Live: Dethklok, Mastodon, Converge and High On Fire @ Hammerstein Ballroom 10.29.9

Life is funny. In a genre as inherently cartoonish as metal (both to the positive and negative), I guess it was inevitable that a metal cartoon band would exist. The idea that they would tour with legitimate bands in big rooms all around this great nation of ours is a little bit more mindboggling.

Presentation was another issue. Was there going to be a live band? Were they going to kick it Gorillaz style and play behind a screen that the animation was projected against? Or maybe split the difference? Metalocalypse musical mastermind Brendon Small plays guitar in the live band and does the Nathan Explosion vocals (as he does on the cartoon), so you would figure that there would be a live band and it would at least get a little bit of shine. I'm told the first tour had the band behind the screen, but this tour had the band backlit enough to see the band a bit. I'll get into the rest of the crew in a sec.

So the crew primed the pump a bit before we headed uptown. For the first time in a while, I (and we) was interested in seeing the entire bill. We circled the wagons at Hammerstein a little after seven and got inside to see the last four or five songs of the Converge set. I've never thought that Converge were the tightest live band and the prospect of seeing them in a place as cavernous as as Hammerstein was not one that bode well. Jake was all over the limited amount of place openers were afforded and there we definitely fans in the room, but I wasn't crazy about the set. I'm sure they are crushed.

Co-headliners Mastodon were up next. While my state of inebriation at the beginning of the set was well into the realms of shithouse drunk, I figured that maybe they would light a fire under my ass. Sadly, I couldn't have been more wrong. Very, very boring. There were pretty decent visuals, but the most striking ones were the stars I'd see when I'd almost fall asleep on my feet and smash face first into Eric or Paul's back. (Apologies, gents). Mastodon played the new record in it's entirety and followed up with some chestnuts at the end, but I was profoundly underwhelmed with the whole set. Suffice to say, Mastodon are not this man's kind of red wine band.

Dethklok were up in short order. If you're a nerd, and I am, the live band is kind of a Stats-Pro wet dream. As I mentioned, Brendon Small helms the band, but he's got ex-Zappa sideguy Mike Keneally backing him up on guitar. Drum God Of Thunder Gene Hoglan is on the stool, paired with SWR product rep/ex-Zappa dude Bryan Beller on bass. Lots of times these fantasy parings seem better on paper, but understand that they fucking killed it. The animation was typical Metalocalypse, but as consistently hysterical. It wasn't synched hard to the music, but the synergy was pretty bad ass. I felt like a fucking 12 year old and loved every minute of it. Plus, they played the Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle and, as luck would have it, I like coffee, so it was pretty win-win all around. See this tour any way you can. If it's a real big room, maybe think about showing up a little late.

Metal.

R

Live: OnPoint at Karma Lounge 10.26.9

Despite the less than ideal environs, OnPoint rocked the hell out of the Karma Lounge basement the other night. I've been tied up in So Hideous mixing and hating my job, so apologies to the OnPoint kids (and their rabid fans) for the lack of timely coverage.

Evidently, the people booking Karma are/were looking to expand their demographic a little bit by bringing in Team OP. Not sure how the not-especially-good opening singer-songwriter dude felt, but it sure brought more people in the room than the maybe one person who might have been there to see them. He did win over the guy whose job for the night seemed to be to play incidental cocktail jazz for 2 to 5 minutes between sets and then be in the way of everybody loading in, which may have been a small consolation.

OnPoint followed the songwriter guy and pretty much killed it. Olga sure can sing (and is far from un-easy on the eyes). Paired with Dylan and Matt, it's a good time. They need to get some recordings out, but in the interim they have added a bass player. He played on the last three or four tracks on the set, firing the already excited crowd up into the most spirited display of headbanging I've seen in some time. Keep up on the integration of the new guy in the franchise and hear about upcoming shows at the OnPoint web presence here. Watch out for the robots.

R

Can't believe what you read on the Interwebs anymore...

Chalk one up for lazy journalism. Much like the deluge of requests I get for the forgetters live recording, the reports of Chuck Biscuits having passed on have put the assumably hale and/or hearty Mr. B back in the eyes and or mouths of the populace at large. Evidently the dude that started the ridiculousness had problems getting in touch with Chuck for some interview thing and extrapolated that into his death. Guess we all should have checked his Facebook. Oh, well. Glad he's still with us.

