapping, and whenever I looked up while playing I would see some of them (especially the drummer/singer from Fake Blood, who was practically shaking) getting into it, bobbing their heads with the music and such. Of course we had James and Michael, actually headbanging and singing along, supporting us as always.

Anywho, "Sodomy" was the crowd-pleasing band-exhausting show-stopper it always is. I tell you, there is no fun in this world like listening to a very tired Tony trying to keep up with my mile-a-minute drumming while belting out that last tongue-twisting verse and playing the guitar riff at the same time. And no, I'm not being cruel, he thinks it's fun too, hehe. Watching the video footage, a really funny moment occurs when we come out of the mid-tempo breakdown: James is not only headbanging but also punching the air! Gotta love that dude.

Remember how I was saying earlier how hot it was in that place? We were really feeling it then. Tony and JT immediately headed off in search of water, and I was covered in sweat. No water break for me, though. If we were the last band and I had oodles of time to break my kit down, it would have been a different story. Boogdish still had to use the stage, however, and before I could rest my laurels I had to make sure all seven drums, all six stands, my packed cymbal bag, my stick bag, my throne, and my pedals were all securely tucked away. An interesting thing happened during the gear load-in: James' first beer! He hated it. I'm so proud!

BOOGDISH

While most of Hexlust were snacking on the free large pizza that is given to performing bands, Boogdish set up and took off. Unlike the last time I saw this band live, the line-up was a three-piece: Michael on guitar and vocals, Kelsi on bass, and her bro Kyle on drums. What makes things even more interesting is the fact that he was using my drums. We didn't share a kit; about a month and a half ago I lent him some parts from my Pulse kit to take on tour, and man did he make those drums sound GOOD. In fact the whole band was awesome, and having a full band playing the music instead of just himself and a drum machine really lent a louder, fuller feeling to the music.

Of course, whether it's just Michael by himself or a three-piece chaos orchestra, one word always springs to mind when seeing Boogdish live: fun. I was having such a great time I forgot about the fact that I was tired, stood up, and had a smile frozen on my face the entire time. Even my dad was getting into it, standing right by where Michael was, singing along, head-nodding, and giving major applause between songs. The songs themselves weren't the waffle-bashing ditties from the Armstrong show, nosireebob. These were a whole new crop of golden good-time nuggets, among which were a warning against relationship-driven eating habits, an advocacy for pissing in public waters, and a rallying theme song celebrating the silent awesomeness that are straight-edge mime crews. Of course, half the fun comes from Michael introducing each song.

POST-SHOW

After hanging around for a little bit and chit-chatting with musicians and audience members, it was time for us to take off. Partly because it was almost time for the Parlor to close, but mostly because we still had an hour-long drive home to endure and we were all pooped. Compared to the last time we drove home from Austin, a hair-raising adventure involving heavy rain, disregarded red lights, and being behind one slow-ass mofo in Florence, this time the journey back was a serene, peaceful trip shattered only by my mother's texted request to pick her up a six-pack on the way home. The funny part is that not only could I not buy the beer (it was past midnight on a Thursday), but when I got home my mom didn't even say anything about it. Yep, really funny.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

A major thanks is owed to the audience in attendance at the Parlor. Not only did they not ignore us, were in fact very supportive, but they were generous enough to donate $30 in gas money to us! I guess we had good karma from letting Beyond Gods and Empires get all the moneys at the last Area 51 show. Thanks also to the good people working at the Parlor, for letting us play and giving us free pizza.

Thank yous to Michael and Boogdish, for setting this show up and inviting us to play; to Girlfrend and Fake Blood for making us feel awkward about our instrumental overindulgence for the first time in our career; to my parents, for showing up, showing support, and taping the whole fiasco; to Jeff Lew, for his glowing opinion (he's hard to impress when it comes to metal) and his advice; to James, tagging along, helping out, and headbanging as usual; and finally, to Tom Hanks, for writing, directing, and starring in That Thing You Do, one of the coolest "band" movies of all time and a longtime source of inspiration for Hexlust.

In closing, simply because I forgot to commandeer a mic and spit this out during the actual show: TABLE NINETEEN, YOUR PIZZA'S READY!

Sergeant D and the Hexcellent Three! (Plus JT!)

Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008

Venue: Headhunters, Austin, TX

Bands: In Asunder, Hexlust, Grace of Terror, Hybrid, Manifestation, a couple others

Setlist:

-Intro

-Troops

-Toxic
-HH

-Tombs

-Sodomy

PRE-SHOW

I think Hexlust may one day endorse CEFCO stations. They have the cheapest gas with the most pumps, the only store around here that carries the big cans of Monster, cheap water, good taquitos, and best of all the one here in Killeen has a Quizno's next to it! It only made sense that we stopped there to fuel up and grab some munchies before we took off for Austin. I was riding with Keith, with the amps and guitars stuffed into his Jeep, following JT's Expedition, containing Tony and my drums.

An hour or so later, we arrived and wound our way comically through the streets (even during the day the lane-separating lines are hard to see) until we came to Red River St. We parked, Tony and Keith went to check out the club, JT went walking off somewhere, and I stayed behind to watch the vehicles and make sure no one tried to piss on JT's tires. Some black guy came by and asked me if I had a pussy; when his girlfriend accosted him for it, he said he knew them gays when he saw them. Wow, I'm really thin and have long hair, I'm totally gay. I must be in middle school again. What's fascinating is that being that he's black AND fat, one would figure that he would be more sympathetic towards stupid stereotypes.

Just goes to show that he really is a douche.

Well, Tony came back and reported that we're the first band there, and, best of all, it's managed by the one and only Billy Milano! For those of you who don't know who that is, listen to S.O.D.'s "Speak English or Die" album. Already I had a good feeling about this show. We found some free parking across the street from the club and met the guys form In Asunder. After that bit of social niceties, we got to work on a system of two dudes carrying stuff in while two more stay with the vehicles.

Coming into the club and preparing to show my ID, I realized that this club is small. Smaller than Area 51, a feat I didn't know was possible, but at least the ceiling was higher. The stage itself was smaller than the Denim and Diamonds one, once again something I had before considered physically impossible. I planned out how I'd have my drums on stage while watching In Asunder prepare to perform.

IN ASUNDER

Take the fact that these guys sounded like I Misery, and if I wanted to see I Misery I'd stick around Killeen and go see I Misery, combine that with the fact that I'm just not that much into the "brutal" style of death metal, and you have Dart not particularly moved. Nice guys, and certainly good musicians, but their flavor is not my cup of tea. The others were impressed, hell they stood up and watched them the whole time, but I watched them from my seat and warmed up.

A horrible realization: watching the drummer from In Asunder brought me to the conclusion that maybe I wouldn't have room on stage for my rotary toms. A pained expression on my face, I told Keith that I wanted to put the best part of my kit back in his Jeep. Sad panda.

So In Asunder got off and we threw my crap onstage, which took no time at all thanks to it being a reduced kit and having been set up offstage ahead of time. My kit for this show was, for the first time since… the first Area 51 show, my Ludwig kit, now with my new 14" tom.

We soundchecked, and I could not have been happier. Know why? My drums were actually miked! There was one in my kick drum and this little one perched right above my kit. No timing issues this evening! And Billy said that Tony's falsetto screams were "fuckin' metal." Feeling good again! It wasn't even directed at me, but just to be associated with that compliment felt great.

HEXLUST

Man, you know what I love? Dropping my sticks before we're even through with the intro song. If I may have more time to just talk about me, I have this weird thing where my arms start cramping up whenever we play live. Doesn't matter how much or how little I warm up. Whenever we practice, I'm fine, whether I've warmed up or not. When we're in a situation where peoples' attention spans are at stake, BAM! Cramp. I think it's the fact that I'm watching Dr. Katz while I've been writing this that's caused me to go off on these self-absorbed tangents. Or maybe I've always been doing that and it's watching Dr. Katz that made me realize that I'm doing it!

What the hell am I talking about?

The show! Yes, dropping sticks, four total, all before "Troops" was over! I could feel my bandmates looking back at me and thinking "Oh, that's our Dart!" That's ok though. JT broke a string just in time to not do his solo for "Toxic." He grabbed Tony's Peavey and I thought about how funny it would be if he broke the strings on that one, too.

