All Them REZNs

 

Yet again my self-imposed blog assignment was made simpler by having two concerts I could comment upon, both occurring within the same week between the last blog entry and this one.  Here you go.

On Saturday, December 4, 2021, I attended a concert at the Baltimore Soundstage, of a Nashville, Tennessee band, All Them Witches (Bassist/singer Charles Michael Parks; guitarist Ben McLeod; drummer Robby Staebler).

This show had originally been scheduled in spring 2020 at the Ottobar (also in Baltimore), postponed several times due to COVID, and transferred to this venue.   My initial ticket was will call (as my preference is for non-electronic tickets) and the box office had my name on a list.  No problems there. 

Arriving at the venue was simple:  395 North up past the Pentagon, the GW Parkway to the Beltway, around to I-95 near College Park, then up I-95 to the Inner Harbor.  Right on Pratt, left on Gay, right on Water, and I was at the parking garage at 55 Market Street, next to the Power Plant, literally across the street from the venue.  Far too close to complain.  Final price paid upon leaving, $15.   Not bad.   My travel soundtrack northbound was Camel’s first album, which tacks on some live bonus tracks on the deluxe CD version. 

The band had a modest merch table, at which I purchased a yellow t-shirt.  Autographed drum heads for $250?  No thanks – the only non-apparel item of note.  Since most bands have merch available online, what we’re looking for is tour-specific items you won’t see on the website – so you check the website before the show.  Or – here’s looking at you, Blue Oyster Cult – a spectacularly unimaginative selection, with the “square image of most recent album cover on a black t-shirt” being the supreme cop-out.   We’re long past the days where we felt compelled to buy at least ONE shirt at the merch table, no matter how lame.  For a band which tours so diligently as BOC – it seems they’ll play any show, no matter how bizarre the venue (e.g. opening for a puppet show at a theme park) – has such an unimpressive array of merch, and the days of tour-specific shirts are long gone.  Fortunately the ATW yellow t-shirt as mentioned before qualified as a special item. 

L.A. Witch was the opening act: another all-girl stoner rock band, they sounded like a close copy of Portland’s Blackwater Holylight (which is supporting ATW on other dates on this tour, nowhere close to Baltimore).

My biggest issue was standing.  The venue is pretty much standing room only, which after awhile made my 1969 model year back hurt.  I stood up in the crowd for the first few songs in the set of ATW themselves, then found a remote corner out of the way to sit down.  By the end of the set I was OK to get up and walk around again.  The venue was full enough that getting anywhere close to the stage was impossible at the time I arrived (yet I’d done so for Monster Magnet and Texas Hippie Coalition in the past at this venue).  Oddly, falling asleep was NOT an issue here.  The encore included my favorite, “Blood And Sand/Milk and Endless Waters”.  Some of ATW’s material reminds me of the Allman Brothers Band at the Fillmore East, whereas this song evokes “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent.  

Oh, I don’t expect the band to be 100% perfect, note-for-note.  If I wanted that I’d stay home and listen to the CDs, confident that a CD will play the same every time you play it.  Falling down drunk, botched solos, completely useless?  Well, that might be a problem, but I’ve yet to see a band perform that badly.  The two notable exceptions were Leslie West, i.e. Mountain (opening for Deep Purple, Paris 1985), and the only show I ever walked out on, the Mars Volta.  The latter I left because a band whose studio material was 50% prog and 50% screaming in your face nonstop appeared to limit their live set to the latter 50%, which even the band itself (!!!) has acknowledged is not what people want to see.  Then again, there’s another possibility, which transpired at the next concert – see below.

The audience was well behaved.  The most prominent non-ATW band represented was Clutch, as you might imagine in Baltimore.   Unlike a sporting event, which has two mutually antagonistic groups of fans varying from friendly rivalry to outright hostility, presumably everyone at a concert is rooting for the same “team”, and not about to heckle the band – aside from Flair-like “WOOO” of appreciation.  This crowd was enthusiastic without being boorish or unlikeable, a well behaved audience you can’t assume as a matter of course.  Overall an extremely pleasant experience. 

