Category Archives: Music

Music

Diamond Head at The Chance

1 Comment

diamond_head_tour_advert-734x1024

Thanks to an interview Birdman of Roargh had with the band’s guitarist, we found out about Diamond Head coming to The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY months before it was announced. Having influenced so many of our favorites, we both felt we needed to go see this classic NWOBHM band. Without stopping, the venue  is 45 minutes from my house and we hoped to skip the openers as they weren’t anything special. We sadly only skipped one of the three. Normally I review the openers no matter how bad they are but these were so generic that they bleed into each other, which ironically saved them from any trashing . At around 10:30 Diamond head were set to play. We met up with my friend Ryan as well as Rock Fantasy owner Stephen Keeler and our buddy Brian.

Diamond Head

As Diamond Head was setting up I was curious to hear how they would sound live since they have a newer, younger singer named Rasmus Bom Andersen. At the time I had not heard anything from the new stelf-titled album and only really heard their debut and the song “Am I Evil” (yes, I’ve heard the originals and not just the Metallica covers).  Birdman had seen them once before at Heavy MTL 2011, a lineup that included Cryptopsy, Opeth, Anthrax and Morbid Angel.

Diamond Head had a killer sound and Andersen sounded great. The energy was unbelievable. The set list was pretty great too. They played three songs off the new album which all sounded good while the rest of the set was dedicated to their first two albums. Classics such as “Helpless,” “Am I Evil,” “Sucking My Love,” “Shoot out the Lights,” “The Prince” and several more. After the show we met guitarist Brian Tatler and then headed home, although we would return in two days for Carcass!

 

Music, Podcast

Bonesaw Podcast: Episode 44 – Combichrist’s Andy LaPlegua

Leave a comment

combichrist-09

Combichrist’s Andy LaPlegua takes the wheel and sends this podcast careening off a cliff. LaPlegua talks his touring roots, soundtrack work, how Combichrist’s latest album “This is Where Death Begins” became their most successful record and more.

Donate to our Patreon!

Music, Podcast

Bonesaw Podcast – Episode 43: Carcass’ Bill Steer

2 Comments

carcass-2015

Brace yourself for a most metal Halloween podcast when Carcass guitarist Bill Steer unleashes some choice cuts from the death metal outfit’s long and storied past. Trick? Treat? Both.

Music

Dillinger Escape Plan’s Final Tour at The Chance

1 Comment

32

After many years of success, hardcore legends The Dillinger Escape Plan decided to call it quits. When they got confirmed to play The Chance, Doug and I decided to go and bring our friend Jessie since he had mentioned liking them before. Our friend Nick also decided to tag along with us.

I had seen them once before, opening for Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden and while they killed at that show, I knew a headling performance would be totally insane. After eating at the sketchy Kennedy Fried Chicken, Doug and I went to the venue for Doug’s scheduled interview with the band’s vocalist Greg Puciato. After Doug’s interview ( where I helped contribute questions), the three of us got trapped in the dressing room due to the shitty carpeting. It wasn’t until Puciato’s  brilliant plan to get the door open that we were able to escape Dillinger’s dressing room (also a good band name).

We regrouped with Nick and Jesse and noticed that the first band didn’t go on until 8pm (it was 6). We then decided to go to this local game store called Joe Gamer which sold games for almost every system known to man. Nick bought a copy of the Gamecube classic Tales of Symphony while Doug bought Superman 64 (because, why not?). We got back to The Chance around showtime, ran into my friends Rob from Roargh and Tom Wickland as the first band set up.

Bent Knee

Bent Knee started the set with some really bizarre music. They played some kind of prog rock with vocals that sounded like they were trying to be James Bond themes and keyboards that seemed like they belonged in different Square titles such as Final Fantasy, Life is Strange and Chrono Trigger. While I don’t see myself listening to this band on my own, I will say they performed well.

Cult Leader

The second band on this tour with Cult Leader. I knew nothing about them other than my friend Jason saying they were pretty good. They played a mix of doom, mathcore and grind. Most songs had very harsh vocals with a few of them having cleans that sound sort of like Nick Cave. They had a crazy energetic performance with a vocalist who  was really over the top with his stage antics. They were by far the best opener I saw that night.

