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Last night I played a show with the thrash band I'm in. It took place at this smaller Irish Pub nearby the University of Washington; they had a max capacity of about... 75 people I think? Having never been there, I didn't really know what to expect but when we showed up it was a lot smaller than I had expected. No stage, just a small area nearby the front for the bands to set up and play. There was no seperation between the bands and the crowd; they were a good 1 or 2 feet apart. The PA was only used for vocals. Even before the music had started the pub was packed to the brim, tons of people inside to the point of where there was a big line outside. I guess they hit max capacity almost immediately, but they let more and more people in until there was about 100 folks inside.
The first band played and they were a sort of traditional heavy metal band (Iron Maiden-ish), with vocals that toggled between singing and sort of screaming (think 3 Inches Of Blood). Solid set with some excellent riffs and soloing.
Second band played and they were sort of a metal / punk type band, hard to describe, but they played a solid set as well.
We were the last band to play. Our style is straight up 80's thrash, Dark Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, early Slayer, etc. And because the bassist and I are crazy bastards, he brought his fridge bass cab and I brought my 5150 fullstack. Other guitarist just was sporting a 2203 halfstack. We had so little room that I literally had to stand nearby the entrance of the pub and play, and we were constantly bumping into each other or hitting each other with flying hair. Everyone in the band was pretty much headbanging nonstop (my hair was waaay tangled by the time I got home). Drunk people kept going out for a bit and then coming back in and bumping into me, which kept messing up my playing, so I was kinda screwing up here and there. Then at one point I was playing and all of the sudden my guitar just turned off and nothing was coming out, so I looked at my amp and pedals, yep still everything was as it should be.. I look outside and see some drunk chick laying on her back on the pavement in the street and my cord wrapped about her foot; she was so drunk she didn't realize she was dragging my cord with her and tripped on it, thus pulling it out of my guitar. This pissed me off a bit, as I was out of comission for a good 45 seconds to a minute of one of my favorite songs we play but oh well. The show went on with more drunken headbanging by folks in the crowd and more yelling.
We played every song we knew, played around 45-55 minutes and then hit the last song in our set. The vocalist announces that its a bit of a surprise and he goes into this big build up saying... "This next song I'm sure all of you know. Its a a cut off of the seminal 1986 release by Dark Angel, 'Darkness Descends'" (at this point everyone starts flipping out and cheering... There was a good balance of mid-20's to early 30's folk that were pretty much picking up Darkness Descends as their first thrash album) "Its called... The BURNING OF... SODOM!" and we went right into the song, all joining in and people just started headbanging a bit which was pretty bad ass. Then as it shifted into the second part with the punches everyone was banging their heads in unison to them. Right as everyone joins in with the big scream, one person pretty much pushed another and the whole floor erupted in a sizeable pit, people pushing, slamming into each other, knocking each other over. Then people started waving their beers all over the place, beer flying everywhere, covering everyone in the club, drenching my black Jackson KV, the drummers drumset - everything and everywhere. I was like "Fuck it" and ran right into the pit while still playing. Eventually made it out for the first chorus, during which everyone in the club was belting out the chorus, yelling all in unison, of course the mic got passed around. When we finished the song it was crazy, the people wanted more, but we had nothing - all of our originals had been played. Everyone was cheering and we got paid a ton of compliments. Shit like "You guys play Dark Angel better than the actual band does" to the drummer "Gene Hoglan would be proud" and to me in the other guitarist "I can't believe you guys have only been playing together for 2 months, you play off of each other so well" and "That was fucking awesome!"
I really wish I could've had a video recording of that so when people ask me why I play metal I could just pop that in and show them. What a crazy night.
Just had to share my little story. Thanks for reading if you did [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
The first band played and they were a sort of traditional heavy metal band (Iron Maiden-ish), with vocals that toggled between singing and sort of screaming (think 3 Inches Of Blood). Solid set with some excellent riffs and soloing.
Second band played and they were sort of a metal / punk type band, hard to describe, but they played a solid set as well.
We were the last band to play. Our style is straight up 80's thrash, Dark Angel, Exodus, Forbidden, early Slayer, etc. And because the bassist and I are crazy bastards, he brought his fridge bass cab and I brought my 5150 fullstack. Other guitarist just was sporting a 2203 halfstack. We had so little room that I literally had to stand nearby the entrance of the pub and play, and we were constantly bumping into each other or hitting each other with flying hair. Everyone in the band was pretty much headbanging nonstop (my hair was waaay tangled by the time I got home). Drunk people kept going out for a bit and then coming back in and bumping into me, which kept messing up my playing, so I was kinda screwing up here and there. Then at one point I was playing and all of the sudden my guitar just turned off and nothing was coming out, so I looked at my amp and pedals, yep still everything was as it should be.. I look outside and see some drunk chick laying on her back on the pavement in the street and my cord wrapped about her foot; she was so drunk she didn't realize she was dragging my cord with her and tripped on it, thus pulling it out of my guitar. This pissed me off a bit, as I was out of comission for a good 45 seconds to a minute of one of my favorite songs we play but oh well. The show went on with more drunken headbanging by folks in the crowd and more yelling.
We played every song we knew, played around 45-55 minutes and then hit the last song in our set. The vocalist announces that its a bit of a surprise and he goes into this big build up saying... "This next song I'm sure all of you know. Its a a cut off of the seminal 1986 release by Dark Angel, 'Darkness Descends'" (at this point everyone starts flipping out and cheering... There was a good balance of mid-20's to early 30's folk that were pretty much picking up Darkness Descends as their first thrash album) "Its called... The BURNING OF... SODOM!" and we went right into the song, all joining in and people just started headbanging a bit which was pretty bad ass. Then as it shifted into the second part with the punches everyone was banging their heads in unison to them. Right as everyone joins in with the big scream, one person pretty much pushed another and the whole floor erupted in a sizeable pit, people pushing, slamming into each other, knocking each other over. Then people started waving their beers all over the place, beer flying everywhere, covering everyone in the club, drenching my black Jackson KV, the drummers drumset - everything and everywhere. I was like "Fuck it" and ran right into the pit while still playing. Eventually made it out for the first chorus, during which everyone in the club was belting out the chorus, yelling all in unison, of course the mic got passed around. When we finished the song it was crazy, the people wanted more, but we had nothing - all of our originals had been played. Everyone was cheering and we got paid a ton of compliments. Shit like "You guys play Dark Angel better than the actual band does" to the drummer "Gene Hoglan would be proud" and to me in the other guitarist "I can't believe you guys have only been playing together for 2 months, you play off of each other so well" and "That was fucking awesome!"
I really wish I could've had a video recording of that so when people ask me why I play metal I could just pop that in and show them. What a crazy night.
Just had to share my little story. Thanks for reading if you did [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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