REZN. A few days later I saw this band, on December 8, 2021, at the DC9 Club in DC.  From Chicago, Illinois, and no array of rescheduled concerts. Guitarist/vocalist Rob McWilliams; bassist Phil Cangelosi; keyboardist/sax player Spencer Oulette; and drummer Patrick Dunn.  The sax adds a Nik Turner ingredient to the mix which works well.   

Logistically, this was a simpler concert, as DC is far closer to me in Bailey’s Crossroads than Baltimore:  just shoot up 395 and find my way close to the 930 Club.  Street parking was fine so long as I was willing to walk a few blocks north on Ninth Street.  The venue itself is one of these narrow slices of a city block so slim you walk right past it without even seeing it.  But at least this place, far smaller than the Baltimore Soundstage, had tables and stools to rest my weary back and ass during the generic stoner rock opening acts.  You like to believe that you’re seeing “the next big thing” when they’re an opening act in some tiny club, but somehow I doubt Slomo Sapiens (??) or Dirt Woman will make it big – they’re not even at the Richmond show the next evening.  Then again, both opening acts finished their short and modest sets without a problem.

Merch was sparse:  CDs, vinyl, patches I already had, and an underwhelming t-shirt less impressive than the ones I already had.  So make that ZERO purchases this time around. 

REZN are a band like Elder and Weedpecker who blend doom with prog in a nice blend which avoids being too oppressive or too mellow.  And I was happy, upon re-listening to their three albums, Let It Burn, Calm Black Water, and Chaotic Divine, that the most recent album was the best, showing the band is progressing rather than regressing.   I had seen them a few years back at the Sidebar in Baltimore, on the tour for the second album, so it was good to see them again.  Here I was able to get literally right up to the stage, the room being only about a third full.  Not quite “KISS in 1973 playing through fake speaker cabinets to ten people in the Popcorn Club in Queens”, but nowhere near capacity. 

I suppose after just under 300 concerts, you’re bound to see something different happen, and this was it. 

About halfway through the show, McWilliams wound up having his effects pedal board, something like 20 pedals, crap out on him.  A heroic attempt by him and Dunn to fix the problem failed, causing the show to be prematurely ended. The sad thing was that I was enjoying the set up until that point.  Hopefully they’ll fix the issue and come back to DC to finish what they started. 

Recently I posted a vid on Facebook about the famous Rickenbacker 4000/4001/4003 bass guitar.   I’m not a bassist and never have been, and probably never will be.  These basses are iconic and associated with Geddy Lee, Lemmy, Chris Squire, Cliff Burton, and many others.   A Facebook comrade noted that this particular bass is extremely difficult to maintain properly, notwithstanding its unique sound.  Professional musicians usually have a full-time tech who takes care of their instruments.  However, I didn’t see any roadies working for REZN and the band members set up their own instruments and equipment – and when something did go wrong, it was up to them to fix it.  I suggested going straight through the amp, to which Cangelosi noted that the guitar really needs all those effects.  In this case, going straight through the amp would be REZN’s equivalent of an acoustic show. Maybe bands need a “shit happens” boot camp, but I’m guessing that’s called “touring”. 

Better luck next time…. 

Live Stream!!!

 

This weekend my writer’s block was cured, but on Saturday, meaning I missed my (self-imposed) Friday deadline.  As before, I remain incredulous that my weekly ramblings suffice to engender anyone else’s attention, but since they do, I’m happy to continue, to the extent I can come up with anything remotely worth discussing.

By now we’re all painfully aware of the COVID crisis and how it has made a major impact in our lives.  For those of us who enjoy live music, that’s been even worse.

