This was a pretty eventful month full of activity, fun and work. I had just started seeing someone new and we had a great time attending Halloween parties, fesitvals and of course October means post-season baseball.
Corrosion of Conformity – Trees – March 12th – Dallas, TX
A brief history lesson of C.O.C. – For the first ten years of their existence their were a three-piece (sometimes four) punk juggernaut with a blistering sound and a downright frightening image. In the early 1990’s they acquired new member Pepper Keenan, who not only took over on vocals but on the later albums, his taste/persona seemed to take over the whole band. His first record with them, Blind turned them into a straight up Heavy Metal band and then with the next three (and finally commercial success) they became this southern fried, blues-y Pantera-ish entity that made them completely unrecognizable from the former years, especially after drummer Reed Mullin left the band.
If I was being truthful, even though the purest will condemn this, when I want to listen to C.O.C. its those three southern rock albums I like the best, and probably haven’t purposely listened to those early records since I first heard them as a kid.
Well for this tour, Pepper Keenan is absent, (actually in the band Down with Pantera member Phil Anselmo) – Reed Mullin is back, C.O.C. are once again a three piece, just released a new album that’s a complete return to its punk rock roots and this tour they will be playing that stuff and only that stuff to celebrate its full-circle return.
I walked in right as they were starting –
This didn’t feel like some half-baked reunion or an example of diminishing returns, but a testament to immense talent and the elusive endowment of their staying power. They kicked serious ass. I thought I would miss Keenan more than I did, but in fact Mike Dean as I learned is actually a better front man and can engage the crowd better.
Towards the end of their set, a drunkish fratboy came up to me excited having just arrived, asking me of they had played Albatross yet, their one singular hit from the height of the Pepper Keenan era.
Clearly uninformed of the intent of what this tour is all about, while simultaneously appearing as the kind of fan that only knows the band’s biggest hit – this kid was lost. I tried to explain to him that they are not playing this stuff on this tour but his intoxication level prevented him from seeing the big picture. It did not prevent, in fact seemed to encourage his need to make me his new best friend and he literally pinned me to the wall with conversation that I couldn’t get away from. Nice kid, he was there with some other dudes in a completely unknown band who’s name escapes me from Florida on their way to Austin for SXSW on some first-time excitement shit.
Setlist:
Bottom Feeder
Psychic Vampire
Loss for Words
Mad World
Consumed
Seven Days
Your Tomorrow
The Doom
Vote With a Bullet
The Moneychangers
Deliverance
Rat City
Holier
Encore:
Hungry Child
Leeches
Technocracy
The Supersuckers – Lagrange – Dallas,TX
So we finish up our pizza and head across the street to La Grange and guess what? I’m not on the list – That’s two in one night! – I called Jess double-trouble after this. Actually I was on the list but this older woman working the door for some reason refused to look at the list. I can actually see my name on it, but this is my buddy Scott’s place and I wasn’t gonna ruffle any feathers. This night isn’t going so well is it?
Thankfully La Grange has a floor to ceiling front window so we just stood outside and watched as Speedealer were already on.
Great as always and we ran into their drummer Harden who’s an old friend afterwards. After a quick set change, the Supersuckers come out full force –
A band that at one time I thought was a local band I’ve seen them so many times, but Jess hadn’t so we endured the cold a little longer until I was freezing and felt ridicoulous for standing out there, so we retreated back over to Trees but inside this time.
Dan Deacon – Oct 12th – Club Dada – Dallas
Ok so the following weekend I invited Jess out again for another date – this time to see Dan Deacon. And once again, when we get to Will Call – The guy does NOT see my name on the list – I’m really sweeping this girl off of her feet. We joke that it’s her fault and I call her my good luck charm henceforth.
Finally the guy finds it and in we go.
Dan Deacon’s live performances defy any type of categorization. He does much more than sit on a stage and play music for you to watch. He forces engagement and interaction between attendees. Now I am by no means a committed fan of his – I couldn’t tell you the name of a single song or album – I’ve only seen him at festivals and only then becasue he was going on right before or after someone that I was originally interested in seeing, so I wouldn’t even know him at all if not attending those festivals. His look is one that vehemently annoys me: That overweight, bearded, hipster thing that drives me crazy and the kind of fans he attracts annoy me ever worse.
However, the shows that I witnesssed at the festivals were unique and enjoyable and I thought I’d like to see it when he had more time and was the focus.
In 20 years of coming to Deep Ellum I believe this was only my third time ever coming to Club Dada so that was also an incentive.
