SPIRITUAL WIDOWCIDE: On Tour with Destruction
March 15 – 24, 2014
It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I’ve been attending metal shows for
more than a quarter century, but I’ve never really been on tour. Oh sure,
Jen and I have followed bands like Gamma Ray and Rage around Europe for days on
end. And we’ve been on the road with our pals in Widow for gigs on
consecutive nights. But we’ve never really been on tour. You know,
“Turn the Page,” “Years of Decay,” dirt roads and interstates, cigarettes and
burgers, caffeine and alcohol. On tour. So when Widow landed the
opening slot for the first seven dates of the Destruction ‘Spiritual Genocide’
tour of the USA, we jumped at the chance to tag along. Not only would we
be able to experience life on the road on a proper underground metal tour, but
we would be able to help our friends. Not to mention we’d get to watch
Destruction every night. As a fan ever since I scored a dubbed cassette
copy of the ‘Sentence of Death’ EP in my tape-trading days, I can definitively
say: That doesn’t suck.
Here’s how it all went down, with a caveat. There are certain private
details I don’t feel comfortable divulging in a widely disseminated email
review. There are certain opinions and observations that, for various
reasons, I wouldn’t want to broadcast indiscriminately. The high road is
always the best road, and I am truly thankful for all the experiences I had on
tour. But there were plenty of ups and downs along the way. Of
necessity, this is a somewhat sanitized narrative. Trust me, you’ll get
the flavor of what it was like. But if you have an hour or two to kill,
sit me down at the bar sometime, buy me a beer, and I’ll tell you the whole
unvarnished story.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
For Widow, the chance to support Destruction on the road for a week was all
kinds of awesome. Going into the tour, however, there was just one teensy
weensy niggling concern: They have a new drummer, Jason Wheeler.
They’d never played a single show with Jason. They hadn’t played a show
in 2014. Under the circumstances, it was prudent to have a warm-up show
to work out some of the kinks before the tour began. So that’s precisely
what Widow did, playing a hometown show at The Lincoln Theater in Raleigh on
Saturday night. The occasion was the Lincoln Metal Fest, which doubled as
the birthday celebration of local promoter Tony “Dio” Leonard. Jen and I
flew into RDU on Saturday afternoon so that we could catch the warm-up show.
The Lincoln Theater is a stately old theater in the heart of Raleigh. By
the time we arrived, there must have been more than 100 punters scattered about
the venue. Not bad at all for a Saturday metal show featuring exclusively
local/regional bands. Raleigh has a fine scene for traditional heavy
metal, one that’s stronger than many around the country. We arrived in
time to catch the tail end of Dark Design’s set. I enjoy their
brand of thrashy metal with strong clean vocals, so I was pleased to have the
chance to see them again. The only other time I’d seen Dark Design was at
WOM Fest V, when they had the unfortunate burden of going on stage at 10:00
a.m. the morning after a vicious summer storm wrought havoc on the festival
grounds. Needless to say, the boys were a bit more animated
tonight. It was cool to hear their metallized cover of “Dust in the Wind,” for sure.
When Widow took the stage, the Jason Wheeler era formally
commenced. The crowd was euphoric, local metalheads ecstatic at the
opportunity to see their hometown heroes after an absence of many months (last
local show was probably October 2013). It did my heart good to see the
audience singing along, headbanging, and looking so genuinely happy. As
for Widow’s performance, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen them
so nervous at the beginning of a gig. They’re usually pretty cool
customers and nothing really flusters them. But tonight the anxiety and
butterflies were visible as they were setting up their gear, and even for the
first song or two, before they finally relaxed, settled in, and rocked
out. What about Jason? Well, his background as a thrash drummer was
immediately evident in his aggressive playing style, his headbanging visual
presence behind the kit, and his occasional tendency to push the tempos.
This had been an issue in rehearsals too, as the guys were joking before the
show that “Angel Sin” (one of their speedier tunes) had been renamed “Angel
Slow” for Jason’s sake so he wouldn’t take it to warp speed. I don’t think
anyone would say this Widow’s finest technical performance ever, but it was a
start, and a good start. Band and crowd alike came away quite
pleased. Setlist: Take Hold of the Night, Re-Animate Her,
Lady Twilight, American Werewolf in Raleigh, Nightlife, Beware the Night, Angel
Sin. (They had planned to play “Judgment Day,” as well, but that tune was
cut from the set for time considerations.)
Next up was an unexpected treat, the return of October 31 to the Raleigh
area. Right around the turn of the millennium and for a few years
thereafter, Jen and I saw King Fowley’s troop a ton of times in a ton of
locations: the old Powermad festival in Baltimore, Wacken Open Air, New
Jersey Metalfest, Minneapolis Mayhem, etc. etc. In fact, the first time I
ever saw Chris and John E. from Widow on stage was at an October 31 show at
King’s Bar in Raleigh on April 1, 2000. (They were playing in their
melodic death metal band, Sorrow Bequest, a precursor to Widow.) So there
was a strangely appropriate symmetry to having October 31 on the bill
tonight. In addition to the irrepressible King Fowley, the lineup still
features guitar wiz Brian “Hellstorm” Williams and steadfast bassist Jim Hunter
(also of Twisted Tower Dire, While Heaven Wept, etc.). Tonight, October
31 were saddled with a murky and raw sound, but somehow I don’t think they
would have had it any other way. Fowley was in rare form. He
pointed out his bald spot and introduced one song as being from 19 years ago,
“pre-bald spot.” He ingested a boxful of red hots, then spit them onto the
stage floor, as the band launched into the Motley Crue tune of the same
name. He kept muttering cryptic statements like “more cheese on the
pizza.” And he outdid himself during the Saxon “The Power and the Glory”
cover by throwing a bag of confetti into the crowd, then extracting a full-size
Saxon flag from the groin area of his trousers. Musically, the October 31
material has held up very well over the years, and it was a joy to hear so many
of these old chestnuts again. Here’s hoping they finish their new album
and get it released soon. The heavy metal world needs more October
31. Setlist: Visions of the End, The Warlock, The
Chosen Ones, Commit to Sin, Down to the Devil (new song), Salem’s Curse, The
Fire Awaits you, Rivet Rats, A Million Goodbyes, Red Hot (Motley Crue cover),
The Power and the Glory (Saxon cover).
The evening ended with a lengthy headlining set from a cover band called Lexx
Luthor (may not have the spelling correct, but you get the idea). I’m
not too much for cover acts, but these guys were very skilled at what they
did. Guitarist and vocalist were both excellent, and I especially enjoyed
their detours into some less obvious song selections like Riot’s “Swords and
Tequila” or Wrathchild America’s “Don’t Take Candy from a Madman.” Perhaps
they overstayed their welcome just a bit, or perhaps Jen and I were just sleepy
from our long travel day to Raleigh on the heels of a super-busy week getting
ready for our vacation.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
After a day off on Sunday the 16th,
Team Widow began its trek north on the evening of Monday, March 17. (Our
tour was damn near over before it began, thanks to an unfortunate fender bender
when a motorist rear-ended some of us while we were stopped on the Interstate in
Raleigh as a cold rain fell. Fortunately, no-one was injured and we were
not in the tour vehicle at the time, so the tour commenced without a
hitch.) We stopped overnight in the snow outside Baltimore, MD, then Jen’s
rock’n’roll sister Roxanne whisked her away for a few days of family time.
That left a touring party of four heading north in a GMC Yukon pulling a trailer
filled with Widow’s gear. The drive on the 18th
was rough. Not only was traffic heavy all the way up the coast, but I
became aware of two unpleasant realities that would plague us on this
tour. First the Yukon with trailer was getting an average of 12 – 13 miles
per gallon. Ouch, when you’re talking about a 2,000+ mile tour.
Second, tolls are a bastard. We spent more than $100 in tolls on the
18th alone, including a painful $27 just to cross the freaking GW Bridge in New York
City. (I knew there was a reason why I lived in the South. Everybody
down here is too broke to pay tolls, so we don’t have any.) By the time we
got off the Mass Pike outside of Worcester, we had less than $2 of band money
left. Yikes. Time to start selling t-shirts, boys!
Worcester, MA is my old stomping grounds. I went to college and law school
in Boston in the late 1980s and 1990s. At the time, most major arena tours
skipped Boston in favor of the nicer facilities in Worcester, so I took Peter
Pan Bus lines to Worcester on a regular basis in those days to see gigs,
primarily at the Worcester Centrum: Metallica (AJFA tour), Queensryche
(O:M), Iron Maiden (No Prayer), Judas Priest (Painkiller), Kiss (Revenge),
Megadeth (Countdown), Skid Row (Slave), etc. etc. Tonight’s gig at the
Palladium was only a block or so away from the Centrum, although it’s called
something else now (DRC Center or some crap). It really did feel like
coming home to me. I even wore my Wargasm ‘Why Play Around?’ shirt in
homage to the best Massachusetts band ever. (Jason wore his Wargasm shirt
too, and was texting back and forth with Wargasm guitarist Rich Spillberg
before the gig. Rich did his best to attend, but unfortunately was not
able to make it.) I got several nods of approval from Massachusetts
faithful about my shirt, so it’s good to see that they still remember after all
these years. But it was damned cold in Worcester tonight, with
temperatures in the upper 20s, a merciless wind, and ice on the ground.
It wasn’t much warmer inside the Palladium. I swear, they never turned the
heat on inside the venue the entire night. We were in the upstairs section
(capacity 480), not the much bigger, stately theater that’s part of the same
venue (where they hold the New England Hardcore & Metal Festival each
year). We set up Jason’s drums in the theater part, and it was surreal to
be working in that big dark room adjacent to the cozier upstairs section.
The whole building is sort of decrepit, run down and falling apart, like most
of Worcester, but the performance space inside the Palladium was nice enough,
with kind of a twisted circus / freakshow theme. We were a bit late
arriving, so we hustled to unload the gear, lugging it up a hill and around a
corner before running it up multiple flights of stairs into the venue.
Load-in was kind of a bitch tonight. And the merch booth was upstairs on
the balcony in the upstairs venue, meaning yet another flight of stairs to haul
boxes of t-shirts and CDs. My creaky knees weren’t very happy campers by
the end of load- in, but that’s okay. I saw Schmier and Mike from
Destruction wandering around, but didn’t want to disturb them so I kept my distance.
The venue filled up nicely after doors opened, with I’d wager 200+ metalheads in
attendance, including a few familiar faces: veteran metal writer Matt Coe, Ashes
of Ares guitarist Freddie Vidales, ex-Seax singer Carmine Blades, and
Skullhammer frontman Steve “Ace” Hammer. Talked to everyone other than
Ace, so that was nice. Three local openers (all of the thrash/death
variety) went on first, then it was time for Widow. They had a good
25-minute gig, sounding tighter than they did in Raleigh, although they had to
cut “Beware the Night” from the set because of time. The crowd was polite
and receptive, but not rabid or anything. Overall, not a bad reception at
all for the boys from North Carolina. They were pleased with how it went,
although they did tell me that the monitors onstage were awful.
Krisiun’s set passed in a blur of noise to me. I’m not really a death
metal guy in the best of circumstances, but the sound (especially on the
balcony) was so muddy that it was hard to make anything out of the Brazilians’
din. By now, we were all really hungry. Dinner had been a few
granola bars and bottles of water, as the venue did not provide food.
(Local promoter gave us two six-packs of Miller Lite and some water to help get
us through the night.) Fortunately, Chris and John E. took matters into
their own hands after Widow’s set, walked down the street to Uno’s, and came
back with two steaming pies for Team Widow, which we shared with fans and
friends at the merch stand. It became like a Widow pizza party. Cool.