2020 Shows.  2019 was capped off with Clutch’s late December show at the 9:30 Club in DC.  2020 was ushered in by Church of Misery, a Japanese stoner rock band, at the Rock’n’Roll Hotel in DC – up there on U Street, a few blocks due east of Union Station.  Next up was UFO – the British band famous for Michael Schenker, “Doctor Doctor” and ‘Rock Bottom” – who I enjoyed at the Tally Ho in Leesburg, Virginia, with my brother, Matt.  Then was Opeth (as mentioned last week), at the Fillmore Silver Spring, in Silver Spring, Maryland, also with Matt – and it was his first Opeth show.  Finally OM – Sleep bassist Al Cisneros’ side band, very much drone-y like SunnO))) – at the Black Cat, right on Fourteenth Street in DC.   

Then the manure hit the oscillating climate control device.

Here are the shows we had tickets to see, and which were cancelled due to the COVID shitshow. 

TOOL, 4/24/20 at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.

Fu Manchu, 5/6/20 at the Baltimore Soundstage in Baltimore, Maryland. 

King Buffalo, 6/27/20 at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland.

King Crimson, 6/30/20 at Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia. 

Guns N’Roses, 7/16/20 at Nationals Park in DC.

All Them Witches (ATW), 7/22/20 at the Otto Bar in Baltimore, Maryland.

Roger Waters, 7/30/20, at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC

Dead & Company, 8/5/20 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia – with my former boss, Jerry, who hadn’t seen the Dead since …maybe before 1986. 

Judas Priest, 9/9/20 at the MGM Grand in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Elder, 11/13/20 at the Richmond Music Hall down in Richmond, Virginia.

As you can see, it was some pretty big shows.  Fortunately Bobby Weir, Fripp, Maynard, Halford, Waters, Axl & Slash, are all still alive – Maynard surviving COVID – so hopefully those shows will be back online in 2021 after we get a vaccine that works.  My concern is that if the virus mutates to make the vaccine ineffective, and continues to mutate, we may be looking at a scenario where COVID is effectively permanent.  But let’s hope and pray that this vaccine gets the job done.

Fortunately, despite all this, some bands realized that this Internet thing could let them play a live show and stream it online.  And yes, that has happened.  Here are the live streaming shows I’ve seen so far:

Clutch, 5/27/2020.  Their first live streaming show, called “Doom Saloon”.  An hour, well done.  From Maryland, this band is mostly straightforward rock’n’roll, though the lyrics are somewhat offbeat, and bassist Dan Maines gives a bit a funk step, mixing it up a bit.  Moreover, the band has kept the same lineup all this time:  singer Neil Fallon, guitarist Tim Sult, and drummer Jean-Paul Galter.  If you haven’t heard them already, by all means check them out on Spotify. 

Clutch, 8/7/2020.  Their second show, called “Doom Saloon 2”.  They solicited proposed setlists from the fans and picked one to do.  This setlist had a fair amount of deep cuts.  They also sold T-shirts and recorded the show onto vinyl.

DOWN, 8/29/20.  This is the “supergroup” with Pantera’s Phil Anselmo on vocals, Corrosion of Conformity’s Pepper Keenan on guitar, Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein on guitar, and Pantera’s Rex Brown on bass.  I think the drummer was from Crowbar.  They played their first album, NOLA, in its entirety.  Despite liking DOWN and having all three studio albums, both EPs, and their live album, I had somehow never managed to see them in concert – until now.  They sold t-shirts of the event. 

Crowbar and the Obsessed, 10/3/20.  Crowbar is a thrash band from New Orleans, and the Obsessed features Maryland’s own stoner doom god, Scott “Wino” Weinrich.  This time around he was doing an acoustic set.  Of all these shows, this was my last favorite.

Earthless, 10/17 and 10/24/20.   This is another psychedelic band that does long, extended jams.  Both shows were fine, with different setlists.

Alice in Chains.  On 12/1/20 the Museum of Pop in Seattle, Washington, saw fit to pay tribute to the Seattle grunge band and its late singer, Layne Staley, with a free tribute show of various bands, including Metallica and Mastodon.  The material also covered some later Duvall-era tracks.  The performances were live and streamed in from various sources, all four members of Metallica performing "Would" from separate locations.  

