Halloween w/ Korn, GWAR & Diamond Head + Housecore Fest & more (2013)

(later that night) South By So What w/ GWAR, Death Angel & more – QT Park – Grand Prairie, TX

We actually started and ended (this portion of the evening) across the complex with the South By So What Festival, that’s usually obviously by its given name an anti-SXSW festival that runs concurrently with the conference that has now grown to a Fall edition and tonight was its maiden voyage.
So when you pulled up to the complex that’s similar to the Medowlands in New Jersey, you have the Verizon Theater, Lone Star Park Horsetrack and now a smaller outdoor venue called the QT Park that’s just across the street from the Theater. Obviously having a two-day three stage festival of Punk & Metal across the street from the only rock radio station’s annual Halloween party was great for fans, terrible for those trying to park.

We got there just in time to see of only two bands I wanted to see, Death Angel

Obviously given my Thrash roots I will always have some interest in this band although they barely resemble the band I remember and even fewer original members, but at my friends’ Ryan insistence we saw them open for Anthrax last year and they were freaking awesome, so I thought “hey, we’re already here,why not catch these guys again” and we did and it was the right move because they were freaking awesome.

Then we crossed the street to the Freaker’s Ball (see above) and when that was over we crossed back over in time to see, appropriately for Halloween – GWAR

It’s hard not to admire the tenacity of Gwar. With last year’s passing of guitarist Cory Smoot, aka Flattus Maximus, many expected the Scumdog Overlords to hang up their helmets and call it a day, yet 2013 has been one of the busiest years in Gwar’s history. With the September release of Battle Maximus, and nearly a half dozen tours this year alone. However, and rightfully so they have retired the Flattus Maximus charachter out of respect for Smoot.

As anyone who knows anything about Gwar can tell you, the music is secondary to the vaudevillian performances that have gained the band notoriety over the years. The plot for the current tour revolves around Gwar’s battle with a humanoid being, Mr. Perfect, and his attempts to render the human race obsolete. As the band duked it out with Mr. Perfect and his army of abominations, various celebrities, including Pope Francis and Justin Bieber, fell victim to the hands of Gwar.

(even later that same night) Diamond Head – The Boiler Room – Dallas, TX

Holy shit, now on to our THIRD show in one night and ALL Metal –
Was super excited for this show as unbelieveably this is Diamond Head‘s first tour of the States in their 35 year history and they were ending it in my hometown of Dallas, TX – I caught the first show of the tour in Brooklyn back in April and it was not only the best show I’ve seen this year but one of the best ever, so I was excited to see it again and only fitting that since I saw the first show, to go out with a bang and see the last one – who know’s when they’ll ever come back.

Joining us for the show was Ian, an old friend of mine who I haven’t seen in almost 10 years and only a few times in the last 15 – He reached out to me via Twitter after the Supersuckers were kind enough to retweet me and he saw it and we made plans to get together soon and tonight was it. Ian knew nothing of Diamond Head but I told him not to worry as they were sure to deliver.

For some reason bookers of Metal shows always book like 6-8 opening bands instead of the normal 2-3 – the reasoning behind this is maddening to me and have no confidence in its logic but tonight it was something that we actually benefitted from as we didn’t get there till after right after 12am, sure that we had missed at least a bit of it – Ian was waiting for us outside and after a brief introduction to Jess we headed in to discover that another stalwart of the New Wave of Britsh Heavy Metal from the early 1980s,  Raven had just started and Diamond Head would be next.

This was great too, as it gave us a chance to chill after just seeing two shows and one of them being GWAR (see above) and to catch up with Ian instead of going from “How ya been?” to immediately unable to talk due to the noise. We caught a little bit of Raven but we were more interested in catching up.
Ian and Jess got on like gangbusters and the vibe in the room was so special (just like it was in Brooklyn) and among the three of us it was just awesome.

By the time they started we couldn’t have been more ready although I was worried how long they were gonna get to play for as again due to the 40 fucking opening bands they didn’t start till 1:20am – Their first show here after 35 years deserves more than just 40 mins especially it being the tour closer.

