It’s a late Saturday morning for me (past noon, for you other people who get up early on the weekends). This normally consists of camping on my couch with some coffee, a laptop and a shitload of RSS feeds to go through. During this time, I like to listen to a little music. It’s nice, you should try it. Anyway, I just finished listening to the first album by the Norwegian Psychedelic Stoner Doom band, Sahg for the first time and it’s so fucking good, I’m compelled to write a blog post about it.

Sahg combines strong influences from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and a host of other awesome 70’s bands, bringing it all together into an original, modern sound. They kill. Sahg is one of those Norwegian super-bands, comprising members of well known bands, covering several genres (the bassist from the Black Metal band, Gorgoroth is a member, for example). Their sound is tight and the production is very high quality. All together, they make you want to grow your hair long, take a few bong hits, knock back a bunch of beers (possibly with a tab of acid), bang your head, nail some groupies and worship Satan.

Trust me, it’s good. Get it.

[Official Sahg website]

It’s been a at least a few months since I’ve posted some of the photosets of concerts I’ve been to recently. If you know me (really, you don’t), I go to a fair amount of shows here in New York City, mostly metal of the Doom, Black, Stoner, Drone and occasionally, Death varieties. I like Metal; I like getting pasted and snapping a shitload of photos and uploading them to Flickr with minimal editorial discretion.

So, here’s a mess of them for you:

• Mouth Of The Architect / Wetnurse / Total Failure / Psyopus
• Fu Manchu
• Tombs / Plows
• Estuary
• BloodHorse / Disfear
• Howl
• Earth / Kayo Dot / Zaïmph
  

The cool thing is that today, the band Wetnurse emailed me to ask if they could use one or more of the photos I shot of them for the liner of their new CD. Of course, I’m more than happy and honored to oblige.

Lots and lots of photos.

Back in February, I caught Gibby Haynes, singing most of the better songs of the Butthole Surfers with The Paul Green School of Rock backing him. Watching kids, from 8-18 perform on a stage is not my idea of fun at all. But I figured, when am I going to see a Butthole Surfer concert ever again? So, there I was with a bunch of moms and their cameras, along with a gaggle of aging Puppies (that’s Punk/Hippy). The crowd was pathetic and after suffering through part of one of the opening band’s set, I seriously considered leaving.

However, I’m glad I stayed because Gibby was fucking awesome. The dude is pretty old looking, but he still has his voice and rack of distortion gizmos. The kids were a marginally acceptable backup band. No one could manage any of Paul Leary’s signature shit. But still, it was sick seeing Gibby live. Here’s a photoset.

Then, on March 4th, I went to The Knitting Factory to see one of my all-time favorite live bands, Boris. The club is far too small a venue for the band and sold out as it was, the place was packed to the fucking gills, hot and uncomfortable.

The opening band, Growing, sucked fat donkey balls. They had a seriously impressive array of effects pedals, but all they could manage to create was substandard dance floor-ish music, delivered via guitar and effects pedals. Who the fuck wants to listen to that and what the fuck do they have to do with Doom Metal? Terrible. I stepped outside and let them finish their crap set beyond the range of my ears.

Boris was great. It was my second time seeing them live. They played a bunch of songs off of their soon to be released album and just all-around blew me away, as was expected. Photos, photos, photos. Boris rules.

Lastly, on the 5th, I saw the Sludge Doom juggernaut, Weedeater. Originally booked to play Club Midway, they switched at the last moment to Don Hill’s, due to Midway being shut down for some violation of some sort. After a couple of seriously mediocre opening bands (can someone say jam-metal?) and a large amount of PBRs, Weedeater finally took the stage.

As usual, they were molar-shattering loud. Unfortunately, about four and half songs in, the cops showed up and shut the show down because of it. One faded rock geezer who worked at the club said to me, “In my 25 years working this place, it ain’t never been shut down ’cause of noise. ‘Dat band is fuckin’ loud!”. Weedeater never fails to disappoint.

