Mini-report of the Decibel tour Noisem + Gorguts + The Black Dahlia Murder + Carcass, at Trees.
Because I was late from work, I got there at 8:30. Noisem were done already, and Gorguts were on the stage.
Since I went to this show basically just because of Gorguts (and partially for Carcass), I don't care if I missed Noisem, but I would be very pissed off if I couldn't enjoy Gorguts.
But I've been lucky.
Gorguts are a war machine: huge rhythmic session (awesome work from both bass and drum) and Luc Le May is spectacular with his voice and his guitar work. They played the entire new album (Colored sands) and few songs from "The erosion of sanity", but unfortunately nothing from "Considered dead".
Anyway, I was there for them and I was (still I am) so happy!!
Here a very short/bad quality video of Gorguts in action:
After their show I had also the opportunity to meet and talk with Luc: great guy, very quite and passionate about his music!
Another point for Gorguts!
After Gorguts it's time for The Black Dahlia Murder.
Their music sucks. All their songs sound the same to me, with the same pattern and the same three chords. Music for emo kids, and that's why only emo kids were listening them.
After the suckers, it's Carcass' time.
They are professional, they know their business, and they know what they're doing.
They started with "Corporal jigsore quandary", probably my favorite Carcass' song, and I'm happy again.
They played a lot of songs from Heartwork and from their last album "Surgical steel".
They kicked ass, and the Trees was just a gigantic mosh pit: old school death metal does not fail.
Final thought on the people: two generations confronting. Classic old fat metal heads for Gorguts and Carcass (I'm in this category) and stupid emo kids for The Black Dahlia Sucker.
...and (again) the only thought here is: we are really insignificant and god does not exist.
Just enjoy the reconstruction and get lost in it like I did.
I'm looking at it, and I have so many questions: what's over there? Will we be able in the future to visit those places? And what's over it? And on and on and on...
These questions are really keeping me up during the night...
If you don't have any questions, I think you're brainless.
I'm looking at old friends of mine or people that I know from many years now: most of them they have changed several times their habits and thoughts and lifestyle.
I'm still sticking with my passions and ideas.
Am I not evolved? Or maybe they haven't found yet their "zone"?
Don't answer, it's just a rhetorical question, I don't care...
Because this Friday I'm going to see live Gorguts and Carcass, and a lot of good memories are coming back, that's why.
Carcass and Gorguts are heroes of a younger version me. And I still love them.
When I was young, death metal was the law. Obituary, Deicide, Grave, Gorguts, Napalm Death, Sinister, Amorphis, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Samael, Autopsy, Gorefest, Dismember, Brutal Truth, Electrocution, Benediction, Death, Master, Suffocation, Tiamat, Brutality, Mortification, Carcass, Cancer, Sadist, Pungent Stench, Immolation, Master, Hypocrisy, and other thousands of death metal bands were my daily doses of extreme. I was living, breathing, eating and sleeping death metal.
Now I'm an old fuck, and I'm listening (often) a lot of different things, but death metal is always there.
I need to specify: old school death metal (honestly, I don't even know a new name...). As I said, a lot of good ol' memories... In those days (yes, i'm talking like a grandpa, but I don't care, go fuck yourself) finding the new band or just a simple information about some album form somewhere in the world, was a real challenge. You had to study, you had to search. You had to buy magazines (Metal Shock, H/M and Flash were the bibles) and read them, just to find maybe only a single sentence about what you were looking for. Now you just google it. Meh... ...and finally, after weeks of research you had the name: but the challenge wasn't done yet. You had to go to the record store, and order the album, and after that just wait. Wait for a long time. Maybe two weeks, if you were lucky. Often one month. Sometimes more than one month. And -sadly- sometimes it was impossible to get the album... I was saving money for weeks, just to have enough cash to buy the vinyl (or the cassette... Yeah, in those days the CD -if available!- was too expensive). But in the end, after all the waiting, the album was there. Oh, the joy!! I still remember the feeling of the vinyl in my hand: holding this big and heavy square, with the big cover, so big that you could get lost in every single detail. ...and the booklet inside, with the lyrics. And the smell... Oh, the smell of those vinyl! It will never be replaced by a CD or a fucking mp3. ...and I love vinyl from Nuclear Blast: often they were colored vinyls, and every album had a different color. Speaking of Nuclear Blast. Nuclear Blast was the new real deal in those days, and they were rocking! All the best band from Europe (but wait! There was also Nuclear Blast America! Fuck yeah, double win!) were in the NB rooster. But for them it wasn't enough and they started with this big compilations called "Death ....It's just the beginning"... The best things ever!!
I also loved (and I still do: I love it so much that I've bought the CD even though I have the LP) another compilation, called "5 years Nuclear Blast Compilation". I love it not because of the bands on the album (ok, not only because of the bands), but because I have good memories connected with it. But I have good memories with so many other death metal albums and bands... For instance, how I could forget Obituary? Or Samael? Or Dismember? Or Gorefest? Name it: on every single death metal album or song I have a special memory... The bottom line is: who cares if for you, poor ignorant Lady Gaga-sucker, death metal it's just stupid chaos and scream and noise. I have more good memories with one single album of Gorefest than you with you're entire empty and pathetic life. So, go home and listen to Rihanna while you're killing yourself, we're busy with Dismember here... ...and now, enjoy the majesty and the poetry of death metal.