Even though the band was without their usual frontman Nick Tart, their fill-in vocalist Chas West threw it down better than any vocalist they’ve had in the past in my opinion. As impressed as I was with Tart back in Brookyln, anyone who may be skeptical about seeing these guys with a fill-in vocalist needs to quit worrying because I guarantee they won’t be disappointed. They played all the songs one might expect and the energy Chas brings added an element to the band that is nothing but positive.

I couldn’t even begin to exagerate how fucking awesome this was – One of the most no-bullshit, balls out, straight on rock shows you could ever possibly hope to see. Like most people, after hearing Metallica talk so much about them and cover so many of their songs I wanted to check them out for myself and when I did originally, I didn’t get it from the cds I heard – Since I heard the Metallica versions so many times, these were Metallica songs to me and the original versions actually (and unfairly) seemed inferior to me – even some video footage I saw really did nothing for me – but after seeing it live (and even twice now) I TOTALLY get it – The power this band is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced – and they are almost in their 60s – imagine the band that Lars Ulrich saw in his teens.

Of course the show couldn’t go entirely smoothly, as much as I was digging this crowd and proud of them for being here to witness this, enevitably one of those stupid mosh pits broke out and the place was too small and not attended well enough for that to go the intended route. When it started I was proud of Ian for instinctly protecting Jess even before I had a chance to. The sad and ironic part is that we built a wall in front of her only for to get COMPLETELY mowed down from the side and the other irony is that she landed in the lap of the dude in the wheelchair behind her – Not Ian nor I saved her from hitting the ground, the guy in the wheelchair did!

She was ok but naturally it really shook her up, especially after she saw me punch the guy that did it in the back of the head – he went down, but I didn’t really get a good shot – he got the message and fucked off but I was still pretty angry and I had her go sit down for the rest of the show in the next room.

The next thing I was concerned with was that they were only 8 songs in when the 2am lights came on that should have signaled the end of the show and before the got to their most well-known and Metallica covered songs. The ordinance is that shows have to be over by 2am but the band never stopped (and were most oblivious to this rule) and no one told them to. At one point I saw a nervous stage manager trying to get the band’s attention but after a few failed attempts he thought better of it and appeared to be willing to pay whatever fine would be leveled for the sake of Rock and Roll because at 2:30am they even came back for an encore!
Fucking awesome –

Setlist –Play It Loud
Lightning to the Nations
Alimony
To Heaven From Hell
In the Heat of the Night
Shoot Out the Lights
It’s Electric
Give It to Me
Sucking My Love
The Prince
Am I Evil?

Encore:

Helpless

It was late and we had been to now three shows and it wasn’t the usual 2am, it was now 3am but I wanted to speak with their drummer Karl who also acts as their Tour Manager and the one who invited us after I struck up an email friendship with after being so blown away by the show in Brooklyn back in April.
We spoke briefly before also parting with Ian, so high from the experience all the way home.

Phil Anselmo’s HouseCore Records Music & Horror Film Festival – Oct 25th-27th – Austin, TX

Ok so wow, what a crazy undertaking – Phil Anselmo of Pantera and about a million other bands basically just decided to take an extension of shit that’s in his living room, for examle movies he likes, bands he loves and just the culture of 70s Horror and the bands its inspired to do a three day festival. That is really living the dream right there because you can really only be as ambitious as your options more often than not. So when money and connections are not a hurdle, what’s stopping you?
An ambitious undertaking by any stretch – combining a packed schedule of films, band performances, memoribilia exhibits, panel discussions and spoken word all with the same unfied love of the genre and all within the same weekend.

Day 1 –Ok so for Day 1 of the festival I was up in Dallas attending three events in the same night (see above) creating my own little festival with no relation to the other.
However, have no fear: Let me introduce you to our guest blogger –  the lovely and incomparable Kelly Booker – who was on hand:

From Kelly – 

When Phil Anselmo announced he was hosting the Housecore Horror Fest, a horror film and music festival, I was so excited! Austin isn’t much of a metal town, and Down hasn’t played here in years. Sadly the whole affair was out of my price range and I had resigned myself to missing out on this festival. But in a stroke of birthday luck (I just turned 33, yall!) TrickyKid Entertainment came through and I was able to attend this entire weekend of horror, gore, metal and mayhem.