For the first time in our history of performing the song "Hellhammer," hardly anybody in the audience said anything when Tony asked if anybody liked Celtic Frost. Even fewer answered back when he asked if anyone liked Hellhammer. Oh well, they seemed to like the song itself. "Tombs" was a great time, and with this show we continued the concept of doing a stinger at the end instead of the fade-out deal we'd been doing before. We first debuted the stinger at the Armstrong show, just cause "Tombs" was the last song of the evening. God, I'm really rambling with this blog. Anywho, the song ends and, lo and behold, JT broke the string on the Peavey!

Oh, that's our JT!

So for "Sodomy," Hexlust were a three-piece with JT doing backing vocals (In case you were wondering just what the fuck the second part of the title meant, there it is.) Worked well enough, and we finally got some moshing in the audience (from all two of the people standing up), not to mention some singing along with the choruses! Big long stinger finish, and that's a wrap!

POST-SHOW

Billy Milano said we were the most metal band he'd heard that night! At least that's what I think he said, I couldn't hear him so I'm getting this paraphrasing secondhand from Tony. Either way, we got complimented by him! I'm still dorkin' out about it. It took about another twenty minutes or so to get everything packed up and stored away, and we got another opportunity to talk to Mr. Milano in the form of how to get to Encore Records from there. Not like it mattered, we eventually decided to not go to Encore anyway, but it gave me a chance to shake the dude's hand.

After a couple harrowing near-death experiences involving dark, rainy streets and the increased inability to see the lane-separating lines, not to mention going all the way through Florence behind somebody who was probably going slower than the posted speed limit, we made it back to my place in one piece. The guys left around one, and I went to bed, realizing one wacky fact: I didn't smell like smoke! We weren't in the club that long, there weren't that many people, and those who were there weren't smoking. This was the first time I've ever come back from a show reeking only of sweat!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I wanna thank all twelve of the people who saw us play for showing up and for not making my clothes, hair, and equipment smell like an ashtray. In Asunder were cool dudes with whom we'll hopefully be playing future shows. Billy Milano for being awesome and the Headhunters club in general; it was compact but comfortable, the bathroom was clean, and, personally, this was my first "miked" show in about eight months. It felt good to be heard again! Last but not least, I wanna thank Possessed, who were playing right next door that night and were probably one of the causes of our limited audience, alongside our considerable obscurity.

P.R.O.S.C.: In which our heroes play their first outdoor show and Dart steps in cowshit

We've all seen the DVD's or been to a few ourselves: outdoor shows. Makeshift stages, shitty sound, no place to sit, limited toilets, bugs, sunburns… yeah, for the most part they suck. This, however, was a very special outdoor show, at least for us. One, it was our first, and two, it was pretty much a gathering of almost every band we've ever played with, except Nautilus, SoulSlave, Kill the Queen, and Beyond Gods and Empires.

Date: Friday, May 23, 2008

Venue: Armstrong Events Center, Bumfuck, TX

Bands: The Shfux, Dilapidated Empyrean, Combat Shock, Dirty Rat Bastards, A.I.J., Hexlust, Boogdish, Zero and Falling, Nuklear Dekay, Sober Daze, Painfilled Silent

Setlist:

-Intro

-Troops

-Toxic
-Hellhammer

-Tombs

PRE-SHOW

I am so glad, oh so fucking glad that Tony and I went on an expedition to find this place a day beforehand. Nobody but those "in the know" had any clue where the "Armstrong Event Center" was; the fact that this wasn't just another city club but some community get-together out in the middle of Free-Bird-ville made its location even more mysterious. It was said to be out near Belton but even those who were life-long Belton-ites (Beltonians?) had never heard of it. Could it be that we were having the piss taken out of us? Was our chain being pulled? Were we being… jived?

Nope. It was actually pretty easy to find once you knew what road to look for, and after you've been there the first time you can easily find your way back again. The directions are virtually idiot-proof. I got lost. It wouldn't have been so humiliating if Keith hadn't been following me with Lacey, Evan and Phil. So now I had James in my car and Tarzan the Windex-Wielding Parakeet Crippler behind me making fun of my navigational incompetence.

After arriving at the Armstrong Center and taking in my surroundings, I began to get a kind of weird feeling. Let's see, old two-story brick building, unkempt grass, two makeshift wooden stages, lots of teens and young adults running around in mohawks and patchwork clothing, sunshine, mosquitoes, pizza, people from different bands and fan clubs coming together to share in the D.I.Y. spirit, no major authority figures... this was like some kind of Punk Rock Outdoor Summer Camp! Indeed.

