I decided to get a beer, because what am I going to drink at a heavy fucking metal show?

Last night I went to see a good old fashioned heavy metal show. It was loud, unlike the concert I went to last week, which is weird because I saw the fucking Sword last week. That show was okay, it wasn't loud enough. And the more I look back on it, the more that it seems a lot more like a bummer than it actually felt like at the time. The beers probably helped. Whatever, last week is history, it was less than 24 hours ago that I got off the train at the Chinatown stop after spending my time after work hanging around downtown and reading magazines at Barnes and Noble. The thing that sticks out the most is the essay on Nico's (from GTA 4) cell phone. Good stuff.

Straight off the Chinatown stop and with some time to kill I figured that I should eat something. Crossing Cermak ave I decided that I didn't feel like eating chinese food, so I laughed all the way across the street. I took a walk down Wenthworth, partly looking for a corner store to at least fuel up with some snickers and a red bull or something. I looked at a few weird looking fish through the window of a grocery store, most of them were facing north, staring blankly at the wall of their grimy tank, just sorta floating there. I went down a couple of blocks, crossed the street, and then went back north. There's nothing so sad as a walk through chinatown at night by yourself. It wasn't like all, woe is me, I was having a blast.

I decided to get some food at Shark's Fish and Chicken, which is just down the street from Reggie's. I ordered the spicy chicken sandwich but a few minutes later the girl working the counter told me that they didn't have it, but what if I switch over to the chicken tender meal. I said sure thing and proceeded to wait. A kid came in hustling mix tapes, I wanted to buy one but I was on a budget. The chicken tenders appeared, not like those KFC things, or even like those mcdonalds things, these fuckers were as big and thick as my fist and there was three of them. Both the fries and the chicken were served at the best possible temperture, burning hot. The fries were thick and crispy, a little buttery, delicious. The chicken was really, really good. If this is the kind of food that will eventually lead to my burial in a piano box at age 35 then it is totally worth it. Yeah, go eat at Shark's. I had an RC with my meal.

I got to Reggie's and feeling almost sleepy from the vast amount of chicken and potatoes I headed up to the balcony to chill out on one of the chairs. The first band up was Hedlok. Yes, that's a terrible name. They proceeded to play some awesome hard thrash, the kind of music that would go great with a fast paced FPS. I liked them so much that I bought their cd, which is also very good. They were so rocking that I got off the chair and went down to the ground floor. Fucking rock and roll.

The second band up was Nucleus who show promise. They were almost a parody band. The singer would do intros in a death metal brutal voice but after he was talking normally, it was pretty damn funny. They did a few songs with some cool concepts, explained through brutal intros, but the ideas are too big for their song writing. They capped off their set with a terrible cover of Astro Zombies. I say, give them a few years and they will be playing some fucking cool medium speed death metal about planetary annihilation and Lovecraftian gods.

At this point I decided to get a beer, because what am I going to drink at a heavy fucking metal show? Orange juice (yes if it has vodka in it)? I got up to the bar and saw that they had glorious Zombie Dust on tap and I figured that I'd rather have one good beer than 2 okay beers. AND I DID. That never happens, when I say that I will have ONE beer and stick with it, ah, maybe I am becoming an adult. Zombie Dust, drink that. While I was savoring my delicious beer, Mutilation Rites set up. Those guys were fucking cool. They play a super sludgy black metal which is reminicent of running through the woods at night from something terrifying, but it's in slow motion. I like em. Lots of fine feed back, lots of general evil noises, good times for all. They sounded a little muddy at times, but mud and sludge... sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

Colorado recently legalized weed. Havoc hail from Colorado. I bet they smoke a lot of fine Colorado weed and will smoke a lot more now. Havoc came on and the place turned into a mosh, all of the place, even the bathroom. During their set I saw a girl grab her friend by the shoulders and do a perfect judo like manuver to spin her friend around into the mosh pit where said friend was immdieatly consumed by the pit. Friend was fine. It was very cool. They played a super sharp set that seemed way too short. Loud as fuck, fast as hell, straight up thrash metal. Everyone should be so lucky to experience it, but no, people would rather listen to shitty pop music and fucking Adele. What a world, what a world, I am melting. Go listen to Havoc.