My love for all things Phil is a relatively new development. As a young wannabe punk rocker, I didn’t care much for Pantera. Growing up in Texas in the 90s you are surrounded by their culture –  of course you know and enjoy the words to a few songs but at the end of the day I was embarrassed by their fans and the confederate flags etc.
The real coup of the festival was getting the band that provided the soundtrack and is crucial to every fiber of what this festival represents – Goblin.
The Italian masters of 70s European grindcore cinema – who have never performed in the States in their 40 year history. Their precence completely legitmizes this festival. My thinking is that’s where the idea started – Like “Hey if we can get Goblin let’s take it from there, but it starts there”.

I heard that between the language barrier and the sheer amount of rented equipment, their soundcheck took more than two hours. Getting Goblin regrouped and stateside for the first time EVER was quite an achievement and people were really into it.

They had a young woman dancing around on stage (one of the Goblin guy’s daughter or granddaughter). It made sense when she was dressed as a Suspiria-inspired ballerina for the finale.

Finally, DOWN. The set was scheduled for only 50 minutes, and although it ended up being longer than that, it meant everything felt a bit rushed and there was little of Phil’s signature stage banter. Phil Anselmo live is a force – Since he’s cleaned up his sloppy stage presence he is now a SHOWMAN. He is equal parts energy, anger, intentionally funny, and endearingly self-deprecating.

It’s a testament to Phil’s energy and experience that he was able to excite a crowd of people who had been standing around Emo’s since noon.  I yelled my little heart out and even got a little emotional at some parts.  Down’s set always ends with the favorite Bury Me in Smoke. Its ending chords fade out and then come back; during this fade out, the instruments get switched out to other bands on the bill and the show closes with all the bros on stage, having a really good time. It’s a great way to end and always puts a smile on my face.  This time, some of the bros on guitars were replaced by Kate Richardson (Phil’s significant other) and Sean Yseult (White Zombie). It was cool to finally see some women up there. This was also the debut of Bobby from Honky – the replacement for guitarist Kirk Windstein

Thanks Kelly! (on the left)

Day 2 –

Ok so to unpack things a bit – even on top of this festival their was ALOT going on this weekend in Austin. For one, our pal Claude (Ween/Eagles of Death Metal) has been living and recording the long overdue new Amandla record (that Kurt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets will be making an appearance on) at our friend Stephen’s studio/compound just outside of Austin. Also the Melvins have been here all week at Stephen’s place doing some recording as well. Stephen’s brother-in-law Guy, is also Dickie Moist, one-half of The Moistboyz with Mickey (Dean Ween) – Stephen is in an updated version of the band along with Butthole Surfer Jeff P. as well as Nick Oliveri, who was also in town. You might remember a tour we all did together back in 2010.
As you may also know the incestous nature doesn’t stop there, as Jeff P. has been playing bass for the Melvins on this tour and Melvins drummer Dale Crover has been returning the favor by playing with Jeff’s other band Honky with Bobby who now (as mentioned above) plays bass in Down. Oh, and Dale is doing triple duty by playing drums this weekend for EyeHateGod. With all of that going on – it yields pictures like this –

Confused yet? Well Jeff, Stephen, & Claude are also in the band Pure Luck that were going to be doing some shows this weekend down here outside of the festival (oh and its Jeff’s birthday). Strap in –

I get down to Emo’s in time to see Star & Dagger, the new band from Sean Ysult from White Zombie that features not only members of the Cycle Sluts from Hell but my buddies Gene and Dave who are also current/former members of QOTSA/Eagles of Death Metal. I first caught the band in NYC back in April and ended up spending the evening bonding with Sean over past shared experiences and got to know their booking agents and the whole crew and was excited to see everyone again. Dave wasn’t able to make the trip but they had a fill-in guitarist that was also really cool.

