Archive for October, 2007

Tuesday night I went to see the Viva La Bands tour at the Congress Theater in Chicago. This tour was put together by Bam Margera of Jackass/Viva La Bam/Skateboarding fame. The tour features four bands; Gwar, Cradle of Flith, CKY, and Vains of Jenna, though it would turn out that one of them wouldn’t play this evening.

Vains of Jenna

Vains of Jenna

Vains of Jenna

When I finally got to the Congress after a long battle with rush-hour traffic, I was handed my passes and I could hear that a band was already playing. It turned out that band was Vains of Jenna and the 6pm start time listed on the website was 100 percent accurate. I quickly unpacked my gear and went to snap some photos. When I got up there and I started paying attention to what was happening on stage, I had wondered if I was in traffic for so long that I fell through a time rift to the late 1980s. This band looked and sounded like every hair metal band I remembered from being on MTV. At times they reminded me of Guns ‘n Roses. The singer/guitar player had that trashed out metal junkie kind of look about him and the rest of them had a similar MTV hair metal look. It was fine for a song or two, but then their stuff all started sounding the same to me and I had my fill of flashbacks for the evening. They played about a half hour or so.

Bam Margera

After they were done, a screen was lowered and there was some Bam-made videos being shown while the stage was being prepared for Gwar. The video was Bam and his friends up to various hi-jinx and was fairly entertaining. The preparation for Gwar consisted of all the monitors and security guards being covered in plastic. I had a rain cover for my camera in preparation of Gwar but failed to bring one for myself and I was beginning to think what a huge oversight this was. I noticed the security guards wearing plastic ponchos and trash bags and asked them if they had any more of them. They had a big roll of trash bags so I fashioned a poncho out of one which ended up being the smartest thing I did that evening.

The videos stopped and Bam Margera came out on stage mostly to the approval of the younger folks in the crowd. He was with someone from CKY and they explained something regarding CKY not being able to play the show due to injury. I wasn’t able to really hear the whole story. He then introduced Gwar.

Gwar

Gwar

The lights went out and some creepy low-end music started playing and one by one the characters from Gwar strolled out on stage. Their intro was very dark with occasional flashes of light, then it led into their first real song and carnage quickly ensued.

Gwar

Gwar

I took a minute slowly snapping pictures and assessing where the attacks could come from. At first they were playing “dry”. There was yet to be any fluids dispensed onto the stage or the people. But that was about to change. Suddenly a disfigured Arch Bishop looking character came out and one of the Gwar Slaves attacked him and hacked away at his chest. The chest started spraying blood all over the crowd, and all over me. The creature moved left and right for nearly the rest of this song making sure to saturate as many people as possible.

Gwar

Gwar

During another song, one of the slaves had a blood cannon that looked like one of those 50 caliber machine gun stands made out of bones which he used to flood the crowd in Gwar blood. I got a head full of this stuff at one point, the guy was quite thorough in his firing of the blood! Shortly after, a demented facsimile of our president came out on stage and spoke to the people. While he was speaking, one of the members of Gwar came and beheaded him! Blood went everywhere, but mostly at me. The headless W was aiming for me! I moved to the other side of the stage but was followed. Headless W was determined to make my job very difficult and very messy. Eventually he relented and resumed soaking the crowd.

Gwar

Gwar

The crowd seemed to be loving this spectacle of carnage, and they also seemed to enjoy being doused in various fluids. At one point during the show they had both Bam and Uncle Phil characters on stage who they poked fun of, and eventually dismembered. One of them turned around to expose his large prosthetic ass that started spraying shit all over the crowd (brown water). I was glad to be out of the line of fire for the Gwar shit! It went everywhere and was pretty hilarious. The grand finale was a large dinosaur coming out and that was attacked and cut to pieces in a huge bloody mess. It was a lot of carnage and a lot of fun. The hour they played seem to go by very quickly and I was a bloody mess.

Gwar

Gwar

The floor was a pool of blood and the stage was a mess. I was really surprised that Gwar was playing before Cradle of Filth for a couple of reasons, the biggest being that how were they going to clean up the mess and have a band follow them? I’m sure that somehow Cradle of Filth is a bigger band than Gwar, but that sure is a tough act to follow! It took them quite a long time to clean off the stage and then prepare Cradle of Filth’s equipment. I want to say it was close to an hour had passed before Cradle of Filth were ready to play.

Cradle of Filth

Cradle of Filth

Since the last time I saw Cradle of Filth (when they first came to America after Dusk and Her Embrace came out), things seemed to have changed. I didn’t see any familiar faces on that stage other than the singer Dani from what I could remember of them nearly 10 years ago. They had two guitar players, the drummer, bass player and they had two ladies on the band; one who played keyboards and piano, and the other who sang the female lines in various songs. These two ladies were positioned pretty far back on the stage and were kind of hard to see, and photograph! The drums were very far back on stage on a very large riser covered with barbed wire and camouflage netting.

