They had a show scheduled for Knoxville this past Wednesday night. I had to be to work at 7 AM the next day. We'll see if Ed can hang after this for sure!
We (Sean and I -- due to our work schedules) knew we would miss the opening local act. At the same time, we were both in agreement that we wished to catch the rest of the bill.
Local H was the first band up (for us). They had one hit in the late 80's and it was a two-man band. This intrigued me. Yeah, I loved the music they put out (at least that one song I had heard),
but,
WOW! I had no idea!!
The vocalist/string guy had an either 7 or 8 stringed "guitar". I don't really know, because the dude didn't stay still long enough to count them. I DO know that the two top ones were waaayy lower than a low E string. Additionally, he had what looked to be bass pickups on his "guitar". There was no doubt that there was something additional than the standard guitar because of some of the deeper (toned) notes he was pushing off that thing.
The drummer was .... just .... nuts! Man! he pounded the f*ck outta those drums! I mean almost violent strikes every 2 nanoseconds! He, too, was great.
It was really amazing the fullness of sound that those two put out. The set was really tight and they didn't engage in trivial chatting with the crowd to ensure they could play as much as possible. What a great set and a fine way to kick off the show.
Next up was a band called Helmet. They have been around forever and I had heard one of their songs on the radio before. Sean has been a fan of theirs for a long time and I think he was most looking forward to seeing these guys live (again).
They rocked it! I was really impressed with them. When they hit the song that has had some air time, a mosh pit broke out. Sean and I were just outside of where this started. We are usually further back, but since we were not in the midst of the melee, we stayed there to enjoy the rest of the set.
Well, these four guys all fell at once. The general "rule" is the pit stops to get everyone up so no one gets hurt. I was close by, so I stuck my nose in there (so to speak) to help out. Just as soon as I had, one of the dudes flailing around had his arm make contact with mine and knocked my beer out of my hand.
SPLAT! went that bottle of Sierra Nevada that I just had taken two sips from. DAMMIT!
Luckily, no one got cut when that happened and I tried corralling all the glass to prevent folks from being hurt. One of the guys that worked there came over when the pit started, saw what happened and was quick to go get a broom and dustpan and some towels to sop up the mess.
Sean gave me a hard time for being dumb enough to take a beer bottle into a mosh pit. "what did you expect would happen?" he queried. LOL Anyway, the rest of Helmet's set was great and no further incidences occurred.
Next up was Filter. I have seen these boys play a few times before and they always put on a great show. Tonight was no different.
Robert Patrick saw one guy filming their set and grabbed his cell phone took it around the stage to each person playing (to give a close-up) and then panned the crowd and handed the phone back to the dude. Class act!
He has an amazing vocal range, and really hits some high notes. He's quite a professional, too.
They had equipment problems, in that, his guitar started making feedback and crackling noises. The sound guy came out and they tried to get it to work to no avail. Robert finally said they would do the next song without the guitar and apologized to the crowd.
This was ongoing. The sound guy, bless his heart, kept on trying to get the guitar fixed. After each song, he would come out and try something else.
Robert, was very cordial and respectful to the dude and said "It's not his fault! It's not his fault" (which we all knew but it was gracious of him to make a point of that). They eventually got it fixed.
They were kicking into the song "Picture" as I had my phone up to do just that ...
 |
| "Picture" |
He did some crowd surfing and came out amongst us. As you can see, Sean and I still were rather close to the stage. Robert had worked his way close enough I could have touched him, but I wasn't quick enough to draw out my phone, turn the camera on, and get a picture of him in time.
Oh well, here are a few more pics anyway ...
 |
| "Hey Man! Nice Shot" |
They played for about 80 minutes. Such a great show!
All three bands were great. As we were walking back to the truck, Sean said "Every one of those bands were worth the price of admission alone." and I was in complete agreement.
Sean and I have been to this venue to see a show plenty of times now. We used to get slightly lost going there. We no longer do that, but when he listened to me to take a left when we are leaving we managed to get lost on the way home. There's always a first for everything, I guess.
We soon found our way back onto I-40 and I got home a little before 1 AM. Of course, I couldn't go straight to sleep, so it was nearly 2 when I fell asleep. I still managed to get up at 6 and make it to work on time, so I guess I ain't "old" yet. (grin)
No comments:
Post a Comment