After catching up with them a bit I was now ready for the Melvins.  It’s always super emotional for me seeing the Melvins — they’re easily one of my favorite bands and I just sort of like to zone out a bit by myself before I see them and prepare for what’s coming. Any Melvins show you are lucky enough to see is a gift. There is no one and I mean NO ONE in history in any genre that has accomplished what they have. In my opinion the most original and one of the most important bands in history.
I love how even in this environment with all of these big time players,everyone drops everything and gets shit straight in order to watch Melvins do their thing.

The set met/exceeded/melted all and any expectations. Seriously one of the best live bands ever, and you never know what they’re gonna play because their catalogue is so enormous and their so fucking weird, who knows what’s coming? They did a wide range of stuff, including and most surprisingly, closed off with Your Blessened from Bullhead.  On this tour with Jeff in the band they’ve been doing a cover of the Butthole Surfers’ Graveyard which they did again as well as in honor of Pinkus’ birthday a crowd singalong of “Happy Birthday.” The whole thing fucking ruled.

It was weird seeing any band after seeing the Melvin’s – I remember seeing them get paired up with other bands back in the 90s as the opening act and just totally annhilate them, but if a band has to follow, why not GWAR? Can you believe this fucking lineup? Can you believe this is my second GWAR show this weekend?

   As simplistic and ritualistic as it may seem, there’s something strangely engrossing about a Gwar show. Amidst the fake slaughter and bawdy humor, it’s apparent that the band has a tremendous amount of heart. Doing any job for 30 years — in particular a job that requires you to constantly leave your family and home for months at a time — requires a tremendous amount of dedication, and the distinctly DIY nature of the band’s production leaves little time for rest.
The addition of Smoot’s cousin, Brent Purgason, left many with questions, but Purgason’s Pustulus Maximus character fits the band like one of Oderus Urungus’ monstrous gloves. It’s easy to pass these shows off as lowbrow entertainment, but those with an open mind will surely find something enjoyable — however juvenile it may be — in the strange, bloody world of Gwar.

One of the other notable films was a screening of the German silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, bolstered with a live score from Attila Csihar, best known as the vocalist of Mayhem and live vocalist for Sunn O))). His loops of growls, subterranean hums, and shrieks brought out the tension and dark underpinnings of every characters, giving them a voice without giving them lines. It was one of the few real boundary-pushing moments of the festival.

Day 3 –

The final day I had my friend Jenny running all over the festival with her camera and trying to meet up with her at some point.
I finally get downtown for birthday boy Jeff P’s other band Honky –
They’re like an alternative, heavier and faster ZZ Top — riffs, rock, swagger, groove, southern-fried and tight as fuck. If you get the chance, go see these dudes. Always awesome to see “older” dudes outdoing the younger folk.

The big thing for Sunday was the performance of Eyehategod. As most people know, Joey LaCaze, founding drummer and totally rad dude, recently passed away. I wasn’t close friends with Joey by any means, but I’d met him a bunch of times and a very underrated drummer. This prompted Housecore Horror MVP Dale Crover  to join them for this performance which was obviously set to be bittersweet. To say the vibe was heavy leading up to the set is an understatement.

 It was interesting to hear the nuances Crover’s style brought to the band. An “attempt” at the Melvins’ Easy As It Was capped a 40-minute set to the crowd chorus of “Joey, Joey, Joey.” Crover came out from behind the set and said a few words about the event. It was touching and real.

Next was Phil Anselmo’s new project – their LP
Walk Through Exits Only, came our recently and I didn’t expect this album to hit me like it did, but it’s become a fave of mine since August. so I was excited for a performance. They opened with a cover of Portal’s Black Houses.

For his grand part,  Anselmo was running on fumes. Vocal chords reduced to beef jerky, nevertheless he spent every last shred of his larynx in providing the jackhammer lead to his solo quartet’s drum-and-bass-like grindcorecore.By the time Goblin appeared onstage to accompany the Suspiria screening after an interminable, 45-minute Housecore Horror film awards ceremony, I was toast and was hoping to make it to the end for which I did not. I was determined to see a bit of Goblin and the five man crew reached unearthly crescendos that the film fought to match, making the live experience truly chilling if not downright disturbing. When the band all moaned and groaned in unison into their microphones during peak scares, it was a true moment of beauty and totally scary.

