King Gary's Rock-n-Roll War Journal.
(For Bitchslicer,
the Bitchslicer Acoustic sets by King
Gary, the Hellside Wranglers,
and also for former bands ... Returner, &
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers)
November 20th 2006 @ Bar Noir - Philly, PA
---
Joe Rendazzo, Gina Rendazzo, Rich Hillen Jr., John Falco, Shifty Shane Jenkins,
King Gary
King Gary played First. I felt that things went pretty good during my set. I kept it fairly short. I think that the 8 songs I played, probably clocked in between 15-20 minutes. I messed up the leads a little bit, like I knew I would. It's a big difference being the only one up there in front of everyone. In the band you got to fuck up pretty bad to have people notice, but when you are on your own everything is noticeable. But it was a lot of fun finally doing a solo acoustic set after years of talking about it. I was a little amazed at how well things did seem to go over. During the ending of this love song I played, there is a very slow & quiet guitar lead. When I was playing it the whole bar was completely silent so I guess everyone was paying attention ???
Shifty Shane Jenkins played Second. Shane's acoustic stuff has a very old school, country flavor to it. I played guitar with Shane during his set. I really dig the stuff he's been doing so it was a lot of fun playing in his set with him. He played a lot of harmonica and even did a little bit of yodeling. I think that really adds a lot of color and dynamics to his songs. I think he stole the show for the evening, pretty much everyone else seemed to think so as well.
John Falco played Third. DMB type of stuff.
Rich Hillen Jr. played Forth. His acoustic set was very a TWFCB type of set. He only did two serial killer songs, but it was that same kind of vibe. It was great to play a show with Rich again. We had been talking about doing this acoustic show for a long time with Rich, Shane, Ethan (TWFCB), & I.
Gina Rendazzo played Fifth. She played 3 songs, one of which was a Robert Palmer cover. Apparently she broke her arm and has been unable to play for two years. She had only started playing again a few weeks prior to the show. I was talking to her about this after wards and she mentioned how she injured her arm again right before this show but she still played the show anyway.
Joe Rendazzo played Sixth. Joe
only played a few songs and unfortunately the vehicle my gear came in was leaving
so I missed practically all of his set while loading out.
What an amazing
night. I got play some of my acoustic songs about lost love, getting drunk, and
having sex with the dead. I got to drink free some Pabst, served by a 50 year
old transvestite, and I got hang out with my little sister & some friends
that I had not seen in a while. What more you could you hope for ??? Oh yeah,
my sister brought me a huge plate lasagna too ... Great Night !!!
"The life I love is making music with my friends" - Willie
King Gary's
Set List
01 - Nails in My Coffin (Ernest Tubb)
02 - Lost without You
Blues
03 - Danielle's Eyes
04 - Whiskey Bent & Hellbound (Hank Williams
Jr.)
05 - If the Coffin's a Rockin' (Don't Come Knockin')
06 - Jerkin'
Off, Drinkin' Whiskey, & Watching Porn
07 - YCH (Hank Williams)
July
21st 2006 @ Le Grande Fromage - Atlantic City, NJ
--- Midnight
Rain, Bubble Eyed Dog Boy, The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers, Lightside
Lightside played First. I was sleeping while they played.
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers played Second. This was our last show. We had not practiced for 41 days (53 days if you don't count our last show). It was not the worst show we ever played I guess. We managed to finish the entire set at least (we don't always finish the set). Son of Sam had that mysterious sort of, we are definitely not playing the same thing and it sounds terrible, type thing going on ... again !!! Rich kept playing solo acoustic stuff after the set was over. A typical train wreck of an evening. I am sure that even deaf people can tell that the band does not practice or know the songs.
Bubble Eyed Dog Boy played Third. They where pretty fun. I bet these guys used to be in punk bands. They where like a hint of punk mixed with rock, mixed with that sort of Nebula, Zeke kind of thing. They set up the show and let us use there gear as well, really nice guys.
Midnight Rain played Forth. They all wore black clothing. The kid who was their "Manager" was very friendly. The vocalist preferred to sing terribly off key the whole time ... which was a good thing because the vocals where twice as loud as everything else was.
I am glad the Crawlspace Brothers (at least in this form) is done. I really liked the acoustic CD, and at this point it is so far removed from that. Logically the band should have stopped playing when Ethan left. I have thought that for a while but Rich was adamant about it continuing so we gave it a try. I think if the band could play together more it could come into its own eventually, but at this point it's just a full band adapting these acoustic guitar songs which doesn't really work that well. Rich is going to continue on as a one man acoustic project. I think he would have been allot happier doing that.
The World
Famous Crawlspace Brothers - Show Line Up
Rich Hillen - Guitar / Vocals
Stella - Vocals
King Gary - Bass / Vocals
Shifty Shane Jenkins - Drums
July
12th 2006 @ Barbary - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bitchslicer, Iron Bitchface,
50 Ways to Kill Me, Satan's Scrotum, Da Nest, Northern Liberties
Northern Liberties played First. It seemed like a somewhat off night for these guys. I don't think Marc adapted well to using Shane's drum set and Kebin seemed to spend allot of the set breaking things and battling his new pedal board. Beyond all that, they where still awesome. I always enjoy seeing these guys play and the always put on a great show. While I was watching their set I thought allot about how they have really changed allot as a band over the years. They played a new song that I had never heard before which was cool. I was really glad they ended agreeing to play this show.
Da Nest played Second. These guys Rule !!! 2 guys with a bunch of keyboards and guitar playing this sort of Nes meets grindcore with a fantasy metal vibe. I really liked these guys. The singer wore a black hooded cloak and held a sword through there set. In between songs he would talk like he was in character playing dungeons and dragons. So much Fun !!!
Satan's Scrotum played Third. To be honest, I don't really think I totally got what this dude was going for. Jay from 50 Ways, filled in on drums but it is normally a one man band I believe. The dude wears a jumpsuit and this plastic Frankenstein's monster mask. The type that would come with a little kids boxed Halloween costume. I think do to the mask it was hard to hear his vocals, and he was borrowing Iron Bitchface's guitar which had a wiring issue so his guitar kept cutting out. So it was kind of hard to follow the songs. Then halfway through the set this dude from the Howard Stern Show came up and finished the set with them. He sang and played bass, but his bass was not plugged into any amps. The dude walked on stage with a bass and a cord coming out of it and never tried to plug into anything ??? They all had a good time. I guess they where video taping the set to maybe go on the dude's DVD? Stevie Hayes the main guy from Satan's Scrotum gave me a bunch of CD's after the show so I am def going to check them out. By listening to the CD's I am sure it will be allot clearer what is going on. Really cool guy though he crashed at the warehouse after the show and we got to hang out some.
50 Ways to Kill Me played Forth. 50 Ways to Kill Me is just totally unbelievable. I have been really into 50 ways, and the other stuff Jay has been doing for a while. I am not going to say that I totally understand the humor, but I have my own interpretation of what he does I guess you could say. But his live show is Insane !!! He drove I think 2-3 hours to perform by himself accompanied by a CD player. He starts off wearing a jean jacket vest, spiked gauntlets, and a sock on his dick. He does this high energy, front man, GG type thing going totally crazy while singing. After a song or two, he looses the sock & vest. It was nuts, he was rolling around on the floor, yelling at everyone, he let the guitar player from Iron Bitchface stick a drumstick up his ass (pretty far too, I saw the drumstick on the floor later). Its really hard to describe what he does, musically I would say pictures the song Girls by the beastie boys, but with grindcore style. It was so killer to finally meet Jay after talking to him online for 2-3 years, being on comps together, and even doing a collaboration via file share.
