Rock N Roll Experience - Gwar / Priestess

GWAR / PRIESTESS / SUICIDE CITY / 2 CENT

8/20/06

Sonar

Baltimore, Maryland

This has to be one of the more interesting concert bills I have ever seen, because on paper it even sounds odd....2 Cent is a straight up thrash band who's lead singer is also their drummer & the drum kit is in the front where a lead singer would be the back of the stage is open for the band to walk around, then you have Suicide City, who remind me musically of a harder version of Mindless Self Indulgence..think lots of samples, heavy guitars, intense beats & a singer who is one part WWE & one part Casey Chaos, then you have Priestess who are very Black Sabbath-ish & their riff rock is thick & pure, & the topper is GWAR, who's costumes, fake blood, over the top theatrics & sick things just make this a weird billing, but none the less, here's how things went down.

FIrst off, the club, Sonar, had no Air Conditioning...it was broken down, so the club was hot as hell, literally, & this did not make it a fun evening! 2 Cent came on first & they did a Slayer cover, a cover of the Refreshments "King of the Hill" TV show theme, & a tribute song to Dimebag Darrell..overall they were a good band!

Suicide City took the stage next...this is the new band featuring Billy from Biohazard & Jenn from Kittie....musically, they are very different in that they have heavy guitars, fast beats, & each song is different from the next..some are sample heavy, some have synths, & some are just weird. The thing that makes Suicide City interesting is their intensity, their energy, & their passion for their music! Their singer came out from song one & was right in the faces of the kids up front & even Billy jumped in the crowd with his guitar a few times..this is a band you really need to see to understand!

: Priestess were main support & their set was a mix of vintage rock & modern rock which features tons of chunky riffs & gutsy vocals that made this the best band of the night in quite a few people's opinions! I had the opportunity to do an interview with the band prior to the show & here's how it went:

Mikey Heppner from Priestess:

Rock N Roll Experience: How has touring with GWAR been so far?

Mikey: The tour has been great

Rock N Roll Experience: How did you come up with the name Priestess?

Mikey: It was really just simple..we wre brainstorming & thought of different names & that was one name that one of us came up with & it just stuck

Rock N Roll Experience: You guys remind me so much of Queens of the Stoneage, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, etc., are those bands all big influences on Priestess?

Mikey: Yeah..they are all partly our influences..we pretty much listen to all kinds of music & we are really all over the place as far as music, so, but yeah, as far as heavy rock bands, we definitley listen to those bands among many others.

Rock N Roll Experience: What does the phrase "Color Me Black" mean?

Mikey: "I am the Night, Color Me Black" was a Twilight Zone episode...it was the one where they wake up in the day & the sky just goes black in the middle of the day.

Rock N Roll Experience: What is that cat tattoo of on your arm?

Mikey: It's like a Japanese lucky cat...it's just something that I like

Rock N Roll Experience: What does the hand mean on your CD cover?

Mikey: The hand was just something we needed because we had Eric Roper paint this...he had finished it & it was without the hand & we were like, we really need something iconic in the center & I was thinking that maybe we could get a planet or some kind of character & then one idea was that I thought a hand would look pretty heavy, like as if it's climbing up from the edge of the world sorta.

Rock N Roll Experience: It reminds me of alot of the great '70's rock record covers...it looks cool

Mikey: Actually, it's funny, because after we did that & I sent out the first draft of that cover to a bunch of my friends & stuff, I had like 3 people email me at the same time..oh fuck, they sent me the Rainbow "Rising" cover & it's basically like that, but he is holding a rainbow ha ha, & it's pretty funny looking at it, but it was just a coincidence

Rock N Roll Experience: Are you playing "Time Will Cut You Down" in your live show?

Mikey: Probably not tonight...we have a limited set & especially like opening for metal bands & stuff we like to keep the audience pumped up for the headliner.

Rock N Roll Experience: What is "Time Will Cut YOu Down" about?

Mikey: It's basically about what I am saying in the lyrics, it's pretty simple..been done wrong by a girl & telling her this is your fate basically.

Rock N Roll Experience: When did you start playing guitar?

Mikey: When I was like 13 or 12....like a major #1 influence that made me wanna play guitar was Kurt Cobain, like he was the only main reason I started playing guitar...I was at a friends house & his older brother was playing a Nirvana song on a guitar & I was like, fuck, I can't believe you can actually play that...it didn't make any sense to me & he was like, Oh, I can show you how to do it & he showed me "Come As You Are" & then ever since then I just tried to learn all of their songs & that wasn't the first band I was into, but that was definitley the band that got me into playing guitar for sure.

GWAR were the headliners of the night & they made waste of little time before they had the crowd covered in green, red & blue dyed water that actually stuck to the fans! Their set was made up of mostly new songs & it was interesting to see the band play on a much smaller stage, beacuse I saw them on the Sounds of the Underground & this band belongs on ahuge stage! There was a smaller version of Gor Gor, President Bush, Nazi Priest, & other oddities & the band sounded dead on perfect, & they closed the show with a cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out". GWAR is a band that you really need to see atleast once, but be warned that you will get wet!

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