Written by GE 138. I had to get out. I had to get away from the computer. Too much Death and Remembrance all over the Interweb had me feeling weirded out and mortal, so with Erika and Bob in tow, I headed off to the Dive to check out a few Local bands that were playing. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it to the end of the gig, because it looked like a lot of noise overload on the bill tonight, but I just wanted to have some drinks and be around people. Lots of Friends in attendance had me feeling nostalgic and warm and fuzzy all over. Took me a while to get in because I was chit chatting with everyone and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while. The Dive is going through some renovations as of late - new booths, new stage, new sound system, y todo! The kitchen isn't open yet, but they swear that it's really going to open sometime soon. I can't help but laugh as I've heard that from Angie and Nate for years now, but who know? Maybe this time for real? Doesn't matter. The first band was starting to tune up, so I left my comfy seat at the bar to check out what was going on on the stage. It was System Rejex getting ready to play. I was very interested in seeing these guys, because a few of my friends had raved about them recently. System Rejex played a really fucking impressive set of true 80's Hardcore Punk Rock tunes ala M.D.C. or early Corrosion Of Conformity. I fucking dug them. Apparently they've been around in one form or another since the 1980's, and are now just getting back into gigging around town and tearing shit up. The bass player / lead vocalist (I think) looked like a Satanic Geddy Lee from Rush and played their crazy fast thrashing Punk tunes with his fingers, which is always impressive. Larry B. (from Life's Torment) was on guitar and he was just cranking out these slamming, awesome, feedback laden riffs with the greatest of ease, and he sang a few songs as well. New songs? Old songs? I had no idea. Sounded pretty good though. Everything was shouted / screamed out and sounded really angry. I liked it. I have no idea who the drummer was, but he was working his ass off back behind the drum kit, playing fast as fuck, breathing hard, and I had a blast just watching him bash away on his kit. He was sweating his ass off but looked like he was having fun while playing. System Rejex were really good. Check them out when you get the chance. One of the more promising Local bands I've seen in a while. Welcome back. Good stuff. I was telling Chris from Unfair Fight beforehand that it's been years since I've seen them play. He laughed in agreement. I don't know how that happened, but I don't like it. I told Erika and Bob beforehand that I was only going to the gig to see System Rejex and Unfair Fight, and I am sooooo glad that I made the effort, because Unfair Fight played one of the most intense, fucking Brutal, in your face Hardcore set of tunes I've ever seen them play before. Ever. And there was hardly anybody there to see it. Of course. The weeks of touring on the road have made them into a sharp, well armed, Punk Rock killing machine, and the new songs they played from their just released self-titled flexi disc sound fucking amazing. I have no idea of what they were called, but they were a great mind fuck. I couldn't even take pictures, because I was just standing there watching it all unfurl in front of me, mesmerized. Holy shit did Unfair Fight sound good. Dan was his usual passionate, animated self, screaming and barking into the microphone while throwing himself all around the stage like a man possessed, and Chris' guitar work is indescribable. I don't know what he's playing up there, what style, what notes, what chords, but it sounds crazy, like the sound of a machine dying. I dunno. I think the last time I saw Unfair Fight play they had Liz on bass, but she's long gone now, replaced by some Scene kid who looks like he's having a ball up there playing along with the band. Derek on the other guitar just stands up there and rocks the fuck out, hammering away, trying to keep up with what Chris is playing, and banging his head. A lot. Pete's drumming has only gotten harder, faster, more intense, more spastic, with flourishes of brilliance sprinkled throughout. He's the heartbeat of the machine. He powers the whole thing. It runs off of his sweat. It's fucking sick. Unfair Fight's music is intense, dark, twisted, metallic, sinister, and unsettling. Unfair Fight are so good it's scary. I stood front and center dumbfounded, watching as they just chewed the musical space up and spit it out in everyone's face, blowing the roof off the Dive with little to no effort, commanding everyone's attention while they played, playing with a contagious intensity that had everyone in the place creeping forward and being drawn in to what they were playing. They were doing soooooooo good, and then they went off track with a cover of Ready To Fight by Negative Approach. It was a great cover, and they even dedicated it to me, but still, when they were in the middle of an amazeballz set of original songs that were just killing it, it just seemed like a waste of time to play a cover, especially considering the strength of their back catalog of songs. Oh well. I was probably the only one who was bothered by it. It is a pet peeve of mine. Meh. Unfair Fight finished up a much too short set to lots of applause and well wishes from the few and the brave and the friends up