Finally it was time for Destruction’s headlining gig on this, the first night of
their North American tour. They came out thrashing with a punishing
rendition of “Thrash Till Death,” a searing mission statement from the word
go. Surprisingly, right after that song, Schmier stopped the show to
complain stridently about the “shit” monitors. He threatened to leave the
stage unless the problem was fixed immediately. Not really the ideal way
to ingratiate himself to the New England headbangers, who started a derisive
“diva” chant. I worried that the whole thing was going to go off the
rails, but fortunately the gig continued uninterrupted after that initial
tirade. Front of the house sound was again very muddy, especially on the
balcony. It sounded a bit better on the floor, but not much.
Technical problems notwithstanding, I was impressed by the precision killing
machine that is Destruction live. Setlist was balanced beautifully
between new and old songs, and was fairly littered with classic cuts.
(Ostensibly, this tour is in support of Destruction’s new ‘Spiritual Genocide’
LP, yet only two songs – the title cut and “Carnivore” – from that platter made
the setlist during the tour.) No Destruction song works better live than
“Bestial Invasion,” which Schmier and Mike punctuate with synchronized
machine-gun style swings of their guitar necks during the signature riff
throughout the song. The hulking, black-haired, pierced and tattooed
Schmier moves constantly among three mike stands set up across the front of the
stage, with the diminutive Mike moving only to get out of Schmier’s way and
headbanging furiously as he doles out one colossal serpentine riff after
another. Behind the drums, relative newcomer Vaaver makes it look easy as
he pounds out the beats and contributes backing harsh vocals to emphasize
certain lines in the choruses and so on. Elsewhere, the stage setup is
entirely pro, with backing Destruction banners, copious amounts of stage fog,
and effective strobe lights. Despite the bad sound and Schmier’s tirade,
I was blown away by Destruction’s set tonight. The idea of being able to
see this show every night for a week was worth the price of admission all by
itself. Setlist: Thrash Till Death, Spiritual
Genocide, Nailed to the Fucking Cross, Mad Butcher, Armageddonizer, Eternal
Ban, Life without Sense, Release from Agony, Carnivore, Hate is My Fuel, Death
Trap, drum solo, Tormentor, Total Desaster, Bestial Invasion.
Encores: Curse the Gods, The Butcher Strikes Back.
After the gig, we drank the rest of the Miller Lite, then proceeded to load out,
which was no more fun than load-in had been. It had gotten even colder
outside, and running all the gear down the stairs, out the venue and around the
corner to the Yukon was quite a workout. After 2:00 a.m., we finally left
the Palladium and checked into our hotel a few miles away. We stayed up
for another hour or so, then crashed hard. New York City tomorrow …
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
The 180-mile drive from Worcester to New York City was largely uneventful.
Our only excitement came at a toll plaza as we entered NYC, where two toll
collectors went ballistic on an unsuspecting Jason for filming video on his cell
phone while I was scrounging around for cash to pay the toll. Driving
through NYC on a rainy Wednesday afternoon looked mighty depressing. We
drove past huge drab public housing towers, saw streets crowded with pedestrians
wearing earbuds and burying their noses in their noses in their smartphones as
they walked down the street. Nobody acknowledges each other or even makes
eye contact with anybody else, they’re just chained to their electronic
devices. So this is what the zombie apocalypse looks like in real
life. Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
We had been very concerned about the parking situation at Webster Hall, but were
pleased to find a nice open space on the street out in front of the venue, just
behind the Destruction / Krisiun bus. The sign said “No Parking Anytime,”
but we decided to take our chances because we didn’t have any better idea where
to park and this was so convenient. (Fortunately, the Yukon and trailer
had been neither ticketed nor towed by the end of the night.) Load-in was
at 3:00 p.m. and we were ready. Even with the primo parking space, it was
still a long walk down the block to the venue, then up some stairs and down a
hall to get to the Marlin Room, so we definitely got our exercise. The
Marlin Room (capacity 600) is beautiful, easily the best venue of the tour, with
a striking wooden floor, huge stage, and excellent bar facilities. Only
two things about Webster Hall sucked. First, the bathrooms were
downstairs, a hike from the Marlin Room, in a subterranean dark cavern.
Weird. Second, crap beers were $8 at the bar. Seriously, eight bucks
for a Miller Lite??? No wonder New Yorkers have such bad attitudes.
I didn’t buy any beer tonight – fortunately, I didn’t have to.
After we got all the gear loaded in, Jason realized he needed new drum heads, so he
and I went on an errand on foot to find a Guitar Center. The bad part of
this was that the two of us missed Destruction’s soundcheck (where they jammed
on Metallica covers tonight), but the good part was that we got to see a bit of
the Big Apple. We walked past Union Square and Jason found an amazing
coffee shop. Sure, it was cold and raining, but we didn’t care. We were in
New York City, getting ready to rock Webster Hall. The staff at Guitar
Center was very helpful, and the tattooed dude behind the counter was in a band
that had opened for Destruction before, so he was totally supportive and
enthusiastic. For his part, Jason was blown away by all the Ramones
memorabilia in the front window of the store, as well as the Eddie Van Halen
guitar in a display case. Cool place.
There were two local openers tonight, one being a three-piece called Metalfier
featuring members of Polish descent. Talked at length with the
singer/guitarist and drummer, the latter of whom has the unusual background of
formerly working as a funeral director before he became a full-time
musician. Metalfier played a brand of power/thrash that was entertaining
enough for 25 minutes, including a cover of Slayer’s “Seasons in the
Abyss.” Somewhere around this time, we were joined by my buddy Mark Gromen
and a couple of his friends. They had been pre-gaming for several hours,
and all were well-lubricated by this point. The beers and comic relief
began flowing and remained on display for the remainder of the evening.
Between the Gromen crew and appreciative fans, beers were finding Team Widow
faster than we could drink them. During Destruction’s set, there was a
time when I had three full beers waiting for me on the back ledge behind our
merch booth. Needless to say, I didn’t go thirsty that night, $8 beers be damned.
It turns out there was much to celebrate. I’ve seen Widow live upwards of
20 times in three countries. I’ve never seen them better than
tonight. It was just magic when they were onstage, despite the
suffocating stage fog which caused John E. to disappear in the mist at
different times during the night. The new lineup played more cohesively
than ever before, and the large crowd was going crazy from the first
note. Twice during their set, they were interrupted by loud chants of
“Wi-Dow, Wi-Dow.” It was awesome. I was so happy, and the band
members’ big grins on stage confirmed that they felt the same way. Sound
was excellent tonight too, and they got to play their full 30-minute set:
Take Hold of the Night, Re-Animate Her, Lady Twilight, American Werewolf in
Raleigh, Nightlife, Beware the Night, Angel Sin. No matter how many more
times I see Widow on how many adventures in how many places, I will always
remember this show, the night that Widow conquered New York City. Webster
Hall became Widow Hall.
One thing we hadn’t conquered was dinner. Shit, we were hungry.
Dinner had been granola bars and bottled water / beer … again.
Fortunately, Webster Hall gave us each $11.00 meal vouchers for a restaurant
down the street called the Village Pourhouse (I think). During Krisiun’s
set, I manned the merch table while the Widow guys went to the restaurant to
eat. They brought me back a burger and fries right before Destruction’s
set started. I have a distinct, happy memory of sitting on a bench behind
the merch table, listening to Destruction tear into “Thrash Till Death,” and
banging my head furiously while simultaneously devouring my hamburger and
drinking more beer. Life is good on the road. Destruction enjoyed a
much better sound tonight, and were visibly in a better mood. No stage
rants tonight. Quite the contrary, Schmier talked on stage about what a
great time they were having, although he still referenced what he called a “bad
show” in Massachusetts last night. Their set list was exactly the same as
last night, with the notable omission of “Total Desaster.” Not sure why
they cut that song, as it rules, and they didn’t play anything else in its
place, but I promise you everybody went home happy nonetheless.
During load-out tonight, we helped with the Destruction/Krisiun gear for the
first time. It came about quite by accident. We had all of Widow’s
gear stacked at the top of the back staircase, through which venue personnel
had directed us to load out (because there was another show going on downstairs
in Webster Hall, so they wanted the main entrance open for that). Our
stuff was all piled up behind Destruction’s gear (like Atlanta’s Hartsfield
Airport during rush hour), meaning none of our stuff could go out until
Destruction’s gear was out. So we helped. I remember lifting bass
cabinets with the Krisiun guys that were heavy as a mothertrucker, and backing
downstairs with them out into the rainy night, dodging people on the
street. This is what being a roadie’s like, eh? I was
super-impressed that the Krisiun band members, as well as Destruction drummer
Vaaver – tonight and every night – helped so much with loading in and loading
out the Destruction/Krisiun gear. They appreciated our help and were
quick to clap us on the back and shake our hands. We were beginning to be
accepted on this tour.
We didn’t want to stay in NYC (expense, parking, hassles), so we drove about 90
miles down the road to Voorhees, New Jersey to find our hotel for the
night. It was well after 3:00 a.m. when we checked in to a swank
Springhill Suites. The four of us piled into one room, with me claiming
the sofa and the other three guys sharing two beds. We all collapsed
immediately and slept like logs.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Finally, our first (and, as it happens, only) nice weather day of the
tour. We awakened to sunshine and temperatures in the 50s. The drive
to Virginia was relatively painless, and I took a much-needed break from the
tour diet of twice-a-day hamburgers by enjoying a grilled veggie sandwich at
Five Guys. I had been eagerly anticipating the Springfield, VA date on the
tour for several reasons. First and foremost, Jen would rejoin us
tonight, fresh off three days of family time. Second, I was curious to
see what had become of the old Jaxx club, where I saw some of my favorite gigs
ever (Hammerfall’s first-ever US date in 1998, U.D.O. and Raven in 2000, Virgin
Steele in 2002, Gamma Ray in 2006, etc.). Now known as Empire, the venue
looks much the same, aside from a fresh coat of paint, Empire banners on one
wall, and what looks to be a new lighting rig. Otherwise, it’s basically the same.
Today, we arrived and loaded in our gear relatively early, so it was cool to be
able to watch Destruction soundcheck to “Bullets from Hell,” a standout track
from The Antichrist that we did not see them play live any night on this
tour. The day got even better when Empire staff brought out numerous
styrofoam boxes: dinner for everyone! It was not a feast, but I was most
grateful for the pasta, salad and garlic bread meal, the first time in several
days we’d eaten dinner before 11 p.m. Also, there were a couple of
familiar faces in the house, as Dave Boyd and Marc Stauffer from Twisted Tower
Dire came out early to see Widow. It’s always a pleasure to catch up with those guys.
Unfortunately, the day kind of went downhill from there. For whatever
reason, it was an early show (doors at 6:00 p.m.), which is guaranteed to hurt
early turnout on a weeknight with D.C. traffic. Add in the fact that
there was only one local opener (not even a local band, a metalcore act of
underaged kids from Miami which brought in exactly 0 attendees), and it meant
that Widow went on stage at the unseemly hour of 7:20 p.m. Too
early. It was a real shame, too, because there were fewer than two dozen
people in the hall when they cranked up “Take Hold of the Night.” It was
hard not to feel let down when tonight’s gig was nearly deserted, just one day
after hundreds of New Yorkers were chanting Widow’s name. But such are
the ups and downs of the touring life. For what it’s worth, Widow kicked
in another strong performance, playing their hearts out for the people who were
there instead of grousing about the people who weren’t. With a little
extra time in their set, they had time to squeeze in “Judgment Day” before
“Angel Sin,” the first and only time that “Judgment Day” was aired on this
run. I love that song and have pestered the band for years to play it
more frequently, so I was a happy camper to hear it.