(by the way: I choose to play bass, because of THIS song.)
Yesterday I've ran 51 km in 4 hours and 30 minutes against the strongest wind I've ever felt in my entire life.
So, today I'm really tired, I'm feeling empty.
I'm sleepy and constantly hungry. Basically I am a puppy.
Today I should go to climb, but the idea of closing myself in that stinky, dusty hole, stuffed with screaming useless douchebags doesn't increase my desire to wear my climbing shoes...
If you like music, and I mean "real music" not shitty rihanna-whatever kind of music, you probably know Primus.
And if you know Primus, then you probably also know that the mastermind of the band is its eclectic bass player and singer Les Claypool.
Well, I love real music, and I play bass, so for me Les Claypool is a kind of god. I love Primus and I love his style (I've never been able to play like him. Not even close...).
Yesterday I went to see him live playing with its new creature: Les Claypool Duo De Twang.
Easy to understand from the moniker, the band is a duo, formed by Les Claypool (Primus and... Hold on. Do I really have to introduce him????) and his high school friend Bryan Kehoe (from M.I.R.V.).
The album has been out for a while now: a mix of songs with different background (Primus songs included) played in a catchy country key.
The creature is 100% Les: everything orbits around the crazy slapping of Les on his dobro bass.
If you haven't bought the album yet, please, do yourself a favor and do it right now.
The album is simply great, but it gives you only an idea of what Les and Bryan can do. The live version of the duo is something that goes over every expectation!
But let me go in order.
The location: the show was in the wonderful and vintage Sons of Herman Hall, historical building in Dallas (cute Texans, they have history too!). It was the perfect location: really old style venue, dusty and comfortable, perfect for the music of the duo. The hall is pretty small, but it wasn't a problem. My understanding is that Les wants to play in small places in order to create a "familiar" environment and to be able interact better with the crowd.
The people: every kind of folks were there. Country men, punk dudes, metal heads, young people, older people, etc. As I said, not so many: maybe 100, 150...
The show: the Reformed Whores opened the act. The Reformed Whores it's an acoustic girls duo singing funny songs about sex. My impression was (and still is) that a couple of songs are ok and funny, but after the third song I was bored already. It was the perfect moment for a beer, but I was in the real first row, only few feet far from the chair where later Les will sit down, and I wasn't fuckin' moving from my spot!! So, no beer for me, and I had to listen to the girls singing about their sex problems... Meh...
Anyway... Luckily (for me), their show is not that long, and after maybe 30 minutes they left.
It's Claypool' time now.
It's time for the best bass player in the world (and I'm not kidding: I consider him the best bass player in the whole world) to teach everyone how to play.
Very quietly the duo took the stage.
Les didn't say a world, and he started with a super-badass slapped solos. In that moment I sincerely thought "What an arrogant asshole: not even a words or a "hi, how are you"...".
But I was wrong.
When the solo was done, he said "That's all I got folks..." and from that moment he started a direct and constant conversation with the crowd. Talking to us, asking question, telling jokes and stories and random things. And Bryan is the same. Note on Bryan: he's super funny. For example, here is a joke from him: what's long, black, with five holes and now completely useless? (the answer is at the end of the post)
That was the level of the show: really interacting and funny. Not just a concert, but a real show.
And that's why they decided to play in these small clubs and bars. It would be impossible this kind of interaction in a bigger theater or arena.
Basically, they play a song and then they start to talk, then they play another song, and Les decides to stop and say something else, and suddenly they start to play again. And then they start another song, and Les goes "Naaa, I dont like this one, let's play something else..." and they they were like this for the entire show...
Ok, we get it: they where funny. But what about the music?
Well, if you're reading this, probably you already know Les, and you know which kind of musicians usually play with him.
Technically perfect: nothing to say, nothing to argue. Another planet.
All the songs are complete focused on the crazy slapping of Les. I knew already what to expect from him: I saw Primus playing live a couple of years ago, and the feeling was the same even this time. Long story short: after his show I usually want to go home, take my bass and burn it. And this is because I'm not even close to be called "bass player" compared to him... Sad but true.
Anyway... They played for 2 hours in the row: they played the entire album, plus a couple of other covers, and a lot of fragments of Primus songs just because Les was in the mood for that (most of the time Bryan was "I don't even fuckin' know how this song goes..."). After the 2 hours they left the stage, but only to come back two minutes later for the "encore". They played a couple of other songs, included the Southpark theme and most important, one of my favorite Primus song "De Anza jig".
Ant that was it. They finally thank us, and they left the stage.
I don't think I have to say any other word. I'm still internally crying for the joy, and after a really shitty day like my entire day of yesterday, that was exactly what I needed.
You do what you always do in the morning, but a voice in the back of your brain is telling you that there is something wrong. It's like a weird sensation or a bad taste in your mouth.
Soon it will be a bad feeling.
A little bit later you'll know: today will be a bad day.
You don't know yet when or why, but you're sure it will happen.
It could be something that you heard, or something that you see.
Maybe something unrelated to you will bother you.
And then it arrives.
A shitload of fuckness hits you right in your face.
And from that moment, it will be a very bad day.
You think you can stop it, or maybe avoid it.
Nope.
Take it, swallow it, back up on your feet and keep fucking going.
