The Concert Reader Reviews:

There are currently 2 Reader Reviews of this tour.
Average Rating: 5
Go to Judgment Committee Reviews of this tour

Submitted by REDMAN667 (4/29, Roxy, Atlanta Georgia; 5/25, Deep Ellum Live, Dallas, TX):
To sum up the 04/29 Atlanta show in two words: God damn.
When I walked into the small and personal venue (The Roxy), as per my usual, I hovered around the lights/sound engineer area. Sonuvabitch if that didn't look like Kirk Windstein standing there downing a silver bullet. After a quick examination of the man's ink, it was confirmed. So I nonchalantly spoke up: "Kirk." He turned around and I started to talk to the man. Very personable. We reached out at the same time and shook hands like old friends even though I had never met him.
First off I thanked him for coming to Atlanta, stating that when I first saw the tour dates I was pissed that there was no Atlanta date. At some point they thankfully had added a pair of dates to their tour and I was psyched -- Kirk appeared stoked to be in Atlanta, too, in fact. Speaking about the two added dates, which were the first two of the tour, he told me "last night in Alabama was great."
I then prompted him about the set-list: "Do you guys have any tricks or treats in store for us?" He replied quite honestly, "Well, we ain't doin' any covers or anything, but we're doin' a couple of mellow ones, and some of the heavier ones." I then asked if material from the new album would dominate the set. "Well, it's about half and half; y'know, maybe one more one way or the other, but about half and half."
I told him that it would be killer either way and then said that I should let him get back to preparing for the show. I thanked him again for coming to Atlanta. He said "no problem, brother" as we shook hands again. Kirk was very down to earth, in my estimation.
01. The Seed
02. There's Something On My Side
03. Temptation's Wings
04. Lifer
05. Lysergik Funeral Procession
06. Rehab
07. Ghosts Along The Mississippi
08. Learn From This Mistake
09. Beautifully Depressed
10. Lies, I Don't Know What They Say, But...
11. New Orleans Is A Dying Whore
12. Stone The Crow
13. Eyes Of The South
Encore: Bury Me In Smoke
Prior to the band taking the stage and while I was talking with Kirk Windstein, there was a long (over an hour) video playing. Archival live footage of Jimi Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, Ted Nugent, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Queen, and Slayer among others was patched together with behind-the-scenes footage at Nodferatu's Lair where DOWN II was recorded. Kirk is definitely a nice guy to put up with all the shit that the rest of the guys do to him, but I digress.
The film ended (finally) and the familiar smokin' Jesus image remained on display... and then the sound of the band was followed by the black curtains being pulled back. The largely understated stage set-up was comprised of centrally located drums, Randall stacks to the left and right behind screens bearing images of the swamp, Rex's Ampeg stack was somewhere probably next to Kirk's equipment at stage right since he stayed there most of the night, and all of this was in front of a large back-drop bearing a similar swamp image but with a centered full moon bearing the DOWN logo.
The band lurched into the first song, The Seed, and it really ripped. Phil Anselmo's throat, and apparently his back, were in fine form tonight as he easily duplicated the studio recording's sound and jumped around the stage like the madman that I had seen at Pantera concerts previously. The musicians also played faithfully to the recorded sound. There was a vibe of a large group of old friends getting together in the room on that night.
Rather than going through a song-by-song review, I will speak broadly and in general terms. During the harder tunes that Kirk told me about, and with which I was already familiar from digestion of 7 years for NOLA and an entire, non-stop month for II, there was unruly and massive pit action, which surprised me for some reason. On the mellow few, also previously alluded to, Phil sat down on the stage and was bleeding his heart and soul into the mic, onto the stage, and through everyone there.
Phil showed why he is an amazing frontman not only via his singing but also by his interaction with the crowd and stage banter. He repeatedly showed love for his audience by pounding his chest with his fist and pointing out to the faithful that had assembled. He also made the "we're not worthy" motion popularized by Wayne's World to the crowd (accompanied by Jimmy Bower on occasion).
Also part and parcel to anything Anselmo is involved with, there was praise of the sweet leaf. "Smoke dope" was uttered at different points in the set and bags of green were passed onstage from the audience, which is de rigeur as I said before. A few smoking sessions were witnessed onstage, too, with the whole band sharing a large joint at one point, much to the crowd's pleasure and cheering.
Phil's band introductions were very well received: "On lead guitar.... Pepper Keenan of COC." "Also on lead guitar.... Kirk Windstein of Crowbar." "On drums, the man who single-handedly conquered the New Orleans scene.... Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod." "Last but certainly not least, on bass, one of my main mother fuckin' brothers from the mighty Pantera [said while pumping his fist in the air].... Rex Brown."
Random notes include the impressive Bower repeatedly smoking a cigarette throughout an entire song without using his hands or a roadie -- he kept it in his mouth until it was out and I thought it was great. The total stage show was one and a half hours and shirts were $20; they also had "white trash trucker caps" (which were black mesh caps with the band logo on the front) for $15 and limited edition die-cast metal belt buckles with the same for $25.
On a serious note, after playing Learn From This Mistake, which is a song about Phil's own battle with addiction, Phil said "that song was dedicated to Layne Staley; rest in peace." The most poignant lyric from this song is "there's no junkie out there with a happy ending." Too true. Rest in peace, indeed.
Prior to playing Eyes of the South, Phil announced that it would be the final song of the night to much booing. The crowd sang along to this song with and without Anselmo's prompting as we had for most of the night. The band left the stage, but no one in the audience left their station. Not very long passed before the band returned. Anselmo: "Uh, we may have forgotten to play a song.... Y'know, it really fucks me up when I know that this really is the last song of the night. It just fucks me up.... You know this motherfucker, so sing it. Start it up, Pepper." Bury Me In Smoke was very well received as it was repeatedly demanded by the inebriated and drunken crowd through the night.
Suffice it to say that I had looked forward to this show like I had no other. How often is it that DOWN tours? Right. Not very often. Prior to this tour there had been a total of 13 dates according to Pepper. Anyhow, I might even drag myself to Ozzfest in hopes of seeing DOWN again. The show was that damn good. "When I die, bury me in smooooke.... Fuckin' A."
**************************
I also flew to Dallas and caught the Memorial Day weekend DOWN concert in Big D (on May 25). It was badass but necessarily very similar to the Atlanta show. The place was packed -- probably ~800 bodies where the limit was closer to 500, but that's up close and personal for ya, huh?
Phil assured us that it was a special night because "Dallas will always be his second home." There was lots of love in the room along with Anselmo's requisite "that's fuckin' badass" or related comments such as "I swear to God, I fuckin' love it." He dedicated a song to the roadies as well as one to "my Pantera brothers."
Speakin' of whom, Vinnie Paul and Dimebag were in attendance that night. They were in the extremely small balcony section with some lady friends and Vince was obviously enthused about the show. I peered in that general direction during a break in the music and caught Vinnie Paul's eye -- we exchanged a smile before a lot of the audience decided to watch the back of the venue and gawk at the Abbott brothers.
Actually, that night may very well have been the first night that all the members of Pantera were in the same room at the same time in quite some time (say that three times fast). Truth be told, Dimebag looked like he was out of it. Maybe there are some things that need to get squared away between him and Phil before Pantera can reconvene -- we shall ultimately see.
Anyhow, the show was very energetic and you can truly tell that Phil loves what he does. He lives the music. Let's hope he beats the horse and lives a long life. [The set list was the same as shown above.]