Clutch, 12/18/20.   “Doom Saloon 3”.  Nominally this was supposed to start at 8, but from 8 to 9 what we got was the guys reminiscing over footage of them opening for other bands back in the day, and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster giving us a tour of their home base somewhere in Maryland.  Wagon wheel chandeliers will be sold out now, thanks to him.  The set itself was culled from the most requested songs in all those fan-profferred setlists which weren’t chosen for Doom Saloon 2.   This elicited some displeasure at the absence of deep cuts and obscure tunes, as if the band has some duty to play these songs to the exclusion of fan favorites just so the Old Guard can smugly remark that they recognize tracks which the main base of fans don’t.   Yes, that means don’t hold your breath to hear “Binge & Purge”. 

All Them Witches, 12/19, 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.  The two sets were different, but not completely so – about 70% of the material was the same, 30% different.  The combo pack includes a t-shirt, but no actual recording.  ATW do a good job of mixing TOOL and the Grateful Dead, if you can imagine that.  They don’t sound like anyone else, itself a miracle these days.  They’re from Nashville, Tennessee. 

in January there will be a full series of concerts out in the Mohave Desert:  Earthless (1/23), Nebula (2/6), Spirit Mother (2/20), Mountain Tamer (3/6), and Stoner (how’s that for subtle?) a band put together by none other than Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri.  We’ll see how that goes.  

Benefits.   Most of us prefer live shows, in person, but these live streaming shows do have some major advantages over shows on location.

Logistics.  No driving to DC, Baltimore, or wherever, trying to find parking, then driving back at 1 a.m.  Just turn on your computer and watch (assuming you have an Internet connection); so far all seemed to fit well within my bandwidth.  From the privacy of your own home, you can attend the show wearing as much or as little as you like, and as inebriated or otherwise chemically altered as you see fit, without the issue of how you’re supposed to get home in that condition.  When the show is over, just crash in bed – if that’s your inclination.

No Crowds.  No moshing.  None of this BS where the tallest guy in the club decides to stand front center and block everyone else’s view.  No asshole screaming at Phil Mogg to play “ROCK BOTTOM!!!” through the entire set.  And I’ve yet to see a live stream show sell out.  Mind you, as you can see above, the big shows which would have been at arenas and stadiums haven’t made their way to streaming.

Recordings.  As yet, only Clutch seems to be actually recording these shows, though only on vinyl.  Metallica and Dead & Company are the two current bands (along with Phish and Widespread Panic) who seem to be recording all their latest shows – not just one per tour – and making them available on MP3 or CD. 

If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend determining which, if any, of your favorite bands have gotten the memo and are live streaming upcoming shows.  Not really a substitute for real shows, but better than spending an hour to ninety minutes surfing Amazon or Facebook. 

Four Bands in Two Weeks

This was a rare occasion when I had four concerts to attend in two weeks.

Black Mountain.  Wednesday, November 13 at the Black Cat in Washington, DC.  This club is on Fourteenth Street just south of U Street, thus southeast of Adams Morgan.  It has a very small back room on the ground floor (I think I saw Nebula there a few eons ago) but also a large ballroom up on the second floor, where I saw this band several years earlier, plus Blue Cheer in one of Dickie Peterson’s last performances. 

Black Mountain are another one of these stoner rock bands which doesn’t take Black Sabbath as its starting point, but rather goes hard, soft, and somewhere in between with a refreshing change of pace from song to song which avoids getting boring or repetitive.  They’re from Vancouver, Canada.     

Lineup:  Stephen McBean (guitar & vocals), Rachel Fannan (keyboards), Adam Bulgasm (drums), Arjan Miranda (bass), and Jeremy Schmidt (keyboards).

Albums: Black Mountain (S/T), In the Future, Wilderness Heart, IV, and Destroyer.  I had seen the tour for IV a few years back, also at the Black Cat – the night before seeing Sleep at the new 9:30 Club. 