Skeletonwitch was the last band of the night and wins best band name of the night (Hedlok gets the worst, they have a cool logo though, and they rock fierce like, it more than evens out).  Skeletonwitch sounded like that terrifying thing in the nighted woods that you are running away from. A high speed black mass. All of the bands where loud but Skeletonwitch was LOUD, it was grand. When I left the Double Door last week, my first thought was, that wasn't very loud. Heavy metal shows should be loud, how else are you going to invoke the dark lord? I'm at a metal show, I want the loudness to scour away my thoughts, I want the loudness to keep me sane. Look, rock shows are the closest thing I have to a church thing. Afterwards I almost always feel better about humanity and myself. Sure I don't know these people but here we all are screaming in unison and it's spectacular. As I was leaving I saw a rocker girl with a really cool haircut holding a bag of ice to the side of her nose, she was the most metal person there. I'm going to start buying people drinks for being incredibly rock and roll.

Infinite Party Fuck It All

On saturday night I found myself at Reggie's. I should get there more often. I've seen a lot of great bands there and have had some great times, very rock and roll. I always seem to remember the place as being huge, but it's not that big, way smaller than the Metro, and a little bit smaller than the Bottom Lounge. The place is almost perfectly designed to have loud as hell rock shows. I even dig the balcony on top with it's comfy chairs and couches.

A friend and me got to Reggie's in time to catch 3 songs by Chicago's own Hay Perro. I have never heard Hay Perro before that night, judging from their band name I was expecting some limp indie rock. Luckily they prove me hopelessly wrong by rocking. They play fast rock with some sweet, sharp guitars. Hay Perro's set was beautifully loud, as rock and roll should be, loudness being a major theme for the night.

After Hay Perro got off stage a bunch of dudes that looked like an outlaw gang from a spaghetti western appeared. Suddenly the opening riff from The Trooper by Iron Maiden blasted from the stage. I reacted by shaking my fist at the stage and shouting "YEAAAAHH!" They didn't go into the rest of the song, but it was okay, for once it was okay, because they proceeded to FUCKING ROCK. Halfway into their second song I realized that they had 3 guitarists on stage and for a second I thought they had 4 guitarists, but it turned out that the lead singer/bassists is huge and was playing a six string bass. They play fast fierce rock that is just a thing of wonder, the kind of rock music that gives me hope and raises my spirit. While watching them I thought, they'd be the best band to play at the Mutiny. AND THEY ARE PLAYING AT THE MUTINY IN MAY, YOU HAVE TO GO. You have to go, you have to go drink beers, take shots, and rock the fuck out with these dudes. After their set my friend Anne said, "I feel like stealing a camaro."


Trouble No More by Against the Grain

Another Chicago band came on third, this time it was Jar'd Loose. They sounded really good. They have a great best of the 90s sound going on, lots of White Zombie and Metallica, some grungness, and lots of punk. The frontman is (used to be?) head up The Muzzler, who fucking rule(d?). Freed from playing an instrument dude is one of the most entertaining front men I've seen. Their first song was explosive as fuck. They lost some momentum, but played very well. Hopefully they just kill next time I see them.

Of course the volume kept going up and up throughout the night, thus Zeke was like getting hit by a god's hammer. They played a shitlot of loud as hell, louder, songs that lend themselves way too easily to drinking copious amounts of cheap beer. AS IT SHOULD BE. If I ever manage to get a vast amount of money the first thing I'm doing is throwing a huge rock festival. I'll call it Infinite Party Fuck It All. You better believe that Zeke is going to be there. They rocked, the rolled, the main lesson they taught me was that fuck everything let's listen to some really loud fast rock music. Amen to that.


Kicked in the Teeth by Zeke

Not sure what the next concert I'm going to is. I'd like to go see Mastodon at the Riv on friday, mainly to see Ghost. ALAS! Behemoth, and more importantly, Watain, are playing the same night. In a perfect world Ghost and Waitain would be playing the same show. I heard that last time Waitain played that they were tossing real blood around and had meat on stage. That's what I'm talking about.

I had way too much fun looking at The Joy of Satan website today.