Metal!

R

R.I.P: Chuck Biscuits (1965-2009)

So, after being off my personal radar for years, save for perhaps the Chunklet Brian Walsby cartoon, it appears that Mr. Chuck Biscuits has passed on from throat cancer at age 44. I first saw him with Social Distortion, and he was evidently only with them for a year or so, but it was certainly long enough for me to have my first 'was that really a good idea' tattoo moment as:re the huge BISCUITS tattoo he had on his back. The drumming was bad-ass, but I believe that was the last time he was actively in the public eye musically. Evidently he studied art in his later years and was quite the cereal historian/collector. 44 is far too young, but far better than malingering. Rest easy, big guy.

R

Live: Jon Snodgrass and Joey Cape with Mike Hale at Bar Nine 10.25.9

Whenever Mr. Jon Snodgrass comes to town, whether it be solo or with whatever incarnation of Drag The River he's out with, there is much rejoicing at the JS-NYC HQ. They don't come any nicer than Jon and his records, including his new Visitor's Band are always top-notch. The last couple times he's been through Joey Cape has been in tow, allowing the two to swap songs and maximize their drinking and/or smoking potential. The show on Friday in Brooklyn was a good one, despite it's short CMJ set time. Those in the know used that show to whet their appetites for this show and the free show at Maxwell's on Monday night.

Whoever owns Bar Nine must have some left coast punk or Suburban Home connections, as the only name artists that play there seem to fall in those demographics. Works for me. I don't get up towards the Kitchen of Hell all that much, but B9 may well change that.

I got there in time to catch the end of Mike Hale's set. I wasn't all that into his solo record but was really into Gunmoll. Hale has divested himself of worldly possesions and dedicated himself to touring full-time. He's got a diary going on at PunkNews you can check out here. Like I said, I wasn't really feeling the solo stuff, but this show swayed me a little more towards the positive end of things. He's no Austin Lucas, but seems to be heartfelt about his songs and their content. I'm interested to see how the time on the road impacts his next solo record. He'll be back at Bar Nine with Austin in December, so we'll see. In the meantime, you can check the record here at Suburban Home.

Joey and Jon were up next, much to the glee of the crew of obsessive Cape/Lagwagon crew that turns up at every one of the shows. One guy evidently flew from Germany for these shows, lending credence to the fact(s) that the dollar is pretty weak and I need to revisit the Cape canon. Josh Small isn't out playing incidental instruments like he had on previous tours, but the songs didn't suffer that much. Jon was fabulous as always, playing stuff off Visitor's Band and a couple new tunes, including a new drunk song he had written the night before about Spiderman and the Wolfman. Why he and/or Drag The River aren't huge is beyond me. Look for a DTR retrospective called Primer coming soon and as well as Chad's solo record Smile Sweet Face coming soon. The Yankees clinched the pennant in the middle of the proceedings, leading to an ocean of shots from the house as well as the rest of the band's booze rider being passed out to the crowd and asserting that Bar Nine is a hell of a place to see a show. Kudos to Jon, Joey and Mike for making it a great night. Peep all of the Suburban Home roster here and check all of them out if you're going to The Fest this weekend.

R

Live: CMJ showcase @ Europa featuring Teenage Bottlerocket, Cobra Skulls, Jon Snodgrass and Joey Cape, Banner Pilot and Higher Giant 10.25.9

Initially, the reason for the season for my attendance at this show was seeing Banner Pilot, who I adore. They have taken over the mantle from Two Cow Garage as the band that I travel long distances to either miss outright or play way too short sets. I had taken the L on the last two BP shows I tried to see, but even my shitty job did not make me miss the proceedings.

I got inside in time to catch the end of the Higher Giant set. Featuring Ernie Parada from a million awesome bands that started with Token Entry, they played a bunch of Queens accented punk rock not all that far from previous Parada franchises like Grey Area. They got a good response, despite their lead-off spot. Their new record is out courtesy of the good folk of The Black Numbers. Get it here.

Twin cities powerhouse Banner Pilot made their live debut for me next, playing a decent, but not fabulous show that leaned heavily on new stuff from their Fat debut Collapser. There were some sound issues, most of them seemingly precipitated by the front of house guy, but it was a decent set. I would have liked to hear more stuff from the first EP, but a good showing from the gents. I would have liked to have seen a longer set, but hopefully it won't be another four years til the next NYC show.

