Well, we wrapped things up yesterday in Milwaukee, and it was a fitting blow-out end to the tour. We got up there pretty early and we met up with James and Alex for an delicious and fun lunch at Comet. Great burgers, excellent fries, and killer bacon Bloody Marys. The show at the Borg Ward was nicely attended by the whole Milwaukee crew, in total sausage party style. We brought the only girl with us. Ha! Reptile Worship surprised me by being much heavier than I expected, but I still have not heard a lot of stuff from them, so I am hardly an expert. They definitely have an old-school industrial feel, combining samples/tapes, electronics, guitars, etc. Maybe a really heavy death-industrial thing? (That is kind of a prominent Milwaukee style, in a way, no?) Through the double PA set-up, they were blowing the doors off of the space! Heaviness and power was certainly expected with Custodian and Jon did not disappoint, destroying with a harsh noise/power-electronics style, and keeping things short and sweet. I am looking forward to diving into the new "II" CD as his debut disc on Syzmic was 100% brutal. Anal Hearse... well, fuck. James switched things up from the Chicago show and came out swinging harder, using his sense of dynamics to soften things up a bit as the set went on... but it never lightened up too much. Again, this falls into some category between the creep of death-industrial and the ferocity of the best power-electronics. Total darkness, total threat... and some long, slow, pummeling beats. Climax Denial was in full sleaze mode, and easily delivered on of my favorite live sets that I have seen/heard from him. Dark, appropriately heavy, dirty, dirty, dirty. Four hardcore sets to follow... rough... Things went well for us, but we had to be careful as with the double PA in place, it would have been very easy for us to blow our wad in too heavy a manner. It still probably was our heaviest performance, overall, and it started off with more power than on the previous six dates, but I think that we managed to find the equilibrium that we have been attaining on a nightly basis. No harm in pushing things a bit further into oblivion on the last night... and hell, there are some of the most hardcore Deathpile/Angel of Decay and BLOODYMINDED fans ever in Milwaukee! We ended the night taking over the corner of a large, lonely taqueria, scarfing down some largely unnecessary food before getting on the road and heading back to Chicago. Major thanks to James, for the hard work in promoting the show. Thanks to James and everyone at the Borg Ward, for hosting us. And thanks to the Milwaukee crew for coming out to support the last night of our tour!
David is already on the road, heading back to Columbus and Jonathan - and Miss Suzie Q. are probably wandering through the Art Institute, right now, hopefully finding the Bellmer pieces that I directed them too.
More thoughts and odds 'n' ends to follow, I am sure...
