Walken/Huntress/Dark Black - Bender's Bar 12/4

"...so, how'd you hear about the show man?" the lead singer of Dark Black asked me as he handed me my freshly purchased copy of their 3 day old EP. i smiled immediately, "well i'm a big fan of Walken", i replied' "so whenever they have a show i try to check out the other bands on the bill as well, they're usually pretty badass too."

holy shit was last night an awesome night for music. i was stoked as hell as i locked up my bike outside of bender's bar, one of my favorite mission dive bars and the site of many a badass show in the past. it was just shy of a month from the last Walken show at the hemlock tavern. Walken, being one of if not my favorite local band (see previous posts for necessary confirmation) always shares bills with badass bands. Everything from big names like Death Angel and St. Vitus, to underground favorites like Lesbian, and often playing shows with other killer SF based indie metal bands like Hightower and Floating Goat. in my last 3 and a half years of living and show going in the bay area i have seen a wide variety of serious amounts of spine crushingly awesome music courtesy of attending Walken shows. yesterday night's show at bender's might have been one of the best though.

opening the show was portland's Dark Black. this may end up a comment i make in many of my future posts, but shiiiiiiiiiit, portland is churning out massive amounts of badass underground metal of various sub genres these days! i feel like i come across a new portland band that totally ends up melting my fucking face off at least once every couple weeks, Dark Black being the most recent addition to that list. belting out tunes that sounded distinctly of vintage power metal with a driving percussive bass, tight stabbing drums, epic double chorused lead guitars and a soaring vocals over the top coupled with sludgy doom riffs, heavy reverb on the vocal mics, and gratuitous use of crash cymbals Dark Black took the show going crowd through a set that encompassed some of the finest aspects of doom, power metal, and straight up good old fashioned 70s hard rock. their 30 odd minute set was hands down (horns up?) one of the most fun show going experiences i've had this year. the only downside of the set was being almost unable to hear the 2nd guitarist. the sound dude was running around the during the show trying to figure out what was up, by the end of the set, the audience was still straining to hear the dude shredding on the pink Charvel.

after Dark Black finished their set i felt a twinge of worry for LA based Huntress as i made my way to the merch tables. Dark Black has just torn it up, Walken would undoubtedly put on a brilliant show, so as far as i was concerned Huntress had a lot to live up to. before i get into some details on their performance, let me just say i never should have fucking doubted Huntress. the band took the stage and went on to bludgeon the audience with a skull crushing combination of rock n' roll attitude and aptitude. let's be honest, it's easy to please dudes at a metal show by throwing a super hot girl with a mic in front of the band, but add the fact that the dudes on strings and skins are fucking amazing and the girl with the mic can not only really sing (REALLY FUCKING SING) but she rocks that metaphorical spotlight in a way that would make Paul Stanley bow down and you have an amazing piece of ass kicking rock n' roll. the musical high i was riding from Dark Black was kicked into overdrive by Huntress' knee to the face, Judas Priest meets Electric Wizard meets Saxon styled heavy metal beat down. after their set i was mouth foamingly eager to pick up a disc or some vinyl and rushed over to the merch table as i saw the drummer sitting down and chatting with audience members. i asked if they had any recordings, but was informed that unfortunately they have yet to record an album, all they were selling were shirts. the drummer went on to mention that he plays in a number of other bands in the LA area and remembered seeing me at shows at annie's before that badass venue was shut down. :) well color me amused, guess i stick out in a crowd. in the end though, i was hoping the supporting bands would be good, turned out they were both fucking awesome.