Sometime during Krisiun’s set, Jen arrived at the venue, bearing a case of water
and a box of granola bars for the Yukon. Finally, Team Widow was fully
intact and would remain so for the duration of the tour. Sadly, attendance
did not increase too much even for Destruction’s set tonight, as I would
estimate a crowd of fewer than 100 when they took the stage. The “Satanic
Hispanics” comprised a substantial portion of the attendees, but remained
strangely subdued even for the first half of Destruction’s show. I took
advantage of the relative tranquility (i.e., lack of a violent moshpit) in front
of the stage to venture right up front for the first 8 or 9 songs, snapping
photos, headbanging and air-guitaring to my heart’s content. Destruction
sounded awesome tonight, and didn’t seem at all perturbed by the relatively
meager audience. They tinkered a bit with their setlist, dropping the drum
solo, substituting “Total Desaster” for “Tormentor,” and including the awesome
“Invincible Force” as a third encore tucked in between “Curse the Gods” and
“Butcher Strikes Back.” For my money, this was the strongest Destruction
performance of the tour so far. I loved the fact that Schmier had started
taking requests from the stage near the end of the set, which is how “Invincible
Force” was selected to be played. He kept going with the request schtick
each night of the rest of the tour, even though overall the setlist changed very
little from night to night. Oh, and in case I didn’t mention it
before: “Bestial Invasion” kicks complete and total ass, live. My
favorite part of every Destruction gig, for sure.
Afterwards, we once again helped the crew and the Krisiun dudes with loading out
the headliner’s gear. Tonight felt different because it felt like we were
finally bonding with our tourmates. After the Destruction trailer was
fully loaded, Max (drummer from Krisiun) disappeared on the bus for a moment and
returned with a fistful of cans of Corona, which we toasted and drank together
with the crew next to the trailer. It was beginning to feel like we
belonged on this tour, and that was a very cool thing. By now, the
venue-supplied pasta dinner had long since stopped providing energy, so we
retired to a nearby IHOP for a late-night feast of eggs and pancakes.
Mmmmm, pancakes. Then the five of us crammed into a single hotel room a
few miles away for a few hours of fitful rest.
Friday, March 21, 2014
We had all been kind of dreading this show. It’s not that Wilmington,
Delaware is a bad place. It isn’t (okay, the part we saw wasn’t so nifty,
but I assume there are cool parts of town somewhere). It isn’t even that
Mojo 13 is a bad venue. It’s just small. Most venues on this tour
were of capacities in the vicinity of 450 – 600. Mojo 13 maxes out at
250. So it’s tiny. Small venue = small stage = big headaches for a
big tour production. It’s definitely more of a bar than a club.
This feeling was reinforced when we walked in the front door this
afternoon. There was a bar with a half dozen or so locals (obviously not
of the metal persuasion) sitting around drinking beer on a Friday
afternoon. The stage was in a small room adjacent to the bar, although
the space between the two rooms was sufficiently open that you could see (and
definitely hear) the stage action from the bar area. We stuffed our merch
table alongside Destruction/Krisiun’s table in a corner of the bar, at the
opposite side of the venue from the stage. It was far from optimal, but
there was simply no room anywhere else. I was able to convince the
dentally-challenged female bartender to sell me a couple of pints of Yuengling
for $2 each, so I settled right in with a couple of beers. I had a
feeling it was going to be that kind of night. My suspicions were
confirmed when I visited the men’s room to find a single toilet that was
literally overflowing with raw sewage. Welcome to Delaware, boys and girls!
There was about an hour to kill before Destruction’s soundcheck, so I sat and
enjoyed my Yuengling while trying desperately not to need a bathroom.
From my vantage point, I could see the pool table at the back of the bar
area. Mike Sifringer from Destruction was back there playing pool all by
himself. The guy was sweet-tempered and nice to us every time we talked
to him, but damned if he didn’t spend most of his time off on his own.
When it finally came time for Destruction to soundcheck, we were in for a
treat. They ripped through part of “Curse the Gods,” then fired up their
incendiary cover of Venom’s “Black Metal.” The latter song was on the
printed setlist every single night, but they never played it, other than at
this one soundcheck in Wilmington. More’s the pity, because from what I
heard Destruction plays a killer version of that classic. Sadly, this was
like pearls before swine, as the bar patrons were openly ridiculing and
laughing at Destruction during their soundcheck. You’d think that if the
locals don’t like metal, they’d find some place to get loaded on a Friday
afternoon other than a bar that was hosting a, gasp, metal show that
night. I suppose that would be too logical.
The behind-the-scenes drama reached a boiling part this afternoon. (When
you buy me that beer and ask for the inside scoop about the Destruction tour,
be sure and ask for the back story about the Delaware gig. It’s a
doozie.) Suffice it to say, however, that the stage was too small for the
local openers to set up their gear, so they ended up positioning their drum
kits on stage right and being shoe-horned into tiny spaces to perform.
One local opener called Coffin Dust played a brutal death-metal version of
Slayer’s “Metalstorm / Face the Slayer” but was otherwise forgettable noise (to
this non-extreme metal guy). Another local opener called Traitor
specialized in melodic thrash with clean vocals that actually sounded pretty
good, marking the first clean-vocal local opener of the tour so far. The
problem with all these local openers was that they ran long, pushing us further
and further off the published timetable and guaranteeing that there’d be
trouble at the end of the night when Destruction was attempting to perform their full set.
In a strange way, Widow were beneficiaries of the cramped, suboptimal stage
conditions. To make life easier for the crew and save time, Widow were
permitted to use Destruction/Krisiun’s gear tonight: drums, cabinets,
etc. Jason, in particular, was on cloud 9 at the prospect of being able
to use the massive headliners’ drum kit. Also, this made load-in and
load-out extremely easy from Widow’s standpoint. On this gear, Widow
sounded enormous tonight. (It helped, I think, that the local soundguy
was wearing a Widow shirt that he had purchased the last time Widow rolled
through town, so he was obviously a fan.) They sounded like a
bulldozer. I’m sure I’ve never heard Widow play louder, and I doubt I’ve
ever heard them with a fuller, more powerful sound. Thank heavens for
earplugs or my deaf ass would have been even more hearing-impaired by the end
of the night. The crowd was pretty good; certainly, they played to far
more people than had watched them in Virginia last night. And despite the
overruns of the local openers, the stage manager graciously allowed Widow their
full 30 minute set, so the usual seven-song routine was aired. And they
went over well with the Wilmington crowd as well, even though that didn’t
translate into substantial merch sales at the end of the night. (If you
go see a band and like them, buy their merch! It’s the life blood of a
tour. Every penny of merch money goes into gas and tolls. If
there’s something left over, maybe the band can have a cheeseburger or
something. I never appreciated this truth more than on this tour, which
is why I went out of my way to thank profusely each and every person who bought
merch from us. You really helped us get where we were going without
winding up in the poorhouse.)
Tonight was a very rough night for Destruction. They had persistent
technical problems from the beginning of their set until the end. Schmier
was obviously in a bad mood, as he barked out complaints from the stage about
the venue’s sound system and equipment not working and went over to fuss in the
stagehands’ ears time and time again. What’s more, they didn’t go on
stage until after midnight (thanks to all the time overruns by the local
openers), so they trimmed several songs off their setlist to squeeze within the
available time. “Carnivore,” “Hate is my Fuel,” “Tormentor,” “Total
Desaster” and the drum solo were all axed. Instead, after the usual first
eight songs, they played, in order, “Death Trap,” “Curse the Gods,” “Bestial
Invasion,” “The Antichrist” (by request, yay! Nice to hear another ‘Infernal
Overkill’ number get worked into the set) and “The Butcher Strikes Back.”
There was a decent sized crowd watching them play, but damned if there weren’t
some of the weirdest people I’ve ever seen at a thrash gig. One heavyset
guy in a business suit kept meandering in and out of the venue acting strangely
and looking like he was hopped up on something. A senior citizen in a
bucket hat was walking around with a can of beer trying to pick up chicks a
third of his age. And another super-creepy old guy would approach male
spectators and begin dancing suggestively in very close proximity to them with
a sexual-predator look on his face while he did it. If you ignored him,
he would walk away but then come back a few minutes later. He did this to
me (and every dude around me) about four times while I was trying to thrash out
to Destruction. What the hell is wrong with you, Delaware?
One thing that is definitely wrong with Delaware is that, once again, we hadn’t
had anything to eat for dinner other than granola bars tonight, and all the
food places near the venue were closed by the time Widow got offstage.
Thankfully, sometime after 11:00 p.m., a woman in the audience (and a true
friend of Widow) took pity on us, left the venue and returned with five WaWa
sub sandwiches. This act of kindness was all that stood between us and
starvation on Friday night. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Afterwards, we helped Destruction’s crew and the Krisiun dudes with their
load-out, before hopping in the Yuke to drive 40 or so miles west in the
general direction of Columbus, Ohio. We pulled into a Holiday Inn in
Morgantown, Pennsylvania at 3:30 a.m. At the time of check-in, we asked
for a 7:30 a.m. wake-up call because we still had 425 miles to drive to
tomorrow’s gig. Our objective for the next few hours: Sleep fast.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
So this is where Dimebag Darrell was murdered. The thought was so
pervasive that I couldn’t shake it from my mind when we drove up to the Alrosa
Villa venue in Columbus, Ohio. I was never much of a Pantera fan, but the
manner and violence of Dime’s death in December 2004 shocked me to my core, as
it did most metalheads, music fans and human beings in general. I had
never set foot in this building before but like most people, I’ve seen the
video footage from that bloody night. As I entered the venue through the
rear stage door, I felt a chill course through my entire body. Everything
looks the same as in the video. Here’s the stage door through which the
murderer entered, the same stage door that the police sharpshooter walked
through a few minutes later to fire the shot that killed the lunatic before the
death toll could rise further. There’s the stage where Dime was
performing, just a few feet away, oblivious to the fact that his life was about
to be snuffed about by a madman with a deathwish. There’s the pit, the
tables, the whole inside of the venue. It looks *exactly* like the
video. There’s no memorial to Dime inside the venue: no plaque, no marker
to commemorate the awful tragedy. All there is at Alrosa Villa to
memorialize the horror is a crudely spray-painted rock outside the venue.
Eerie. That, and a rigorous security protocol that included security
staff stationed at the back door and patdowns of each and every patron entering
the venue through the front door. These thoughts ran through my mind,
unbidden, all night tonight. What strange juxtaposition that Team Widow
had such a wonderful heavy metal party tonight in what was a house of
unspeakable tragedy on a cold winter night nine years ago.
Nightmarish history notwithstanding, Alrosa Villa was one of the nicest, most
professional venues we encountered on this tour. They treated Widow
extremely well. Start with the large, comfortable backstage area (kind of
a misnomer, since it’s situated clear across the entire venue from the stage
itself), featuring a stack of Little Caesar pizzas, two-liter Coke bottles, and
even an assortment of Twinkies and similar products for dessert.
Nice. Nobody in Team Widow was going hungry tonight. We were also
brought a case of water, beer and even a bottle of Crown Royal (thanks
Orion!). It was fantastic to see so many friendly, familiar faces from
the Warriors of Metal Festival, which has been held in the Columbus area for
the last six years. Everyone was kind and welcoming to us, and we were
deeply grateful for the Midwestern hospitality. Draft beers at the bar
were $6.75, which is pricey, but they were biggie beers (at least double the
size of a typical draft), and they had Killian’s, so I was quite a happy man
tonight. Maybe a little *too* happy by the end of the night, if truth be told …
An extra bonus about the Columbus show was the chance to reconnect with our
friends in Vindicator, who had driven down from Cleveland to play in one
of the opening slots tonight. The Stowns are fantastic people, and
Vindicator flat-out rules as a live band. Tonight was no exception.