In truth, I was amused. I love Weedeater, but I was drunk and tired and they did manage a few songs. I hope they play New York again. I had a bunch of beers with the band and a completely one-sided and heated DRM debate with the very drunk guitarist (call me an Anti-DRM Nazi).

Some pretty good photos of the aborted show can be found here.

Here’s a set of photos from the Sourvein concert at The Knitting Factory last Sunday. It was really dark in the club and I couldn’t really take photos the way I normally do (without a flash), but I was twisted enough to actually bump the singer on stage, in between songs and ask permission to use one, which he very graciously gave.

Wretched, drunken and loud Doom Metal. I had a great time, although I did get way too smashed, somehow ending up at the Staten Island Ferry and nearly falling down twice in the various subway stations I stumbled through till I finally found my way home.

I’m seeing High On Fire, live in Brooklyn this Sunday. I’ve never seen them play before. I’m getting apeshit excited. My camera will be charged and my blood/alcohol content will be high. High On Fire is an awesome band. Matt Pike wakes up in the morning and after a bowl of Cheerios, just starts shitting Stoner riffs all over the place. The man is a fucking Metal machine. Their last three albums are some of the best recordings I own. I’m cannot fucking wait. It better not get canceled at the last second or any such bullshit.

A few nights ago, I went to see Mastodon and Neurosis at a Masonic Temple (of all places). The concert was okay, nothing special as far as I’m concerned. Here’s a link to a set of photos of the show, mostly of Mastodon since Neurosis played under far too dark lighting conditions.

Anyway, there I was with a number of drinks in me. I started thinking to myself, “When the hell am I going to get another chance to be in a Masonic Temple?” So, armed with my trusty camera, I started exploring the building, leaving the performance area and heading up to unoccupied floors. Aside from the stairwells and landings, the floors were unlit. I started heading down dark hallways, using my camera flash to navigate.

Next thing I know, I’m in this big room where I’m guessing the ceremonies take place. There was a funky altar/podium and all these large, ornate chairs. There was even a throne-like one set at the head, on a raised platform. The whole room was very church-like and fumbling around in the dark as I was, kinda creepy. I took a bunch of photos and on my way out, completely blind, I snapped a photo so could see where the exit was and lo and behold, I’m standing in front of a coffin, propped against the wall.

Anyway, here’s a set of the photos I took (minus most of the random shit ones I took just to see where I was going) of my exploration of the temple. Pretty neat, I think.

Here’s a set of photos I took last night of 3 Inches Of Blood and The Black Dahlia Murder, playing live at BB Kings in Manhattan. Another band Hate Eternal was supposed to perform as well, but didn’t show until I was practically out the door, my stamina and good will at being patient for them to set up at an end. Still I had a pretty good time. I was really impressed with 3 Inches. They don’t sound like much from their recordings and I’ve never been one for the high pitched, Judas Priest-like screeching, but damn, they are one awesome band live.

Overall it was one of the more rowdy of concerts I’ve been to at what is normally a pretty locked down club with really intense security guards. I saw one teenage kid get thrown over the barrier, smacking face-first against the edge of the stage, hard enough to bounce his head and fuck him up, which pretty much served him well for being a crowd-surfing idiot. Another guy who was standing next to me caught an elbow to the face and ended up breaking two of his lower teeth. Understandably, he was pretty pissed, but it was an accident and I don’t think anyone even knew who had hit him in the first place.

I got into a one-sided shoving match with some long-hair, biker jacket-wearing wannabe, which in retrospect was stupid of me, but he did shove me out of the way first and I had some beers talking in me which sparked the uber-aggressive politeness nazi in me. I really hate it when people can’t traverse a crowd politely, thinking that being physically rude is an acceptable pseudo-alpha posture, just because they have their friends with them and their pumped from the Metal. Of course, with about five beers in me, I have all the invisible friends I think I need. Someday, I’ll probably get a good ass-beating, considering the way I get up in people’s business sometimes. But hey, I did make him apologize, so it’s a win.