Cheers rose every time silence broke the band’s grim, fairytale and their accompaniment proved nothing less than thrilling.
For me, it was the perfect way to end the four days of debauched bro-hangs, music, film, food, drink and revelry that was Housecore Horror fest.

Do For It Records Halloween Party(s) 2013 – Oct 31st – Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios – Denton, TX

This is an event I was anticipating greatly – every year on or the week of Halloween the awesome collective known as Do For It Records and their roster do a few special Halloween shows were the bands that have chosen to participate do an entire performance as another band in tribute or parody or both.
Last year was my first year attending and it was the greatest shit ever – one of the most special nights of the year and one of my faves of all time. The band Mothership played as Motorhead and Shaolin Death Squad pulled of the greatest shit EVER as Weird Al complete with all of the costume changes – a night we still talk about.

I’ve gone on to work with a few of these bands and ironically it was the House Harkonnen performing as Ween a few years to turned me on to them. Somebody sent me a video of it, I showed it to the Ween guys, loved the Dune reference in their title so I made sure I saw them then next time I was in Texas and they blew me away.

This year’s lineup was scheduled to be:

Mescalero                       – Corrosion of Conformity
The Phuss                      – Eagles of Death Metal
The Spectacle                – Sepultura
The House Harkonnen – Metallica
Shaolin Death Squad    – Journey

What an incredible and diverse lineup this was going to be and we very excited. A few caveats however:

a) Apparently the bands decide what acts their going to cover weeks in advance so that proper promotional material can be made. But by the time the actual show rolls around you have bands that didn’t practice and have to cancel or couldn’t get it together for whatever reason. Example: We learned the day before that Mescalero as C.O.C. was out.
b) When we got there I saw my buddy Forrest from the Phuss out front – they were supposed to do Eagles of Death Metal (another Ween connection as Claude is now drumming for them) and I asked him had they gone on yet and he told he that they hadn’t practiced for it and wouldn’t be performing. They were supposed to play as Alkaline Trio last year and pulled out last minute for the same reasons. Ok so now two acts down.
c) The show this year was actually on Halloween and the competition proved to be fierce as by the time we arrived their were as few as 40 people at the show.

First people we see is who we expected, one of my oldest friends Patrick and his girl Farrah – her cousin is in the Spectacle so we quickly grabbed drinks to go see them do their best Portugese accents as Sepultura –

The band was awesome, though I’m not a Sepultura person in the least but they rawked and were really into it and did well.

As we went into the other room between sets to get drinks, I hear a group of people call my name that I don’t recognize. I poke my head around the corner to see this attractive girl in full witch costume and makeup whom I still don’t recognize. She starts to remind me and it’s my old friend Traci who used to hang out at the old record store I used to run whom I’ve only run into a few times in the last 15 years and the last time was over 5 years ago. A lot of changes for her as she has lost a significant amount of weight, looked great and introudced me to her husband. As we are catching up she tells me something incredible that her, her husband and the guys that were joining her shouting my name are all in a band called Surrounded By Mosnters that recently put out their debut on heavyweight label Nuclear Blast. Proud and happy for her.  A few days later I looked it up and I see their video with tons of press and a decent & sizable following. Good job Traci –

Up next (inspite of the unbelievably inspired set Shaolin did last year) was for me the most anticipated of the night, The House Harkonnen as Metallica – this could only rock and rock to a maximum effect. They are one of the best bands I’ve ever seen local or otherwise, and you could feel the respect they command in the air, people were fucking ready for this – and so were we.
Again only about 40 people in the house but everyone was in the music room lunging towards the stage ready for something special –