Vic & Co. had just 25 minutes to work with, but they put the time to
extremely good use with six songs of thrashy goodness. Newbie “Sleeping
with Evil” (culled from the excellent EP of the same name) was aired early on,
and the band thrashed up a storm through the likes of “Fatal Infection” and
“Dog Beneath the Skin.” Lead guitarist Justin Zych was a maniac as usual,
the Stown brothers were in fine form, and Ed Stephens held down the bottom
end. Vic’s stage raps were entertaining, as he expressed incredulity when
only a handful of folks in the crowd claimed to have seen Destruction before,
then later managed to work in the legendary “breakfast shots” story from WOM
Fest. Long live Vindicator! Setlist: Global
Warning, Gears of Fate, Sleeping with Evil, Fatal Infection, Dog Beneath the
Skin, Humanarchy, Gore Orphanage.
With respect to the touring bands, tonight was simply stellar all the way
around. Widow delivered another high-octane, high-energy set, with the
Destruction crew kindly letting it slide when they ran five minutes over.
Strangely enough, the Krisiun set connected with me tonight for the first
time. I had heard parts of their performance each night, enough to
appreciate the playing ability of the musicians but also enough to confirm
their music wasn’t for me. Tonight, though, I found myself picking out
parts of the songs that I recognized from previous gigs and thinking how good
they sounded. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I’d come to respect the
Krisiun dudes very much as people over these last few days on the road
together. No, I’m not a death metal fan, but Krisiun is cool as hell as
far as I’m concerned. Then Destruction damn near tore the roof off the
place with a crushing set that song-wise duplicated what they performed in
Massachusetts on the first night of the tour, but intensity-wise was on par
with the gig in Virginia. I distinctly remember standing at the back of
the enormous pit with a biggie beer in my hand, thrashing and smiling and
thinking how I must be the luckiest damn guy on the planet to get to watch this
spectacle every single night. Five gigs in, I was digging the hell out of
every band’s performance and just feeling so happy to be out on the road, living the dream.
Also contributing to my high spirits (see what I just did there) was the
generosity of the Columbus audience. At ye olde Widow merch table, we
sold almost twice as much tonight as we did on any other night of the
tour. I don’t know why. Maybe because it was Saturday night,
everyone was in a spending mood. Maybe the Midwest “gets” Widow in a way
that certain other markets don’t. I don’t know. But I do know that
those funds took a lot of the financial pressure off the band to get through
the last couple of days of the tour and drive home without incinerating the
plastic of their credit cards. Thank you, Ohio. You rule.
A few interesting tidbits after load-out tonight. First, I finally had a
lengthy conversation with the elusive Mike Sifringer, who was just hanging out
by the bus and in a talkative mood. Mike was super-cool, mellow, humble
and funny. Second, I had a private moment in the Alrosa Villa after
everyone was gone and the room was dark. I slipped quietly back in the
backstage door, went up onto the stage where it all went down in December 2004,
and had a little moment of silence for Dime. It seemed like the right
thing to do, to pay my respects in the only way I could. Third, the tour
manager stopped us as we were getting ready to leave (contemplating the 400
drive south for tomorrow’s gig in Johnson City, TN) and told us he was hearing
reports from the local promoter that the Johnson City show might be
canceled. A short time later, he confirmed those reports. Tomorrow
was officially a day off. So Team Widow hopped in the Yuke and drove
around Columbus OH at 3 in the morning looking for something to eat. Who
knew this endeavor would prove so difficult. We were blocked by uniformed
law enforcement personnel from entering a Waffle House, apparently because it
was a crime scene or something. The late-night female staffer at DQ
Chill’n’Grill flipped us the bird. But we found some nice hot steaming
burgers at Rally, that carried us through what little was left of the night to
our ratty Columbus hotel.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
We hadn’t expected a day off on tour. Honestly, we didn’t really want
one. The positive part of all this was that it meant we wouldn’t have a
600-mile overnight drive from Johnson City to St. Louis. Instead, we
could just meander along I-70 West through Indiana and Illinois at a leisurely
clip until we hit St. Louis on Monday. The negative part was no
gig. We took things easy on Sunday, sleeping in and staying at the hotel
in Columbus until checkout. Then we found a Texas Roadhouse and chowed on
a nice big sit-down lunch. Randomly, we milled around a Target store for
an hour so. Then finally the Yuke hopped back on I-70 to swing
westward. The plan was to get to Terre Haute, Indiana this evening
because that’s where the Destruction/Krisiun bus was spending the night.
Our travels were delayed when we discovered a broken connector cable that meant
the brake lights, running lights and turn signals on the trailer were no longer
functioning. So we got to take a nice detour through picturesque
Mooresville, Indiana on a frigid Sunday afternoon to find an Auto Zone to get
the correct part, repair the trailer connectors, and resume driving. It
was nearly dark by the time we hit Terre Haute, where we had a lovely dinner
(and Founders Breakfast Stout beer) with a couple of members of the Destruction
crew. All in all, a pretty damn uneventful day, but honestly I think we
all needed the rest. With this leisurely day, I just knew we would be
ready to finish strong in St. Louis tomorrow.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Time is funny on the road. Driving up to Worcester, it seemed like this
adventure would last forever. The days on tour were quite long and quite
full. I lost track of time of what day of the week it was, what time of
day it was. It was this strange, otherworldly existence. Yet now,
suddenly, here we were, driving into the Gateway to the West (hello, St. Louis
arch) for the last day of the tour, or at least the last day of our part of the
tour. Everything kind of took on a bittersweet hue today, and I found it
hard to be as carefree as I’d been until now. I definitely wasn’t ready
for this roller coaster ride to end, but I was resolved to soak up every second
that remained.
We arrived at the Fubar in midtown St. Louis in the middle of the afternoon on a
gray, raw day, with light snow flurries to welcome us to the city. Fubar
wasn’t the worst venue we’d encountered on this tour, but it damn sure wasn’t
the best. Heat wasn’t on when we got there, and I was disappointed to see
the club management inflexibly insisted that merch tables go in a separate room,
out of sight and out of earshot of the main hall. In addition to being
incredibly sucky for the person selling merch (who then couldn’t watch or even
hear the gig), this arrangement meant that audience members would have to
purposefully seek out the merch by abandoning the gig, and walking over to the
other room. That’s not really conducive to lucrative merch sales.
Then I saw the club’s handwritten listing for tonight’s show, featuring
Destruction, Krisiun, and “Wisdom.” Yup, somehow Widow morphed into Wisdom
in Fubar’s mind. Way to pay attention, champ.
Lots of things felt different today. All of us made a point of hitting up
the Destruction / Krisiun merch tables early in the day to buy our tour
swag. We handed out Widow gear to all of the band members and most of the
tour personnel. Schmier even stopped and chatted with us at length this
afternoon. He was friendly and cordial as could be today, saying
complimentary things about Widow and offering to help with industry
contacts. I had several opportunities to talk with Mike today too, and he
was more outgoing than at any time so far. When I conveyed my friend
Kragen Lum’s greetings to him (Kragen plays guitar in Heathen and has shared a
bus with Destruction for multiple tours), I was so proud and happy to see
Mike’s eyes light up. He described Kragen as “a great guy and a fuckin’
great guitar player.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Things accelerated quickly through the day. I watched Destruction
soundcheck one last time. Today they played chunks of “The Antichrist”
and “Curse the Gods.” The local openers’ sets whizzed by in a flash.
At some point, our friend DJ Valkyrie appeared, having made the long drive from
Tennessee to see tonight’s show, so it was great to visit with her. Then
it was time for Widow’s last gig of the tour. Jen and I left the Widow
merch tour in the capable hands of Mikayla (Destruction/Krisiun merch girl), and
we went over and rocked out. Fittingly, they were getting to use
Destruction/Krisiun’s drums and cabinets again tonight, and the stage manager
had hung the Widow banner in a place of honor high over the stage. What a
wonderful showing of respect by the headliners and their crew. Maybe it
wasn’t the cleanest Widow gig of the tour, and the audience wasn’t the biggest
Widow had enjoyed, but it wasn’t bad at all. The boys did what they did
with high octane and high intensity, albeit being forced to cut “Beware the
Night” for time constraints. I really felt this last show ended Widow’s
tour on a high note, with another strong gig and more converted fans, as
demonstrated by the surprisingly brisk merch sales afterwards. Chris even
made a funny jab at the “Wisdom” thing by saying from the stage, “The sign over
there calls us Wisdom, but we don’t have any of that.” Hah.
Jen then resumed her post at the Widow merch table, and I stayed in the live
venue side to soak in every minute of Krisiun’s gig. Crowd had gotten
respectable this time, probably 100+. I moseyed over to the bar and
discovered my favorite beer of the tour, something called “Winged Nut” made by
Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. It came in a 500 ml bottle and was positively
delicious, a steal for just $5 too. Somehow I ended up right by the
Destruction band members as they were making their final stage
preparations. They strapped on their guitars, confirmed to the stage
manager that they were good to go, and then did a three-way fistbump. Then
they saw me standing there, and each of Schmier, Mike and Vaaver fistbumped me
as they walked to the stage. Mighty cool, that was.
The crowd went absolutely ballistic throughout Destruction’s set tonight, with
almost constant pit and stagediving activity. For a relatively small
crowd, St. Louis brought out the old-school thrashers tonight, for sure.
As usual, there was some tinkering with the set list tonight. No “Total
Desaster” or “Tormentor” or drum solo. Instead, after “Death Trap,” they
played “The Antichrist” and “Bestial Invasion,” before the two-song encore of
“Curse the Gods” and “Butcher Strikes Back.” All band members seemed to be
in a good mood tonight, with Schmier repeatedly praising this small but lively
audience for giving 100% from start to finish. Lighting was no good
tonight, with Schmier and Mike appearing only in silhouette all night, with no
front lighting at all. Mike told me later that he even fell down at one
point when he stepped on an uneven section of the stage that he couldn’t
see. So maybe the conditions weren’t the best, but Destruction ripped
through a blinder of a gig anyway.
Afterwards, I consumed more Winged Nut beer, chatted with Mike for a few
minutes, helped with load out, began saying our farewells and thank yous to the
crew, and then suddenly the entire Team Widow was invited onto the Destruction
/ Krisiun bus, the first and only time that had happened. We entered to
find Schmier tending bar. He asked us each what we wanted and served our
drinks. He joked that Corona (apparently the only beer onboard) was
Mexican beer and that “we drink that for breakfast.” He even poured a
vodka drink for Jason. All the other band members and crew were right
there too, and Vaaver was even wearing his brand spankin’ new Widow
shirt. It felt like all of this was being done for our benefit. It
was a kind and much appreciated gesture. None of us had any expectation
that the headliners would treat us so well. The crew had treated us
beautifully every single night, and most of the band members had gone out of
their way to be friendly and nice to us. What a great way to cap things
off. All too soon, unfortunately, this amazing moment in time came to an
end. The tour bus had a 15-hour drive ahead to tomorrow’s gig in Austin,
TX, and they needed to hit the road. So we said our thank yous and
goodbyes. As Jen turned to leave, Mike said “Ciao bella” and gave her a
big hug. There were hugs, handshakes, and kind words for everyone.
Definitely a feel-good moment for all of us. Then we were off the bus,
headed to the hotel, and bringing our bags in for the night one last time as
the snowflakes engulfed us all.
Postscript
Words don’t really do justice to an experience like this. We drove more
than 2,000 miles. We drove through 14 different states (NC, VA, MD, DE,
NJ, NY, CT, MA, PA, WV, OH, IN, IL, MO). We saw old friends. We
made new friends. There were times when we shivered in the cold and our
bellies ached from lack of food. There were plenty of times our heads
ached from too much alcohol and too little sleep. We were the recipients
of random acts of kindness from strangers who made our time on the road a
little bit easier each day. And we rocked. Most of all, we
rocked. I couldn’t be more proud of my friends in Widow for stepping up
their game and proving they belonged on this tour, day in and day out, and for
keeping their sense of humor intact no matter what the road threw at us.