The Dillinger Escape Plan

After Cult Leader,  we all went to hang out at Nutty’s bar and grill. After about half and hour we went back to The Chance to catch the feature presentation. Around this time I ran into Mers, DJ and Ryan from Black Table, who I saw put on a killer performance the night before. Dillinger had a machine gun performance with tons of energy and stage antics from Puciato as well as seizure-inducing strobe lights throughout the whole set. They had a great 90’s set list covering the band’s history while also promoting their just-released final album Dissociation at the same time. Classics like “Prancer,” “One of Us is the Killer,” “Milk Lizard” and even their pop songs such as “Black Bubblegum” were played – and all sounded great live. After the show Doug bought the new album while I bought a cheap Dillinger poster and we headed back to Montgomery hoping to make it back in time for Doug’s overnight shift.

 

 

Music, Podcast

Bonesaw Podcast – Episode 42: Exmortus

Leave a comment

exmortus_1

We’re all for the Horde as Exmortus mans the helm of this shredder of a podcast. We talk metal, living life on the road and reminisce about the Heavy Artillery Records days.

Music

Wishbone Ash At Daryl’s House

Leave a comment

wishbone_ash

Every once in a while I check the listing for shows at Daryl’s House,  a restaurant owned by Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates located in Pawling, NY. The place is known for great food and gets plenty of notable jazz,blues and classic rock acts. I noticed that Wishbone Ash were scheduled to play there in late September.

Seeing this as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see such an underrated band, my good buddy Birdman from Roargh and I knew we had to go. After school that day, I made the drive to Pawling. While we waited, we both ordered chili burgers, which were pretty amazing.

Wishbone Ash

For those who don’t know, Wishbone Ash are a pretty overlooked 70’s hard rock band that are most known for influencing Iron Maiden. We were able to see this as soon as we noticed their guitar playing is just like Dave Murray and Adrain Smith’s.

The sound was amazing and the vocalist showed us all he has a sense of humor. They played many great songs including “The King Has Come,” “You see Red” and “Blowing Wind.” The band encored with the track “Pheonix.” Wishbone Ash played for about an hour and 45 minutes but weren’t boring for a second. After the show we met the band, who were pretty chill guys and then headed home after experiencing a performance by one of classic rocks most overlooked acts.

 

Music, Podcast

Bonesaw Podcast: Episode 41 – Holy Grail’s James-Paul Luna

Leave a comment

holy-grail-band-group

Holy Grail’s monster frontman James-Paul Luna takes the time to chat with us about metal, Pokemon Go incidents and more in this killer podcast.

Music

The Vault: Cattle Decapitation at the Loft 8/10/2015

Leave a comment

cattledecapitationband

Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the back burner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”

When seeing the lineup for this year’s (2015) Summer Slaughter tour, I was not impressed.

The only bands on the bill I would care to see were Obscura (who would later drop), Beyond Creation and Cattle Decapitation due to all three bands being early openers as well as having seen Obscura and Cattle Decap before. When I saw that Tainted Entertainment booked two of the only worthwhile bands at a venue not too far from me I knew I had to go. I bought a discount ticket off of Will from Necroptic Engorgement (one of the local openers) and the awaited my first time at the Loft all year.

Doomscenario

The first band on was the local powerviolence band Doomscenario. I had seen these guys before play a local show with local grindcore greats BillxNye. Like last time their set was short and sweet!

Declension

After Doomscenario were done I ran into my Connecticut buddy Rodey as well as two members from local thrash greats Prime Evil. Declension are a deathcore band from Albany, NY. I once had to sit through these guys two years ago when they opened for Dying Fetus and Exhumed. Like back then, the band wasn’t very impressive at all.

Necroptic Engorment

After being bored by Declension, Middletown’s Necroptic Engorment were set to go on. During this time I caught up with my Albany friends, John, Filip and Craig. Necroptic is one of my area’s most beloved local bands. They have opened for many great bands including Macabre, Cannibal Corpse, Malignancy and Gorguts and are cool guys too. I’ve seen them many times and never get bored once. These guys plays really crushing brutal death metal with tunes of energy.