front. Fucking fantastic. I was seriously stunned stupid at how fucking amazing Unfair Fight just played. Why these guys are not taking the Punk scene here by storm is one of the most fucked up things ever. Ever. Burned out. No energy left. Sleep sounded good, and I just wanted to leave. I watched a few songs from Stapled Shut, a Hardcore band from L.A. that I'm sure Larry met at one of his many gigs played out there. They had a heavy Power Violence sound and a scary, ex-felon tattoo'd look about them. They were pretty good but I wasn't feeling it. I was hungry and just wanted some pizza and bed, so leaving Bob behind at the bar, Erika and I went off to Joe's New York Pizza for some grub before passing the fuck out. Sometimes it's good just to get away, if even for a little while. For more Pictures of System Rejex, please click here. For more Pictures of Unfair Fight, please click here.
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Written by FNG Matt. Yay! I’m writing a gig review for 138! Thanks Gilbert, Yay!!! That will be the extent of my joy for this article. After typing for an hour I realized that this review turned into a 3-page rant that was way too long and angry. So here’s the shortened version, but since I don’t want to be a Negative Nancy right off the bat let me start with the good things they did for this It's Not Dead Fest debacle. The coolest thing was the Main Stage. It was 2-sided and turned 180 degrees. So while one band was playing the next was setting up, as soon as a band finished their set the stage rotated and the next band went right into theirs. No downtime. The only exception was NOFX, they were setup but still took their sweet-ass time to start playing. Fuckin Divas. Next, I must give credit on the lineup itself. Quite a feat getting all those bands together on one day. And finally, it warmed my little heart to see thousands upon thousands of Punks gathered together in one place in the name of Music. It is NOT dead by any means. Punk Rock is alive and well, unfortunately I saw the prices of drinks and I quickly realized that it IS getting a major ass fucking. I would love to write a novel on how shameless this whole thing was but let me stick to the cliff notes before I start smashing my keyboard. 1. $11.50 for a Coors Light tall can, $15 for a double mixed drink, $16 for a “craft beer” $4.75 for a bottle of water, and when I finally gave in and bought one they wouldn’t give me the cap of the bottle. That was very annoying. 2. No pre-announced set times for bands. It was posted inside and I was pissed when I realized I didn't have to be there until around 3 in the afternoon to see the bands I was there for. 3. The SOUND for the main stage was SHIT. I was upfront for The Bouncing Souls set and my friend and I took out our ear plugs (yes, we wear ear plugs) and had a full conversation without yelling in each others faces. I hope someone got slapped for that. 4. Now I know that I can’t blame them for the heat but I still want to bitch about it. It was miserable out there. Makes me appreciate the tents, lunch tables and misters at Punk Rock Bowling. But at It's Not Dead Fest your comfort is the least of their concerns, Punks are just walking dollar signs that are herded in like cattle. What else is to be expected of the same guy that created Warped Tour and turned it into a traveling joke? Someone wiser and (much) older told me recently “Punk rock belongs in small clubs, on small stages” and as I’m getting older I’m starting to realize that for myself. It's Not Dead Fest, I shan’t be returning if there is a next year for you. Get fucked ya greedy bastards. Thanks for reading, I enjoyed writing it even though it raised my blood pressure just recounting that day. See ya later true believers. ~FNG Matt Written by GE 138. I had never been to the Brooklyn Bowl before. Why would I of? Never had a reason to. Anybody that had ever played there I had no concern for, and I had no need to go to The Linq for anything whatsoever. $25 to ride a Ferris wheel for an hour? Yeah right! But Erika has never seen The Psychedelic Furs before, and since she had already bought the tickets, well, who am I to turn down a free gig? :-) So we get there, parked somewhere in the stinky labyrinth of dirty, painted, exhaust stained concrete, got lost for a while, despite Erika's assurances that she knew where she was going, because she had been there before with Monica, and luckily after a bit we stumbled upon the entrance to the Brooklyn Bowl, which looks like some old Vaudeville theater on Broadway back in NYC. Security seemed pretty lackadaisical, but maybe that was because The Church had already started playing. I could hear them playing as we were walking into the place. I had requested a photo pass to take pictures of the gig, and was, of course, denied, but it seemed like I could of brought a camera in there without much hassle. Again, it seemed like the people working there didn't seem to care much about anything, and that was fine with me. The venue itself is luxurious, visually striking, with dark velvety drapes, and oddly discerning bowling lanes directly to the left of the music area. I think it's like a VIP area too? I dunno. There's no chairs in the place, which is a drag, but there's a bar like every 10 feet, which is good. The drinks are ridiculously overpriced, which is bad, but the sound inside the place was freaking fantastic, which is good. The Church sounded good, and I don't