And I couldn’t be more thankful for having been given the opportunity to play a
very small part in it all. I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same, quite
honestly. Six days have passed since I flew home from St. Louis, but I
just know I left a part of me out on tour somewhere …
~ Review by Kit Ekman ~
March 15 – 24, 2014
It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I’ve been attending metal shows for
more than a quarter century, but I’ve never really been on tour. Oh sure,
Jen and I have followed bands like Gamma Ray and Rage around Europe for days on
end. And we’ve been on the road with our pals in Widow for gigs on
consecutive nights. But we’ve never really been on tour. You know,
“Turn the Page,” “Years of Decay,” dirt roads and interstates, cigarettes and
burgers, caffeine and alcohol. On tour. So when Widow landed the
opening slot for the first seven dates of the Destruction ‘Spiritual Genocide’
tour of the USA, we jumped at the chance to tag along. Not only would we
be able to experience life on the road on a proper underground metal tour, but
we would be able to help our friends. Not to mention we’d get to watch
Destruction every night. As a fan ever since I scored a dubbed cassette
copy of the ‘Sentence of Death’ EP in my tape-trading days, I can definitively
say: That doesn’t suck.
Here’s how it all went down, with a caveat. There are certain private
details I don’t feel comfortable divulging in a widely disseminated email
review. There are certain opinions and observations that, for various
reasons, I wouldn’t want to broadcast indiscriminately. The high road is
always the best road, and I am truly thankful for all the experiences I had on
tour. But there were plenty of ups and downs along the way. Of
necessity, this is a somewhat sanitized narrative. Trust me, you’ll get
the flavor of what it was like. But if you have an hour or two to kill,
sit me down at the bar sometime, buy me a beer, and I’ll tell you the whole
unvarnished story.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
For Widow, the chance to support Destruction on the road for a week was all
kinds of awesome. Going into the tour, however, there was just one teensy
weensy niggling concern: They have a new drummer, Jason Wheeler.
They’d never played a single show with Jason. They hadn’t played a show
in 2014. Under the circumstances, it was prudent to have a warm-up show
to work out some of the kinks before the tour began. So that’s precisely
what Widow did, playing a hometown show at The Lincoln Theater in Raleigh on
Saturday night. The occasion was the Lincoln Metal Fest, which doubled as
the birthday celebration of local promoter Tony “Dio” Leonard. Jen and I
flew into RDU on Saturday afternoon so that we could catch the warm-up show.
The Lincoln Theater is a stately old theater in the heart of Raleigh. By
the time we arrived, there must have been more than 100 punters scattered about
the venue. Not bad at all for a Saturday metal show featuring exclusively
local/regional bands. Raleigh has a fine scene for traditional heavy
metal, one that’s stronger than many around the country. We arrived in
time to catch the tail end of Dark Design’s set. I enjoy their
brand of thrashy metal with strong clean vocals, so I was pleased to have the
chance to see them again. The only other time I’d seen Dark Design was at
WOM Fest V, when they had the unfortunate burden of going on stage at 10:00
a.m. the morning after a vicious summer storm wrought havoc on the festival
grounds. Needless to say, the boys were a bit more animated
tonight. It was cool to hear their metallized cover of “Dust in the Wind,” for sure.
When Widow took the stage, the Jason Wheeler era formally
commenced. The crowd was euphoric, local metalheads ecstatic at the
opportunity to see their hometown heroes after an absence of many months (last
local show was probably October 2013). It did my heart good to see the
audience singing along, headbanging, and looking so genuinely happy. As
for Widow’s performance, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen them
so nervous at the beginning of a gig. They’re usually pretty cool
customers and nothing really flusters them. But tonight the anxiety and
butterflies were visible as they were setting up their gear, and even for the
first song or two, before they finally relaxed, settled in, and rocked
out. What about Jason? Well, his background as a thrash drummer was
immediately evident in his aggressive playing style, his headbanging visual
presence behind the kit, and his occasional tendency to push the tempos.
This had been an issue in rehearsals too, as the guys were joking before the
show that “Angel Sin” (one of their speedier tunes) had been renamed “Angel
Slow” for Jason’s sake so he wouldn’t take it to warp speed. I don’t think
anyone would say this Widow’s finest technical performance ever, but it was a
start, and a good start. Band and crowd alike came away quite
pleased. Setlist: Take Hold of the Night, Re-Animate Her,
Lady Twilight, American Werewolf in Raleigh, Nightlife, Beware the Night, Angel
Sin. (They had planned to play “Judgment Day,” as well, but that tune was
cut from the set for time considerations.)
Next up was an unexpected treat, the return of October 31 to the Raleigh
area. Right around the turn of the millennium and for a few years
thereafter, Jen and I saw King Fowley’s troop a ton of times in a ton of
locations: the old Powermad festival in Baltimore, Wacken Open Air, New
Jersey Metalfest, Minneapolis Mayhem, etc. etc. In fact, the first time I
ever saw Chris and John E. from Widow on stage was at an October 31 show at
King’s Bar in Raleigh on April 1, 2000. (They were playing in their
melodic death metal band, Sorrow Bequest, a precursor to Widow.) So there
was a strangely appropriate symmetry to having October 31 on the bill
tonight. In addition to the irrepressible King Fowley, the lineup still
features guitar wiz Brian “Hellstorm” Williams and steadfast bassist Jim Hunter
(also of Twisted Tower Dire, While Heaven Wept, etc.). Tonight, October
31 were saddled with a murky and raw sound, but somehow I don’t think they
would have had it any other way. Fowley was in rare form. He
pointed out his bald spot and introduced one song as being from 19 years ago,
“pre-bald spot.” He ingested a boxful of red hots, then spit them onto the
stage floor, as the band launched into the Motley Crue tune of the same
name. He kept muttering cryptic statements like “more cheese on the
pizza.” And he outdid himself during the Saxon “The Power and the Glory”
cover by throwing a bag of confetti into the crowd, then extracting a full-size
Saxon flag from the groin area of his trousers. Musically, the October 31
material has held up very well over the years, and it was a joy to hear so many
of these old chestnuts again. Here’s hoping they finish their new album
and get it released soon. The heavy metal world needs more October
31. Setlist: Visions of the End, The Warlock, The
Chosen Ones, Commit to Sin, Down to the Devil (new song), Salem’s Curse, The
Fire Awaits you, Rivet Rats, A Million Goodbyes, Red Hot (Motley Crue cover),
The Power and the Glory (Saxon cover).
The evening ended with a lengthy headlining set from a cover band called Lexx
Luthor (may not have the spelling correct, but you get the idea). I’m
not too much for cover acts, but these guys were very skilled at what they
did. Guitarist and vocalist were both excellent, and I especially enjoyed
their detours into some less obvious song selections like Riot’s “Swords and
Tequila” or Wrathchild America’s “Don’t Take Candy from a Madman.” Perhaps
they overstayed their welcome just a bit, or perhaps Jen and I were just sleepy
from our long travel day to Raleigh on the heels of a super-busy week getting
ready for our vacation.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
After a day off on Sunday the 16th,
Team Widow began its trek north on the evening of Monday, March 17. (Our
tour was damn near over before it began, thanks to an unfortunate fender bender
when a motorist rear-ended some of us while we were stopped on the Interstate in
Raleigh as a cold rain fell. Fortunately, no-one was injured and we were
not in the tour vehicle at the time, so the tour commenced without a
hitch.) We stopped overnight in the snow outside Baltimore, MD, then Jen’s
rock’n’roll sister Roxanne whisked her away for a few days of family time.
That left a touring party of four heading north in a GMC Yukon pulling a trailer
filled with Widow’s gear. The drive on the 18th
was rough. Not only was traffic heavy all the way up the coast, but I
became aware of two unpleasant realities that would plague us on this
tour. First the Yukon with trailer was getting an average of 12 – 13 miles
per gallon. Ouch, when you’re talking about a 2,000+ mile tour.
Second, tolls are a bastard. We spent more than $100 in tolls on the
18th alone, including a painful $27 just to cross the freaking GW Bridge in New York
City. (I knew there was a reason why I lived in the South. Everybody
down here is too broke to pay tolls, so we don’t have any.) By the time we
got off the Mass Pike outside of Worcester, we had less than $2 of band money
left. Yikes. Time to start selling t-shirts, boys!
Worcester, MA is my old stomping grounds. I went to college and law school
in Boston in the late 1980s and 1990s. At the time, most major arena tours
skipped Boston in favor of the nicer facilities in Worcester, so I took Peter
Pan Bus lines to Worcester on a regular basis in those days to see gigs,
primarily at the Worcester Centrum: Metallica (AJFA tour), Queensryche
(O:M), Iron Maiden (No Prayer), Judas Priest (Painkiller), Kiss (Revenge),
Megadeth (Countdown), Skid Row (Slave), etc. etc. Tonight’s gig at the
Palladium was only a block or so away from the Centrum, although it’s called
something else now (DRC Center or some crap). It really did feel like
coming home to me. I even wore my Wargasm ‘Why Play Around?’ shirt in
homage to the best Massachusetts band ever. (Jason wore his Wargasm shirt
too, and was texting back and forth with Wargasm guitarist Rich Spillberg
before the gig. Rich did his best to attend, but unfortunately was not
able to make it.) I got several nods of approval from Massachusetts
faithful about my shirt, so it’s good to see that they still remember after all
these years. But it was damned cold in Worcester tonight, with
temperatures in the upper 20s, a merciless wind, and ice on the ground.
It wasn’t much warmer inside the Palladium. I swear, they never turned the
heat on inside the venue the entire night. We were in the upstairs section
(capacity 480), not the much bigger, stately theater that’s part of the same
venue (where they hold the New England Hardcore & Metal Festival each
year). We set up Jason’s drums in the theater part, and it was surreal to
be working in that big dark room adjacent to the cozier upstairs section.
The whole building is sort of decrepit, run down and falling apart, like most
of Worcester, but the performance space inside the Palladium was nice enough,
with kind of a twisted circus / freakshow theme. We were a bit late
arriving, so we hustled to unload the gear, lugging it up a hill and around a
corner before running it up multiple flights of stairs into the venue.
Load-in was kind of a bitch tonight. And the merch booth was upstairs on
the balcony in the upstairs venue, meaning yet another flight of stairs to haul
boxes of t-shirts and CDs. My creaky knees weren’t very happy campers by
the end of load- in, but that’s okay. I saw Schmier and Mike from
Destruction wandering around, but didn’t want to disturb them so I kept my distance.
The venue filled up nicely after doors opened, with I’d wager 200+ metalheads in
attendance, including a few familiar faces: veteran metal writer Matt Coe, Ashes
of Ares guitarist Freddie Vidales, ex-Seax singer Carmine Blades, and
Skullhammer frontman Steve “Ace” Hammer. Talked to everyone other than
Ace, so that was nice. Three local openers (all of the thrash/death
variety) went on first, then it was time for Widow. They had a good
25-minute gig, sounding tighter than they did in Raleigh, although they had to
cut “Beware the Night” from the set because of time. The crowd was polite
and receptive, but not rabid or anything. Overall, not a bad reception at
all for the boys from North Carolina. They were pleased with how it went,
although they did tell me that the monitors onstage were awful.
Krisiun’s set passed in a blur of noise to me. I’m not really a death
metal guy in the best of circumstances, but the sound (especially on the
balcony) was so muddy that it was hard to make anything out of the Brazilians’
din. By now, we were all really hungry. Dinner had been a few
granola bars and bottles of water, as the venue did not provide food.
(Local promoter gave us two six-packs of Miller Lite and some water to help get
us through the night.) Fortunately, Chris and John E. took matters into
their own hands after Widow’s set, walked down the street to Uno’s, and came
back with two steaming pies for Team Widow, which we shared with fans and
friends at the merch stand. It became like a Widow pizza party. Cool.