Iron Bitchface played Fifth. These guys where on tour from Canada. That's really why this whole show got put together. They where allot of fun. 2 man electronic grind. Guitar player, singer, and an MP3 player .... & allot of fake blood. This is another band that I have been in touch with for a few years online, been on comps together, ect ... & it was really cool to finally meet up and play a show together. We where both supposed to be on this 4-way split that never happened a few years ago. Anyways, people where posting stuff about it on some message board and I posted right after an Iron Bitchface post saying something like ... "won't the other bands, that do not have the word Bitch in their name, be jealous" and then Iron Iron Bitchface posted "All bands without the word Bitch in their names, are jealous. I thought that was a pretty funny story. They where staying at the warehouse so the singer, Stevie Hayes, and I all hung out after the show. Everyone else went to sleep.
Bitchslicer played Sixth. Our set was OK I guess. I think I could probably bitch about a bunch of really stupid shit but what's the point.
Overall the show was great, but it was also a bit of a blur. Between, watching the bands, running sound, talking to people at the show, and playing ... there was a lot going on. Before hand I spent allot of time navigating out of town bands over the phone to our warehouse & the venue. Then I got all of our gear together and all of the sound gear I needed to run sound for the night. Running sound and keeping the bands on schedule is not that much fun but I brought a lot of 80's metal to play in between bands. Ratt, Motley Crue, Pantera (I am the Night), Van Halen. The turnout was not great but it was pretty much what I expected for a philly show on a wed night. Myles (Myles of Destruction) came out which was awesome, I had not seen him in a really long time.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with
Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
July
04th 2006 @ Continental - New York City, NY
--- Returner, Rip Tide,
Remenitia, Walker, Mike Marker Zero, Flight 909
5 Bands Played before us. Yes, I should have gone up and been supportive during the other bands sets ... but I didn't. These "showcase" shows take the thing I generally hate the most about shows, and use that as the selling point. 6 completely unrelated bands play. Each bands shows up just in time to play & leaves as soon as they are done. Each band is supposed to bring 10 people who also show up just in time for the band to play & leave as soon as they are done. If you do not bring 10 you can never play there again. It's not even really a show. It's more of an audition to see if you have what it takes to sell enough beer for the bar on a weekend show. No one even pretends to give a fuck about the music. I played one of these types of shows before with the Crawlspace Brothers. Honestly I liked playing last at both shows just because everyone who was going, was already gone. We didn't have to be the band you had to sit through waiting for your "Next Big Thing" no balls, knockoff band, to play to your 10 friends. I was downstairs playing guitar the whole time, and when each band started playing I was going to go up and check them out. As I started to unhook everything and put my stuff away I heard a little of the bands set and then decided to just stay downstairs and play guitar. I slept through a few of the bands as well. Oh well, I am a hypocrite for not supporting them ... but fuck them, and fuck me too !!!
Returner played Sixth. Our set started out a little shaky but after the first song, we where rocking' pretty hard. There where 3 people watching us that didn't work for the bar, Ada, Liz, & some chic named Bubbles. It was pretty intimidating playing for such a large crowd but I feel as though we managed to keep our eyes on the prize and we gave it our best. Chris was yelling at people walking by outside even though they couldn't hear him. But again I had a blast. After the first song we had our sound adjusted and everything sounded good. We got a board mix CD of the show, which Jon is all into but I have still not heard. The only thing I was really unhappy about is that we out of nowhere did "War Ensemble". It was cool but there are some stuff in that song I would have definitely been practicing if I knew we where going to do it, but Jon says it sounded fine.
Well this was Chris's last show. The band is planning on touring as much as possible in the future, & Chris although wanting to do this, is unable to, so it was a mutual understanding. I am kind of bummed about it though. We currently have no new prospects for a singer and Chris was amazing at what he did, vocally and performance wise. I had talked to him about doing vocals on some Bitchslicer recordings so hopefully I will still be able to work on some stuff with him from time to time. We got a pizza right before we left so the ride home was fun. Eating Pizza and listening to Jon critique the performance. He was listening to the board mix before the van even started moving. We dropped off Justin, and then we dropped off the gear at the warehouse. Ada stayed over and we stayed up until almost 6 am I think, talking about the band. It was a great 48 hours, I hope we find a decent singer soon and can start doing this all the time !!!
July
03rd 2006 @ O'Briens Pub - Allston, MA
--- Bugs and Rats, God's
Temple of Family Deliverance, Returner
Returner played First. I thought our set went extremely smooth. There was not enough room to have the amps behind the drums like we usually have them, so we worried it would effect Jon be able to hear the amps. Later Jon had mentioned that he could not hear anything, but I would have never guessed from his playing. He was completely on at all times. Also Chris had told the sound guy he needed no vocals in the monitors, which I think also fucked with Jon also, but everything went great. I think only like 5 people came to the show and really none of the other bands hung out and watched us either which kind of sucked, but I still had a great time. Really just getting to play is enough for me. I love getting to play in different rooms. I find it really interesting how you can take the same guys, the same equipment, and play the same songs, in completely different rooms, and the difference in sound is pretty amazing. I know that's a pretty elementary concept but it still interests me. It's like you are running the whole band through a sound processor and just randomly change the settings.
God's Temple of Family Deliverance played Second. I really dug these guys. I had booked them in Philly a year or two before and enjoyed them allot that time as well. They are a super slow, thick, sludgy band. I am pretty sure they are instrumental. I popped in and out a few times during there set so I might have missed some vocals but I don't think they had any. I wanted to watch the whole set but I was so wound up from just playing our set, and they where SO SLOW. I would go outside and pace around for a few minutes and then come back in. If I was not so broke I would have bought some of the vinyl they where selling. They had a 7" and s spilt 12" I thought it was so killer to see a 12". You just don't see bands with much vinyl anymore and when you do it's always a 7".
Bugs and Rats played Third. They rocked super hard as usual. I guess the guitar player had some guitar issues and used the God's Temple guitar. He was having a hard time tuning it and I think the band was getting annoyed but it was cracking me up. The bass player was hitting a note and the guitar player was trying to tune to it. He wasn't hitting the tuning right, and the bass player was pointing up at one point to let him know he had to tune higher. I thought that was hilarious, these guys are totally insane. It was a cool set though. They played some stuff I don't recall hearing before. Which was really cool considering this is the forth show I have played with them in the last thirty days.
I got up at 8:00 am on four and a half hours sleep. I planned on going to bed early but our friend Myles from back home was at the warehouse when I got home from work so we hung out for until about 3:30 am. So I got up, got a shower, and started loading all the gear onto the elevator. Just as I started Chris and Liz showed up and helped. We where ready to roll out at about 9:05 am but Jon ran into a snag with the van rental. There was no van. So we ended hanging out for a long time while he went to another location to pick up the van. The he arrives, we load up, and then realize that because of traveling to a different location to pick up the van, he never received his receipt / paperwork. So we go the closest Enterprise, which is the third one Jon has been to in 2 hours. Unable to get the receipt Jon gets some paperwork that is "good enough" and we finally get on the road. The rest of the trip is pretty smooth sailing. Chris & Liz decided at the last minute to drive separate which honestly probably made the whole trip more comfortable for everyone in both cars. Jon's bench worked pretty well, but it wasted allot of room in the van so 2 people in the back was comfortable. Another person would have been tight but 2 more would have sucked. The drive was a blast. Half of it was Ada telling stories about touring with Gwar, and the other half was us all brainstorming about the future of the band.