Setlist:  Mothers of the Sun; Future Shade; Wucan; Rollercoaster; Tyrants; Florian Saucer Attack; Stormy High; Fd'72; Horns Arising; High Rise; Old Fangs; Space to Bakersfield; Druganaut

Loot.  I picked up an olive drab shirt with the band name (no tour dates on the back) and some nice socks.

Monolord.  Friday, November 15, at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore.  This is a small club up in the Wire district (run-down area) with just a main room with a stage, oddly positioned near the exit.  I actually saw King Buffalo here the year before.  My GPS directions generally say take 295 North up from DC, get off on Martin Luther King Blvd, then follow that to Howard Street and go up about 10 blocks.

This is a three piece from Sweden, of all places.  Thomas Jager (guitar/vocals), Mika Hakki (bass), and Esben Willems (drums).  Esben is taking pictures of the audience and posting these.  I generally stand on TJ’s side of the stage.  He plays a Greco (Gibson copy) Flying V through an Orange stack.  I had actually seen them open for Red Fang in DC at the RNR Hotel, then on the bill in Brooklyn for the Desert Fest in April of this year.  Here was my first chance to see them as a headlining band. 

Empress Rising, Vaenir, Lord of Suffering (EP), Rust, and No Comfort.  It’s slow, doomy stuff all tuned down to C#, to the point where TJ has to retune his guitar between songs.   The opening acts were ALMS (OK), and Blackwater Holylight, an all female stoner rock band from Portland, Oregon.  While they’re all pretty cute, the drummer was especially cute and came down to headbang with us for “Empress Rising”, the last song of Monolord’s set.  I also met up with Facebook buddy Bob Maze and his friend.  Good times for all.

Setlist: Where Death Meets the Sea; Lord of Suffering; Audhumbla; The Bastard Son; Rust; Larvae; The Last Leaf; Empress Rising

Loot:  I picked up a t-shirt (seen on my Facebook page with the Black Cherry Wishniak 20 oz bottle).  I already have a black shirt with the gothic logo and cat, and a patch of the same.

    

Electric Wizard.  Monday, November 18, at the Fillmore Silver Spring in Maryland.  This is a large ballroom with a big stage.  I’ve seen Opeth and Ghost here in the recent past. 

Lineup.  Jus Osborn (only consistent member) (Gibson SG and vocals), Liz Buckingham (Gibson SG), Haz Wheaton (bass), and Simon Poole (drums).  I have to confess somewhat of a crush on LB, who stands there impressive with her SG and long, blonde hair, occasionally hitting a solo but otherwise complimenting the screen footage to make what would otherwise be somewhat tedious into an enjoyable experience.  Both Osborn and Buckingham play through standard Marshall JCM800s with 1960A/B stacks.   The band is from England, of all places. 

Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics, Dopethrone, Let Us Prey, We Live, Witchcult Today, Black Masses, Time to Die, Wizard Bloody Wizard.  I’d seen them back in 2000 at Zaxx in VA, part of a noxious black metal festival.  Here they were headlining with a huge screen up behind them, mainly showing horror movies about Satanic masses.  As I suspected, Anton LaVey got some brief screen time. 

Like Monolord, they play Sabbath type material very slow, doomy and tuned down, to the point where all the songs sound exactly the same.  Was this on Dopethrone or Wizard Bloody Wizard?  Could only tell you if I listened to the album recently.  Oh, Jus did make a callout to LSD!  Thank you.

Setlist: Witchcult Today; Black Mass; Return Trip; See You In Hell; Hear the Sirens Scream; Incense for the Damned; Satanic Rites of Drugula; The Chosen Few; Funeralopolis

Loot.  Although some of the t-shirts had their provocative slogan LEGALIZE DRUGS & MURDER, I wasn’t impressed with the design and stuck with a large patch.  By now I’ve accumulated a few of these from various bands but haven’t yet set up a jacket or battle vest.  I suppose I could teach myself to sew.

King Buffalo.   Thursday, November 21, at DC9 in Washington, DC.  This is a small club on Ninth Street just off of Florida Ave., just a few blocks away from the new 9:30 Club – so I park on the street where I’d normally park for a 9:30 Club show and just walk two more blocks.  It’s very small, but that gave me the option of going up close and talking to McVay.

