Outdoors,
A Miserable, Rainy Day.
Indoors, The Exact Opposite.
Part IV
now
playing: Sex Machine Guns' Sex Machine Guns (1998)
Next band up, L-ZA, which I think is pronounced "Leeza,"
but might just be an acronymish sounding dealie-o, like "L.Z.A."
Take your pick.
They
burst onstage, dive into their first very 80s metal song, and it's
all cool... a few people start headbanging -- a more traditional kind
of headbanging that I'm used too, not the more unusual brand of headbanging
done in visual kei -- and I'm one of them. The songs are new or refreshing
for me like kei can be, but they are heavy, fast, sufficiently complicated,
and invigorating.
The
shorter-haired guitarist, the lead guitarist for most songs, is positioned
right in front of me, and while I had made eye contact and all that
with a few other bands already, this band seemed much more enthused
by my presence, and I got a lot of attention. Maybe they had seen
me having fun with the other bands, or maybe their style was more
Western and so more accessible to me, or maybe I was just showing
that I was very into the tunes, but for whatever reason I got acknowledged
a bunch of times... and also, they were hams for the camera (I took
four times the pictures I normally would, only a handful of which
appear here today). So that made the music that much more fun! Especially
with the lead guitar guy, he was wack! He even tossed me (-me-, as
in, hey, here you go, catch, tall guy) a pick. I think it's the first
pick I ever caught... oh damn, no, wait, I caught one from that damned
guitarist for Accept, Wolf Blitzer (I know, that's the CNN reporter)
or whatever! At Birch Hill, this club in N.J. which closed recently,
I think? Or did I just pick it up off the ground after the show when
no one else wanted it?
Anyway,
it's a white, heavy gauge "normal" size pick (as opposed
to the equal-on-three-sides picks I prefer.) <throws it in wastebasket>
<just kidding!>
You
also have to give props to the vocalist, with that Sebastian back
hair of his (only natural black instead of blond). Imagine all the
jobs he's been unable to get simply because of his hair length; imagine
all that extra work he's had to do simply to show his dedication to
the craft, and it only really pays off for 30 minutes each week, or
month maybe, when they play live; all the rest of the time it's a
pain in the ass, getting stuck in doors, taking hours to wash and
dry, yada yada yada. So, you know, you have to give the guy a hand.
They're
also from Shikoku, apparently, and one of the members is leaving the
band was it was unclear which one; all this according to Saya, whose
japanese comprehension level is much higher than mine. So that's too
bad, I think!
Oh,
wait, I forgot to mention how they reminded me of that band I tried
out for in August, Fuss! Only with more people headbanging. But it
made me think Fuss' style of metal was viable again, and I debated
giving them a ring to see if they'd found a new guitarist yet... but
then I just emailed the Ikebukuro band from last week, and said yes
to their offer. At least until Eyes=Mirrorge calls (I can dream, can't
I?!)
Eila
and Lucia... I mean Lucia and Eila?!
There is just something so cool about two guitarists joining
each other for a dual solo.
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