A funny little story off topic ... Ada brought a cooler of drinks and food for everyone, which ruled. She brought this large plastic container of homemade chicken salad, which also ruled. The funny thing is that there was no rubber matting on the floor of the van like there usually is and the floor was super hot from being right about the transmission. This made the ice melt very quickly. Once the ice melted the stuff in the cooler sank into the water. So the chicken salad kind of seeped into the water. So for the rest of the trip everything in the cooler was slimy and smelled like chicken. It was funny.
So we got to Allston (Right Beside Boston) got some dinner, played some rock-n-roll, and then drove to our hotel. Chris & Liz got a room, and Justin Got a room. Originally Jon, Ada, & I where going to stay in the van. We all ended up sleeping in Justin's Room. Ada, Jon, & Liz all crashed right away but Chris, Justin, & I all hung out most of the night. That was so much fun. We where just drinking beer and having a great time (I had a 40 oz. of King Cobra). We talked a lot of shit, I told some stories from the Bitchslicer tour, and we just made fun of everything. I remember laughing more than I remember what we talked about. Great Night !!!
June
10th 2006 @ The Stone Pony - Asbury Park, NJ
5th Annual Happy Drunk
B-B-Q
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 09
Bitchslicer Played at 6:00 PM. What a god damned mess. Every time we are told there is a back line and we cannot bring our own shit, we listen. Every time we get there, the back line sucks and we are the only band using it. Shane had issues with the drums the whole time. The guitar cab I was using was fucked up, the jacks where loose and kept cutting out. I think that I actually blew the speakers in the amp while we where playing too. But that's only the beginning I guess. We where initially exited to play on a HUGE ASS stage outside but that excitement seemed to fade away quickly as we began our set. We had issues with the back line gear during the first 2 songs, & then once we finally got rolling along in the 3rd song, a voice started yelling through the stage monitors "Put Your Pants Back On or I am going to Pull the Plug !!!" Since before we started playing our set, Rich had no pants on. He was the guy running around on the 6 foot high stage outside in broad sunny daylight for 2 & 1/2 songs spitting blood naked. I mean ... how the fuck can you not notice that for 6 or 7 minutes. Anyway, so Rich leaves the stage during "Night of the Living Bourbon" and totally skips the next song, and comes back in the 5th song wearing only shorts. He took off his shoes & socks and T-shirt (Which he said was in protest to the sound guy ???) Rich then leaves the stage again and just puts his clothes all back on. Shane & I just looked at each confused the whole time & just kept the set going. Eventually we finished the set. It sucked. Everyone hated us. They where going crazy for the cover band that played before us doing Thin Lizzy, Alice in Chains, & Ted Nugent Covers ... so of course they hated us. So we got offstage as quickly as possible so we could sit for like 4 hours and wait to do it again with the Crawlspace Brothers. People where bitching about the Nudity & the Profanity. Shane and Rich talked shit about everything for the next 30 minutes, where Rich kept saying "what if I ..." or "would you guys have gotten mad if ..." & everything that Shane said was "GG Allin would have done this" or "GG Allin would not have done that". I told them that we are not GG Allin & I told the sound & stage guys "What the fuck do you expect from a band called Bitchslicer"
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers Played at 10:00 PM. I was sleeping at one of the tables until it was time to set up. The sound guy was all pissed off barking orders at everyone. We played a 20 minutes set that sounded better than normal. No one liked this band either. When the band before us and after us played, the whole room was full. When we played there where 2 people in front of the stage. We finished the set. We loaded out. We waited on Rich. We left. FUCK !!!
I think there where 20 Bands total playing but I do not know the order or the names of any of the other bands. Overall I think what they where trying to do was really cool with this all day comic book, art, & music festival. I also thought that the idea of mixing up the bands and musical genres was a really cool idea. However I did not really have a great time. Everyone was really nice to us. I just think that by averaging 2-5 hours of sleep a night for the past 2 weeks on top of all of the chaos our tour has been, made it just suck to sit around in the sun for 10 hours watching bands that I did not like, and I was dead sober. I think being drunk, makes being around annoying drunk people less annoying. Well here is the credit, where credit is due. All of the bands had good gear, they where solid musicians, they did not noticeably mess anything while they played. They where all wearing clean clothes, & they all probably got paid and laid from being in there bands way more than we ever will by being dirt bags in a band called Bitchslicer. However ... being in cover bands, or knock off versions of popular bands just does not appeal to me in the slightest bit. So I am not about to go out and drop $200.00 on hot topics clothing to change my on stage image. Who am I kidding, it would take more than $200.00 to bring my stage presence level up to having "The Look". I love to see musician wanted ads where the bands say "Must Have The Look".
Bitchslicer Set List
01 -
Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with
Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
The
World Famous Crawlspace Brothers - Show Line Up
Rich Hillen - Guitar /
Vocals
Stella - Vocals
King Gary - Bass / Vocals
Shifty Shane Jenkins
- Drums
June
09th 2006 @ Warehouse Next Door - Washington, DC
--- Bitchslicer,
Battle Master, Three Faces of Eve, Swords
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 08
Swords played first, (I think). It sucks we missed these guys. The one dude from Swords got us onto the show. We met at the Sidebar in Baltimore 2 weeks ago and swapped CD's so I did at least get to listen to the Swords. The CD is a lot of fun. After the show he was laying on the ground outside drunk, so he must have been having a great night.
3 Faces of Eve played second, (I think). I did at least get to see these guys at the Sidebar in Baltimore 2 weeks. They where amazing. I am hopeful that we will do more shows with these guys in the future. Cool guys, Great band.
Battle Master played third. We got there during their set. I did not really have a chance to watch them play, but they sounded amazing. They had a huge, thick sound. Great metal being played through great sounding gear. They had to have had 2 guitar players as well for that thick sound. They liked us too & mentioned trying to do some shows together so I cannot wait !!! It would rule to play some shows with a band wielding such powerful metal.
Bitchslicer played forth. Our set was pretty rockin'. Shane had problems with his pedals, which happens at every show. Asides from that, everything went cool. Well I did have to unplug the floor monitor in front of me. All I could hear was bass, louder than everything else. A bunch of people where there, getting into it, singing along. We played good and had a great time. EVERY ONE at this show was super cool to us. The one guy who does booking & the sound guy even helped us load in & load out. That never happens. We got paid & sold some merch. It was such a great show. I am so glad we managed to make it.
OK ... what an insane day !!! We met up at 2:30 at the warehouse, picked up Shane, & then headed for DC. We had over 5 hours to make a 2 & half hour drive. Everything went fine until we hit the Baltimore County Line on 295 South about 30 miles from DC. We where doing the speed limit in the middle of three lanes. Apparently a speeding car cut off and clipped another car right behind us and that car started flipping sideways and flew into the back of our van. We skidded a little bit but Rich managed to bring the van to a safe and fairly normal stop. At this point no one was really sure what the hell just happened. We got out of the van, checked each other out and then started walking back up the road. The car that flew into the van was laying upside down off the side of the road, & the other car that caused the accident was on the opposite side against the median strip with broken axles (all the wheels where lying flat and the car was sitting on the ground) and in between the 2 cars was one of my Peavey amp heads (which still works). No one was badly injured. An ambulance came and no one needed to go, so everyone was pretty lucky. An off duty cop was right behind the cars involved & saw everything. So when the uniformed officers arrived he already had a statement and info. We called the venue to cancel for the night, & then hung around taking snapshots while we waited on the report info & to get our paper work back from the cops. Next we got a hold of the rental company we got the van from and they where amazing !!! I told the lady what happen & gave here the report number & info the cops gave us, and she set up a replacement vehicle. Our van was drivable but not legally drivable. The back window was smashed out and the doors where bent in so much that you could reach into the van over top of the doors. There was probably other damage not as visible. So we got to the rental place about 8-9 miles away and we have to take a truck because there are no vans available. We then decided to call the venue back to see if it was possible to still play the show now that we where back in action. They where cool with that and pretty surprised that we would still want to come and play. It had rained everyday of our tour so far & it was very cloudy looking like it was going to rain again. So we needed to find a Wal-mart or somewhere that could buy a tarp. We got lost for a while but we finally got a tarp & made it to the venue just in time to load in & go on. (It never ended up raining).