Submitted by Solomon (5/1/02, Roseland, NYC):
What, no opening act? Hell, did you think they needed one? Down went solo on Wednesday night, and the die-hards in attendance couldn't have been happier. Celebrating the release of their first record in seven years, Phil, Rex, Jimmy, Kirk and Pepper hit NYC with ninety minutes of below-the-belt, Bayou-bred swamp metal. The band was in fine form, Pepper acting especially "peppy" and carrying an extra dose of stage presence. Newer material like "New Orleans Is A Dying Whore" certainly added punch to the evening's set but, personally, my ears perked up for stuff off the debut record, and I think many in the crowd had the same idea. The band made several good choices, although it's hard to go wrong with anything from Nola. "Temptation's Wings" was in the there, and I was pleased as punch "Lifer" made the set. "Lifer" has one of the Baddest Grooves In The History of Music, and they could've stopped right there and been total heroes. I have mixed feelings about Phil's insistance on including a longer-than-necessary public lecture on various topics of international importance (haha) BUT, he's the MC, and he can do what he pleases. Whatever lags there were that night are forgiven, considering the boys couldn't have picked two better songs to close out the evening with. "Eyes of the South" is just heavy as hell, and encore "Bury Me In Smoke" is practically the stoner's national anthem (complete with smoke effects, hehheh). Actually, I thought the band could've played longer, but I didn't walk away feeling cheated at all. Catch this one if you can.

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