Cradle of Filth

Cradle of Filth

I don’t recall what they played first, but within the first three songs they played, “Dusk and Her Embrace” which sounded really good. The one guitar player looked kind of menacing and seemed to be playing his axe practically vertically the entire time while staring at the crowd and sometimes banging his head. Dani ran about the stage quite a but, but also spent a lot of time up on the drum riser singing from that platform. In between songs he’d sometimes play up to the crowd, telling them to form a pit and sometimes announce what the next song would be.

Cradle of Filth

Cradle of Filth

They played a set that consisted mainly of newer songs. The older songs I was hoping for were very few and far between. The sound was mixed a little odd, at least from my vantage point. It seemed to be heavy on vocals and drums and the guitars really seemed like they could be a little louder. They played about an hour and 15 minutes total, which included one encore. The last song they played was “The Principal of Evil Made Flesh” which was the best sounding song of the evening in a lot of people’s eyes as it got the biggest reaction from the crowd. Musically it sounded like it was played the best out of any of the songs too, it just seemed to have a lot more energy going into it than many of the other songs. Overall they were pretty good, but I thought their shows were a lot better the last two times I’ve seen them.

Cradle of Filth

The Viva La Bands show in general was a pretty good time, and a pretty good lineup for the rather low ticket price compared to a lot of other shows of this stature. Throughout the show Bam Margera was sitting up in the balcony and he had a non-stop sea of kids throwing things up to him to autograph and toss back down to him. This seemed to go on nearly the entire show and it seemed he was getting nearly as much attention as the bands on stage playing at times. He was a good sport and just kept signing away as the stuff kept coming. I was also glad to finally get to see Gwar, it was a long time coming and it was a lot of fun to shoot. On their entertaining show alone this show was worth it, it was just a bonus that there was another band on this bill I was interested in as well, making Viva La Bands a fun evening out.

More photos from Viva La Bands can be viewed on MXV’s Flickr Stream.

Want to know how I managed to capture the Gwar photos without ruining my gear? Dark Dave took a “before” and “after” photo of me in my dorky getup with his little point and shoot camera which can be seen after the jump…

This past Saturday I went to Reggie’s Rock Club to see The Avengers play. The Avengers are absolutely one of my all time favorite punk rock bands of all time, and this would be my first time seeing a show at this new club.

First let’s talk about the club. Reggie’s Rock Club is part of a triad of businesses opened by Record Breakers. It has the record store (which believe it or not, I didn’t take the time to check out that night), a bar and a live music venue. The bar was very nice, and the venue was also very nice. They did a lot of things right when they built this place; nice sized stage, good room with the floor built on a slant going up the farther you go back, adequate room, a balcony and a pretty good sound system. I have only two complaints and they are minor; they could use more light on that stage (I had to use my flash which always bums me out), and I wish they had put a barricade in front of the stage (I’m getting spoiled shooting all these bigger shows that have those barricades up front). There wasn’t a very big crowd this evening so it gave me a little more freedom to move around than I normally would have. I can easily see if a show was sold out being pinned in one place the whole night. From a non-photographers standpoint, you can easily see the action on stage anywhere in that room which is very nice.

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm

Four Star Alarm opened the show. This is the third time I have seen them play and in keeping with tradition, I seem to enjoy them more each time. They have a really punchy but melodic punk rock. It’s pretty quick tempo but nowhere near hardcore. They definitely have a Chicago punk rock influence with the powerful and odd guitar sound leading a very energetic sound. Their guitarist, Jeff, plays with a lot of energy and is constantly moving around a lot on stage. They played about a half an hour.

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah

Hotlips Messiah played second. They seem to get better each time I see them as well and they were very much on par with the last time I saw them, which was the best they’ve been yet. They play a rather oddball old style punk with keyboards on top of the traditional instruments and Traci Trouble is one hell of a captivating frontwoman! These guys really need to put out a record! They also played about a half hour and the time seemed to fly by. Think 1970’s style art-punk and you’ll be in their ballpark.

Pansy Division

Pansy Division

Pansy Division

Pansy Divsion

Pansy Division were next. They play a very melodic and sing along style of queer punk. Their lyrics are very humorous and often are about gay things. Their songs are really catchy and they also seem to have a good sense of humor and just put on a really fun show. Their guitar player even changed into a cocktail dress at one point! After awhile their set seemed to drag a little as the songs started to sound the same to me, but overall they were pretty entertaining and the crowd loved them.

Avengers

Avengers

Avengers

After what felt like a long wait, but probably really wasn’t because I was just excited, The Avengers took the stage. They opened with “Cheap Tragedies” which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. It sounded great! It was one “hit” after the other from that point forward. Songs like “Second to None”, Thin White Line”, “Car Crash” and more sounded even better than they did the last time I saw them, and that was a great show too. In between songs, Penelope made some small talk including telling how they were stuck with a flat tire in the van earlier that day. They played about 45 minutes and closed the main part of their set with “The American in Me”. The crowd, which seemed to be made up a lot of older punks for a change, were fairly subdued, preferring to pogo or bounce in place instead of getting a pit going and playing human bumper cars. I actually appreciated it because it gave me the freedom to shoot from right up front without getting clocked in the back. During “The American in Me” however the front of the club exploded into a pit.