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn
of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with
Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June 08th 2006 - NO SHOW
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 07
A day off. I did however manage to rough mix "Porn of the Dead" from the upcoming Bitchslicer CD " Sex with Sharks". Rough mixed and transferred for the new Worldeater Records Free Stuff CD. The mix does need a lot of work though. But its fine for a demo mix I guess. Too bad we had no show today, I did want to try to see if we could jump on any last minute shows but everyone else wanted a day off. It was cool having a day off though, sleeping for 20 hours, watching porn 30 separate times, and getting to listen to the Junk Demo over & over while I answered some e-mail's and updated the website. Harm Magazine did a killer review of the Returner CD.
June
07th 2006 @ The Khyber Pass - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bitchslicer,
Bugs and Rats, Northern Liberties
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 06
Northern Liberties played first. Northern Liberties is one of the best live bands I have ever seen. In the early days of Bitchslicer we played together some, so it was really cool to finally play together again. They kicked ass.
Bugs and Rats played second. Awesome Set !!! Our 3rd show together in 4 days.
Bitchslicer played third. Our set went good. It was awesome to hang out and play with all of our friends. It had been almost 2 years since Bitchslicer played in philly. My little sister Meany came up and sang Your Cheatin' Heart with us. Rich did play with no pants on, and spit blood, but I think at this point we had already gotten used to that. It's still fun though.
HBBSI was supposed to play fourth. They never showed, they never called ???
Decomposed was supposed to play fifth. Josh (the singer for Decomposed) was there, and he hung out all night watching the bands & trying to get a hold of the rest of his band. When the show was over and he finally left he had still not heard from them.
They drive home from Boston SUCKED !!! It was downpour raining almost the whole way, once we got about an hour away from New York at 3am, it was 3 lanes of tractor trailers going 90 miles an hour. When they drove past there would be this wall of water that you could not see through spraying everywhere. There was no where you could drive slow and safely out of there way. Once we got home it was pretty awesome to sleep on my own floor with the kitties. They where very happy to see me.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online
Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 -
Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June
06th 2006 @ Bill's Bar - Boston, MA
--- Kevorkians Angels, Bitchslicer,
Bugs and Rats, Decomposed, HBBSI
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 05
HBBSI played first. We where in the next room over getting all of our gear situated when they started playing. As soon as we finished up I went over to catch their set. I walked in to see them tearing down. Apparently they where only doing a 10 minutes set ???
Decomposed played second. I love getting to see these guys play. Its just fun because of how much fun they are having.
Bugs and Rats played third. Tonight I got to catch the whole Bugs & Rats set. I really dig these guys. Tons of Energy ... and again, the drummer is INSANE !!!
Bitchslicer played fourth. Our set went good. We got a few rockstar pictures of us playing on the big ass rock-n-roll stage. Rich duct taped his mouth shut and I think he duct taped his ass shut too ???
Kevorkians Angels played fifth. These guys are fucking awesome !!! I saw them once before but I have been listening to the CD for almost 3 years now. Killer band. They really crossover a bunch of genres, grind, punk, metal, anything heavy, crazy, aggressive. The bass player is great and sometimes comes through the mix in the vein of Iron Maiden and other times like the Jabbers. The first half of the set was good, but about halfway through it all fell into place and just got AMAZING !!! They are supposed to be having a new CD out soon too.
We left the hotel in search of this dude Kevin's house (who came to the wayland show). Really cool guy. Rich got a Gacy tattoo while we watched this really fucked up Troma movie. I like Troma but I am not the superfan, I really have to be in the mood for most of it. The particular film was a lot different then all the Troma shit I had seen before. It was a documentary that a couple was traveling around filming. They where filming people killing themselves. Really low budget camcorder style, but that kind of loaned itself well to the vibe of the movie. Really dark & creepy actually. I need to find out the name of this one. Then we drove around Boston lost for an hour & a half (10 blocks away from the venue the whole time). We finally found the place. Fuck Boston's Traffic, and Fuck it's maze like streets.
Bitchslicer Set
List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night of
the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream of
Snakes
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June
05th 2006 @ Return to the Pit Radio - Durham, NH
--- Bitchslicer
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 04
Bitchslicer was the only band playing live on the radio. I was actually worried about this set. Due to the fact that it was only audio, jumping around and acting like jackass's which is our usual thing to do, wasn't going to fly. But we played pretty good. The bass was way to loud, but oh well. Yeah, even though we where on the radio we still have a picture of Rich playing bass with his dick out. Through out our set The Rev took pictures & then interviewed us on the air afterwards that was a lot of fun. The Rev was super cool to us. Hanging out with him during his broadcast was really cool & watching him multi task was pretty mind blowing. The best part of the night was at midnight when he broke out the slayer albums on vinyl. They where all dated from when the station received them. So we got to see and listen to Slayer on the original 20 year old vinyl. I bet most of these records went to the stations even before the albums where released. That was just awesome. Original Slayer Vinyl sent out for Radio promotion ... That Is, Metal History, and at this point in the evening it was now June 06th, 2006 which made it even cooler. Every one hundred years on this night we break out the original Slayer vinyl ...
What a cool Night, The Radio Station was awesome, The Rev was awesome ... but our day was a little disappointing. We started out our day only an hour away from the radio station, but we decided to make a pilgrimage to Littleton, NH and visit GG Allins grave. This meant 5 hours of driving. The farther North we went the more secluded and scenic it became. We drove though some amazing mountainous landscapes. We saw a bunch of moose and deer signs along the road side and even a few deer. So once we finally get to Littleton, NH things got really stupid. I was still sleeping when they got directions to GG's grave and then new directions to the radio station. Both towns have a main street. Littleton has a Mill Road just off of Mainstreet, & Durham, NH has a Mill Street just off of Mainstreet. Rich insisted we had a map for each town but in reality we had 2 different maps for Durham, NH. So we got lost for a while following the direction for the wrong town. We eventually found the cemetery. We walked around for a long time not able to find the grave. I called Bood who tried to find us some info online, & Rich even tried to call Merle Allin (got his voice mail). After a while we had to leave or we would miss the radio show. We did end up being a little late for the radio. What a disappointment. I am sure if we had planned ahead for this it would have been fine but it was kind of a last minute thing so ... next time. Since we had the greatest amount of down time in between tonight's show & tomorrow's show with only an hours drive, we decided to get a motel. Shane wanted to stay in the van regardless of us not expecting him to chip in on the room. I think maybe he just needed some time away from us honestly, and he did bring a porno mag with him. So we picked up some food and watched this documentary on how vaudeville crossed over into radio, and then how radio crossed over into television. Really cool stuff. Also Rich & I had a bonding moment when he was getting ready for bed. Separate Beds !!! He was wearing spider man boxers, & I was wearing Punisher boxers.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online
Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 -
Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June
04th 2006 @ O'Brien's Pub - Allston, MA
--- Bitchslicer, Bugs and
Rats
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 03 - Show 02
Bugs and Rats played first. As we pulled in front of the venue Raddick ran out & asked to use our bass, his had just broken. So we loaded in during their set but I did really get watch the second half. These guys are really cool & the drummer is a FUCKING MANIAC. This is the first time I ever got to see these guys play. The CD is cool but they are WAY BETTER LIVE !!! Musically they are kind of indie rock with a punk feel, but they are a very unusual band. Hard to describe. I do see how Northern Liberties and these guys get along & fit together so well.
