Rating: 4 Skulls
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Rating: 4 Skulls |
Death's Review (7/21/01 Hard Rock Cafe, New York, NY):
I remember traveling to New York City with my mom and brother as a 13 year old kid in 1984. I had my list of places/things I wanted to see, and as silly as it now seems, I remember one of them being the Hard Rock Cafe. In that era before the Planet Hollywood bankruptcy and the over-saturation of theme restaraunts, the Hard Rock Cafe still had a real aura in my naive, early-teenage mind. More importantly, I had visions of a pre-Rock-n-Roll-Hall-of-Fame museum of heavy metal. I was expecting hard rock, you know? I wanted to see Maiden's Eddie, Priest's motorcycle, and memorabilia from Black Sabbath, Dio and Shout at the Devil-era Motley Crue. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed to discover that a replica of Eddie Van Halen's guitar was the closest thing to to putting the "hard rock" in Hard Rock Cafe, an otherwise mainstream music-themed establishment. I never went back again.
Hades
Photos by CYNI now live in New York, and while I've traveled down 57th Street between 5th and 8th avenues on numerous occasions, I never felt the need to stop in any of the "tourist-oriented" establishments which can be found nestled together on that stretch, including the aforementioned Planet Hollywood and the like. Until recently, that is. When I found out that Ubernoize Entertainment (New York City's most creative metal concert promoters of late) had lined up a series of show's at this midtown tourist institution, I was of course intrigued. Metal at the Hard Rock Cafe? And true, underground metal to boot? The list of upcoming bands included Monstrosity, Deeds of Flesh, Spirit Caravan, Exuviate and Evoken on various nights. Wow - this I had to see.
The series kicked off last Saturday night with the first of many creative billings: Hades were the headliner, with support coming from Deceased, October 31, All That Remains and Afflitus. A killer bill to say the least. I had recently experienced a renewed interest in Hades, thoroughly having enjoyed their new record, DamNation. I've always been a Deceased fan. It looked to be a fun evening, and I marked it as a red-letter day, not to be missed. In fact, in this era of Ozzfest declaring itself a metal alternative to Lollapalooza and Lillith Fair, and Pantera's Extreme Steel Tour being affectionately dubbed "Philfest" in its attempt to out-metal the Ozzfest, because both October 31 and Deceased feature one of underground metal's most outspoken characters in King Fowley, I began to refer to this show as the "Fowleyfest," and wondered how Mr. Fowley's brand of "ugly," unwashed, denim-with-band-patches metal would fare amongst the fruity $12 drinks and air-conditioned, harwood floors of the Hard Rock. CBGB's, this place surely ain't.
All That RemainsThe day of the show arrived, but we still didn't know what time the bands would play. I buzzed by the Hard Rock in the late afternoon/early evening, and already you could see metalheads milling around out front, while busloads of fat tourists from Iowa stood on line in the hour-and-a-half wait for a table so they could eat overpriced burgers named after Elvis. I went inside, and discovered that they were going to close the restaraunt at 9, move all the tables out of the dining area, and let the bands start playing at 10:30: right in the middle of the dining room floor! Like I said before, this I had to see.
Hel and I went back to the Hard Rock about 11 pm that night, with a couple of non-metal friends in tow who were just looking to drink and party on a summertime Saturday night, and met up with Cyn and Musashi at the show. Afflitus had already played. We immediately ordered drinks and tripped out on the memorabilia (Hendrix stuff, Michael Jackson's coat that was used in the famous Pepsi commercial, stuff like that) before All That Remains took the stage.
DeceasedAll That Remains smoked - they are the next of the Gothenberg, MA bands who should soon rise to power. Killer riffs, aggressive vocals (from the former vocalist of Shadows Fall), and accomplished, classically-influenced guitar leads all added up to an amazing set. Keep you eye on All That Remains.
Then it was back to the drinking. We soon noticed two funny aspects which essentially defined the night. First, the restaraunt was still open, with tables upstairs above the band area still serving food! And this meant that many families with children and old people were eating dinner while All That Remains had been playing, very loudly I might add, right down below. What's more, there were video monitors hung inside picture frames above many of the tables, so each diner had their own private view of the action. Hillarious! I saw more than a few stray preppy-forty-somethings and their eight-year-old sons and daughters standing on the stairs watching the show. Totally surreal.
At this point in the show the backstage politics began to manifest themselves. It seems Hades, the named headliner, wanted to go on "early" (meaning midnight instead of 2:30 am), so they were up next. People were fully still eating dinner while the band played. In any event, true to their billing, Hades garnered the most sizable crowd of the evening (approx. 100 people up front - I'm told 200 people paid the $12 ticket fee to get in this night), and it felt like many of their old-school thrasher friends had made the trip to relive the glory days of yore. Perhaps this is the crowd we'll find at SF's Thrash of the Titans show in a couple of weeks?
Anyway, Hades were fucking awesome. Alan Tecchio's vocals sounded just as they do on record, high pitched voice and all. I really dug the new stuff like "Out the Window," but it was the inclusion of "Masque of the Red Death" from 1987's Resisting Success (I'm told Ubernoize actually put a clause in the contract requiring the band to play this track) that was the true highlight of the night and which made this set special. The legions of devoted Hades loyalists went home pleased.
HadesBut there was definitely some cause for concern, as Hades played a rather lengthy set and, with it near 1 am with two bands to go, many fans were getting tired. More importantly, the Hard Rock folk probably weren't looking forward to staying until 4am serving drinks to King Fowley and his friends. It was really fucking late.
We went upstairs and we were actually served a full meal. I wanted Elvis-themed bacon and eggs, but settled for a hot fudge sundae instead. Hot fudge and Heineken, a winning combination indeed. It felt like we were in Vegas or something. Anyway, October 31 hurried to the "stage" (the floor in the middle of the dining room) and proceeded to deliver an inspried set of traditionally-tinged metal with power-type vocals. I had neither seen nor heard October 31 before, but liked what I experienced this night. Of particular note was a fiery rendeition of "Salem's Curse" from the band's 1997 release and a killer Priest cover to end the set.
Then came time for Deceased. But by this time is was past 2 am. The club people were tired, and they wanted to get rid of these dirty metalheads and close up shop. Deceased would have to cut things short. Of course, this didn't sit well with the die-hards who remained and wanted to see Deceased. King Fowley was apparently none too thrilled either, although when the tempers subsided and Deceased got down to the business of making the best of their short set, everything fell into place. Perhaps fueled by the anger of the situation, Deceased ripped through an extremely brief but furiously aggressive set, capped off by a blistering Kreator cover which served as a perfect ending to a killer night.
October 31So, in the end, my teenage disappointment was avenged: on this night, the Hard Rock Cafe became the Underground Metal Cafe, and although I'm sure the table full of grandmothers didn't stop to pick up a Deceased shirt, once again, metal rose up from the underground and forced the world to take note. Sure, it wasn't all pretty, but is it supposed to be? No fucking way.
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