Metal Beer Horror Webzine-RANT-2 Crazy Nights Bonded by 3 Iches Of Blood

2 Crazy Nights Bonded By 3 Inches Of Blood

It has been a hell of a week as far as concerts go in this area. It's the first time in a long time that I have been to three shows during one week and it felt good to get out,see some live bands,and have what was a great time. With the passing of a good friend last week this was exactly what I needed...something to take my mind out of the more than usually miserable funk it had firmly implanted itself in. Last Saturday night OVERKILL tore the roof off of the Bastardized Birch Hill known as the Starland Ballroom and it was good (even though the opening bands I caught were more painful than shoving my genetals through a wood-chipper) to get out to a concert,let "the clique" gel together (while I avoided them the whole show) and just witness the sheer brutality which is OVERKILL in a live setting.

After two days of basically nothing happening it was all anticipation for CBGB's in New York City for it was there that we (Ray,Ant,Shannon,Ray's brother Chris and myself) were going to see 3 INCHES OF BLOOD opening for some other shitty "metal-core" bands that were going to stink up the place something rotten with their lousy bullshit "faggot" music. The only problem was that Tuesday was also my mothers birthday (and although I would murder all of these fools I'm saddled with as a family in a heartbeat my mother still brought my wretched self into existence) and I was torn about going to the show for the ultimate amount of two seconds time.

For those of you who don't live (or more than likley don't particularly give a shit) in New Jersey,New York City isn't too far away. It takes maybe a half hour of cruising down route 3 east to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. This,however,was rush hour...the time when we would have been stuck in traffic with those people stupid enough to drive into NYC for work day in and day out. A much easier alternative (for us who live around Newark,NJ anyway) is the PATH train which takes you directly to the World Trade Center or to 33rd Street in Manhattan after switching trains at Journal Square. Anyway,we decided to go to the PATH and take the train in.

After debating with Anthony that I could not fit five people in my truck (it's a Jeep,but it's small) and dealing with an unprecidented degree of shithead-ism coming from him,Shannon picked Anthony and myself up at 5:40 then went to get Ray and his brother. After driving to the PATH train (and after having an easy way of getting their blocked off by the East Newark Police),we finally got to the train at roughly 6:30 pm while 3 INCHES OF BLOOD were set to hit the stage at 7:30. Normally this would be a time to panic for the sheer fact that there would be an hour left and if you didn't know where to go you would easily get fucked by missing trains and outrageous taxi prices once you hit the NYC pavement. Fortunatley I knew exactly where I was going (Anthony claims he knows as well but I garauntee if I wasn't there they would have gotten lost since Ant sucks with directions) and I knew we had time to get there if everything was done the proper way. I laid the plan out on the PATH train and everyone seemed to be in agreement about the way to get to the club.

We exited the Christopher Street PATH station at a little after 7:00...a half hour left and we were in pretty good shape concerning time. We walked up to Christopher and Bleecker and tried to get a taxi cab. Shannon and I had been debating the whole time on the way about fitting the five of us in one taxi. I told her that she was insane and that it couldn't be done while she's coming up with ideas to justify her point of view. We finally flag down a cab and she tells the driver that the five of us were going to CBGB's on The Bowery. The driver basically told her that it's against the law to put five people in one taxi cab. It didn't help that we are all large people as well. After a large wave of staisfaction drowned my ego in self-satisfaction,Shannon,Ray,and Chris got in one cab and went while Anthony and I caught another almost directly behind them. The cab ride wasn't too bad...we got there with roughly fifteen minutes left until 3 INCHES OF BLOOD were set to whip CBGB's in a frenzy of metal...then there was the huge fucking line.

The line for this show went back all the way to the corner. Anthony cut in line with "The Clique" while I went to the back of the line (like a HUMAN BEING!!!) and slowly progressed towards the club in small increments of time...but I knew we were doomed. As soon as I checked my cell phone and saw that it was 7:30 I knew that the mission wasn't going to be a total success. Damnit! So fucking close...but CBGB decided that "ten people in the club every few minutes" was the best way to go about letting people enter. SHIT! While idiots behind me made small talk and while I checked out the ass on the girl standing in front of me with her boyfriend I was in agony...3 INCHES...was the only reason any of us had really gone to the show and we missed a good portion of their show already.