Bitchslicer played second. We played a short set (8 songs) and rocked it. Shanes pedals broke or something halfway through the set. I think some pieces came apart. He fixed them later, but anyway. Really no one was at the show, but it was still awesome to play 2 shows in one day. Rich (from It will End in Pure Horror), Joe (from Not Common), His Lady, & Bugs & Rats where still a great audience. When Shanes pedals first broke, Rich (who is wearing no pants) was bending over pretending to help fix them so everyone could see his entire package. That was pretty funny to look over and see him doing that.
Playing 2 shows in one day, was awesome. The whole show was very last minute. Basically the bar had an afternoon show and then asked Joe if he could pull anything together for that night. Dissector was supposed to come along and play too, but there was something up, like the kid driving them did not want to drive in the city or something ??? I know the guys in the band where on mushrooms so maybe he was too ??? After the show we kicked it with Joe & his lady. They let us play sleepover. Rich stayed in the van alone all night because it had been over 48 hours since he had the privacy needed to practice his sexually deviant battle katas.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - Yeti
07 - Drag My Own Coffin
to Hell
08 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June
04th 2006 @ The Junkyard - Wayland, MA
--- Bitchslicer, Shitfuck,
It Will End in Pure Horror, Dissector, Exploding Christ
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 03 - Show 01
Exploding Christ played first. These guys where alot of fun. Musically maybe ... Grind / Punk ??? Alot different then abhorred. The bass player also plays drums in abhorred & the drummer also plays guitar in abhorred. It was just really cool to see these guys and get to hang out. I have been a big fan of Abhorred and those guys have been to philly playing shows & hanging out at the warehouse, actually Bitchslicer played with them in Boston a good while back. But yeah, Exploding Christ is just a blitz of Noise and a lot of fun. Everyone there seemed to know all the lyrics as well.
Dissector played second. The whole band was on mushrooms and halfway through their set the bass player took off the bass, sat on the floor, and refused to play anymore. Rich (from It will End in Pure Horror) picked it up and finished the set with them. They sounded pretty good under the circumstances. I really dig this band, we got to play with them the last time we where up this way. Really cool kids. I am sure this show was not the best set they ever played, but it was fun.
It Will End in Pure Horror played third. These guys are fucking nuts !!! Rich invited us to come and play this show. Musically these guys are kind of a Psychotic / Sludge / Grind / Punk / Doomy Madness. Earlier in day, the guitar player (who is about 7 foot tall) was using a pink hammer to crush up zanex in a dollar bill. Then the girl who plays bass was doing lines off of the singers ass. So, really seeing there musical performance was crazy but somehow seeing them doing crazy shit all day long kind of made it even more insane when they finally played.
Shitfuck played fourth. The dude from Shitfuck is the one who has booking the shows at the Junkyard. Shitfuck was a fast spastic blend of grind / punk / with a good sense of humor. The thing about these guys that stands out most to me is the guitar players Shitfuck suspenders. Now that's class.
Bitchslicer played fifth. Honestly I was kind of expecting us to not go over that well, and by this point of the evening everyone was FUCKED UP !!! But I was totally wrong. We played well and went over GREAT. Everyone was dancing while we played and at the end of the set they where stealing the mic and singing Drag My Own Coffin to Hell. But the highlight was Rich. This was the first show that he played naked asides from the butchers apron. But right before we went on he took a bunch of hot-dogs from outside at the BBQ. During our set he naked, spitting blood, throwing hot-dogs at people, & sticking hot dogs up his ass. There is a great shot of him turned around with a hot-dog sticking out of ass and everyone in the picture is pointing and laughing.
What a crazy day !!! When we drove up to the house everyone thought that we at the wrong place. It was in the really nice wooded area & the house was a big, nice, expensive, fancy New England house. It did however turn out to be The Junkyard. The kid who lived there was super cool to us. I guess he is friends with the dude from Shitfuck and that guy books the shows. They where saying that they had been doing it for like 2 years or so. It was pretty insane though. There where alot of kids under the age of 18 drinking and doing drugs out in the open, outside & in the garage with the parents at home. They where selling drugs at the merch table to that was the icing on the cake. We should have gotten a picture of our shirts & CD's next to a salad bowl of weed and mushrooms. Also this dude Kevin that Rich had met online came up to hang out and see the band. He was really into John Wayne Gacy and I am pretty sure that he was saying he used to live on the same block as Gacy's house. I assume that the common ground was that dude being into Gacy & then Rich doing the Crawlspace Brothers. Shane & I where hanging out in the van playing Hank songs on acoustic for a while, Rich did a solo acoustic Crawlspace set for Kevin. One of the kids was hanging out with for a while playing acoustic as well. It was fun.
Bitchslicer
Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night
of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - Yeti
07 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
08 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June
03rd 2006 @ The Roadhaus - Auburn, NY
--- Bitchslicer, Rabid, Junk,
The Loiterers
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 02
The Loiterers played first. I cannot remember what these guys sounded like. I know I watched there entire set and enjoyed it. I think they where a punk / indie type band. Super cool guys though. The one dude hung out with us all day and offered to put us up at his place after the show & anytime we are up that way. Damn, sorry that I am retarded.
Junk played second. They are a really cool band. Thrash metal mixed with some grind style. The singer Justin, is the one who put the show together. It was awesome to see young kids playing some old school metal & having so much fun. I think the bass player for this band was 13 years old. I mean these guys where pretty young. What they where doing was cool enough already but how young they where made it way cooler.
Rabid played third. Rabid Rules !!! These guys where playing some killer thrash metal. I think they where 15-18 years old and all really good musicians. These guys where on a Razorback Records Comp & did a split with Dissector ... so I had already been listening to them, but seeing them live was a totally different thing. Rabid is such a killer live band, the recordings just do not capture that. We where all blown away by these guys and are hopefully gonna do a split 7" with them. They where doing this old school almost early Exodus style thrash metal with some goregrind attitude. The metal is strong in this part of the country !!!
Bitchslicer played fourth. We where all kind of like "Fuck !!! so now we have to follow Rabid" But it was great. All of the kids where in a circle pit through out the set and then they would form this shoulder to shoulder wall of fists, goat horns, and headbang right in front us. We played good, but the kids where just AMAZING. This is the type of show that reminded me of when I was 15 going to shows, and why I started a band in the first place. It was truly an honor to get to hang out and play with all these kids from auburn.
This was probably the most fun show I have ever played in my life. The kids from Auburn, New York FUCKING RULE !!! We got a picture of almost every one from all the bands and few people who where there early, out in front of the Raodhaus before the show started. It's slightly out of focus, but it looks like a picture from a metal show you would have went to 20 years ago. We drove most of the way to Auburn after the Wilmington show. After about 4 hours it was so foggy that we decided to sleep for a bit at one of the rest stops about an hour away from auburn. It had been rainy & foggy all night but the fog had gotten so bad that you could barely read the road signs 10 feet away. We slept for a few hours and then set out for Auburn. It was still really foggy and we ended up driving an hour and half the wrong way. At first it was funny and I kept thinking of the scene in Dumb & Dumber where the same thing happened and Lloyd said "That John Denver is full of shit man" because instead of being in the rocky mountains he was in the Midwest. So eventually we got back on track. Driving through Ithica was entertaining, they had some college parade / festival thing going on and Shane just kept ranting about hating wrestlers and hating Ithica because of his arch enemy (a wrestler) going to school here. But we finally made it. I would say it was well worth the trip.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online
Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 -
Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
June
02nd 2006 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- Decomposed, Bitchslicer,
Eph Tradition, Johnny Utah
Bitchslicer :: Tour 01 - Day 01
Johnny Utah played first. They where playing some hard-core / metal & where really tight. I enjoyed the set but never got a chance to talk to them, they had to roll out early. I forgot what the deal was but JP explained they had some legitimate circumstance for rolling out early.