Over the next hour or so the day's activities were planned in the form of what bands went on which stages at what time, and gear was unloaded and set up in our respective "rooms." Lots of meet-and-greet and heyhowyadoin's going on. I was actually surprised, more people started showing up than I thought would even know about this place. Parents, girlfriends, kids, people from other bands who weren't even playing, setting up lawn chairs and applying repellent as the sun began touching the horizon and the first band took to the stage.

THE SHFUX

These guys weren't even halfway through their first song when a decently-sized pit started. And it just got bigger. I thought I saw some bigg'ns at the Spontaneous show, or even at Kritickill shows past. This one at times numbered around thirty people or more and threatened to overtake those of us standing on the sidelines. Business as usual from the band itself, solid punk with a lot of attitude and some healthy doses of humor, never disappointing. My only bitch was that they didn't play my favorite song of theirs, that black-metal-inspired song of which I don't remember the title.

DILAPIDATED EMPYREAN

I actually wasn't there for the first half of these guys' set. After the Shfux shut off their amps, I went off in search of Tony and JT. Somewhere between point A and point B I stepped in cowshit. Lovely. Off to my car I went, changed into my drumming shoes, and took my boots over to the bathroom where I washed them off in the sink.

Getting back to my place in the audience, I was just in time to catch the last two songs of Dilapidated Empyrean's set. One thing I can say for sure is that these guys must listen to a lot of blues and/or Southern rock. Very groovy, not too fast and not too slow. Their last song sounded a lot like Tool but definitely wasn't a cover, causing grumbles of "rip-off" among some of the audience members. Personally, I didn't care. It was a nice change of pace and not that hard on the ears, either.

COMBAT SHOCK

Whereas DE inspired no pits (it would have been unfortunate anyway considering there was no room on the tiny stage for the guitarist/singer and bassist) Combat Shock brought the moshing back and screaming. I thought the pits were big in the Shfux's set, and I may be exaggerating out of sheer ignorance, but I swear these pits got huge. Of course my sissy ass wasn't participating, but I know Keith and JT were getting into the spirit. The music itself was alright, but actually started to feel like it was running a bit long. Hard to say, but they were certainly enjoyable to watch, mostly cuz the guitarist had cool hair.

DIRTY RAT BASTARDS

By this time I had taken to preparing my drums to be taken up on stage, the stage on which the Dirty Rat Bastards were now performing. As a result, I didn't catch a whole lot of their set, but arrived just in time to witness something that would significantly affect our own playtime.

One thing I forgot to mention was that earlier in the day some of us were jokingly taking bets on who would be the first to break through one of the ramshackle stages. Considering JT and Keith are big fans of their "caveman stomping," we figured it would be us. Oddly enough, it was the band that built the stages in the first place. At some point through the Dirty Rat Bastards' set, something snapped. Sensing it, the singer started stomping, a lot. Lo and behold, the front of the stage caved in. It would have been really funny had we not been next in line to use that particular stage.

After closer examination, it was ascertained that the stage floor itself had not broken, just one of the support beams. Since the floor was made up of multiple pieces of flat wood, it was just one of the pieces taking on a suddenly sharp angle that caused the "cave-in". What ended up happening was the stage floor was lifted, the support network taken out from underneath, and the floor set on the ground.

A.I.J.

Once again, being that this band went on before us, I missed the majority of their set (such was the case at the Spontaneous show a month prior.) It kinda sucks that in the three times I've seen them I've only been able to enjoy them once.

My attention was taken up trying to get my drum kit set up on stage without the whole contraption falling over. The lack of support beams under the floor left the floor pieces very wobbly, which caused me to reduce my kit even further. I took with me only a bass drum, my three toms, one floor tom, hi-hat, two crashes, and a ride. Warming up, I figured out that there would have to be minimal movement on stage and not too much hard-hitting from me.

I swear, sometimes writing these blogs I feel so self-centered, but hey, I writes what I sees.

HEXLUST

We played a very short set, but there was a lot going on, at least for me. Working my kit was like playing Whack-a-Mole while trying to keep the moles themselves from each taking off in a different direction at any given time. The wood panels weren't that big, so different parts of my kit would be on different pieces. These pieces were affected by the movement of my bandmates, which in the end resulted in the occasional cymbal or tom stand falling over and my bass drum trying to slide away from me. Not even halfway through "Troops" I had to kick JT off stage to minimize movement.

