Fu Manchu – May 28th – Gas Monkey Bar & Grill – Dallas, TX
Fu Manchu came back HARD this year and released one of my favorite records of the year, and maybe one of the best things they’ve ever done with the awesome titled Gigantoid and at this show this were exactly as awesome as you might expect them to be.
Scotti Hill hasn’t bought any new clothes since 1994, nor has he addressed the hair situation, but that’s fine, I couldn’t imagine him any other way
The main thing that makes Fu Manchu so very excellent is the fine balance they strike between the two California scenes they were born from and later came to influence, stoner rock and skate punk. It’s extraordinarily entertaining, and there are no slow spots during the set. This is a band happy to still be touring, who are unashamed about playing the old stuff, and still go crazy for the loud parts.
Very few have walked the tightrope of two genres that shouldn’t really go together but somehow do, and even fewer have done it with such ease and made it sound so natural. They’re a good time, and there’s nothing forced about their sound. They sound like they’ve been playing this stoner-skate genre for a lifetime, and it turns out they have. Their formula shows no signs of running dry, the new stuff is just as effective and relevant of stuff from their catalogue that’s 20 years old.
I’ve seen this band a dozen times over the years and I swear I don’t know if it’s ever been just so right as on this night. I’ve never seen them outdoors and with a nice wind and by the water it made those California vibes all the more tangible & they played a dream setlist. Scotti was fucking with me as I was up front hollering for Pigeon Toe all night and he tells he doesn’t remember how to play it and then proceeds to play it, giving me a knowing wink. Good times.
Setlist –
Eatin’ Dust
Hell on Wheels
Invaders on My Back
The Falcon Has Landed
Mongoose
Boogie Van
Dimension Shifter
Laserbl’ast
California Crossing
Anxiety Reducer
Evil Eye
Pigeon Toe
Triplanetary
King of the Road
Encore:
Saturn III
Live DVD Reviews –
Ministry/Last Tangle in Paris – Live 2012
13th Planet Records
The concert begins with a video of Al Jourgensen high above a dark stage talking about the likes of Morrison, Hendirx, Joplin, Cobain not having to deal with the, “douche bags because they are already dead… BUT I’M NOT DEAD YET!”
Suddenly the stage lights up awash in red light and the band begins playing Ghouldiggers
Last Tangle In Paris CD/DVD is the live tour from Ministry in 2012. The DVD documented the DeFiBrilLaTouR with behind the scenes footage including, backstage and live footage, in-studio rehearsals, and the daily life of the band.
A Ministry live performance is visually impressive. The video screen behind the stage is filled with synchronized imagery, reminiscent of a performance DJ. Jourgensen’s powerful vocals dominate their sound.
The set list focused mostly on material from the last ten years, reprising a good selection of material across their career 2004 through 2012.
For their encore, they dove back to the Paul Barker days with tracks from 1992′s Psalm 69 and The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste like you would expect/hope they would.
However, It would have been nice to hear something like Stigmata or Flashback off of The Land of Rape and Honey, the 1988 album that set Ministry on the industrial path and was a major influence on the industrial metal genre. But I also understand that the focus of this collection is that last 10 years, not the entire span of their career. They are just at a point where they can’t get away with not playing a few songs from that period.
Longtime fans know of the sad passing of guitarist Mike Scaccia leading Jourgensen to disband Ministry. Theirs great footage of Jourgensen detailing about how they met when seeing Scaccia’s band, the legendary Rigor Mortis, play at a local club. The two worked out the concept of combining industrial club music and speed metal. Thus, a genre is born.
The relationship had been a fruitful as Scaccia has been a part of Ministry since joining for the 1989 tour and making his first writing and recording contribution to Psalm 69.
Anthrax/Chile’ on Hell 2013
Megaforce Records
In the spring of 1989, my sister dropped me and a friend off to see the MTV Headbanger’s Ball Tour that was headlined by Anthrax.
I had just turned 15 and this was a birthday present. Only my third concert experience at the time and it was the first time I ever saw a most pit in person.