Eph Tradition played second. This is the first time I have seen them with the new drummer. These guys are a lot of fun. They have a hard-core sound with more of a punk vibe. Throwing beer around and kicking each other off the stage. DJ from Eph Tradition put the show together. I really love this band. They just do their thing and have fun regardless. I wish more bands where like this, it would make going to shows a lot more fun.
Bitchslicer played third. Our first night of the tour was a blast. I thought that we played well & we had a lot of fun. The best thing was that Rich began to feel comfortable and he was going nuts, having fun, spitting blood, and jumping around. Also it was especially cool to finally play a show with Eph Tradition and Decomposed after knowing them both for so long.
Decomposed played fourth. These guys are so good, the music and the live show. I guess they are mainly death metal, with hard-core breakdowns, and melodic solos. But after working with these guys for so long in booking, recording, ect ect ... we finally got to do a show together. Got a funny picture of Me holding Ian in my arms, crossing the threshold style after the show.
It was a good first night of the tour, we didn't sell anything but we got paid. I am pretty sure that anyone who would have bought a CD already had it. Not alot of people where there, but the ones that where there, all hung out and watched the bands and had a good time. What more could you ask for ??? The dude who does the booking JP, was super cool. He was talking to me about trying to do another metal show in July with a band called Returner from philly. I hooked him up with one of those CD's too.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 -
Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with
Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
Monday
May 29th 2006 @ Bar Noir, Philadelphia PA
--- Returner, Electro
Quarterstaff, Skeleton Proof Tanks
Skeleton Proof Tanks played first. Good set. I enjoy these guys a lot. I watched the guitar player most of the set thinking to myself, this dude probably knows scales. They seemed a lot livelier crammed into a way smaller venue.
Electro Quarterstaff played second. These guys where insane. No Bass, no guitar, just three guitar players & a drummer. They did a lot of really complicated guitar harmonies mixed with grind. Kind of hard to explain I guess. They came down from Canada to do a three-week US tour, & just played at the Maryland Death Fest on Saturday. I guess they have a CD coming out on willow tip records as well.
Returner played third. We had fun, everything could have gone a little smoother but it was a cool night. Electro Quarterstaff met us at the warehouse and followed us to the show. Once we got there I realized I had forgotten the mixer, so Justin & I went back to get it. Actually I think the trip back to the warehouse was probably the highlight of my night. As soon as Justin turned the key Van Halen came on. So we got to listen to Van Halen - Women and Children First for the whole ride. We talked about how unbelievable they where (until David Lee Roth Left of course), and how Michael Anthony was so solid and underrated. Also we talked about how even though Eddie Van Halen is a guitar hero legend, some of the truly innovative things he did go unnoticed. So we finally get back the show and then Jon realized that he left the CD's at his house so he goes back to get them. Finally we get to chill and watch the first two bands rock it and then they all leave before our set. So I get tuned up and check my sound, everything is cool. Jon does the four count into "I Arise Today" and I hit the first chord and nothing. No sound. I messed with my stuff and came back just in time for the change into the second riff. There where chords everywhere & everything was on top of each of other, so I think that some power cable a serge protector was running off of into an extension chord that wrapped around the drum set blah blah blah caused my pedal to reset or something. But after all of that, the rest of the set was fun, & the people there seemed to enjoy it. There where 2 dudes slamming with Chris every time I looked up. Oh yeah, Chris put a hole in the wall. AD Amorosi & the really cool bartender (whose name escapes me right now), where very cool to us. I thought that after Chris put a hole in the wall they wouldn't be so cool, but they still where.
For those of you who have never been to Bar Noir it's a really cool place, but it's a REALLY SMALL place. Its like, if you turned your basement into a slick bar and then had metal bands come and play there. I think overall it was a fun night. No one died. There where these two Rittenhouse square girls that had to be dance club skanks, who sat next to me outside. They kept asking me really dumb questions about the show. When I tried to answer them they could not really comprehend anything that I was saying. Maybe they where retarded, maybe they where really fucked up, but I did think about ending their lives while they where talking to me. It might not have been the right thing to do, but it most certainly was not the wrong thing either.
Saturday
May 27th 2006 @ The Barbary, Philadelphia PA
--- Kings of Nothing,
Cisco Jeeters, The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers played first. This was probably the most disastrous set that I have ever played. Right after 2 & 1/2 hours of sleep & then 14 hours of selling porn we go to the Barbary to play. We are sharing gear with Cisco Jeeters. The tiny stage is loaded with gear. A piano, drums, a bass amp, 2 guitar amps, an acoustic guitar amp and tons of cables and mic stands. Keep in mind this stage is a little cramped for a straight 3 piece with 2 amps and a standard drum set. I am playing Rich's Bass which is still strung & tuned to low B from last nights Bitchslicer show. I spent the whole set playing the songs differently than normal. We did 2 new songs, that we probably should not have done. We did this one that's super slow & kind of long for the 3rd song. So just when it was rockin' along we put on the breaks. Then the Dr. Kevorkian song was a train wreck. Shane (singing while playing drums) could not fix the mic that kept falling while he was singing, & Rich said he was playing the wrong chords during that one. There where spots where I was not sure if I was on or not due to all of the other chaos. Then the next few went OK until Rich broke a string and his guitar went super out of tune. We ended the set 2 songs early and think some people had fun but I think most of the crowd there seemed very not into so ... what can you do. It was still cool to play regardless.
Cisco Jeeters played second. They where super cool guys. I was talking to them some before we played & they loaned us all of their gear. Pretty much as soon as we finished playing our set I left though. I was so tired from the last 2 days & had to sell porn for 14 hours again the following day so I really needed all seven hours of the sleep I could get by leaving right away, going home, and going to bed. Rich & Stella did stay to see all the bands so I didn't feel as bad.
Kings of Nothing played third. I wish I could have seen their set. Rich said they rocked. They had an old RV with a big billboard print of a guy with a beer in his hand on the side of the RV and a U-Haul trailer behind. That alone was impressive I thought.
Rich said the other bands where awesome, I finally got some fuckin' sleep, and Shane had sex with this girl he picked up at our show on Thursday. Rock-n-Roll.
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers - Show Line Up
Rich Hillen - Guitar / Vocals
Stella - Vocals
King Gary - Bass / Vocals
Shifty Shane Jenkins - Drums
Friday
May 26th 2006 @ The Side Bar Tavern, Baltimore MD
--- Dead Meat,
Bitchslicer, Call the Paramedics, The Seventh Gate, Three Faces of Eve
The show was great, & the day, pretty crazy.
Three Faces of Eve played first. These guys where unbelievable. They where playing grind but they where such amazing musicians and they would be playing this crazy complicated stuff but it still had hooks & grooves ... I guess its hard to explain but they RULE. Their set seemed very short. It was like a blur and then they where done. We are actually playing with these guys again in DC on June 09th, which totally kicks ass.
The Seventh Gate played second. These guys where kind of a metal, grind mix. They are the ones who invited us onto the show. Really cool guys. I wish I could have caught more of their set but just as they started playing I realized that I didn't have the van keys. I figured I must have left them in the van so we looked around a bit and then where about to break a window (we did have the extra damage insurance on our rental van). But before we broke the window Rich found them on the floor near our merch table. Some how they came off of my belt clip. We really lucked out with that one, but I missed most of The Seventh Gate set. I have a feeling we are probably going to do shows with all of these bands again.