even really like those dudes and their hippy dippy psychedelic pop sound, but they sounded really tight. Gave them all my attention. I recognized that they were just starting to play Under The Milky Way. Nice. I didn't keep up with any of the inner band Drama going on with The Church, didn't know who was still in the band, didn't care who replaced who when they left. I, like pretty much 80% of the people in the room, pretty much only know of The Church because of their album Starfish and the hit song off of that, Under The Milky Way. I mean, it was scary to see how much that song meant to people. As soon as they started that song, everyone's cell phone went right into their hands and then right above their heads to film the band doing that song, and as I looked around the room and took the whole oddly lit surreal scene in, I could see that the people Hell bent on capturing this moment on their cell phones were all probably in high school when Under The Milky Way was first a hit, over 25 years ago, and that it held some deep, special, heartfelt significance to them. It was either that or it reminded them of their first time they got a hummer or were snowballed. Either/or. People roared when they finished that song. I think I saw a few tears in some peoples eyes, but it was pretty dark, so I can't be sure. The Church ended their set with some 10 minute Grateful Dead type jam, that was interesting at first but went on a bit too long for me. The crowd seemed to love it though, showering the band with lots of applause and cat calls and whistles once they were finished. And like that The Church were done. It was weird being at a 'Rock Show'. I haven't been to one in a while. It took what seemed FOREVER for The Psychedelic Furs to start. There's no chairs in the place, except for in the bowling alley / VIP area, so everyone is just fighting for wall space to lean against, or just giving up and sitting down on the dirty floor and hoping the drunks don't spill their drinks on their heads while walking back and forth to the bathroom. After almost falling asleep from boredom, finally, the band members started walking out to their respective instruments, Tim Butler, of course, getting the loudest response of them all when he picked up his shiny, pretty red bass. The band got themselves settled in, kind of looked at each other funny, and then they started to play. They opened up with Heartbeat, with that shrieking saxophone and all, and then Richard Butler comes dancing out from off stage, looking like a crazed jester of some sorts, and everyone in the place is digging it. Except for me... hahahaha They were playing really, really slow - slower than I've ever seen them play before. Chalk it up to old age or what have you, but it took me a while to adjust to the bands slower, more groove heavy sound. It takes some getting used to at first, but after a bit, I'm into it. The colossal amount of whiskey I've consumed helps with that, and after a few discrete pulls from the ol' vape pen and guess what? The Psychedelic Furs sound good now! LOL It is what it is. They go straight from Heartbeat into Mr. Jones and again, it's a bit slow but it sounds OK. The whole band sounds OK. It's not the best I've seen them, but definitely not the worst. Since I was now standing right next to the soundboard and watching curiously as the sound person did this and that to the mix via computerized functions, I could see the work it takes to get the sound inside the Brooklyn Bowl to sound as sweet as it does, and how much hard work it is to make Mr. Butler sound as good as he does. I could definitely see how a band would rather play this place than say the Joint or the House of Boooooo's. The Psychedelic Furs were playing like they had something to prove. Richard Butler looked like Gary Oldman when he plays Detective Gordon in the Batman movies, and he shimmied and slinked around the stage like a man 25 years younger then he actually is. He curtsied, he exaggerated like some Shakespearean thespian, he projected, he thanked the crowd a lot, and he was putting on a great show, albeit one he's probably put on a million times before. Still cool to watch, and his voice was sounding good. The Psychedelic Furs plowed through some of their most popular songs - The Ghost In You, Heartbreak Beat, Until She Comes, and some B-sides as well - Danger, Sister Europe, the aforementioned Mr. Jones, you get it. It got a bit boring during the middle though. The band hit a lull, and Erika and I made a beeline to grab a smoke outside in the smoking area. They have a live feed piped in to the speakers outside, so we didn't really miss a thing musically. After a bit we headed back in, where we caught the last few sons of the set. They closed with Pretty In Pink, which, of course, brought the house down, and then they went off stage to await the crowds chanting of their name before the Psychedelic Furs came back out and killed it by playing the 1-2 combo of Sister Europe and Sleep Comes Down. Loved it. After those 2 songs, they hit us with the Muzak and turned the house lights on and started herding us towards the exit like the cattle we were. The Show was over. There was no more time to buy any more ridiculously overpriced drinks, and I didn't see a merch booth all night, so, I guess they didn't have one? I dunno. If they did I didn't see it. Doesn't matter. I was through being fleeced by the Brooklyn Bowl. Cool place to see a show, but man, does it