Jon Snodgrass and Joey Cape played next, reprising their increasingly frequent duo set for the first show of their most recent tour. While there was a small but vocal crew of Cape obsessives drinking their way to nirvana, I would say it was a Snodgrass room. Neither disappointed, but suffice to say I'm a Snodgrass proponent. Why he is not hugely famous I'm not sure, but I'm going to enjoy seeing him in the small rooms for as long as I can. You should see both of those jokers at Bar Nine tomorrow night, or for free at Maxwells on Monday. JS-NYC will be all up in those shows. You should be, too.

Cobra Skulls (from Reno) were up next. There has been a big buzz about them lately, so I got their records and found them to be pretty staggeringly underwhelming from where I was listening. I thought maybe the live show would sway me, but I literally took a nap after the first couple songs. Jack Terricloth was evidently out to see them, but unless you can have someone on that level to talk to during their set, I'd save your cash. Probably one of the most overrated things I've heard in a long while.

Luke was all about seeing Teenage Bottlerocket, as they hail from his hometown of Laramie, so I stuck around. I don't remember them rocking my world when they came through last time with the Copyrights and Unlovables, and I'm almost positive they were not good at the show at Knit with Chixdiggit, but they sure kicked my ass from note one to note last this time around. Wow-ee!! More hooks than a tackle box and a gang of song-along choruses that rival their aforementioned touring partners. It was a good move snapping up that guy from the Lillingtons. It fleshes out the sound a bit and while I would say that I prefer Ray's songs, Teenage Bottlerocket are a great fucking time. The Poison cover is a slippery slope, but it shouldn't keep you from snapping all their records up stat. They just dropped a new one called They Came From The Shadows on Fat that I haven't heard, but will soon be rectifying that situation. Look for a review soon but in the interim do whatever you need to to see Teenage Bottlerocket. Them boys kick some serious ass. Thanks to Luke for coming out, too!

R

Live: Hello Sir Records CMJ showcase featuring Antarctic, Bronzed Chorus and Ho-Ag @ Lit Lounge 10.22.9

Evan and Aaron (sic?) had been after me to check out a couple bands at Lit. CMJ has been a holocaust of crap for the last couple of years and 2009 is no exception, but as musical tastes go, theirs are pretty good, given our age disparities and Lit has been good to be and the So Hideous franchise, so on the bike I went.

I got there just in time for things to run behind schedule, but Antarctic were up in fairly short order. Instrumental, with a pretty decent rhythm section, they definitely got the few asses that were in the room moving. There was a fair amount of the "you play the big chord and I'll do the tapping riffs" guitar interplay that Minus The Bear and Don Cab have made newly re-relevant, but it was pretty obvious that they knew how to play and weren't total wank-meisters about it. I'll give them there due props, but reassert again that bands really need to Google their potential band names. I would hope that they would be aware of the Eric Richter franchise that plays music not altogether dissimilar from their stuff, but then again maybe I'm just old.

The Bronzed Chorus were next, representing for the new crop of two piece bands. Again, I would argue that two pieces does not a band make, moreso an act, but the two dudes have evidently played together since middle school. I'd assume (hope) that they are of college age now. They have a nice sense of interplay, but I'd prefer to see and hear them in more of a fleshed-out form. They are on tour with Antarctic and fellow label dudes So Many Dynamos for the next couple of weeks. See about checking them out.

Ho-Ag closed the evening for me. As they set up, more and more things started to give me douche chills about how things might go down. Two guys who seemed like Boston rich kids attracting a lot of attention to themselves before things even started? Check. Moog? Check. Bullhorn? Oh, you know it. Cue checks for keys and cycling gloves. The three or four songs I heard were pretty unimaginative Brainiac meet early D-Plan bites that tried way too hard. I would expect that it's a fine soundtrack (or prelude) to coke/pill-fueled couplings with troubled art-school girls (or maybe boys, but they really don't come off that cool) but from where I stood about four feet from them, it was pretty much ear-rape. Ho-Ag are definitely the type of band that guys that go on to law firms or marketing groups brag about having been in to shitty women in expensive Upper East Side bars. If that's your thing, throw on some cologne and set it off, but I'd defer more towards the bottom of the Hello Sir roster.

R