Somewhere in the middle of the set, I got another weird feeling, one that transcended the whole summer-camp vibe I felt upon arrival. Here we were, pretty much on the ground, playing our music. The only lighting provided was the stage lights and the lights in the house behind us; the rest was all darkness. And there were the people moshing in front of the stage, figures, mostly silhouetted except for the rare instance when one of them came closer to the stage lights, moving and jerking and thrashing to our beats.

Maybe my quarter-Indian blood was acting up, or maybe I've seen Thunderheart too many times, but right then the whole affair took on a wacky tribal feel. We were making these crazy rhythms and beats in front of the campfire, and inspiring our tribesmen to dance in simultaneous expression. When we went fast, they went fast. When we went slow, they headbanged in time with the rhythm. Then we'd go fast again and of course they would go fast which would inspire me to push the tempo even faster… it was this great primal back-and-forth between ourselves and the audience. That was pretty much it, I didn't see any spirits of my ancestors (I would have run screaming into the streets) or have any life-changing epiphanies ("Get a REAL job!") but it was still a really awesome feeling… and then my hi-hat started falling over and I was jerked back to reality. I don't know if anyone else felt it, I honestly haven't talked to the others about it, but it was cool while it lasted.

Overall it was actually a very successful set. I could hear every guitar and, for the first time ever, Tony's vocals, and I'm pretty sure they could all actually hear my unmiked drums. "Hellhammer" went off without us screwing up after JT's solo, although there was a slight problem with Keith's chord dying and his sound vanishing. He had a fresh one in time for "Tombs", and we finished the set off with a bang.

BOOGDISH

Besides Tony's recorded footage of past shows he's played with them, I had never actually seen Boogdish live and was ready for the opportunity. James and I hustled my drums back into the room and were back out by about the second song. This performance was interesting in that it was the only one-man band the whole evening. The whole stage consisted of Michael, bass in hand and mic in front of face, with his drum machine, keyboard, and maybe one or two other contraptions I lost track of. Michael had the full attention of those who watched, amusing us with his ditties about waffles and 24-hour pet shops and amazing us with just how long this guy seemed to go without taking a breath. My first time seeing Boogdish live was definitely one for the books.

ZERO AND FALLING

After Michael was finished, James and I went to work getting my drums loaded back into my car. After the first trip, James volunteered to bring the stuff to me while I waited by my car so I wouldn't have to keep unlocking the doors. During one of those intervals I noticed something weird had happened; the music had stopped. Zero and Falling had until then been the soundtrack to our packing, and suddenly they were no more. I figured it was some weird technical PA problem and thought nothing of it. James came back and told me that the police had shown up and shut down the show. Looking around I finally saw the police cruiser and quite a few grumbling people heading for their cars.

So basically the show was over. We in Hexlust stuck around for a while to say goodbye, collect our money from the Spontaneous show, and decide on our next plan of action. What it came down to was Tony going home and the rest of us going to What-a-Burger in Killeen.

POST-SHOW

Well, What-a-Burger is where we ended up. About another hour was spent there, discussing the show and poop, being loud and rambunctious, to the point where they sent an employee after us to make sure we were gone. Prick. Nothin much after that, just gettin' home and gettin' to bed, another Hexcellent feather in our cap.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I had a helluva time at this show, with the whole friendly summer-camp vibe and seeing all these great bands, some we've played with before, some we'd never even heard of before. I wish my parents could have come to tape the show, or somebody had handed Phil a video camera, so that Hexlust's first outdoor show could be preserved in history, but my parents had to get up early the next morning, and Phil, well, I dunno. Dammit Phil!

Anywho, I felt bad for Zero and Falling getting interrupted, plus Sober Daze, Painfilled Silent, and Nuklear Dekay for not even getting an opportunity to play. I wasn't mad at the cops, however, who according to Tony were very calm and just doing their job. Blame goes to whatever hick it was that called them in the first place. Of course, when you think about it, what more fitting end is there to a Punk Rock Outdoor Summer Camp than to have the cops come in and shut it down before it's even completed?