Lineup.  Sean McVay (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Dan Reynolds (bass), Scott Donaldson (drums).  Dan was wearing an All Them Witches long sleeved t-shirt.  They’re from Rochester, New York.

Albums.  Repeater (EP), Orion, and Longing to Be the Mountain. 

Like Black Mountain, they do this soft >> hard deal which changes up consistently but keeps fresh, although I will say their songs tend to sound the same.  Even so, the impact and heaviness are awesome.  McVay plays a Hagstrom through a Fender Twin Reverb amp and really knows how to get those wailing, reverb-y solos. 

Setlist: Sun Shivers; Longing to Be the Mountain; Drinking From the River Rising; Quickening; Repeater; Centurion; Goliath; Eye of the Storm

Loot.  I already had the only shirt I really like, and a wooden dugout/one-hitter.  They have stickers set up like Genesee Beer, sadly nothing on a t-shirt or patch.   Note, they’ve been recording some of their shows live and making them available for free as a downloaded MP3 of the whole show.  McVay said there might be some technical issues with releasing the DC show, and none of the 2019 shows are yet available.  I downloaded the Indianapolis show from 2018 because the setlist was identical to the Baltimore show I saw.

TOOL.   Tool is coming up on Monday, 11/25 at the Capital One Arena in DC.   This band is obviously different and playing to a larger venue, probably sold out.   Having addressed them fairly recently (along with the Grateful Dead) I can pare off the discussion and hand in my assignment on time this Friday.

Bottom line:  if you still love Sabbath and think “Into the Void” is their best song, by all means check out Monolord and Electric Wizard – especially if you have high tolerance for slow, doomy, detuned music.  By now I can take it in limited doses.   If you prefer your stoner rock a bit more mixed up and difficult to describe, delve into Black Mountain and King Buffalo – and add All Them Witches and Dead Meadow into the mix as well.  I’m happy to see the scene veer off into different tangents, though Black Sabbath will always be our home.

Hoodies

Amidst all sorts of topics I cover, I like to keep a broad range, including some more mundane ones.  In this case, a type of clothing I recently discovered.   They’re highly casual, and maybe beneath my age range (50), but very comfortable and very practical.  They’re light enough for all but the warmest summer weather, and heavy enough for all but the coldest winter weather, and I live in an area – Northern Virginia – which gets snow in the winter and heat waves in the summer. 

The hood itself is nice, as it acts as a de facto umbrella for all but the heaviest rain, for which an umbrella is essential.  The front pocket – which is one reason I prefer pullovers over zip-ups – acts as a handy place to keep the smartphone. 

I’m not keen on zip-up hoodies, preferring pullovers, but in one case I had to take the former as the latter was not available.   I attended a festival which featured a hoodie with the distinctive image of the Maryland flag, so the purchase was not binding but certainly persuasive.

The remaining hoodies are all pullovers, these being the topics thereof:   

All Them Witches (black).   The only decent item at their concession, but it’s good enough to wear. 

Clutch (black).   Psychic Warfare!  You better believe it!

Grateful Dead, Live/Dead (red).  The Live/Dead album from the late 60s is the imagery and theme.

Hofmann (Heineken) (green).  An homage to the famous Swiss chemist of Sandoz.  Note that his name is spelled with ONE f and TWO n’s. 

Judas Priest (black).  Purchased at the first of two Priest concerts at the Anthem in DC, for the Firepower tour (most recent album).

Kyuss (black).   The famous stoner rock band which featured Josh Homme and Nick Oliveiri of QOTSA and Brant Bjork.

Minnesota Vikings (purple).   A very light purple, and VIKINGS isn’t even in the older or newer logos. 

Queens of the Stone Age (red).  My favorite album of theirs is Rated R, which is usually blue.   This is one of the earlier albums back when Nick Oliveiri was still in the band.  Later they re-released it as a deluxe edition in red, Rated Rx.