Call the Paramedics played third. The pictures I had seen of Shlak online gave me pretty high expectations for chaos & craziness during there set. They where just a killer band. Great sound, Great performance, & just Fun! Sound wise they where kind of hard-core in that metal with breakdowns but no solos kind of way. During the set there was a lot of beer flying around and some blood too. Great Band!
Bitchslicer played fourth. I had a blast. Although it felt like we only played for like two minutes and then it was all over. We played pretty good. I think that I was having too much fun at times and just butchered some of the songs up really bad but I bet for the most part no one noticed. At the end of the set when we played "Drag My own Coffin to Hell" a lot of people where singing along, that made my night.
Dead Meat played fifth. I'm glad I finally got to see these guys. They have a really tight thick sound and they where just brutal. Dead Meat & Call the Paramedics where probably the 2 bands on this lineup that best fit together musically. We where all talking about how the Philly bands had to go to Baltimore to hang out. But it was a blast, and they where really cool guys.
I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep. I had to get up early and get stuff together for the show, and then we had to get the van, get Rich, load up & hit the road. The first hour was fun, and it should have only take 2 hours but ... we got pulled over in Delaware. Rich was not wearing his set belt and then the cop was giving us shit about the 4 people in the back of the cargo van not in seats or seatbelts and to top it off we couldn't find the registration shit in the rental van. He told us either we could take the exit a few feet up the road and rent another vehicle for our passengers or he would impound the van. So we took the exit and then drove around on back roads lost for a while until we could get back onto 95 in Maryland. Our 2-hour drive turned into a 5-hour drive, but we got there. The show was amazing. Then we had a pretty quiet uneventful ride home. We got home about 3 AM unloaded the van and then took Rich home. I finally I got to bed about 3:45 AM & slept for 2 & half hours. I got up the next morning at 6:15 AM got a shower, dropped off the van, my lady took me out for breakfast, & then I sold porn for 14 hours. All in all, it was like a whole weeks worth of events crammed into one single day.
Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02
- Online Predator
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream of Snakes
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
Thursday
May 25th 2006 @ The Barbary, Philadelphia PA
--- The Rape Babies,
Skeleton Proof Tanks, Bitchslicer, The Gutter Junkies
The Gutter Junkies (formerly Gutter Sluts) played first. They where playing some pretty straight up rock-n-roll with maybe a little metal and punk influence. The singer was telling me that this was there first show in over a year due to lineup changes. They where all really good players, but looked a little uncomfortable like maybe they where still feeling it out or something. They where a good band though. I bet with some more shows under their belt they will definitely get more comfortable live. I was surprised to actually see the band. From all of there internet promotion I was expecting something totally different.
Bitchslicer played second. This was the first Bitchslicer show since Halloween 2004, also due to lineup changes. I felt like it went over pretty good. Personally it felt fucking amazing to get back into the saddle with Bitchslicer after so long. Playing a lot of shows with Returner & The Crawlspace Brothers has been great, but Bitchslicer is my band. My natural playing style, riffs, lyrics, sense of humor, and just all of those things that comes natural to me. So it was just killer to be doing it again. We got onto this show last minute. The day before Rich got a call about needing a band so we thought it would be a great warm up show for playing in Baltimore the next night & tour the following week. It seemed like everyone was diggin' it, Rich & Shane had fun, so the night was a success.
Skeleton Proof Tanks played third. They got onto the show last minute with us. I really dig these guys. They call themselves death metal, and maybe it's just me but I think of them more as sounding like black metal. Not strict old school black metal & also not really all those black metal bands that are getting big right now. They have a lot of melody-based parts that aren't really in death metal. Now that I am ready this back it doesn't make a lot of sense ... they are a death / black metal band & I really dig them so it was cool to play with them. How is that? Really cool guys.
The Rape Babies played forth. They where a blast. Nice guys, great sense of humor, their set was a fun time. They where a rock-n-roll band that had some punk influence mixed in. The bass player was very distracting, he was wearing these soccer shorts ... I mean these where the shortest shorts I have ever seen. It was funny all night long. Rich was saying that he just came from playing soccer, which does make sense but you just don't see people wearing them at shows. It cracked me up every time I saw the dude. I am sure I am not alone on that one, but it made the band even more fun I think. Rich had been telling me about these guys for it while so it was cool to finally see them.
Overall the show was a lot of fun. Not many people came out but it seemed that everyone who came had a good time. For a last minute Thursday night show that really only had 2 bands promoting it ahead time, it did have a decent turnout.
Bitchslicer
Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Online Predator
03 - Night
of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Thrasher
06 - I Dream
of Snakes
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to
Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
Sunday
May 21st 2006 @ The Tri-Tone, Philadelphia PA
--- Hustitute, Returner,
The Great Collapse, Univox
After selling porn for 8 hours on the Sabbath,
I had show at Tri-Tone that night with my band
Returner.
Univox played first. I was not into them at all, however they did have a lot of energy and seemed really good at what they where doing. The crowd really seemed to be having a good time while they played. They where all really nice guys too ... It's just that I really really HATE indie rock. I felt bad for the Univox drummer. He was over 21 but I guess left his wallet at home, so their set got started late because he had to go home and get it. The funny thing is that he loaded in without any problems. After load in he was hanging out in front of the bar or something and then got carded when he tried to come back in. I guess it is kind of dumb to not have ID when you are at a bar. You know at some point they are going to ask you for it.
The Great Collapse played second. HOLY SHIT!!! They where amazing. They have a stoner / doom vibe going on with a mix of that west philly sound. In my opinion they stole the show. It was only the second show they had ever played too. Mo (who does a lot of the worldeater art including the Bitchslicer stuff) plays drums, Kevin (formerly of Bobbykork and Wally, and I bet a bunch of other bands too) plays bass, & this other dude I just met that night whose name escapes me. Great band though, hopefully I will get a chance to record them in a few months.
Returner played third. This was our fourth show, and I think it was our best show yet. Our set felt abnormally flawless. I felt like it went over really well. I knew going into the show that some of the people where not that exited to see this band. They kept telling me that they wished Bitchslicer were playing instead. But once we started playing most of those people where right up front having a good time. Returner definitely fit in better playing this show than Bitchslicer would have I think. Some girl stuck a dollar bill down Chris's ass crack (I think just to be a bitch and because his pants where riding low) but he just reached down the back of his pants, pulled the dollar out, & put it into his pocket and just kept rockin' out. We ended the set with "War Ensemble". Jon said it was a highlight in his heavy metal career to see everyone up front singing along into the mic during "War Ensemble". You really can't go wrong ending the set with a slayer cover.
Hustitute played fourth. They played like an hour & a half long set I think. That's pretty insane. I am used to playing 25-35 minute sets & I thought our 40-minute set got tiring, but wow. I would not have the stamina to rock out for an hour & half. I got to give it up to them for that. I can't really think of a way to describe their sound. It has punk elements, rock elements, metal elements, & then booze. The singer's vocals (female vocals) almost sound like a cross between L7 & Danzig. It seems as though the level of alcohol consumption is a point of pride in this band. It was the bass players birthday and she was wearing these Bigfoot looking feet. But yeah, I said that I couldn't really think of a way to describe their sound so ... but they rocked.
The show was a lot of fun! A great night
for rock-n-roll. I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time, alot
of friends hanging out, I got to meet Ada who is going to be working with Returner,
some free drinks and then at the very end of the night each bands got $50.00.
What a Great Night.