For this, Hexlust's sixth round of public buffoonery, and our first-ever outdoor show, thanks goes to the Dirty Rat Bastards, whose idea this whole shenanigan was. Thanks also to Walter, for as usual helping hold everything together and coming through with our moneys (Yes we're money-hungry; very un-cool but hey, gas is on the rise and with it is the price of porn). To James as well, for not only coming (of his own volition) to our show but also helping me lug my shit, all this after a long day of sweating his tits off in some warehouse on post. Thanks to Phil, Lacey, and Evan for tagging along and putting up with hearing the same tunes over and over again. Thanks to Tony's co-workers, whom I saw once and then never again. Muchos gracias to Cole's girlfriend, for snapping the awesome photos in which everyone else looks jubilant but I look like I'm attending my father's funeral. Finally, to all the many people who came out and witnessed this roster of performances, and to all the many performers themselves. This was an awesome experience and I hope we get to do it again.

Tony got dirt in his amp.

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.

Shfuxlust!

Date: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Venue: Area 51, Harker Heights, TX
Bands: The Shfux, Beyond Gods and Empires, Hexlust

Setlist:
-Intro
-Troops
-Toxic
-ED
-Tombs
-Baphomet
-HH
-Sodomy

"Baphomet" refers to "Baphomet Dawn," our most mid-tempo song to date, written during a period of time when Tony had a technicality freak-out and decided to write something with a little more complexity in the riffage. "HH" stands for Hellhammer, a song written as a tribute to (you guessed it) Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost. This song was written immediately following Tony's technical kick, a simple song with simple riffs played with the guitars deliberately sounding like crap.

FORETHOUGHT

It's a story as old as time itself. I think. A stroke of extraordinarily good luck followed right up by a stroke of horrifically bad luck. We came back to Area 51 with high hopes, looking forward to the awesomeness that would have been us performing again with two brand-spankin' new songs in tow.

Well…

PRE-SHOW

We arrive at 6:45 and… they're not ready. No prob, still early. James and Branden showed up and we hung out in the parking lot waiting for something to happen. All of us are in a loose, optimistic mood. Our last outing at Area 51 was a screaming success, so how could this be any worse? It's the same club, same staff, only no manager screaming in our ear. To pass the time we headed across the street to the Mickey's in search of nourishment.

Around 7:30 we got the call to bring our gear in. We load our stuff into the club and pile it into a corner. Since there are three bands, there's no way in hell we're all gonna set up onstage and soundcheck right then and there, so this part is way easy. Speaking of three bands, Beyond Gods and Empires haven't shown up yet, but they're from Austin, so there's really no problem with that at all. While we're getting our equipment in, word starts to get around that there are no microphones, which will prove to be a problem for any band that happens to have a vocalist. Willing to lend a helping hand, Tony and I set out for his house to retrieve the microphones we use at practice; three minutes later JT calls us back, saying they somehow acquired some.

THE SHFUX

By the time Tony and I get back, my parents have arrived, so we spend a while milling about outside and BSing. Finally, it's time for the Shfux to get onstage and do what they do well. And believe you, me, they did it very well indeed. The middle of their set saw all of Hexlust, plus James, in the front row headbanging, a trend which continued through to the end of their set.

BEYOND GODS AND EMPIRES

Beyond Gods and Empires took to the stage next, and from the very get-go I was pissed. Not that there was anything wrong with the band, mind you; in terms of sheer energy and stage presence they had us all beat. But not even twenty seconds into their first song, I'm blindsided by an impromptu three-person mosh pit and knocked onto our gear, piled up on the side of the dance floor. I land on my cymbal stands and my first thought is "Well, that's it, here comes a sprained ankle or wrist that shoots my performance right to hell." Thankfully, I'm fine, but not a happy panda, so I head outside to cool off.

Somehow JT has made it out before I have, where he sits warming up on his guitar and talking to his mom. I sat near him and began to have this weird nagging thought, about the loads of lag-time we've experienced, the odd placement of other equipment, not to mention the stroke of bad luck on my behalf concerning my location relative to the mosh pit… did it all mean something? Was it an omen of our later performance?