Walken, of course was headlining last night (did i already mention that?). as i've said before, i'm not sure i'll ever get tired of writing about how fucking amazing i think this band is. i don't know what it is about 'em, but the way they put their music together is pretty much exactly my definition of awesome. to see it done live is always an ass kicking experience, and of course this saturday was no exception. slick sludgy guitar grooves, gut rattling bass, esophagus shredding vocals and intensely heavy handed yet agile drumming set Walken outside any label or box. is it doom? thrash? all and none of the above, it's just badass bay area metal (seriously, if you haven't yet, just go to this myspace page and listen to some samples...they're good for the soul: http://www.myspace.com/walken ). before they took the stage i had a chance to chat with Max Doyle (guitar for Walken and Grayceon) about what was up musically. excitingly, i was told that Grayceon has finished writing a new album (so hopefully that means they'll be recording soon!), but that Walken is still writing and rehearsing with about half an album put together. of course if either band makes any official announcements, i'll be sure to let y'all know. seriously though, i cannot fucking wait for the new Walken album! what unrecorded songs of theirs i have heard played live kick the shit outta me. this band does not stop progressing and growing musically. y'all gotta come to their next show with me. you'll be fucking blown away. Walken started saturday night's show with what i currently consider my favorite of their new songs (and possibly favorite overall Walken song as well) and didn't stop tearing it up until the sheer force of awesomeness caused a broken guitar string leaving Max to quickly replace it so that the show could go on. thankfully it did, and Walken kept the audience groovin' for a few more songs. unfortunately the brief break seemed to ruin any chances of an encore, so we didn't get to hear 'Running Out of Time', but ah well, all the more reason to be sure not to miss Walken's next show! keep it gloomy y'all.

Floating Goat & Hellbeard - 9/19

a distinct memory of mine from the first Hellbeard show i ever experienced out at the merchant's saloon in oakland is midway through the first song the reggae loving friend of mine i had been dragging to metal shows for the past couple months turned to me with a huge smile on his face and mouthed 'fuck yeah!' the slow sludgy, booming, percussion laden grooves and intense vocal nodule inducing vocals brought a heaviness that no one could not sway to. from then on we made it a point to check out Hellbeard any chance we had. a couple more east bay shows happened, and each one had me searching for a merch table so as to buy a recording, but they never seemed to have any. then for a while...Hellbeard just seemed to drop off. my hope was that there was recording happening, but i really had no idea.

so yeah, i was pretty fucking stoked when i walked by force of habit records (a badass shop by the way) and noticed a flyer announcing Hellbeard and Floating Goat playing together at the parkside, i stopped dead in my tracks. Floating Goat?! It'd been a while since i had seen Floating Goat. the epicness that was the Walken cd release show last november was uncanny. though not the firs time i had seen floating goat, the excitement of the night made it the most on point and hard rockin' performances i had ever seen the band put on...until last sunday night that is. Floating Goat layed into their groovy, old timey, chunky, doomy, sound with a gut wrenching intensity. despite the twenty five odd person sunday night audience, Floating Goat electrified thee parkside. persoanlly, i was really hoping to hear them play 'half alive', but they closed out with the groove-tastic 'heaven's burning', which was pretty fucking epic.

after Floating Goat, the wall of melodic sludge that is Hellbeard took the stage. totally living up to my memory based expectations, Hellbeard threw the fuck down. those funkily syncopated sloshy down-tuned legato licks left the audience swaying at pace with the waves of sound. much to my excitement the band was also selling cds and i was finally able to take home some Hellbeard for myself. all in all, an awesome fucking show, and some fun new music to block out the sounds of muni with...keep it gloomy y'all!

Sleep - Regency Ballroom 9/12 & 9/13 - Awe Inspiring Iommi Worship

so i remember being back at an ozzfest in the early 2000s and seeing a stack of t-shirts at a merch booth with some crazy picture of Ozzy channeling lightening and the words "Listen to Black Sabbath" written across the back. simple yet essential advice that luckily i had been adhering to for quite a while at that point, but advice that has always provided me with an incredibly high quality of life. it's obvious that the message also got through to the young Al Cisneros, Matt Pike, and Chris Hakius in their early days growing up in san jose. those slow, oppressively heavy grooves Black Sabbath is legendary for led those three gentleman to create one of the bay area's most prolific underground metal bands, Sleep, featuring drony, hazy, Sabbathy riffs, deeply technical and mathy percussion, heavily wahed bass and that angst ridden nasally vocal style Ozzy created for us all to admire. despite strong support from fans across the globe and Sleep's unique path in early 90's metal, creative differences with their record label caused Sleep to disband in 1995 after only one full length, two EPs, and an album that their label refused to release (which went onto become the uncanny album/song 'Dopesmoker'...after being cut up into pieces and released as 'Jerusalem').

when i found out Sleep was doing a reunion show in england at the all tomorrow's parties festival in 2009 i was a little pissed. at that point rumors were circulating that the festival appearance would be a one shot, and afterward the members of sleep would re-split and continue to work on their current musical projects. though new material was on the horizon for High on Fire and Om as well as the debut of doom supergroup Shrinebuilder featuring Al Cisneros on bass, getting a chance to see some good old fashioned Sleep grooves performed live would have been epic beyond words.