Finally it was time for Destruction’s headlining gig on this, the first night of
their North American tour. They came out thrashing with a punishing
rendition of “Thrash Till Death,” a searing mission statement from the word
go. Surprisingly, right after that song, Schmier stopped the show to
complain stridently about the “shit” monitors. He threatened to leave the
stage unless the problem was fixed immediately. Not really the ideal way
to ingratiate himself to the New England headbangers, who started a derisive
“diva” chant. I worried that the whole thing was going to go off the
rails, but fortunately the gig continued uninterrupted after that initial
tirade. Front of the house sound was again very muddy, especially on the
balcony. It sounded a bit better on the floor, but not much.
Technical problems notwithstanding, I was impressed by the precision killing
machine that is Destruction live. Setlist was balanced beautifully
between new and old songs, and was fairly littered with classic cuts.
(Ostensibly, this tour is in support of Destruction’s new ‘Spiritual Genocide’
LP, yet only two songs – the title cut and “Carnivore” – from that platter made
the setlist during the tour.) No Destruction song works better live than
“Bestial Invasion,” which Schmier and Mike punctuate with synchronized
machine-gun style swings of their guitar necks during the signature riff
throughout the song. The hulking, black-haired, pierced and tattooed
Schmier moves constantly among three mike stands set up across the front of the
stage, with the diminutive Mike moving only to get out of Schmier’s way and
headbanging furiously as he doles out one colossal serpentine riff after
another. Behind the drums, relative newcomer Vaaver makes it look easy as
he pounds out the beats and contributes backing harsh vocals to emphasize
certain lines in the choruses and so on. Elsewhere, the stage setup is
entirely pro, with backing Destruction banners, copious amounts of stage fog,
and effective strobe lights. Despite the bad sound and Schmier’s tirade,
I was blown away by Destruction’s set tonight. The idea of being able to
see this show every night for a week was worth the price of admission all by
itself. Setlist: Thrash Till Death, Spiritual
Genocide, Nailed to the Fucking Cross, Mad Butcher, Armageddonizer, Eternal
Ban, Life without Sense, Release from Agony, Carnivore, Hate is My Fuel, Death
Trap, drum solo, Tormentor, Total Desaster, Bestial Invasion.
Encores: Curse the Gods, The Butcher Strikes Back.
After the gig, we drank the rest of the Miller Lite, then proceeded to load out,
which was no more fun than load-in had been. It had gotten even colder
outside, and running all the gear down the stairs, out the venue and around the
corner to the Yukon was quite a workout. After 2:00 a.m., we finally left
the Palladium and checked into our hotel a few miles away. We stayed up
for another hour or so, then crashed hard. New York City tomorrow …
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
The 180-mile drive from Worcester to New York City was largely uneventful.
Our only excitement came at a toll plaza as we entered NYC, where two toll
collectors went ballistic on an unsuspecting Jason for filming video on his cell
phone while I was scrounging around for cash to pay the toll. Driving
through NYC on a rainy Wednesday afternoon looked mighty depressing. We
drove past huge drab public housing towers, saw streets crowded with pedestrians
wearing earbuds and burying their noses in their noses in their smartphones as
they walked down the street. Nobody acknowledges each other or even makes
eye contact with anybody else, they’re just chained to their electronic
devices. So this is what the zombie apocalypse looks like in real
life. Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
We had been very concerned about the parking situation at Webster Hall, but were
pleased to find a nice open space on the street out in front of the venue, just
behind the Destruction / Krisiun bus. The sign said “No Parking Anytime,”
but we decided to take our chances because we didn’t have any better idea where
to park and this was so convenient. (Fortunately, the Yukon and trailer
had been neither ticketed nor towed by the end of the night.) Load-in was
at 3:00 p.m. and we were ready. Even with the primo parking space, it was
still a long walk down the block to the venue, then up some stairs and down a
hall to get to the Marlin Room, so we definitely got our exercise. The
Marlin Room (capacity 600) is beautiful, easily the best venue of the tour, with
a striking wooden floor, huge stage, and excellent bar facilities. Only
two things about Webster Hall sucked. First, the bathrooms were
downstairs, a hike from the Marlin Room, in a subterranean dark cavern.
Weird. Second, crap beers were $8 at the bar. Seriously, eight bucks
for a Miller Lite??? No wonder New Yorkers have such bad attitudes.
I didn’t buy any beer tonight – fortunately, I didn’t have to.
After we got all the gear loaded in, Jason realized he needed new drum heads, so he
and I went on an errand on foot to find a Guitar Center. The bad part of
this was that the two of us missed Destruction’s soundcheck (where they jammed
on Metallica covers tonight), but the good part was that we got to see a bit of
the Big Apple. We walked past Union Square and Jason found an amazing
coffee shop. Sure, it was cold and raining, but we didn’t care. We were in
New York City, getting ready to rock Webster Hall. The staff at Guitar
Center was very helpful, and the tattooed dude behind the counter was in a band
that had opened for Destruction before, so he was totally supportive and
enthusiastic. For his part, Jason was blown away by all the Ramones
memorabilia in the front window of the store, as well as the Eddie Van Halen
guitar in a display case. Cool place.
There were two local openers tonight, one being a three-piece called Metalfier
featuring members of Polish descent. Talked at length with the
singer/guitarist and drummer, the latter of whom has the unusual background of
formerly working as a funeral director before he became a full-time
musician. Metalfier played a brand of power/thrash that was entertaining
enough for 25 minutes, including a cover of Slayer’s “Seasons in the
Abyss.” Somewhere around this time, we were joined by my buddy Mark Gromen
and a couple of his friends. They had been pre-gaming for several hours,
and all were well-lubricated by this point. The beers and comic relief
began flowing and remained on display for the remainder of the evening.
Between the Gromen crew and appreciative fans, beers were finding Team Widow
faster than we could drink them. During Destruction’s set, there was a
time when I had three full beers waiting for me on the back ledge behind our
merch booth. Needless to say, I didn’t go thirsty that night, $8 beers be damned.
It turns out there was much to celebrate. I’ve seen Widow live upwards of
20 times in three countries. I’ve never seen them better than
tonight. It was just magic when they were onstage, despite the
suffocating stage fog which caused John E. to disappear in the mist at
different times during the night. The new lineup played more cohesively
than ever before, and the large crowd was going crazy from the first
note. Twice during their set, they were interrupted by loud chants of
“Wi-Dow, Wi-Dow.” It was awesome. I was so happy, and the band
members’ big grins on stage confirmed that they felt the same way. Sound
was excellent tonight too, and they got to play their full 30-minute set:
Take Hold of the Night, Re-Animate Her, Lady Twilight, American Werewolf in
Raleigh, Nightlife, Beware the Night, Angel Sin. No matter how many more
times I see Widow on how many adventures in how many places, I will always
remember this show, the night that Widow conquered New York City. Webster
Hall became Widow Hall.
One thing we hadn’t conquered was dinner. Shit, we were hungry.
Dinner had been granola bars and bottled water / beer … again.
Fortunately, Webster Hall gave us each $11.00 meal vouchers for a restaurant
down the street called the Village Pourhouse (I think). During Krisiun’s
set, I manned the merch table while the Widow guys went to the restaurant to
eat. They brought me back a burger and fries right before Destruction’s
set started. I have a distinct, happy memory of sitting on a bench behind
the merch table, listening to Destruction tear into “Thrash Till Death,” and
banging my head furiously while simultaneously devouring my hamburger and
drinking more beer. Life is good on the road. Destruction enjoyed a
much better sound tonight, and were visibly in a better mood. No stage
rants tonight. Quite the contrary, Schmier talked on stage about what a
great time they were having, although he still referenced what he called a “bad
show” in Massachusetts last night. Their set list was exactly the same as
last night, with the notable omission of “Total Desaster.” Not sure why
they cut that song, as it rules, and they didn’t play anything else in its
place, but I promise you everybody went home happy nonetheless.
During load-out tonight, we helped with the Destruction/Krisiun gear for the
first time. It came about quite by accident. We had all of Widow’s
gear stacked at the top of the back staircase, through which venue personnel
had directed us to load out (because there was another show going on downstairs
in Webster Hall, so they wanted the main entrance open for that). Our
stuff was all piled up behind Destruction’s gear (like Atlanta’s Hartsfield
Airport during rush hour), meaning none of our stuff could go out until
Destruction’s gear was out. So we helped. I remember lifting bass
cabinets with the Krisiun guys that were heavy as a mothertrucker, and backing
downstairs with them out into the rainy night, dodging people on the
street. This is what being a roadie’s like, eh? I was
super-impressed that the Krisiun band members, as well as Destruction drummer
Vaaver – tonight and every night – helped so much with loading in and loading
out the Destruction/Krisiun gear. They appreciated our help and were
quick to clap us on the back and shake our hands. We were beginning to be
accepted on this tour.
We didn’t want to stay in NYC (expense, parking, hassles), so we drove about 90
miles down the road to Voorhees, New Jersey to find our hotel for the
night. It was well after 3:00 a.m. when we checked in to a swank
Springhill Suites. The four of us piled into one room, with me claiming
the sofa and the other three guys sharing two beds. We all collapsed
immediately and slept like logs.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Finally, our first (and, as it happens, only) nice weather day of the
tour. We awakened to sunshine and temperatures in the 50s. The drive
to Virginia was relatively painless, and I took a much-needed break from the
tour diet of twice-a-day hamburgers by enjoying a grilled veggie sandwich at
Five Guys. I had been eagerly anticipating the Springfield, VA date on the
tour for several reasons. First and foremost, Jen would rejoin us
tonight, fresh off three days of family time. Second, I was curious to
see what had become of the old Jaxx club, where I saw some of my favorite gigs
ever (Hammerfall’s first-ever US date in 1998, U.D.O. and Raven in 2000, Virgin
Steele in 2002, Gamma Ray in 2006, etc.). Now known as Empire, the venue
looks much the same, aside from a fresh coat of paint, Empire banners on one
wall, and what looks to be a new lighting rig. Otherwise, it’s basically the same.
Today, we arrived and loaded in our gear relatively early, so it was cool to be
able to watch Destruction soundcheck to “Bullets from Hell,” a standout track
from The Antichrist that we did not see them play live any night on this
tour. The day got even better when Empire staff brought out numerous
styrofoam boxes: dinner for everyone! It was not a feast, but I was most
grateful for the pasta, salad and garlic bread meal, the first time in several
days we’d eaten dinner before 11 p.m. Also, there were a couple of
familiar faces in the house, as Dave Boyd and Marc Stauffer from Twisted Tower
Dire came out early to see Widow. It’s always a pleasure to catch up with those guys.
Unfortunately, the day kind of went downhill from there. For whatever
reason, it was an early show (doors at 6:00 p.m.), which is guaranteed to hurt
early turnout on a weeknight with D.C. traffic. Add in the fact that
there was only one local opener (not even a local band, a metalcore act of
underaged kids from Miami which brought in exactly 0 attendees), and it meant
that Widow went on stage at the unseemly hour of 7:20 p.m. Too
early. It was a real shame, too, because there were fewer than two dozen
people in the hall when they cranked up “Take Hold of the Night.” It was
hard not to feel let down when tonight’s gig was nearly deserted, just one day
after hundreds of New Yorkers were chanting Widow’s name. But such are
the ups and downs of the touring life. For what it’s worth, Widow kicked
in another strong performance, playing their hearts out for the people who were
there instead of grousing about the people who weren’t. With a little
extra time in their set, they had time to squeeze in “Judgment Day” before
“Angel Sin,” the first and only time that “Judgment Day” was aired on this
run. I love that song and have pestered the band for years to play it
more frequently, so I was a happy camper to hear it.