Beyond Creation

While waiting in line for the doors to open, I was chatting with Will from Necroptic as well as the sound guy for these Montreal tech death masters. I hadn’t heard too many songs from this band, but what I had heard I really enjoyed. This set made me want to explore their discography a lot more. The band mixed ultra technicality with a lot of energy and weren’t boring for a minute.

Cattle Decapitation

Cattle Decapitation have always been one of my favorite bands ever since checking out their Humanure album due to the graphic artwork. The mix of extremity and brutality along with Travis Ryan’s over-the-top vocals drew me in fast. I had seen them once three years ago and they were long overdue for a second sighting. The band played a mixture of older and newer songs. Ryan did his typical over-the-top theatrics. The crowd was wild but not as wild as I expected. All in all I enjoyed seeing them again.

I recently saw that The Chance booked Cannibal Corpse with Cattle opening in October. For that story you can go here but as far as tonight is concerned, I had an awesome time and eventually went back to reality.

 

Music, Podcast

Bonesaw Podcast – Episode 40: Spellcaster

Leave a comment

For our next musical guests we have Tyler Loney, Bryce R. VanHoosen and Gabe Franco from Portland, Ore. Speed Metallers Spellcaster. Join us as they talk Spellcaster and share some amazing stories.

Music

Prophets Of Rage At Barclays Center (8/27/16)

Leave a comment

prophets-of-rage-feature

When I heard about a new supergroup containing all the instrumentalists of rap/rock band Rage Against the Machine along with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Cypress Hill’s B-Real, I knew I had to catch this.

Public Enemy and Cypress Hill (well, old Cypress Hill) and Rage were one of the few times rap and rock music mixed well.  Due to the low prices, my friend Doug and I bought tickets to the Prophets of Rage show at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Since we both had the day off, we spent time in Coney Island. I had never been here before and I ended up enjoying the areas beautiful yet retro look (I also got to try frog legs for the first time!).  After hopping on the train, we got to the Barclays Center around 7pm just in time to catch the first band.

Wakrat

First on was Tim Commerford from Rage Against the Machine’s side project. We were curious to see how Commerford would fair in another band, and after viewing them…let’s just say we felt Tim should stick to Rage as Commerford was pretty…well, whack. The band played some kind of nu-metal influenced punk. While the bass riffs were cool, Tim’s vocals sounded too whiny and had cringe-worthy lyrics like, “Fuck with me and I’ll kill you all.”

AWOLNATION

After Tim’s midlife crisis band, the electronic rock band AWOLNATION took the stage. I was never a big fan of this band though I was never against them either (except for that obnoxious song “Sail”). Doug, on the other hand likes them a lot (except for that obnoxious song “Sail”).  Though I’m no fan I will say they put on a great performance with lots of energy and I enjoyed their set… except when they played that obnoxious song “Sail.”

Prophets of Rage

Prophet’s of Rage set started with DJ Lord of Public Enemy opening the set by sampling many rock and hip hop hits. The crowd went really wild when he chopped and screwed the Nirvana classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Prophets then got on stage with a cover of “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” that infused lyrics from the Public Enemy hit ” Fight the Power.” They then went on to play a string of Public Enemy and Rage classics with the one Cypress Hill song, “How I could just kill a man” thrown in for good measure. The Rage members then got off stage and B-Real and Chuck D went into the audience. They then went back and forth performing classics from Cypress Hill and Public Enemy such as “Insane in the Brain” and “Welcome to the Terrordome.”

This got the audience screaming along to the songs. D and B-Real then went back on stage and played more Rage and Public Enemy songs, including a remake of “She Watch Channel Zero” using the riff from “Cochise” by Audioslave. They also threw in a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s”Ghost of Tom Joad.” Unlike Rage’s original cover of this song, Tom Morello sang on it with Aaron Bruno from AWOLNATION joining in. Prophets ended the set with “Killing in the Name.”

We then left for Montgomery, NY after witnessing one of the best shows of the year. The two of us  later would write an editorial of the five greatest highlights from this show for Alternative Nation.  Read this if you want to hear about Prophets of Rage’s set in more detail.