hearing a confirmed san francisco date for Sleep's 'Marijuananaut's Return' tour sent me to ticketmaster's diabolical money sucking website right away, there was no fucking way i was missing a chance to see Sleep. a few clicks and i was feeling very content with my purchase as i eagerly awaited the arrival of my ticket. not two weeks after my order, i noticed a facebook announcement from Saviours highlighting the fact that they would be opening up for Sleep and i nearly shat myself. Saviors, then Sleep?! fuck yes! i was stoked beyond belief until i realized the date Saviours had listed was monday the 13th and my ticket was for sunday the 12th. upon discovering the 2nd Sleep show opened up by Saviours, i was back to ticketmaster and their bank account violating "convenience charges" (it'd be convenient if it was free...douchebags). all unnecessary fees aside, i had my tickets and two consecutive nights of uncanny bay area doom to look forward to...shortly thereafter, i discovered black cobra had been added to the bill for the monday show...seriously?! i couldn't ask for a more perfect show! it was like a show designed to highlight the finest examples of the bay area doom scene...and only three months to wait...

after some patient waiting, Sleep sunday had finally arrived! i trying not to raise my expectations to impossibly high levels was impossible as i stood on my corner awaiting muni to whisk me away to the regency ballroom. seething with childish excitement, i checked my wallet twice to ensure that i indeed had my ticket with me. i had it planned out already, sunday night was my night all about Sleep and taking in this genuine opportunity to see something legendary. Sleep did not disappoint.

i arrived a little after 9 and found out that the opener, Thrones, had already played. i knew what i was there for, so i wasn't bummed. on stage, amps were being set up and sound checks conducted in front of a backdrop on which was projected a huge photograph of Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath's glory days with that signature mustache and Gibson SG and a mix of Black Sabbath tunes came seeping from the speakers scattered across the venue.

as the lights dimmed and the audience surged forward a man in a space suit came on stage carrying a bass and guitar as Jason Roeder (also of Neurosis) settled in behind the drumset. the excitement was tangible as fans yearned for the first notes of a show that some had waited over a decade for. silently, Matt Pike and Al Cisneros came to the stage, did a quick intonation check, and cut straight into the opening of 'Dopesmoker', Sleep's (in)famous hour and a half long album/song. i had read that Sleep had been preforming 'Holy Mountain' in it's entirety on this tour and thought thatmaybe SF was about to be the first city to get 'Dopesmoker' in it's entirety, but i was put in my place when Cisneros and co. rolled right onto a set of songs from 'Holy Mountain' (beginning with the title track)with healthy chunks of 'Dopesmoker' medleyed in between. Awesome is truly an inadequate adjective to describe what we ere hearing. it was like the sound a giant wad of crunchy peanut butter would make upon being flung at a wall and allowed to drip to the floor...beautiful, delicious,crunchy, and slooooooooow. i realize it's hard to imagine, but even some Sleep tunes were played through at a slower tempo than the originals leaving the audience dazed as we all reveled in some of the grooviest, heaviest, gut shatteringly chuggiest metal ever created. true to form, Sleep laid it down while periodically taking breaks to step off stage only to return minutes later bleary eyed and coughing with a partially smoked joint hanging from Matt Pike's lips.

Despite the undeniable excitement in the crowd, all of the Regency Ballroom was as if in a trance as Sleep droned through all of Holy Mountain (aside from the short instrumental space filler 'Some Grass') with healthy chunks of 'Dopesmoker' sprinkled in between. An unexpected highlight came during the first encore as fans' swaying motions were interrupted by an unfamiliar tune, but those with a good ear and a knowledge of serious metal (ahem, yours truly) were able to instantly recognize Ozzy's 'Over the Mountain' being performed at half tempo, up until the guitar solos which were taken at double time compared to The Blizzard's original work.

At the end of the night fans walked out simultaneously sated and wanting more. as i sat on muni waiting to get home, eavesdropping on other concert goers headed to their beds a couple of folks mentioned how the idea of seeing Sleep two nights in a row might be "just a little too much". i sat back and smiled, internally making plans to leave way sooner for the monday night show so that i wouldn't miss Black Cobra or Saviours...all in all, last week started out with nothin' but badass. one can only hope for a round three. keep it gloomy y'all.