Finally taking the stage at 12:10 am after a lot of troubleshooting of the mess of cables known as Dan Deacon’s DIY music making table, the show was really on the road. But the ride was anything but what you could expect.
Dan Deacon does play live shows for you to hear his music, but for his audience to interact and be challenged… while hearing his music and dancing uncontrollably. Before a single note was played, he asked the audience to get down on one knee while pointing at the spot on the (nonexistent) mural on the ceiling. This was supposedley to represent each individual’s cowardice. Once the point was found, everyone redirected it toward a photographer in the middle of the room. This was supposed to be designed to free you and prepare you to lose yourself in the cacophony of sounds and release that the music provides.
Normally I would have been barfing over this kinda nonsense, but it actually worked! haha
After instructing the crowd to make a large circle in the middle of the room, he gave the rules for the Fight Club style dance off that was about to take place:
1. You have to be sassy.
2. You choose the next dancer when you are done dancing.
3. No cowards – if you are chosen you will dance.
He effectively removed all inhibition and self-consciousness that prevents people from letting go until the song is over. The whole audience is going to participate, everyone looks a fool, why not join in on the fun?
The community created by Dan Deacon within the audience was immense. During one song he split the room into two groups for a Michael Jackson Beat It style dance off. Everyone mimicked the moves of the leader of their “gang”, and the leaders cycled. The activity simultaneously bonded everyone together and allowed for the support of and immense enjoyment for the current leader of the gang. During another song, he instructed everyone to get out their phones and launch his app. The room was transformed into an engulfing light show as the technology that so often isolates and inhibits live interaction facilitated it in a great way.
Finall, he instructed the audience, with hands raised, to look to the center of the room. Once everyone took two steps forward, he had everyone lower their hands onto the head of the individual in front of them. After a brief lecture, he instructed the giant cone of people to slowly rotate to the left. As the song built and the pace grew, the cone began to slowly get smaller and smaller. When the final build of the song hit, the floor finally disintegrated into a mass of individually dancing bodies.
Throughout his live human interaction experiment, he never forced his opinions on the audience. What he did force was thought and consideration of how we interact as humans. He stole the audience’s pointless self-conscious sense of image, if only for an hour and a half, and allowed us to enjoy the music together.
I was very impressed.
Do For It Records Halloween Show – Oct 27th – Rubber Gloves – Denton, TX
Every year on or around Halloween, awesome local collective Do For It Records stages an inspired show with the bands on their roster performing as tribute bands of their choosing for one night. It’s always inspired and never obvious – It’s acutally how the House Harkonnen first appeared on my radar, they had performed as Ween one year and someone showed me the video of it.
I’ve never had the pleasure to attend one of these soirees so I was very excited about tonight. Especially after I heard what bands were being paid tribute:
Mothership as Motorhead
The Spectacle as White Zombie
Red Light Kills as Black Sabbath
Shaolin Death Squad as Weird Al Yankovic
Starting off the night was also supposed to be The Phuss as Alkaline Trio but for whatever reason they didn’t play or something happend, not sure the story.
Jess and I get there and were there to meet up with my buddy Patrick and his girl who were in costume as Cowboy & Indian which was pretty cool.
The place was literally buzzing with excitement and a joyous vibe in the air and it felt good.
We walked into the main room to see Shaolin setup and do their set as Weird Al –
This was so unbeliveably awesome and so super inspired – If you’ve never seen Shaolin before, the normally do dress in weird Kabuki-like outfits but this was just dedication. Think about it – they had the most work to do – to learn the songs, but with the parodied lyrics which was probably difficult not to say the lyrics they are used to hearing and then they decided to wear the appropriate costumes…for each corresponding song! – Just awesome and they should have gone on last and given the most time. They were the most prepared and dedicated and what they were doing just screamed the vibe of the night not to mention the humor it brought.
Next up was a band that I wasn’t familar with – Red Light Kills who had a tall order doing the mighty Black Sabbath to a room full of music snobs and metal kids –
…and I’m happy to report that amazingly they totally pulled it off!! – Their was just a great vibe tonight – Songs I’ve heard a million times and have heard a million others cover were suddenly breathing new life from a crowd that was just really into it. When they did the “Ooohh lord yeah!!” of War Pigs I actually got a chill and was just so caught up in it – they sounded that good.
We went back in and took a little break and that became extended due to the congestion at the bar and running into people that seemed like an old familiar face every 10 ft. We ran into the Phuss guys and tons of others but in doing so we actually missed the Spectacle doing White Zombie.