I got into the show halfway through a song and they went on to play two more songs until their set was done. Me,Ray,and his brother were hanging out,headbanging and whatnot while Anthony and Shannon are standing closer to the stage getting photos of the band. After their set was over (and after I got over the fact I had spent 12 bucks for 2 and a half songs despite picking their CD up for 10 bucks) Anthony started going into his typical "I want autographs" mode while Ray and his brother shared Anthonys sentiments. Shannon and I watched them disappear into the back room of CB's while we went to get some beers and commence in the art of conversation (which,as always,seemed rather uncomfortable and "forced") while her boyfriend was backstage giving the band a vebal blowjob. After a verbal cumshot was obviously delivered the three of them re-emerged happy as pigs in shit.

The next band came on (again,"metal-core" fucking non-sense) and I was mocking them the entire time. Holy fuck did they fucking stink...it was almost painful.

I started to make my way to the back of the club and those guys are all hanging out the drummer of 3 INCHES OF BLOOD,this dude who I am briefly introduced to as Kevin. The guy is running back and forth with t-shirts and I started to feel sorry for him after awhile...this guy just played a great high-intensity set of METAL and now he's running back and forth picking up t-shirts for idiots. After Anthony had (finally) let Kevin catch his breath we were all bulshitting for awhile about all kinds of stuff. After hanging out for roughly a half hour,we all decided it was time to get going. We leave the club and started hanging out with the other members of the band who were all hanging outside the club. Everyone was talking and taking photos with the guitarist Seth (who's a great dude by the way) who mentioned to us that they were playing a club called The Saint in As(s)bury Park,NJ on Thursday night. Shannon and I knew exactly what we were doing Thurday night from that point on...and while everyone else knew as well only Shannon and I had the freedom to make our minds up right then and there (everyone else had work. Ray called out sick.) and so began the trek back to the PATH station at Christopher Street.

I realized something else that night...the people I went to the show with are a bunch of pussies. Anthony and I were the only people who didn't complain about the walk. I've made the walk a bunch of times and was used to it...Anthony had made the walk a few times as well and knew it wasn't too bad but almost the entire time Ray,his brother and Shannon would not shut the fuck up about how bad the walk sucked. I had told them beforehand that we were going to have to walk back to the PATH station (and if we weren't in a rush to get to the club I would have walked there as well)from the club...but nobody listens to me about anything until it's too late for them to do anything about it. I told them that if they didn't stop fucking complaining there was going to be 3 Inches of Blood on the sidewalk from me murdering all of them. They were bitching about wanting to take a taxi back to the station...but none of them wanted to spend the money on the cab. Besides,it was a beautiful night out...not to cold or anything like that.

Thankfully we made it back to the station and everybody stopped talking about the walk. We were more focused on the show at The Saint on Thursday night. Originally it was going to be Ray,Shannon,Rays Brother and myself going to Asbury. I'm not positive if Anthony said he was going to go or not (he would have,though) because of his hours at work. After he said that he was calling out of his other job I knew we would see him down there. For the car ride home (I told Shannon she wouldn't get a ticket despite the fact I offered to pay it if she did) and at the diner afterwards the show at The Saint was all "The Clique" and I were talking about. At roughly 1:00 am we were all home for the night...anticipating Thursday night and re-living the 3 INCHES OF BLOOD live experience all over again.

Wednesday came and I went to THE SAINT's website. Much to my dismay,3 INCHES weren't listed as playing that night. Knowing that Seth wasn't bullshitting us,I posted a message on their board basically announcing the show and promoting this piece of shit website. There was only one problem,though...THE SHOW WAS A 21 AND OVER SHOW. Normally that's not too big of a deal,but it also meant that Ray or his brother couldn't attend the show. I called him with the bad news (he didn't pick up his phone because he was at work) but I caught him on Instant Messenger and told him. He checked out the site and I thought that the dream was done for him. I went up to A&P later than night to hang out with Anthony and let him know about the 21 and over shit. Since it only really effected Ray I was pissed that he couldn't go but wasn't too worried otherwise. Anthony told me he was getting out of work early (5:00 pm) the next day and that he'd be able to go down with us.