HEXLUST

BGAE finish up with one hell of an extended stinger and get their stuff loaded up. Now comes the moment we've all been waiting for (and by "we" I mean myself and my bandmates): Hexlust get up and prepare for their first headlining show evar. And boy howdy have we prepared in advance for it. I myself am proudly unveiling a stripped down version of my Pulse kit, complete with bigger toms for a boomier sound. As I'm setting up, I realize that my drums aren't being mic'd; no prob, they weren't last time either and it proved to be no major hindrance. Then I notice Tony's amp being placed in front of my bass drum; this strikes me as odd, hell even just plumb wrong, but no time to sweat the small stuff, got a drum kit to set up and an intro to count off.

We made it through the intro song with only a minor screw-up on one part; so far, so good. "Troops," being the fantastic warm-up song that it is, went by with few to no problems and decent audience reaction. And then problems started happening. Immediately after "Troops" I realized that my double bass pedal had malfunctioned in a way that had nothing to do with how high the pedal was (the typical problem). I lean over to fix it, deciding to use Tony's announcement of "Toxic" as my signal to come back up and count off the song. Seconds go by with nothing, and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Tony's taking a little too much of a dramatic pause. I look up and realize that he has indeed announced the song without my hearing it and they're waiting on me to count off. Fuck!

OK, I haven't pinpointed the source of the problem, but that's alright, "Toxic" has almost no double-bassing anyway, I have all the way until "Tombs" to fix it. Playing the song, however, I recognize another problem: Nobody can hear me. Maybe the audience can, but my bass-drum-reliant bandmates can hear nothing but the occasional snare-and-crash hit. For a song as simple as "Toxic High," that's not a major problem, but things are gonna get sticky in "Evil Dead" when I start throwing in more frequent fills and speed changes.

During the between-song pause I fiddle with my bass drum some more and find the problem: the stick thingy which connects the "slave" pedal to the "master" pedal has come completely off. I take my time fixing it since I don't have to listen for Tony to announce "Evil Dead", I just have to wait for JT to start up the guitar intro. And, just as I feared, "Evil Dead" ended up a complete mess, with nobody able to follow my rhythms accurately. Eek.

Of all the songs we play, "Tombs" is my personal favorite, just in terms of my playing, so I was dead-set on making it work. And for the most part I did, the drum rhythm in this song is more steady and less hectic, and I kept my fills to a minimum. "Baphomet" followed in similar fashion, I think they actually heard me in this one.

"Hellhammer" was probably the second most-painful song of the evening to play, only because JT jumped the gun at one part and went right into another riff, leaving the rest of us confused, but able to pick it back up quickly. I don't worry too much about this one; watching the footage my dad shot, the audience didn't seem to notice.

And finally, "Sodomy." My most fill-laden song, it would be a big worry if it wasn't the song we in Hexlust have been playing the absolute longest of any song in the list. Boom, boom, build speed, solos, big stinger finish, and curtain.

POST-SHOW

Well, we didn't make any money. We were supposed to get $2 for every person that walked in the door that evening, but due to a miscommunication, BGAE made off with the whole jackpot. Which actually isn't too bad, neither of us is relying on show income to pay bills and that band is from Austin, if anyone needs the gas money it's them. Still, it just served as an unpleasant cap on an even less-pleasant evening.

JT, Tony, Keith, James, Branden, and I all went back to my place and talked about what had happened that evening. Tonight had been a disappointment, but at the same time wasn't a disaster. Looking back at the footage, we really weren't that bad, it was just a few technical problems that stood in the way of awesomeness. Branden ended up staying the night but the rest of them went home, all of us in Hexlust confident that our show at Club Spontaneous the following week would go much smoother.

For this show I'd like to thank everyone who came to this one, spent $7 at the door, and spent the entire show playing pool in the back; you guys are what keep us going. Johnny the Friday Knight, for his continuing support; my parents (especially my dad for the video footage) and JT's parents, just for showing up; Sue, for the pictures taken; James and Branden, for being awesome roadies; Michael and his girlfriend whose name escapes me, for staying up front even though she needed earplugs; and of course Jade, who has come to more of our shows than anyone else I know.

AFTERTHOUGHT

I didn't see much of the guys after that night.

JT moved away. He's gay now.

Tony runs the Temple Public Library. I stop by every once in a while and make fun of him for going nowhere with his life.

James was drafted* and killed in New Hampshire.

And as for Keith, well, he became The Reverend K. Ryan Rogers.

Looking back it was the best summer of my life. They were my best friends.

*Into the NFL