My weekend is your month, or some such Lou Reed-ism. I only have a moment, or two, but I wanted to type a few words about the weekend's shows... The whole thing far exceeded my very high expectations. Saturday night at The Empty Bottle was marked by a sell-out/capacity crowd, a really great range of sets overall, a brutal performance from Nachtmystium [whose new album has been stuck on repeat at my place for a few days now... the only thing to dislodge the new Indian Jewelry], and Eyehategod not only playing their groundbreaking first album from start to finish, but then playing a heap of other songs. How the hell do they do it? I had a successful appearance with Plague Bringer, playing synth [yes, the new little Korg Monotron] and doing vocals on their newest, unreleased track. Kenny did our live sound again, which made the whole thing that much better. Major thanks to Greg and Josh for asking me to join them live again... I had an excellent time with them, as before! It was a totally epic night, to say the very least. Yesterday at Reckless went so unbelievably smoothly -- and the potential for meltdown -- this had all been planned via e-mail, telephone, and down-to-the-wire conversation -- quickly became a moot point, as everyone focused on the task at hand, slowly building up layers and layers of sound [synth, bass, guitar, FX...] and voice that lead to a dense and crushing fog of noise that surrounded the crowd. Mike, Joey, Ryan, James, and Isidro all handled their shit as if we all play together on a regular basis. I could not have been more pleased by how we turned "Ten Suicides" into something more... and how that song has developed a life of its own, in a way, with the "naked voice" (a cappella) style, multiple versions with Jason Schuler from Cadaver in Drag, and now this beast. I was also really pleased to see such a great turnout - on Father's Day - and after a VERY late Saturday night blow out. My thanks to everyone who came out to support! Thanks also to Jim Magas for the great PA set-up/live sound support, Dave and Chris at the store for their organization and willingness to host us, Emily at the Broadway store for getting the ball rolling, and Dylan at the Downtown store for the initial hook-up. At one point during the set, I saw smoke out of the corner of my eye and I thought, god damn it Joey, you can't smoke in this store... but then I looked over and he did not have a cigarette... I thought that I had imagined it, but I was later told that the smoke had billowed from one of the speakers. Fuck! We had a great post-show afternoon/evening around Wicker Park, with various friends, and then last night's show at The Empty Bottle was another full-on barn-burner... I only managed to catch the tail end of Yakuza, unfortunately [sorry!]... The Atlas Moth was heavy, raging, and fantastic - tight as hell... Nachtmystium totally slayed again - the new line up is a devastating live force... and then Eyehategod - no surprise, really - played an even more intense set than the night before. Granted, their second album has a different force/velocity to it, but christ, it was such an insane set! It was great to have them in town for two days and to be able to hang out a bit, play the in-store, etc. Cheers to all of them, but big fucking love and thanks to Mike and Joey for all of the extra energy, enthusiasm, and effort to FINALLY make this noise thing happen, after discussing it for years, literally. Great to meet and hang out with Ryan, too! The Guilt Of... CD is just a few weeks away...