Here’s a link to plenty of photos I took of Death Metal bands, Vader and Malevolent Creation at the Death By Decibels tour at The Blender Theater, here in New York. Malevolent Creation were good, but not anything I’d bother seeing again. They put on a good show, but they didn’t really raise my blood pressure. Vader is a damn tight-sounding band live. I was really impressed at how solid and together their sound and all-around performance was. I’d definitely check them out again, but daaaaaamn…do they ever need fashion tips. They were all wearing retarded, Hot Topic, gothic club-baby pants, complete with too many zippers and the dangly string thingies. Think these pants having babies with these ones. Frightening. Guys, you’re a European Death Metal band…black leather pants! In a pinch, camouflage or olive-drab cargos. WTF?

I still think the Blender Theater is a complete and total shithole, comparable to spelunking in an old lady’s colon. The only thing they have going for them is that so far, to my knowledge, no one’s sued the shit out of the place after getting hurt. Their security sucks. I saw two fights, granted they were minor, but security was nowhere. There were a few assholes, getting off on dive-bombing random people, knocking a girl next to me to the floor without so much as an apology or a lift upright. As far as I’m concerned, if the person you hit is not participating in being a psuedo-macho hormonal douchebag with you, than that’s assault and that’s a fucking liability for the club. Accidents happen, but that place lets some rude, bitter, professional dishwashers and reprobates get away with way too much shit. Blender fucking blows.

Here is a set of photos I shot of The Sword and Black Cobra, live at the Bowery Ballroom last night. The Sword was awesome from start to finish. I had a great time, although I got far more drunk that I should have or had intended to. At one point, while in the crowd, two guys came crashing to the ground in front of me and I reflexively started to control the guy on top, like I used to do in Aikido, with one hand on his neck and the other displacing his hips, thinking there was about to be a big fight. Two seconds later, it dawns on me that these guys were moshing, lost their balance, fell and if I don’t let go now, I’m probably going to get my drunk and delusional ass deservedly gang-beat. Luckily, the guy I was manhandling seemed a bit drunk as well and more focused on whether he hurt the guy he fell on top of, likely thinking I had been trying to help him up, if he even noticed me at all. Oops.

Lately, I’ve been going apeshit-overkill with concerts. I blame the internet—it makes buying tickets a little too easy and before you know it, you’ve booked yourself for three shows in one week, which is where I’m at. As I wrote in my previous post, earlier this week, I had a horrible night seeing Kataklysm live at the Blender Theater at Gramercy, a club that I will likely never return to unless it’s something I have to go to. That place fucking blows.

However, the next evening I was at the Knitting Factory, seeing post-Sleep, Stoner Doom miracles, OM with Grails opening and it entirely redeemed the condition of my week. Grails was totally psychedelic good shit. I liked them enough that I bought two of their albums off of eMusic the next morning. OM was magnificent. It was the first time I’ve ever seen them and I had no idea that a man could wring such a thunderingly full sound out of a bass guitar. I was highly impressed and inspired. I tried to buy one of everything at their merchandise table, to the point that I had two guys scrambling through boxes looking for shirts my size. I loved it. I had passed up an earlier concert of theirs in Brooklyn, a couple days ago, figuring I’d rather just see them in Manhattan where it’s easier for me to navigate home, but in hindsight, I should have gone to both shows. It was that good.

I also really liked the Knitting Factory. the sound was great, the alcohol was comparatively reasonable in price and the place is fucking HUGE. I’d never been there before and it was a good experience for a first time. Here’s a bunch of photos of the evening, if you’d like to check them out.

Tonight, it’s Behemoth at Irving Plaza. I’m tempted to bail on it, as I’m not an especially big fan, but I did already buy tickets. I’m old though. I think two concerts, at least two days apart is looking like my limit is these geriatric times that I find myself in.