come with a price. Phooey. Written by GE 138. Trueland got to my house with about an hour and a half until Saxon was about to hit the stage @ Vinyl. We were both pretty hyped on the gig. I missed them when they played at Vamp'd a few years ago, and when Trueland told me he'd never seen Saxon, I hit up my friend Mike from Earshot Media for some free tickets to the gig, and he said no problemo. I was told when I picked up the comped tickets that it was a strict 8:30 start time, and when Jeff went to pick up his tickets the day of the gig, he ran into the Man himself, Biff Byford, lead singer / showman extraordinaire of Saxon, wandering around the casino like you do, and after the obligatory selfie photo, he too stressed to Jeff that Saxon were going to hit the stage at 8:30 sharp. And so after a quick pre-game sesh which involved chugging Strongbow and watching the Saxon - Live At Wacken 2014 video, we ambled on our way to the Hard Rock to catch the gig. After a bit of a traffic snarl at Trop / 15, we pulled into the parking lot and stomped our way into the casino and made a beeline to the venue, which was already full of Saxon fans of all shapes and sizes and ages. Sweet. There were little kids with earplugs on running around like kids do, which was cool to see at a gig like this. Metal has no age restrictions. We grabbed more cider and queued up to the merch booth, which is a good thing we did, because I grabbed the last XXL Saxon Tour shirt they had, so ha ha! Jeff found us standing around and after a quick chugging of our drinks (you can buy drinks from the bar directly next to Vinyl, but you can't take them into Vinyl, which makes no sense whatsoever) we headed into the venue and stood around with everyone else while waiting for the band to come out. It was a great turnout. The irony that we just watched Saxon playing some festival in Europe in front of 80,000 people, and now that same band is about to tear up this tiny ass Vegas venue in front of about 500 people maybe, that irony was not lost on either Trueland or I. This was going to be fucking great. Bring it! After a couple of choice AC/DC songs that were blasted over the club PA, the band finally emerged from stage left and the boisterous crowd voiced their approval as Saxon kicked into their usual opening song, Motorcycle Man. They sounded great. You could feel Nigel's double kick drums pounding into your chest with every thump of his hooves. Biff looked great and took total command of the room the moment he stepped out on the stage. His voice sounded powerful, deep, very impressive. The band was kicking ass. They sounded fantastic! Nice and nasty and LOUD!! The dual guitar attack of Paul and Doug was fucking stellar, with both of them being loud as fuck and showing off those whammy bars on their guitars, like they do on 747 (Strangers In The Night), and although it was a bit odd to see Doug wearing the exact same shirt he was wearing in the Wacken 2014 video we were just watching earlier, it was still cool to see him shredding away just a few feet away from me. The exact same shirt. Whatever. Both those motherfuckers can play, and I'm not even a guitar dude and I know that, but their combination of big, anthemic, punishing riffs, contrasted with pretty, quiet, tender bits of guitar work is fantastic to see / hear live. Songs like Crusader, Power & The Glory, and Dallas 1 pm all perfectly illustrate all that. I was having fun people watching. The crowd was heavily into everything Saxon was playing from opening note onwards, with all sorts of people just screaming along to what Biff was singing, like on Solid Ball Of Rock or Wheels Of Steel. I think almost everyone in the place knew the words to most of Saxon's songs. At a few points during the night I thought the crowd was louder that the PA., and the PA in that room ain't no joke! It's fucking LOUD, and with everyone in the place singing in unison, it was being pushed to be heard, that for sure. That's how Heavy Metal is supposed to be played - Loud, in in front of a room full of fucked up people just screaming and howling like animals. The guys air guitaring, or air drumming, and just being drunken Metal jackasses rocking out and having fun was part of the joy of watching the gig. It was like Heavy Metal Parking Lot but 30 years later... LOL I had fun. The band played brilliantly. I wish I could remember every song Saxon played, because I don't remember hearing a dud in the bunch. They even played This Town Rocks, which I had completely forgotten was a Saxon tune! That and 20,000 ft. (which Mr. Byford introduced as a "Thrash Classic") were the unexpected surprises of the evening for me. The band played for almost 2 hours, and towards the end, Trueland, Jeff and I are standing around, going, Holy fuck, what more could they play? What song haven't they played yet? And Trueland, showing off his Heavy Metal upbringing, goes Oh, they haven't played Strong Arm Of The Law yet and they haven't played Denim And Leather yet, and sure as shit, almost as if they heard Trueland call them out, Saxon played those 2 songs as the final tunes for the evening, and once they were done, the houselights came up and everyone filed out the door satisfied and drained. My throat was sore from yelling like a drunken lout all night, and I didn't care. Saxon blew the roof off the place, and I'm glad to have been there to see them do so. Fantastic gig. :-) |
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