We were both positively obsessed with the video to the single Indians with the super animated crowd and couldn’t wait to emulate it.
My friend being a bit more fearless (at the time) than I headed straight for the pit, and I running behind him with a mix of unbridled anticipation and also somewhat terrified.
I have heard the stories and seen footage of the obsessive, spiritual-in-nature Metal crowds in South America with absolute fascination –
Sepultura videos, Rush’s Live in Rio come to mind where you watch the crowd as much as your watching the band. As a student of all things Faith No More, I’ve heard them talk about the fanaticism of the fans in South America & specifically Chile.
As mentioned above, I’ve seen the band throughout their career – That same friend & I were at the now notorious opening night of the original Clash of the Titans in Dallas – Was at the only two Big 4 shows in the US & proud to say that I stood with their friends & family sidestage on that unforgettable day (that was officially declared Anthrax Day in the Bronx) at Yankee Stadium. Hell, I even caught a couple of Danthrax shows in London a few years ago, but I honestly have never seen anything come close to this level of total mayhem.
Where Chile on Hell succeeds is that it makes the crowd as much as the star of the show (as it should be) as the actual band. Beautifully shot & produced by Jay Ruston, it welcomes you into a world, with that same fascination and fear I felt that day in 1989, that you may not know even existed or as far as the Metal culture in the United States goes, actually no longer does.
Nothing could take anything away from the magic that was that Yankee Stadium show, but when you think about Anthrax playing a show like that, after roaring back HARD with 2011’s Worship Music (that was released just the day prior to that show) & the return of classic era vocalist Joey Belladonna you long for & anticipate what you saw in the Indians video as a kid just as I did.
Instead as far as the crowd was concerned it was somewhat of muted affair, them going on at 4pm, the limits of intimacy that the size of a stadium imposes etc. – THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE CROWD!
Another place where this DVD really succeeds is the setlist – I’m a fan of all eras of Anthrax but with a crowd like this, their is no such thing as smart pacing. You have to just pummel them as they are pummeling you or get lost in the shuffle. The first five songs all being from 1987’s landmark Among the Living & book ending it with Anthrax off-shoot Stormtroopers of Death’s March of the S.O.D. is genius & beyond effective.
That S.O.D. riff may be the most brutal thing guitarist Scott Ian ever wrote and it somehow gets heavier every time I hear it.
After the more-than-acrimonious split of S.O.D. I always thought what a shame that we’ll never hear it live again.
Two days before that Yankee Stadium show, I was at the “secret” show where they played as “Satan’s Lounge Band” and the show opened with a clinic of famed musicians called Metal Masters & I couldn’t believe it when they resurrected that riff along with Slayer’s Raining Blood that also makes an appearance on the DVD.
I remember hearing Ian joking with drummer Charlie Benante’ that those were two of the most brutal and fun to play riffs ever and again jokingly should stay in the set – looks like they weren’t kidding.
And that’s also why Worship Music is so endeared – because not only do you have Belladonna back (who also looks EXACTLY the way he did way back when) but after all the criticisms that followed State of Euphoria , the album they were supporting on the above mentioned Headbanger’s Ball Tour & their rap endeavors & multiple lineup changes (I happen to personally love all of that stuff) is that it feels more like the follow up to Among the Living.
The material from an LP released 24 years later being more immediately embraced than anything that came after the fact is a testament to the enduring importance of that time period.
On this night and to these fans, 1988 and beyond never happened and the crowd is celebrating that fact – WITH FIRE
The band is as potent as ever and was in the home stretch of a three-plus-year campaign to record and support Worship Music and the Anthems EP, a period of time that was loaded with many high points like the ones mentioned above.
As Benante’ tells it:
And what a crowd to shoot:
The scenes of the crowd moving in tribal, ritual like motion – the seething, roaring mass of a truly uncontrollable union circling a pit of fire you will not soon forget.
On its surface it truly looks like Hell, but equally it appears that no one is having more fun ever than those there, and now with the DVD, what a wonderful chance to experience it in the safety and comfort of your own home haha.
Photos –
Roy Turner
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