Sometime during Krisiun’s set, Jen arrived at the venue, bearing a case of water
and a box of granola bars for the Yukon. Finally, Team Widow was fully
intact and would remain so for the duration of the tour. Sadly, attendance
did not increase too much even for Destruction’s set tonight, as I would
estimate a crowd of fewer than 100 when they took the stage. The “Satanic
Hispanics” comprised a substantial portion of the attendees, but remained
strangely subdued even for the first half of Destruction’s show. I took
advantage of the relative tranquility (i.e., lack of a violent moshpit) in front
of the stage to venture right up front for the first 8 or 9 songs, snapping
photos, headbanging and air-guitaring to my heart’s content. Destruction
sounded awesome tonight, and didn’t seem at all perturbed by the relatively
meager audience. They tinkered a bit with their setlist, dropping the drum
solo, substituting “Total Desaster” for “Tormentor,” and including the awesome
“Invincible Force” as a third encore tucked in between “Curse the Gods” and
“Butcher Strikes Back.” For my money, this was the strongest Destruction
performance of the tour so far. I loved the fact that Schmier had started
taking requests from the stage near the end of the set, which is how “Invincible
Force” was selected to be played. He kept going with the request schtick
each night of the rest of the tour, even though overall the setlist changed very
little from night to night. Oh, and in case I didn’t mention it
before: “Bestial Invasion” kicks complete and total ass, live. My
favorite part of every Destruction gig, for sure.
Afterwards, we once again helped the crew and the Krisiun dudes with loading out
the headliner’s gear. Tonight felt different because it felt like we were
finally bonding with our tourmates. After the Destruction trailer was
fully loaded, Max (drummer from Krisiun) disappeared on the bus for a moment and
returned with a fistful of cans of Corona, which we toasted and drank together
with the crew next to the trailer. It was beginning to feel like we
belonged on this tour, and that was a very cool thing. By now, the
venue-supplied pasta dinner had long since stopped providing energy, so we
retired to a nearby IHOP for a late-night feast of eggs and pancakes.
Mmmmm, pancakes. Then the five of us crammed into a single hotel room a
few miles away for a few hours of fitful rest.
Friday, March 21, 2014
We had all been kind of dreading this show. It’s not that Wilmington,
Delaware is a bad place. It isn’t (okay, the part we saw wasn’t so nifty,
but I assume there are cool parts of town somewhere). It isn’t even that
Mojo 13 is a bad venue. It’s just small. Most venues on this tour
were of capacities in the vicinity of 450 – 600. Mojo 13 maxes out at
250. So it’s tiny. Small venue = small stage = big headaches for a
big tour production. It’s definitely more of a bar than a club.
This feeling was reinforced when we walked in the front door this
afternoon. There was a bar with a half dozen or so locals (obviously not
of the metal persuasion) sitting around drinking beer on a Friday
afternoon. The stage was in a small room adjacent to the bar, although
the space between the two rooms was sufficiently open that you could see (and
definitely hear) the stage action from the bar area. We stuffed our merch
table alongside Destruction/Krisiun’s table in a corner of the bar, at the
opposite side of the venue from the stage. It was far from optimal, but
there was simply no room anywhere else. I was able to convince the
dentally-challenged female bartender to sell me a couple of pints of Yuengling
for $2 each, so I settled right in with a couple of beers. I had a
feeling it was going to be that kind of night. My suspicions were
confirmed when I visited the men’s room to find a single toilet that was
literally overflowing with raw sewage. Welcome to Delaware, boys and girls!
There was about an hour to kill before Destruction’s soundcheck, so I sat and
enjoyed my Yuengling while trying desperately not to need a bathroom.
From my vantage point, I could see the pool table at the back of the bar
area. Mike Sifringer from Destruction was back there playing pool all by
himself. The guy was sweet-tempered and nice to us every time we talked
to him, but damned if he didn’t spend most of his time off on his own.
When it finally came time for Destruction to soundcheck, we were in for a
treat. They ripped through part of “Curse the Gods,” then fired up their
incendiary cover of Venom’s “Black Metal.” The latter song was on the
printed setlist every single night, but they never played it, other than at
this one soundcheck in Wilmington. More’s the pity, because from what I
heard Destruction plays a killer version of that classic. Sadly, this was
like pearls before swine, as the bar patrons were openly ridiculing and
laughing at Destruction during their soundcheck. You’d think that if the
locals don’t like metal, they’d find some place to get loaded on a Friday
afternoon other than a bar that was hosting a, gasp, metal show that
night. I suppose that would be too logical.
The behind-the-scenes drama reached a boiling part this afternoon. (When
you buy me that beer and ask for the inside scoop about the Destruction tour,
be sure and ask for the back story about the Delaware gig. It’s a
doozie.) Suffice it to say, however, that the stage was too small for the
local openers to set up their gear, so they ended up positioning their drum
kits on stage right and being shoe-horned into tiny spaces to perform.
One local opener called Coffin Dust played a brutal death-metal version of
Slayer’s “Metalstorm / Face the Slayer” but was otherwise forgettable noise (to
this non-extreme metal guy). Another local opener called Traitor
specialized in melodic thrash with clean vocals that actually sounded pretty
good, marking the first clean-vocal local opener of the tour so far. The
problem with all these local openers was that they ran long, pushing us further
and further off the published timetable and guaranteeing that there’d be
trouble at the end of the night when Destruction was attempting to perform their full set.
In a strange way, Widow were beneficiaries of the cramped, suboptimal stage
conditions. To make life easier for the crew and save time, Widow were
permitted to use Destruction/Krisiun’s gear tonight: drums, cabinets,
etc. Jason, in particular, was on cloud 9 at the prospect of being able
to use the massive headliners’ drum kit. Also, this made load-in and
load-out extremely easy from Widow’s standpoint. On this gear, Widow
sounded enormous tonight. (It helped, I think, that the local soundguy
was wearing a Widow shirt that he had purchased the last time Widow rolled
through town, so he was obviously a fan.) They sounded like a
bulldozer. I’m sure I’ve never heard Widow play louder, and I doubt I’ve
ever heard them with a fuller, more powerful sound. Thank heavens for
earplugs or my deaf ass would have been even more hearing-impaired by the end
of the night. The crowd was pretty good; certainly, they played to far
more people than had watched them in Virginia last night. And despite the
overruns of the local openers, the stage manager graciously allowed Widow their
full 30 minute set, so the usual seven-song routine was aired. And they
went over well with the Wilmington crowd as well, even though that didn’t
translate into substantial merch sales at the end of the night. (If you
go see a band and like them, buy their merch! It’s the life blood of a
tour. Every penny of merch money goes into gas and tolls. If
there’s something left over, maybe the band can have a cheeseburger or
something. I never appreciated this truth more than on this tour, which
is why I went out of my way to thank profusely each and every person who bought
merch from us. You really helped us get where we were going without
winding up in the poorhouse.)
Tonight was a very rough night for Destruction. They had persistent
technical problems from the beginning of their set until the end. Schmier
was obviously in a bad mood, as he barked out complaints from the stage about
the venue’s sound system and equipment not working and went over to fuss in the
stagehands’ ears time and time again. What’s more, they didn’t go on
stage until after midnight (thanks to all the time overruns by the local
openers), so they trimmed several songs off their setlist to squeeze within the
available time. “Carnivore,” “Hate is my Fuel,” “Tormentor,” “Total
Desaster” and the drum solo were all axed. Instead, after the usual first
eight songs, they played, in order, “Death Trap,” “Curse the Gods,” “Bestial
Invasion,” “The Antichrist” (by request, yay! Nice to hear another ‘Infernal
Overkill’ number get worked into the set) and “The Butcher Strikes Back.”
There was a decent sized crowd watching them play, but damned if there weren’t
some of the weirdest people I’ve ever seen at a thrash gig. One heavyset
guy in a business suit kept meandering in and out of the venue acting strangely
and looking like he was hopped up on something. A senior citizen in a
bucket hat was walking around with a can of beer trying to pick up chicks a
third of his age. And another super-creepy old guy would approach male
spectators and begin dancing suggestively in very close proximity to them with
a sexual-predator look on his face while he did it. If you ignored him,
he would walk away but then come back a few minutes later. He did this to
me (and every dude around me) about four times while I was trying to thrash out
to Destruction. What the hell is wrong with you, Delaware?
One thing that is definitely wrong with Delaware is that, once again, we hadn’t
had anything to eat for dinner other than granola bars tonight, and all the
food places near the venue were closed by the time Widow got offstage.
Thankfully, sometime after 11:00 p.m., a woman in the audience (and a true
friend of Widow) took pity on us, left the venue and returned with five WaWa
sub sandwiches. This act of kindness was all that stood between us and
starvation on Friday night. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Afterwards, we helped Destruction’s crew and the Krisiun dudes with their
load-out, before hopping in the Yuke to drive 40 or so miles west in the
general direction of Columbus, Ohio. We pulled into a Holiday Inn in
Morgantown, Pennsylvania at 3:30 a.m. At the time of check-in, we asked
for a 7:30 a.m. wake-up call because we still had 425 miles to drive to
tomorrow’s gig. Our objective for the next few hours: Sleep fast.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
So this is where Dimebag Darrell was murdered. The thought was so
pervasive that I couldn’t shake it from my mind when we drove up to the Alrosa
Villa venue in Columbus, Ohio. I was never much of a Pantera fan, but the
manner and violence of Dime’s death in December 2004 shocked me to my core, as
it did most metalheads, music fans and human beings in general. I had
never set foot in this building before but like most people, I’ve seen the
video footage from that bloody night. As I entered the venue through the
rear stage door, I felt a chill course through my entire body. Everything
looks the same as in the video. Here’s the stage door through which the
murderer entered, the same stage door that the police sharpshooter walked
through a few minutes later to fire the shot that killed the lunatic before the
death toll could rise further. There’s the stage where Dime was
performing, just a few feet away, oblivious to the fact that his life was about
to be snuffed about by a madman with a deathwish. There’s the pit, the
tables, the whole inside of the venue. It looks *exactly* like the
video. There’s no memorial to Dime inside the venue: no plaque, no marker
to commemorate the awful tragedy. All there is at Alrosa Villa to
memorialize the horror is a crudely spray-painted rock outside the venue.
Eerie. That, and a rigorous security protocol that included security
staff stationed at the back door and patdowns of each and every patron entering
the venue through the front door. These thoughts ran through my mind,
unbidden, all night tonight. What strange juxtaposition that Team Widow
had such a wonderful heavy metal party tonight in what was a house of
unspeakable tragedy on a cold winter night nine years ago.
Nightmarish history notwithstanding, Alrosa Villa was one of the nicest, most
professional venues we encountered on this tour. They treated Widow
extremely well. Start with the large, comfortable backstage area (kind of
a misnomer, since it’s situated clear across the entire venue from the stage
itself), featuring a stack of Little Caesar pizzas, two-liter Coke bottles, and
even an assortment of Twinkies and similar products for dessert.
Nice. Nobody in Team Widow was going hungry tonight. We were also
brought a case of water, beer and even a bottle of Crown Royal (thanks
Orion!). It was fantastic to see so many friendly, familiar faces from
the Warriors of Metal Festival, which has been held in the Columbus area for
the last six years. Everyone was kind and welcoming to us, and we were
deeply grateful for the Midwestern hospitality. Draft beers at the bar
were $6.75, which is pricey, but they were biggie beers (at least double the
size of a typical draft), and they had Killian’s, so I was quite a happy man
tonight. Maybe a little *too* happy by the end of the night, if truth be told …
An extra bonus about the Columbus show was the chance to reconnect with our
friends in Vindicator, who had driven down from Cleveland to play in one
of the opening slots tonight. The Stowns are fantastic people, and
Vindicator flat-out rules as a live band. Tonight was no exception.
Vic & Co. had just 25 minutes to work with, but they put the time to
extremely good use with six songs of thrashy goodness. Newbie “Sleeping
with Evil” (culled from the excellent EP of the same name) was aired early on,
and the band thrashed up a storm through the likes of “Fatal Infection” and
“Dog Beneath the Skin.” Lead guitarist Justin Zych was a maniac as usual,
the Stown brothers were in fine form, and Ed Stephens held down the bottom
end. Vic’s stage raps were entertaining, as he expressed incredulity when
only a handful of folks in the crowd claimed to have seen Destruction before,
then later managed to work in the legendary “breakfast shots” story from WOM
Fest. Long live Vindicator! Setlist: Global
Warning, Gears of Fate, Sleeping with Evil, Fatal Infection, Dog Beneath the
Skin, Humanarchy, Gore Orphanage.
