Show Reviews

It's been a while, but here's a new post talking about some shows i've been to over the past few months. I've been to a bunch of shows, so i'll have to make each review brief.

LUCERO w/ Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
@the Biltmore
May 23
The real surprise of the night was openers Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears from Austin, Texas. They had a nice soul revue thing going with forays into old school funk and some straight up rock. Included in the set were a handful of songs about the female butt, such as "Big Booty Woman". My favorite song was "Bitch I Love You". Funny shit. The band was so much fun, you just couldn't stop yourself from dancing.
It seems like most times i see Lucero they open with "That Much Further West" and then let the floodgates of audience song requests open up. This usually leads to breaks in between songs, and a general looseness on stage. Tonight was unlike any other set; the band opened with "Bike Riders" and actually seemed to have a setlist slightly mapped out. This resulted in the band sounding tighter, and dare i say, more professional than ever before. Songs flowed from one into the next, Ben wasn't explaining that he couldn't play a song due to drunkeness. The band sounded together, and with the addition of pedal steel and keyboard players, old songs sounded new & fresh. And opening with a rager like "Bike Riders", well goddamn! Lucero did play a few requests, including the one i asked Ben Nichols to play just before he hopped on stage. The set included all the hits, Slow Dance, Nights Like These, Tears Don't Matter Much, The War, etc. But the band also played a few new ones, that got me excited for their upcoming record. Only bad part of the show was when this douche bag poured a full can of beer on my head. What a piece of shit.

CRO-MAGS w/ Outbreak, Cruel Hand
@ Studio 7 (seattle)
June 6th
After a fun day walking around Seattle, me, Steveston Mike and hunter headed over to the venue, way too early. So we headed over to the Krispy Kreme where we witnessed the creation of glazed donuts. Amazing! Back to Studio 7 we found out the Mongoloids had broken down and wouldn't be playing. I didn't care. Cruel Hand opened and were better than i expected. Basic modern hardcore i guess, tons of energy on stage. Outbreak played next. I used to love this band, but now.... whatever. They bored me.
As the Cro-Mags started to set up you could see the anticipation on everyones face, and you could also see just how diverse the crowd was; anti-racist skins, metal heads, hardcore kids, mohawked punx, etc. For the life of me i can't remember what song they opened with, but i just remember tons of people attempting stage dives. Thru out the whole set there was always a few people skanking across the stage before doing a dive. As to be expected there was some punches thrown, and some brawls did break out. At one point i saw some kid crawling on his hands & knees out the front door after some sort of skirmish happened in the pit.
The Cro-Mags sounded great, John Joesph still sounds good and still moves around alot. The band seemed a bit bummed about all the fights breaking out, at one point asking "why do you have to do this at our show?". But of course the fights kept breaking out thru out the set. The set listed consisted of songs from "Age of Quarrel", some Bad Brains covers, and "12xu" by Wire. Solid.

The Estranged w/Mode Moderne, Yellow Knife, Spectres
@Pats Pub
June 19
The Estranged from Portland were much better live than their records, even though I like most of their records. Their full length on Dirtnap wasn't recorded that well, and i felt like it hurt the songs. And hearing those songs live proved my point. The Estranged were a powerful 3-piece, reminding me of Husker Du at some points. And i was quite surprised at how good the guitar player/singer is, that dude can really shred.
Opening the show was 3 locals; Mode Moderne are obviously influenced by the Smiths and Joy Division, i'd like to see them again. Yellow Knife were heavy, post hardcore with some metal leanings. Spectres do the peace punk influenced by Joy Division thing fairly well. I think if they got a different singer they'd be a stronger band.

Leeroy Stagger
@ the Railway
May 29th
Kevin Kane was one of the openers, which makes sense since he also plays with Leeroy Stagger, and he played an abbreviated set due to his frustration with all the people talking while he played his quiet, mellow songs. The worst offenders were these women sitting at a table right up front, maybe 5 feet from Kevin. They had no idea that they were ruining the show for everyone. He ended his set with a couple songs from his old band "The Grapes of Wrath".
Leeroy Stagger returns to the Railway!! I was excited for this show for weeks leading up. The set was heavy on material from his latest album, which i didn't get to hear until after the show, but this didn't matter. Leeroy Stagger is a great singer-songwriter, and his new songs sounded fantastic, akin to someone like Tom Petty mixed with Steve Earle and a less artsy Wilco. Yeah it's that good! I was happy to hear some songs from "Depression River" sprinkled in the set list as well.
I really hope things work out for Leeroy Stagger, he's got the chops and can write a good song, plus he tours non-stop. He's deserving of some success.

Slayer w/ Megadeth
@ GM Place
June 24
Thrash fuckin' metal!! The first 2 bands don't deserve to be mentioned in such a fine blog as this one. On this stop of the Canadian Carnage tour Slayer opened, and Megadeth headlined. Didn't really matter as both bands played 1hour sets, guess it comes down to ego.
Slayer opened with God Hates Us All... what a brutal angry song. But sadly parts of it were lost in the mix, but they got all that cleared up within the first couple songs. These guys haven't slowed down or mellowed out over the years, still brtual, still fast, still angry, and still LOUD! There was 38 amps on stage. That's just crazy. Slayer playing a 1 hour set means they can't fuck around when it comes to the set list, this meant you got to hear the "hits" and there was minimal between song banter. Awesome.
Megadeth played last. Can't remember what they opened with, maybe i was too mesmerized by Dave Mustaine's golden flowing locks that resemble a lions mane. But that first song went straight into "Wake Up Dead".. fuck yes!! My fist was in the air, i was headbanging like i still had long hair, i was singing along... good times. I was happy to hear "In My Darkest Hour",that song is amazing, good heavy riff thru out, some good depressing/morose lyrics. It was amazing to see the whole stadium singing along to "Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?". I know it's a thrash classic, but man people were losing their shit, singing at the top of their lungs and banging their heads.
As good as the bands were this night, the true entertainment was the crowd. Slayer and Megadeth bring out people from all walks of life; patched bikers, dirtbag metal heads, crust punx, middle aged balding men, bevis & butthead, skanks & prudes... you get the picture. They all came to do 3 things; head bang, smoke weed and drink beer. The air was thick with smoke thru out the whole night, and no security guard was going to stop anyone. People would be smoking a joint and a guard would shine the flashlight on them to stop but they would just stare into the light while inhaling their dope. In between bands people stood in the aisles, smoking anything and everything, not even trying to hide it!! I'm pretty sure i got a contact high as my thoughts near the end of Megadeth's set were focused on getting an Iced Tea and a bag of potato chips, no flavor just salt (and for the record they tasted amazing when i rushed to 7-11 after the set). Oh and the 1 beer per person per transaction bullshit they had going on didn't stop everyone from drinking their faces off. These fans came to party, and nothing was going to stop them.