But we ran back into the show room for what I was originally anticipating as the highlight of the evening of Mothership doing Motorhead –
Think about how fun it was to sing those Black Sabbath songs, I couldn’t wait to do the same with the Motorhead catalogue – They started with Bomber and the place went nuts – The House Harkonnen guys were down front and singing every word right along side of us. Their set was sorta plagued with sound issues and quite honestly, nothing was going to top that one-two punch at the start of the evening, but they still kicked ass and we had a great time. One of the best nights of the year hands down.
The Sword – Oct 30th – Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios – Denton, TX
Ok so just three nights removed, I’m back in Denton, right back at the same place – arriving just as the Sword was wrapping up their first song.
I kinda new tonight that though we had only been dating for like a month that I was totally into Jess. Normally I’m happy to be with the boys at Metal shows and I met up with Ryan of course (and later Patrick and his girl again) – but having her here three nights prior and not having her here tonight made me miss her and I don’t normally do that.
I would have liked to have got here earlier – they had a pretty killer lineup with some great openers like Gypsyhawk who I’ve been wanting to see but I just couldn’t make it and was lucky to got here and only miss one song.
I love how this band really doesn’t have to play here or at a venue of this size but still does out of a simple joy of doing so – that’s pretty much the spirit of this band. That you not only really enjoy their music but you identify deeply with the members of the band as people and they command such a deep respect in that manner. They just released their killer new album Apocryphon –with all of the cool imagery and fun packaging their known for and came to kick ass as usual.
Setlist –
Veil of Isis
Codex Corvidae
Hammer of Heaven
Tres Brujas
Maiden, Mother & Crone
The Horned Goddess
Cloak of Feathers
The Hidden Masters
Seven Sisters
Freya
To Take the Black
Eyes of the Stormwitch
Apocryphon
The Chronomancer I: Hubris
Encore:
Barael’s Blade
Winter’s Wolves
Tomahawk – Oct 31st – Granada Theater – Dallas,TX
I love Halloween but I’m not one of those people you would equate with Halloween – I love it less for the horror movies and more in a It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown sorta way.
For me, Halloween is being at my mom’s house carving pumpkins & watching the World Series while we take turns answering the door for the trick-or-treaters of the neighborhood and enjoying their enthusiasm and costumes. She gets a big turnout at her house of usually averaging around 100 kids or so during the night.
Speaking of costumes, after the kids were all gone, she changed into this for our night out, so was already starting out as the best Halloween ever.
We had a fun and ambitious night planned of going to see the return of one of my fave of Mike Patton’s projects – Tomahawk, and then going to a Halloween Party after. Their is something inherently cool about seeing Mike Patton doing his thing on Halloween.
Up the road Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie were having what I’m sure would be considered a dream combo on Halloween for some but this was definitely more my speed.
Tomahawk is about to release Oddfellows, their long-awaited fourth album and first in six years. The supergroup (Mike Patton, Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison, and Battles drummer John Stainer) have replaced bassist Kevin Rutmanis with Fantômas/ Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn.
Oddfellows is easily Tomahawk’s most diverse to date: There’s groany, smoky, Morricone-jazz; there’s twisty AmRep-gone-R&B bludgeon; and, most notably, there’s the types of epic, majestic choruses that Patton diehards might remember from the final Faith No More LP, Album of the Year.
We haul ass to the venue – staying late at my mom’s as not to miss out there – we were sure we had missed a considerable amount of the show, however when we got there (and my tickets were actually there this time haha) we learned they were only into their third song.
Jess had absolutely no idea who they were or their rich, individual histories so I was surprised by how much she was really getting off to it – It just shows you when its good its good and this was very good. They had such an effective punch with everything they pulled out along with that unpredictable nervous energy that Mike Patton always brings as its still always a thrill for me to see him perform. It being Halloween and all defintely added to the mystique and I don’t know if you can tell from my shitty camera phone but some guy dressed as a unicorn made it on to the stage and was welcomed instead of being hauled off.
As a special treat for the holiday as an encore they returned and did all Bad Brains covers. Fucking awesome
Setlist –
God Hates a Coward
Flashback
Oddfellows
101 North
Stone Letter
Point and Click
Birdsong
Rape This Day
Honeymoon
Capt. Midnight
Baby Let’s Play
White Hats / Black Hats
Rotgut
Mayday
Laredo
Encore:
Stalkin (Duane Eddy cover)
Waratorium
Pay To Cum (Bad Brains cover)
How Low Can a Punk Get (Bad Brains cover)
Photos –
Roy Turner
Jim Riddle
Dane Walters