Thursday finally came. I slept a little in the afternoon before the show and then I found out that Ray had talked to the owner of The Saint and that he was going to be able to go anyway (Thanks Scott). Cool! So at 6:00pm I decide to pick everyone up...but we hit unmerciless traffic. We sat in traffic for a good long time...constantly stopping and starting,stopping and starting,until I was ready to murder everyone on the road. I've got EXODUS cranked in the car while "The Clique" are talking amongst themselves. Typical bullshit...and when the traffic finally broke so did we. I started blazing down the highway,going between 65 and 75 miles per hour for a majority of the ride down to Asbury Park. Thankfully the directions from the clubs website were excellent and we got to the club at 7:45pm.

On the clubs website,it said that the club was going to be open at 8:00pm,but we didn't get inside until roughly 8:30 (after having to hear Shannon bitching about the weather and watching her and Anthony act like retards for forty-five minutes) and there were no problems getting Ray in. We gravitated to the bar area and started watching the television (showing garbage on the Cartoon Network...if it weren't for the "Adult Swim" block of programs I would have no use for this channel) and talking until Kevin from 3 INCHES...came over and started hanging out. He was telling us that he was glad we made it,we told him that we were glad they were playing. Of course "the clique" were in full mode that night while I basically stood away from them a bit. Whatever!

Two bands were slated to play before 3 INCHES...were to take the stage. The bands weren't that bad for the kind of music they were playing...a fact that was lost on "the clique" but I didn't give a shit. Anthony told me he was in hell listening to these bands but I told him they were still better than the shit bands that opened for OVERKILL last Saturday and that sent him back to the bar while I watched the other bands do their thing.

There weren't many people in The Saint that night...obviously the show wasn't promoted very well and if "the clique" and I weren't there then you could have basically counted the number of people on two hands. Alot of the other people who were at the club were friends with the other bands as well,so even though we were all there for different bands we all shared the same purpose...being there for friends. I knew this wasn't highly promoted (despite the fact that one of the opening bands was using this as a CD Release Party) when I had to post about 3 INCHES...playing the club BEFORE THE FUCKING CLUB ANNOUNCED IT!!!

Anyway,the other bands finish for the night and 3 INCHES...take the stage. Honestly,I thought the sound was better at CB's but it was much LOUDER at The Saint so it was a fair trade-off. We were basically the only ones left watching and that was fine by me...they played for a good hour and their set was fucking exceptional. They did alot of the tracks on "Advance and Vanquish" and a few from their prior release (which is OOP from what I know) which did nothing more than make me want to listen to that album even more than I want to already. Like I mentioned,we were the only ones who seemed to be getting into it,headbanging along to every bone-crushing drumbeat and razor-sharp riff cutting through the flesh and infecting the blood with the power of true metal. It was basically our show...to put it bluntly.

After their set we were all hanging out again,bullshitting with the guys and wishing them well on their European Tour which kicked off today (5/1) in England. After roughly hanging out for a half hour (and Shane sharing in my disgust of the "remixed" drum sound on those early ZZ TOP albums when they were remixed years ago),we left and wished the band well.

You might be thinking to yourself "So what,me and my buddies do this kind of thing all the time" but that's just it...before I got fired from that shit job I had,I could never have done this. I would have gotten canned for doing shit like this. I post this because it was the first time in a long,long time that I have followed bands I like around from dingy club to dingy club just because I could do it and I was glad that I could do it for a band who I think are fucking great and sincerley wish the best to. Also,there aren't many bands I would follow around...MAGUS BEAST,IRON MAIDEN (if I had the money to go from ampitheater to ampitheater and if they weren't part of that shitty Ozzfest tour this year),and a few select other bands.

Overall it's been one of the best weeks of my life...making friends with guys I admire,going to shows with the regularity I would like to,and basically just hanging out and supporting metal any way possible. What a great week!