With respect to the touring bands, tonight was simply stellar all the way
around. Widow delivered another high-octane, high-energy set, with the
Destruction crew kindly letting it slide when they ran five minutes over.
Strangely enough, the Krisiun set connected with me tonight for the first
time. I had heard parts of their performance each night, enough to
appreciate the playing ability of the musicians but also enough to confirm
their music wasn’t for me. Tonight, though, I found myself picking out
parts of the songs that I recognized from previous gigs and thinking how good
they sounded. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I’d come to respect the
Krisiun dudes very much as people over these last few days on the road
together. No, I’m not a death metal fan, but Krisiun is cool as hell as
far as I’m concerned. Then Destruction damn near tore the roof off the
place with a crushing set that song-wise duplicated what they performed in
Massachusetts on the first night of the tour, but intensity-wise was on par
with the gig in Virginia. I distinctly remember standing at the back of
the enormous pit with a biggie beer in my hand, thrashing and smiling and
thinking how I must be the luckiest damn guy on the planet to get to watch this
spectacle every single night. Five gigs in, I was digging the hell out of
every band’s performance and just feeling so happy to be out on the road, living the dream.
Also contributing to my high spirits (see what I just did there) was the
generosity of the Columbus audience. At ye olde Widow merch table, we
sold almost twice as much tonight as we did on any other night of the
tour. I don’t know why. Maybe because it was Saturday night,
everyone was in a spending mood. Maybe the Midwest “gets” Widow in a way
that certain other markets don’t. I don’t know. But I do know that
those funds took a lot of the financial pressure off the band to get through
the last couple of days of the tour and drive home without incinerating the
plastic of their credit cards. Thank you, Ohio. You rule.
A few interesting tidbits after load-out tonight. First, I finally had a
lengthy conversation with the elusive Mike Sifringer, who was just hanging out
by the bus and in a talkative mood. Mike was super-cool, mellow, humble
and funny. Second, I had a private moment in the Alrosa Villa after
everyone was gone and the room was dark. I slipped quietly back in the
backstage door, went up onto the stage where it all went down in December 2004,
and had a little moment of silence for Dime. It seemed like the right
thing to do, to pay my respects in the only way I could. Third, the tour
manager stopped us as we were getting ready to leave (contemplating the 400
drive south for tomorrow’s gig in Johnson City, TN) and told us he was hearing
reports from the local promoter that the Johnson City show might be
canceled. A short time later, he confirmed those reports. Tomorrow
was officially a day off. So Team Widow hopped in the Yuke and drove
around Columbus OH at 3 in the morning looking for something to eat. Who
knew this endeavor would prove so difficult. We were blocked by uniformed
law enforcement personnel from entering a Waffle House, apparently because it
was a crime scene or something. The late-night female staffer at DQ
Chill’n’Grill flipped us the bird. But we found some nice hot steaming
burgers at Rally, that carried us through what little was left of the night to
our ratty Columbus hotel.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
We hadn’t expected a day off on tour. Honestly, we didn’t really want
one. The positive part of all this was that it meant we wouldn’t have a
600-mile overnight drive from Johnson City to St. Louis. Instead, we
could just meander along I-70 West through Indiana and Illinois at a leisurely
clip until we hit St. Louis on Monday. The negative part was no
gig. We took things easy on Sunday, sleeping in and staying at the hotel
in Columbus until checkout. Then we found a Texas Roadhouse and chowed on
a nice big sit-down lunch. Randomly, we milled around a Target store for
an hour so. Then finally the Yuke hopped back on I-70 to swing
westward. The plan was to get to Terre Haute, Indiana this evening
because that’s where the Destruction/Krisiun bus was spending the night.
Our travels were delayed when we discovered a broken connector cable that meant
the brake lights, running lights and turn signals on the trailer were no longer
functioning. So we got to take a nice detour through picturesque
Mooresville, Indiana on a frigid Sunday afternoon to find an Auto Zone to get
the correct part, repair the trailer connectors, and resume driving. It
was nearly dark by the time we hit Terre Haute, where we had a lovely dinner
(and Founders Breakfast Stout beer) with a couple of members of the Destruction
crew. All in all, a pretty damn uneventful day, but honestly I think we
all needed the rest. With this leisurely day, I just knew we would be
ready to finish strong in St. Louis tomorrow.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Time is funny on the road. Driving up to Worcester, it seemed like this
adventure would last forever. The days on tour were quite long and quite
full. I lost track of time of what day of the week it was, what time of
day it was. It was this strange, otherworldly existence. Yet now,
suddenly, here we were, driving into the Gateway to the West (hello, St. Louis
arch) for the last day of the tour, or at least the last day of our part of the
tour. Everything kind of took on a bittersweet hue today, and I found it
hard to be as carefree as I’d been until now. I definitely wasn’t ready
for this roller coaster ride to end, but I was resolved to soak up every second
that remained.
We arrived at the Fubar in midtown St. Louis in the middle of the afternoon on a
gray, raw day, with light snow flurries to welcome us to the city. Fubar
wasn’t the worst venue we’d encountered on this tour, but it damn sure wasn’t
the best. Heat wasn’t on when we got there, and I was disappointed to see
the club management inflexibly insisted that merch tables go in a separate room,
out of sight and out of earshot of the main hall. In addition to being
incredibly sucky for the person selling merch (who then couldn’t watch or even
hear the gig), this arrangement meant that audience members would have to
purposefully seek out the merch by abandoning the gig, and walking over to the
other room. That’s not really conducive to lucrative merch sales.
Then I saw the club’s handwritten listing for tonight’s show, featuring
Destruction, Krisiun, and “Wisdom.” Yup, somehow Widow morphed into Wisdom
in Fubar’s mind. Way to pay attention, champ.
Lots of things felt different today. All of us made a point of hitting up
the Destruction / Krisiun merch tables early in the day to buy our tour
swag. We handed out Widow gear to all of the band members and most of the
tour personnel. Schmier even stopped and chatted with us at length this
afternoon. He was friendly and cordial as could be today, saying
complimentary things about Widow and offering to help with industry
contacts. I had several opportunities to talk with Mike today too, and he
was more outgoing than at any time so far. When I conveyed my friend
Kragen Lum’s greetings to him (Kragen plays guitar in Heathen and has shared a
bus with Destruction for multiple tours), I was so proud and happy to see
Mike’s eyes light up. He described Kragen as “a great guy and a fuckin’
great guitar player.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Things accelerated quickly through the day. I watched Destruction
soundcheck one last time. Today they played chunks of “The Antichrist”
and “Curse the Gods.” The local openers’ sets whizzed by in a flash.
At some point, our friend DJ Valkyrie appeared, having made the long drive from
Tennessee to see tonight’s show, so it was great to visit with her. Then
it was time for Widow’s last gig of the tour. Jen and I left the Widow
merch tour in the capable hands of Mikayla (Destruction/Krisiun merch girl), and
we went over and rocked out. Fittingly, they were getting to use
Destruction/Krisiun’s drums and cabinets again tonight, and the stage manager
had hung the Widow banner in a place of honor high over the stage. What a
wonderful showing of respect by the headliners and their crew. Maybe it
wasn’t the cleanest Widow gig of the tour, and the audience wasn’t the biggest
Widow had enjoyed, but it wasn’t bad at all. The boys did what they did
with high octane and high intensity, albeit being forced to cut “Beware the
Night” for time constraints. I really felt this last show ended Widow’s
tour on a high note, with another strong gig and more converted fans, as
demonstrated by the surprisingly brisk merch sales afterwards. Chris even
made a funny jab at the “Wisdom” thing by saying from the stage, “The sign over
there calls us Wisdom, but we don’t have any of that.” Hah.
Jen then resumed her post at the Widow merch table, and I stayed in the live
venue side to soak in every minute of Krisiun’s gig. Crowd had gotten
respectable this time, probably 100+. I moseyed over to the bar and
discovered my favorite beer of the tour, something called “Winged Nut” made by
Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. It came in a 500 ml bottle and was positively
delicious, a steal for just $5 too. Somehow I ended up right by the
Destruction band members as they were making their final stage
preparations. They strapped on their guitars, confirmed to the stage
manager that they were good to go, and then did a three-way fistbump. Then
they saw me standing there, and each of Schmier, Mike and Vaaver fistbumped me
as they walked to the stage. Mighty cool, that was.
The crowd went absolutely ballistic throughout Destruction’s set tonight, with
almost constant pit and stagediving activity. For a relatively small
crowd, St. Louis brought out the old-school thrashers tonight, for sure.
As usual, there was some tinkering with the set list tonight. No “Total
Desaster” or “Tormentor” or drum solo. Instead, after “Death Trap,” they
played “The Antichrist” and “Bestial Invasion,” before the two-song encore of
“Curse the Gods” and “Butcher Strikes Back.” All band members seemed to be
in a good mood tonight, with Schmier repeatedly praising this small but lively
audience for giving 100% from start to finish. Lighting was no good
tonight, with Schmier and Mike appearing only in silhouette all night, with no
front lighting at all. Mike told me later that he even fell down at one
point when he stepped on an uneven section of the stage that he couldn’t
see. So maybe the conditions weren’t the best, but Destruction ripped
through a blinder of a gig anyway.
Afterwards, I consumed more Winged Nut beer, chatted with Mike for a few
minutes, helped with load out, began saying our farewells and thank yous to the
crew, and then suddenly the entire Team Widow was invited onto the Destruction
/ Krisiun bus, the first and only time that had happened. We entered to
find Schmier tending bar. He asked us each what we wanted and served our
drinks. He joked that Corona (apparently the only beer onboard) was
Mexican beer and that “we drink that for breakfast.” He even poured a
vodka drink for Jason. All the other band members and crew were right
there too, and Vaaver was even wearing his brand spankin’ new Widow
shirt. It felt like all of this was being done for our benefit. It
was a kind and much appreciated gesture. None of us had any expectation
that the headliners would treat us so well. The crew had treated us
beautifully every single night, and most of the band members had gone out of
their way to be friendly and nice to us. What a great way to cap things
off. All too soon, unfortunately, this amazing moment in time came to an
end. The tour bus had a 15-hour drive ahead to tomorrow’s gig in Austin,
TX, and they needed to hit the road. So we said our thank yous and
goodbyes. As Jen turned to leave, Mike said “Ciao bella” and gave her a
big hug. There were hugs, handshakes, and kind words for everyone.
Definitely a feel-good moment for all of us. Then we were off the bus,
headed to the hotel, and bringing our bags in for the night one last time as
the snowflakes engulfed us all.
Postscript
Words don’t really do justice to an experience like this. We drove more
than 2,000 miles. We drove through 14 different states (NC, VA, MD, DE,
NJ, NY, CT, MA, PA, WV, OH, IN, IL, MO). We saw old friends. We
made new friends. There were times when we shivered in the cold and our
bellies ached from lack of food. There were plenty of times our heads
ached from too much alcohol and too little sleep. We were the recipients
of random acts of kindness from strangers who made our time on the road a
little bit easier each day. And we rocked. Most of all, we
rocked. I couldn’t be more proud of my friends in Widow for stepping up
their game and proving they belonged on this tour, day in and day out, and for
keeping their sense of humor intact no matter what the road threw at us.
And I couldn’t be more thankful for having been given the opportunity to play a
very small part in it all. I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same, quite
honestly. Six days have passed since I flew home from St. Louis, but I
just know I left a part of me out on tour somewhere …
~ Review by Kit Ekman ~