Summer Of Screams

It was Tuesday and I was still recovering from an exceptionally volatile weekend with Bohemian involving: booze, music and mayhem. I fell asleep Monday evening at 7:15 after glancing at the clock on my cell to time the hours of sleep I was about to get, 9. My brain was exhausted. I picked up 3 Gatorade and iced them in a cooler in my bedroom so I would not dehydrate overnight. Sounds like direct experience? It is. Waking up in cold sweats would dehydrate me by 3am.
"Hello,"my cell was on a third set of rings, I ignored the first two sets and some one was calling back for a third time, persistent. I glanced at the front screen, it was Bohemian. I turned it on"Yo Dess, this is Bohemian." "I know, I got you log in my cell, " He said"What's up for tonight." Nothing Bo I going to work on a second night of resting my brain.""EFF THAT," he yelled back, "I just scored some tickets to tonight's show, half dozen bands up at the Bungalow Bar and Grill (sorry no web site to date) with Mushroomhead headlining, you coming or what?""Ya but I'm still driving home, I'm passing the club now and they are lining up around the corner, good score come over we'll get a move on." "ON MY WAY" he yelled.

We hoofed it from my place to avoid any bad scenes with the cops after. Approaching the Bungalow we passed Cecil. Cecil is a cross eyed older black dude who owns the Bungalow to supplement his income. He about 67,retired and works part time but close to full time as fry cook and manager. Social security covers most essentials such as rent and food but falls short on booze and cigs. The Bungalow afforded him such sin's of human nature. Normally Cecil is a happy dude constantly half buzzed from sampling booze in between orders. This night he had that Grinch look. Scrunching his eye's apparently pissed off at some thing. It was none of my business and just gave Cecil a wave and a "Hay Cecil how's it going" with the intent on continuing walking by. Cecil stopped dead in his tracks and yelled back "HOWS IT GOING? LET ME TELL YOU KID, HOWS IT GOING. The cook "banged out" sick and I got 200 plus EFFING patrons with half of them ordering food. I'm the only EFFING one on.That's how's it going." I bobbed my head and started walking again. Bohemian looked over at and said "Wow he's pissed."" Ya I guess he had it in his head to sit by the dish washer all night jabbering to him self like he usually does sipping booze."
The show started at 5:30pm which left no time to go home and cook dinner before the show. That is if you worked for a living. They sold out on burgers and working on selling out on chicken fingers and fries. Cecil had the Grinch face all night while carrying plates of food above his head to avoid smearing ketchup over people who knocked into him. "WHO'S GOT THE FINGERS AND FRY'S." Most people had ordered fingers and fry's so the hole night was confusing on who ordered first with the bar tenders keeping track the best they could. Cecil didn't give a sh#t. Food ordering is secondary to booze ordering at the Bungalow. I guess if you own a bar and trying to move more food, try having a show start at 5:30 and watch.

Unsaid Fate started things off after some local bands doing cover's exited the stage. I always dig women singing metal just because it is fairly rare to see. Jackie LaPonza is a freak by nature. She entered into the bar and at first I didn't know who she was. With her tight belling showing. She was walking straight at me yet looked right through me as if I wasn't there. She was babbling incoherently to her self while making a bee line to the stage. I was wide eyed and  moved out of her path and she passed me babbling and pointing to the sky.I thought for sure I was about to be steam rolled. Not much better than a hot chick who's a freak. It just makes the conversation interesting. Freaks have a tendency to talk a lot about nothing yet seemingly making sense.  In turn you tend to believe the conversation hoping she's this freaky in bed. Her metal set turned out to be as good as her looks which is saying a lot. Unsaid Fate members kicked in a heavy set with Jackie providing the flare. You got to have something and this band has two. Heavy metal and hot chick!

Next up Kissing Candice. Heavy visual band, theatrical metal as I like to say. Most dudes don't like Theatrical Metal they prefer other names such as Heavy Metal, Black Metal, Thrash Metal and other names that sound cool.  Dressed up in masks and Halloween type costumes. I see it as a performance within a musical performance and when coupled with some simple choreography it becomes visually consuming. I expected a band like Kissing Candice to be second to last right before the headliner but this was not the case which is a case for showing up early. If you skipped out the early part of the show you would have missed Kissing Candice. A first rate Theatrical Metal Core band which are worth the price of admission alone. The show started at like 5:30pm and ended at 12:30am. They entered at about 7pm which is early. Maybe its me but I never seen a band sound so good and be early in a set. Major league visual band in costume, a movie vibe to the set endorsed by Metal Core. If your into Metal Core check these dudes out.

The Browning, well known to every one in the place but me and two others. They have been bitching sense 2005 out of Kansas City. Jonny McBee the vocalist was able to command the crowd at will. Setting up the "PIT" by telling the patrons which direction to move while moshing like a tornado effect. The final was a wall of death. This is where the crowd splits down the middle and upon command charge each other and collide center stage. The biggest mosh happened during there set if your into that and most of the crowd was. After The Browning exited the stage Jonny was signing CD's for fans and chatting. Later he joined the crowd center stage to enjoy the rest of the show.
Headliners Mushroomhead have one of the most visual sets I have seen to date. Their costumes are not complex but command attention when they are on stage. The lights play off their masks of a devils face. Using different masks at different tours. These masks where well thought out by some one into stage work and costumes and it was not a coincidence that the gear worked. Not only looked cool but worked with the light show that is part of the set. Pretty wild and something that I enjoy while watching metal bands perform that make use of Theatrical Metal.

Thanks Side Stage Magazine for the photo. My cell camera sucked as far as pictures as I was too far from the stage(for good reason:moshing) to get a publishable shot. That picture above is what was happening all night.I checked Mushroomhead images on google to get a good example of  that show and started to compare their image of this tour compared to other tours and I found this tour to be one of if not the most visual stage set to date. The band has two singers who play off each other in the songs and have much to say in their music. It is evident that they have a message, by the way they bounced lyrics back and forth off each other. This is coupled with two drummers who take front stage with batons playing in time with the beat. More as a show rather than part of the band. The drummer, Steve "skinny" Felton who has been a member with the band sense 1993 kicked ass in the back round. I watched him exclusively from time to time and he never let up. The image he gave me was that he completely enjoyed what he was doing complete with side smashes on the cymbals. This is when you take the stick and start on your right and smash the sh#t out of the cymbal on your left. I got a major kick out of watching him smash cymbals and twirl the sticks in the air and bounce them off the skins all in perfect timing. This is a direct result to a well rehearsed band.