Band You Saw Live the Most Times
Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 4:43 am
Inspired by Rob & Christian's MOTORHEAD discussion is a different thread.
Ground Rules:
Not your favorite live band, just the band you saw the most times.
For me, it's easily DECEASED. Not a lot of metal bands come through the American South, where I've spent most of my life. DECEASED are a regional favorite, due in no small part to their willingness to get out and play shows to metal-starved fans at small venues in states like Virginia and the Carolinas. No idea how many times I saw them: at least 6, maybe 12. Sometimes as headliner, sometimes as opener. Highlight was probably seeing them with SIGH- how the hell SIGH ended up in NC I don't know, but I bet King Fowley was responsible... that was a cool show! Always entertaining band. I got to know King and Mike Smith through the old Metal Maniacs forum; Mike shared my love of obscure NWOBHM and old Pentagram demos. And while I know a lot of folks don't like King Fowley- he's very outspoken, and those early Old Metal releases were bootlegs- I always found that his heart was in the right place. He just loved metal and wanted to talk about it, he just talks with the volume & rhetoric turned up to 11, but he was a nice guy. No pretensions of rock stardom. Never trying to suck up to or impress anyone. Mark "Chainsaw" was also a super nice guy who unfortunately later left the band under strained circumstances.
I got into DECEASED before I ever saw them live. Heard 'Luck of the Corpse' and thought 'Meh', but 'Fearless Undead Machines' really hooked me, and follow-up 'Supernatural Addiction' was also a great listen. I say 'was' because those albums haven't aged that well for me. Haven't played them- or seen the band or chatted with the guys- in many years now.
BONUS TRACKS:
Best/Favorite Show Ever Seen-
MISFITS 1st reunion tour in May of 1996, at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit. Fucking. Crazy. Deserves it's own thread; at least its own post. But not tonight (sit down Dave Gahan, it is NOT your turn!).
Worst/Least Favorite Show Ever Seen-
RHAPSODY opening for MANOWAR at Ziggys in Winston Salem, NC, in, hmmm..... I think January 2004. I have only ever walked out of two concerts (I've walked out on plenty of acts, but just to go get a beer until the next band came on) and this was one of them. I only liked Rhapsody's 1st album, so by 2004 they had worn pretty thin, but the chance to get to see Euro power metal in the Southern US was very rare then (and still is) so I wanted to check it out. And Manowar is an old favorite, so the bill had lots of potential. Plus, i had been to plenty of shows at Ziggys and it was a decent venue.- not the best, but not bad.
Everything went wrong.
Lousy day at work had me in a shitty mood.
No one wanted to go with me, so I drove the 2 hours on my own.
For the first time ever, the club had hired real asshole security who wasn't letting folks leave and come back in. Typically, people ducked across the street to a bar if they didn't like the opener. But not that night. And you could tell these jerks were looking for ANY excuse to throw people out.
The guy running the sound board was trained by Helen Keller.
The guy running the lighting board was trained by Stevie Wonder.
Rhapsody's schtick just did not work. While they played OK, they were trying to ramble on about dragons and fairies while standing in a relatively small, wooden stage in rural North Carolina. It was like seeing Ziggy Stardust trying to wow a crowd in Smallville, Kansas, with zero technical support.
Manowar just sucked. Terrible sound, sloppy playing, and their rhetoric made Rhapsody's seem elegant by comparison. After 30 minutes or so, when they dragged some 13-year old kid on stage and started this long, rambling gimmick of 'knighting him into the Brotherhood of True Metal' (I shit you not), I thought to myself, "why the fuck am i standing here watching this shit?" and I left. The bouncers did not have to worry about me trying to get back in; I jumped in my pickup and drove 2 hours to get home, in an even worse mood for having wasted the time and money on a crappy show that HAD the potential to be really good.
Ground Rules:
Not your favorite live band, just the band you saw the most times.
For me, it's easily DECEASED. Not a lot of metal bands come through the American South, where I've spent most of my life. DECEASED are a regional favorite, due in no small part to their willingness to get out and play shows to metal-starved fans at small venues in states like Virginia and the Carolinas. No idea how many times I saw them: at least 6, maybe 12. Sometimes as headliner, sometimes as opener. Highlight was probably seeing them with SIGH- how the hell SIGH ended up in NC I don't know, but I bet King Fowley was responsible... that was a cool show! Always entertaining band. I got to know King and Mike Smith through the old Metal Maniacs forum; Mike shared my love of obscure NWOBHM and old Pentagram demos. And while I know a lot of folks don't like King Fowley- he's very outspoken, and those early Old Metal releases were bootlegs- I always found that his heart was in the right place. He just loved metal and wanted to talk about it, he just talks with the volume & rhetoric turned up to 11, but he was a nice guy. No pretensions of rock stardom. Never trying to suck up to or impress anyone. Mark "Chainsaw" was also a super nice guy who unfortunately later left the band under strained circumstances.
I got into DECEASED before I ever saw them live. Heard 'Luck of the Corpse' and thought 'Meh', but 'Fearless Undead Machines' really hooked me, and follow-up 'Supernatural Addiction' was also a great listen. I say 'was' because those albums haven't aged that well for me. Haven't played them- or seen the band or chatted with the guys- in many years now.
BONUS TRACKS:
Best/Favorite Show Ever Seen-
MISFITS 1st reunion tour in May of 1996, at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit. Fucking. Crazy. Deserves it's own thread; at least its own post. But not tonight (sit down Dave Gahan, it is NOT your turn!).
Worst/Least Favorite Show Ever Seen-
RHAPSODY opening for MANOWAR at Ziggys in Winston Salem, NC, in, hmmm..... I think January 2004. I have only ever walked out of two concerts (I've walked out on plenty of acts, but just to go get a beer until the next band came on) and this was one of them. I only liked Rhapsody's 1st album, so by 2004 they had worn pretty thin, but the chance to get to see Euro power metal in the Southern US was very rare then (and still is) so I wanted to check it out. And Manowar is an old favorite, so the bill had lots of potential. Plus, i had been to plenty of shows at Ziggys and it was a decent venue.- not the best, but not bad.
Everything went wrong.
Lousy day at work had me in a shitty mood.
No one wanted to go with me, so I drove the 2 hours on my own.
For the first time ever, the club had hired real asshole security who wasn't letting folks leave and come back in. Typically, people ducked across the street to a bar if they didn't like the opener. But not that night. And you could tell these jerks were looking for ANY excuse to throw people out.
The guy running the sound board was trained by Helen Keller.
The guy running the lighting board was trained by Stevie Wonder.
Rhapsody's schtick just did not work. While they played OK, they were trying to ramble on about dragons and fairies while standing in a relatively small, wooden stage in rural North Carolina. It was like seeing Ziggy Stardust trying to wow a crowd in Smallville, Kansas, with zero technical support.
Manowar just sucked. Terrible sound, sloppy playing, and their rhetoric made Rhapsody's seem elegant by comparison. After 30 minutes or so, when they dragged some 13-year old kid on stage and started this long, rambling gimmick of 'knighting him into the Brotherhood of True Metal' (I shit you not), I thought to myself, "why the fuck am i standing here watching this shit?" and I left. The bouncers did not have to worry about me trying to get back in; I jumped in my pickup and drove 2 hours to get home, in an even worse mood for having wasted the time and money on a crappy show that HAD the potential to be really good.