Avengers

Avengers

Avengers

Avengers
After about a two minute rest, they came back out and played “We Are the One” which got another pit going, and they closed with some cover song that I have heard before but couldn’t remember what the song was or who originally did it, it was an old rock song. The crowd would have loved more but since it was an all ages show, they had to end for the curfew, plus the band pretty much played all their songs anyway! I left extremely satisfied!

Thank you Penelope for the guest list action! As always you can find some additional photos on my flickr stream.

I just learned about the untimely passing of Paul Raven. Raven did time in a number of great bands especially Killing Joke and Ministry among others. Initial reports are that he suffered a heart attack. This is really sad news and he will be sorely missed. My condolences go out to his loved ones and friends.

Last Friday Lunchbox, Beth, and I went to see Number Nine at Champs Rock Room in Burbank, IL. Number Nine is a punk rock band from the Chicago area that dates back to the mid 1980’s. They appeared on a cassette compilation I released back around 1987 but I never got the chance to see them play back then. I wasn’t even aware they were still playing occasionally until Lunchbox told me a couple weeks ago about it. I was glad to finally get a chance to see them play.

Cenobites

Cenobites

Cenobites

After solidly beating the ladies in mini-golf (I won by two strokes!), we made the short journey over to the show with plenty of time to spare before the first band played. I was talking to various people until Cenobites got up on stage and started playing. They were pretty standard fare, old-school influenced hardcore. I found them to be pretty good overall and in time they’ll probably get a lot tighter and better.

Spare Change

Spare Change

Spare Change

Spare Change

Spare Change

Spare Change played second. They were also a very old-school sounding hardcore band with short and fast songs. Their songs reminded me of the stuff I went crazy for in high school. They had two singers, one of them was very large in stature and quite ominous looking. The other one spent half the time singing from the floor in the small audience that was in attendance that night.

Number Nine

Number Nine

Number Nine

Number Nine

Number Nine

Number Nine

After a little delay, Number Nine stumbled on stage. I say this because they had been drinking the entire night and thought they were going to be playing earlier on the bill. Despite the inebriation, they put on an entertaining set of their old material that is part hardcore, part crossover. It was a light-hearted set that made you feel like you were just hanging out with a bunch of friends drinking and three of them just so happen to play music. I enjoyed them despite the fact that at that point of the evening I was seriously running out of steam and on the ride home was fearful of drifting off to sleep while driving. I obviously survived it though, and it was worth the exhaustion for a fun night of hanging out and some entertaining bands.

It only took the passing of two seasons and the unfortunate ending of my relationship with the girl I was in love with since I was 15 (a story I may write about in the near future if anyone gives a shit about reading about me and not just the punk rock) to bring you,  the people, a new episode of LFCM. What is LFCM you ask newer reader? It is Live From Combustion Manor; a classic punk rock radio show/podcast hosted by myself and the members of Destroy Everything, who just so happen to be some of my best friends. We play classic punk vinyl from The Punk Vault, drink, and entertain you (hopefully) with our goofy stories.

You can download the new episode here, and you can visit the LFCM site here. I will stop with my run-on sentences now and leave you to enjoy the show.

As you may know, the Sex Pistols - Spunk album was finally given an official release on LP/CD last year. For those not familiar with it, about a week before Never Mind the Bollocks came out, some crafty bootlegger beat it to the punch by releasing an album of earlier Sex Pistols demo recordings. The songs on this were different versions of many songs that ended up on the aforementioned album and also featured Glen Matlock playing bass (though Sid was credited on the Bollocks LP, he didn’t play on it, Steve Jones played the bass lines on a down-tuned guitar!). The recordings had since found themselves on countless bootlegs as well as even being included on a bonus CD included with an overseas release of Never Mind the Bollocks.

Since its release a year ago, the LP version has already been pressed on four different colors of vinyl (black, white, pink and now green), but now it has been released in yet another variation, this time as a 7 inch box set.

The set contains seven singles; the first six comprise the Spunk release featuring one song on each side. The records are housed in white sleeves with the band logo printed on them. The seventh record features three songs not found on the LP/CD; “No Fun (unedited version)”, “Anarchy in the UK (demo)”, and Pretty Vacant (demo)”. These recordings have been released elsewhere but are very appropriate for this collection.

The set also comes with a booklet that features some nice liner notes as well as various photos and clippings about the band, something that didn’t come with the LP/CD version. It’s a pretty attractive package overall for vinyl geeks such as myself, though it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.

As if the LP variations weren’t enough to keep up with, not to mention being a drain on the wallet for hardcore collectors (aka: completists), there are already two variations of this box set right from the start; the standard black vinyl and a yellow vinyl that is a limited edition of 250 copies. I think the yellow vinyl may be a store exclusive in the UK by Sister Ray, which is where I got mine. They were the ones who had the exclusive white vinyl version of the LP. Sick as I am when it comes to record collecting, I opted only to get the color vinyl version and not shell out the same price again for a black vinyl version, hell even I have to draw the line somewhere!