ROCK N ROLL EXPERIENCE - Down - 10/31/07

If you ever go to see a rock show on Halloween night, it’s really one of the most interesting nights to see a live performance, because you never quite know what to expect from the crowd, or the performer, I mean there’s bound to be some Halloween buffoonery at some point, & when the New Orleans based supergroup, DOWN announced a Halloween show in Baltimore, my first thought was, ok, I wonder what’s gonna happen at this show? So on the actual night of the show, initially there was a decent amount of people waiting in line to get in, but it wasn't totally sold out, so I figured it would be a smaller crowd & in all honesty, as a fan, the shows that are not totally sold out are more fun because you have some breathing room, BUT, as time went on, I saw the line getting longer & the parking lot was totally filled..the show wasn’t totally sold out, but by the time DOWN took the stage it was pretty damn close to being sold out!

An interesting side note is that I attended the first Hell Yeah show a few months back which took place about 2 blocks from where the Down show was happenning, & I remember seeing Down a few times before the Dimebag tragedy, & the security wasn’t super tight, but after the tragedy that occured, the security to get in to see Hell Yeah was tight, & guess what...the security to get into see Down was equally as tight! There was added security for this show, there were 2 lines to get in, one for guys & one for girls..the girls were searched & had a metal detector wand waved over their entire person, while the guys got a complete search, which felt like a cavity search at times, I mean they literally searched every area on each person & the interesting thing to note was, they had a NO CAMERA rule this night, & guess what, there was a bunch of camera’s snuck in, & there was quite a few marijuana smokers in the crowd as well this particular night, so I am thinking that security checked out some people extremely well & let other’s slide through, & that’s kinda defeating the purpose, I mean at the Hell Yeah show there was NO camera’s or ANY kinda contraband, so I think that there was a weak link in the security chain for this show, but anyways, as far as the show went, it started line 90 minutes late for some reason, so the movie that opened the show didn’t start till after 8 PM & it continued on till like 9:30 when the band finally took the stage.

The movie that played before Down took the stage was basically a compilation of band home movies & there were clips of the Down guys with Alice in Chains Jerry Cantrell, as well as numerous clips of classic riff rock bands like Free, KISS, Skynyrd, Deep Purple, Robin Trower & Frank Marino to name just a few. Down took the stage amidst a cover of fog & the first thing I saw as the fog cleared was what looked like Phil Anselmo’s son! The new & improved Phil Anselmo that stood on this stage was leaner, in great shape, really animated, totally sober, & this was definitely the best performance I’ve ever seen Mr. Anselmo EVER give...I mean anyone who’s seen Phil perform knows that he talks..alot in concert, but he’s kinda toned it down some, I mean there’s some between song banter, but not like in the past few years, & when the band played “Lifer” Phil dedicated it to Dimebag

About the only annoying thing that Phil did throughout the entire show was, he would introduce a new song off the new Down cd & he’d end it with, “if you wanna hear that song, you gotta buy the f*ckin’ record!” & there were a few people in the crowd that seemed as annoyed with this repetitive line as I was, & I even heard a few people saying, “I’ll just download it!”...I assume Phil was making reference to all the people who steal music online, but anyways....Kirk & Pepper were jammin’ all night, loads’ o’ riffs, & it felt pretty good as a fan of riff rock, to see a band that just jams & keeps it simple..there’s no complex crap here, just good old rock n roll that’s heavy & has a vibe that will crush your soul...basically, it’s like Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin wrapped up in a giant doobie!!!

I was kinda surprised that the band didn’t do anything special for Halloween..the bands amps were wrapped with fake spiderwebs & at one point, Kirk wore a Frankenstein mask for one song & at the end of the show, Phil wore a Devil mask while singing “Stairway to Heaven” & changing Heaven to Hell. The highlight of the night was the bands last song, which was “Bury Me In Smoke” because the band all switched instruments..at one point the bands roadies were playing their stuff, then Pepper was playing bass, Rex was on guitar, Phil was on guitar & Jimmy was filming it all from the front while Kirk was on drums...then when the song ended, Phil was still hammering Kirk’s guitar & went into the intro to “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath.

This was definitely a fun show, it was hot as hell inside, the band played their asses off, & for over 2 hours, it was like being taken back in time when there was no internet, no wars, no troubles, & all that mattered was getting high & listening to classic riff rock...the crowd kinda reflected that too..there was some younger people there, but the core of the crowd was guys in 30+ who knew Pantera & was there to see a great band. Infact, at one point, the crowd was chanting “Pantera” over & over & Phil said it was an honor to hear that & he had many great memories from that time in his life, then he went on to say at the same time, he could only live for the hear & now & now was all about DOWN! BTW, if you see a familiar face working on the DOWN tour that looks like Dave The Snake Sabo from Skid Row...you’re not seeing things..it IS Snake..he’s working for the band while they are on tour & he also told me that he manages them, so if you see him on the road with the band, he looks like he used to..his hair is long again & he looks like he’s in really great shape! I asked Snak why he wasn’t touring with Skid Row & he said that he’s still a member, but his health problems were an issue as far as playing live shows with the band