Friday
May 05th 2006 @ The Barbary, Philadelphia PA
--- La Resistance,
Returner, The Nite Lights
The Nite Lights played first. They did a 2 man acoustic version of the band. These guys are just amazing & their acoustic set was great. They have a very unique sound, and style. They humored me for about a half hour before they played answering all of my questions about guitar playing. They are great musicians and know what they are doing. Where as I can do what I do, but I have no idea of what the hell I am doing. So if had a lot of questions. Willie Nelson seemed to be the middle ground for stuff we where both really into.
Returner played second. We played the entire album "Dealing with this Death" in order for our set. We started off with the CD intro from the album playing over the PA system and when it ended we kicked in with the first song and just went through the album. We ended the set with 2 new songs "Iron Titan" & "The Blinding". There was no official CD release show, but this is the first show we played since the CD came out. So it was at least kind of a CD party for us.
La Resistance played third. These guys are an interesting mix. Great players, female vocalist, a fun theme with toy guns. They made me think of a band you would see in a movie. I can't quite explain it, but something about them makes me think of the movie "Streets of Fire" mixed with early Ozzy records.
Overall it was
a really fun night. Jon knew almost every one there so he got to be social all
where as I got to just relax. The turnout could have been better, but there where
some people there. Jon said the guitar player from Strapping Young Lads came out.
Well it was a big party night, First Friday, Cinco de Mayo, and some other shows,
so really ... you get the point.
April
21st 2006 @ The Barbary, Philadelphia PA
--- Murder Junkies, The
World Famous Crawlspace Brothers, Scareho, & others ???
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers played ???. We went on towards the end of the night I believe, but I am not positive anymore. I was really sick so I came to the show a bit late. Once we got on stage shit really seemed to come together. I feel like this was by far the best show we played. Nothing stupid, no train wrecks, it was a good time.
Murder Junkies played last. I had seen the Murder Junkies a few times over the years, and played with them before in either '94 or '95, and I have never really been impressed by them ... but tonight they were AWESOME !!! First off Jeff Clayton was singing for them and he is just amazing, but surprisingly enough the Murder Junkies got good. The band sounded really good an they were tight. After the show I heard that they are now off dope and are actually focusing on being a good band, I can believe it. Bill Webber was not playing guitar with them and I am not really sure who the dude was who was playing with them, I never really followed them over the years.
I am writing this after the fact and I don't remember a lot of the outside details anymore. The Murder Junkies did use Shane's drums, we actually played a good set, and the Murder Junkies were great. It was a really good night.
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers
- Show Line Up
Rich Hillen - Guitar / Vocals
Stella - Vocals
King
Gary - Bass / Vocals
Shifty Shane Jenkins - Drums
March
21st 2006 @ CBGB's, New York NY
--- The World Famous Crawlspace
Brothers, & a bunch of other random bands.
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers played last. We sat through a whole evening of terrible bands who all left as soon as they were done playing to end up playing last for no one ... but it was awesome !!! The people at CBGB's were really cool especially the sound man, and they watched us play along with the two or three tourists hanging out and the people we brought along with us ... but seriously it was so cool. Our set went good, except for during the "Son of Sam". The only thing that makes sense is that either Rich or myself were playing the song wrong or one of us was way out of tune or something ... but it was really off. We did end up getting a board tape recording of the set.
The nostalgic value of just getting to come in and hang out at such a cool place was great, but getting to play on the same stage as so many great bands was more than enough to make the whole night great. Also next door they have this sort of smaller low key bar that had a lot of old fliers and such hanging up on the walls. Very Cool !!!
The World
Famous Crawlspace Brothers - Show Line Up
Rich Hillen - Guitar / Vocals
Stella - Vocals
King Gary - Bass / Vocals
Shifty Shane Jenkins - Drums
March
20th 2006 @ Bar Noir, Philadelphia PA
--- Another Failed Attempt,
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers, Scareho
Scareho played first. This was the first night I really ever got to talk to Fran. Super nice guy, and very funny. After talking to him for a bit you kind of get a more inside appreciation for the Scareho humor. The band is OK, but the lyrics are hilarious. If you can't hear or understand the lyrics it really changes the whole thing.
The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers played second. Holy Shit, our set was so bad !!! The room was so skinny that we could not really set up in a logical way so the sound was kind of fucked up and it was hard to hear each other. Shane and I had been running the set together just drums and bass since no one else in the band wanted to practice. I felt that Shane and I were playing together that and no one really followed us, the rhythm section. So yeah it sounded bad in that super half assed, we don't give a fuck type of embarrassing way.
Another Failed Attempt played third. These guys were a lot of fun. I didn't catch them at the New Years show we played together but it turns out that the guitar player used to be in this other band that I recorded a while back. So it was cool to catch up a bit and see what he was now up to.
Shane and I left the second that Another Failed Attempt finished playing. It is hard to look at this show and feel anything good after how bad our set was, ugh.
The World Famous
Crawlspace Brothers - Show Line Up
Rich Hillen - Guitar / Vocals
The
Julian Barret - Guitar / Vocals
Stella - Vocals
King Gary - Bass / Vocals
Shifty Shane Jenkins - Drums
Monday
March 13th 2006 @ Silk City, Philadelphia PA
--- Returner, Nite
Lights, Kiss Kiss Kill
Kiss Kiss Kill played first. They are a lot of fun. Tonight the played with 2 new singers, an acoustic guitar, & no drummer. It was cool but I am so used to hearing the songs the other way that some of it sounded weird. I will just need to get used to the new sound I guess. I did feel kind of bad for these guys and there friends who came out because there was a lot of that oil & water type chemistry between them & the people we brought out. I enjoy seeing a diverse show but most people do not.
The Nite Lights played second. This was the first time I ever saw The Nite Lights play. I have been listening to the CD for a long time though. They are such a cool a band. Total Precision. I wonder if these guys ever hit a wrong note? I do think they help to bridge the gap between Kiss Kiss Kill and Returner a very slight little bit.
Returner played third. Our set was all over the place. No one
could really hear anything in there and the setup was really weird. I played beside
the stage completely blinded by the stage lights. Chris played in front of the
stage and covered the whole floor in vomit during our set. Pretty much the second
we started playing, everyone who did not come just to see us left. That was pretty
funny.
Friday
February 10th 2006 @ The Barbary, Philadelphia PA
King
Gary's 30th Birthday Party
--- Hellblock 6, Slumlord, Skeleton
Proof Tanks, Returner
Returner played first. Our first show ever. Aside from every one saying that the bass was a little over powering, I thought everything went well. Kebin took a lot of killer pictures that are up on the website. It was awesome to finally do a show out after like 8 or 9 months of us practicing together and recording an album.
Skeleton Proof Tanks played second. Chris had to leave early so we had to take all the gear back to the warehouse while they played. I missed their whole set. We got back just as Slumlord was ready to go on.
Slumlord played third. AMAZING!!! I love this band. I don't really know how to describe these guys actually. They are really heavy but not in a metal way. They would fit well on a show with Helmet. They have a lot of weird time stuff, and definitely some of that, west philly sound ... just go see them. They Rule!!!
Hellblock 6 played forth. They opened up the set with "Children of the Grave". Sludge, Stoner, and Doom. These guys are one of the few bands that can play a really long set without boring me. You just get sucked into the groove and you don't even notice that some of the songs are 7-8 minutes long.
Amazing Night !!! I turned 30 on the 09th so
this was also a birthday show. Great turnout. My family even came down from Gettysburg
to hang out. The lineup was perfect too. Normally when you book one of those "perfect
shows" with the "perfect lineup" it all falls apart by the time
the date rolls around. You end up with 1 of the original bands, 1 or 2 replacement
bands, & 1 or 2 last minute fill in bands. Also at this point, the one band
still left from the original lineup no longer fits in with what the show has become.
But not this Time!!!