They started the set with the unmistakable opening blast of Master of Puppets but then quickly went in to something that I didn’t recognize – it wasn’t until the chorus that I picked up on that they were doing Duran Duran’s Rio –
Ok? Cool, odd, weird and unexpected but then the next song I didn’t recognize once again until the chorus as Hungry Like the Wolf –
Ahh I get it, the jokes on us right? They wanted you to think they were doing Metallica (as advertised) but apparently the intention was to prey upon Metallica fans and lure them here so they could potentially ruin their Halloween by playing Duran Duran covers.
This was all but confirmed when their singer Alex about mid-set (that included two obscure Duran Duran covers to drive their irreverant point home even further) went into this anti-Metallica speech and shouting about how much Metallica sucks.
Was any fun supposed to be had by anyone else besides the band members? What was the point of this? I know these guys personally and love a good joke as much as anyone but I found it to be a dick move from people who get off on dick moves.
Ok, so you think Metallica sucks, that’s fine with me but why would you choose Halloween night to convey that with such a strong gesture of intentionally duping people who paid to hear it with a clear intent of ruining their evening?It’s not because of the content either – I LOVE Duran Duran and in fact if they had announced they were doing them originally it would have elicited an even bigger response ( at least from me) beause a Metal band doing a Metal band is cool, but the spirit of this seems livlier when the bands do the opposite of their comfort zones – That would have had a “Oh man I gotta see this, how fun” effect.

The other and perhaps most crucial element here is that is sounded TERRIBLE – and I know it’s not from ability because these guys are master players – Blame the PA or the sound guy or whatever but it was PAINFUL how bad it sounded that even those with an open mind started to drop like flies and after three songs that included us as well. You could see a few guys upfront, still in disbelief wearing Metal shirts thinking “Ok guys, cut the shit” thinking that the night they came for was still to be had – but sadly it wasn’t and the room dropped off to nothing.

In my mind however, the people that the House Harkonnen owe the biggest apology to is to Shaolin Death Squad – a band that unlike the others, rehearsed, got into costume and charachter and took this very seriously and were left playing FLAWLESS note for not perfect covers of Journey to a total of 8 people that had survived HK’s stunt –

It was totally unfair that they had prepared this much and were so spot on, only for a few people to get to enjoy due to a very selfish act.
However those that did see it like us, know that it was fucking awesome – Singer Andrew even ad-libbed as Steve Perry and everything he said and did was brilliant(the next night) – Nov 1st – The Curtain Club – Dallas, TX 

Ok so the next night they were doing it again except this time in Dallas – I had already planned to meet my budd Mike for his b-day – going to see Metallica or a Metallica tribute on his bday has become a bit of a tradition so when I heard HK were going to be doing Metalica I told Mike about it and highly reccomended it. He was very excited about and for my vouchment of the group. Something else that the HK guys may not have considered when they were planning this stunt ( a half-baked idea in a cloud of pot smoke in a rehearsal space surely) that people had made plans around this. I didn’t know what to do – should I tell Mike? Should we make other plans? Patrick told him which I think was the right thing so he could decide to do something else but the sad thing is that is was too late to make other plans anyway, at least he also loves Journey.

When I got there I had already missed the Sepultura tribute this time and if the order was the same as last night HK as not-Metallica-but-rather Duran Duran was next. The bartender was smiling and eagerly excited to hear Metallica – I didn’t have the heart to tell him differently.
Thankfully some sober reasoning came through and it was decided that Shaolin would go on before HK to right the wrong of last night so they don’t play unfairly to an empty house again.

They came out and thanks to them and the amazing sound system and engineer in this  place they sounded even better than last night. Since they were doing arena-rock anthems it made all the difference that their were now 200 people singing along to every word and really enjoying themselves. Regardless of how cheesy or karoke it was – the desired intent was felt and the excecution was perfection.

So HK was next but besides us I don’t know how many were now in on the prank (certainly not the bartender)  –

Same set as last night and again thanks to the stellar sound system in here they sounded a million times better than last night but it still only left about 15 people watching by the end as they cleared the room pretty quickly. I think Alex had a moment of reflection when this time instead of the “Metallica Sucks” speech, he was almost apologetic in nature by saying, “I guess by now you’ve figured out we are doing Duran Duran, sorry its not Metallica but it is what it is”Happy Halloween

Photos –

Roy Turner
Clark Terrell
Trent Maxwell
Joe Guzman
Kasi Stuhlman