In what has to be just a weird coincidence I was standing in a Hot Topic in Highland Mall, staring at a Slayer T-Shirt, listening to "World Painted Blood" over the stores stereo, when my iPhone rings, and no joke it's Slayer's Kerry King. Calling from Albuquerque on the first leg of American Carnage he just wanted to check my plans for the tour. Roaming North America with Slayer right now is Megadeth and Testament on the first half of the American Carnage Tour but with that leg ending September 4th in Portland, I won't be able to pick up the tour until it starts it's second leg in Dallas on Sept 24. I'm hoping to tag along to San Antonio and Houston as well.
Kerry says that playing with Megadeth and Testament every night is really cool but he is looking forward to the tour break coming up after a long summer on the road. What is he going to do during his 20 day road break between Oregon and Texas? Watch lots of football and hopefully sell some snakes.
After a successful year with the band with a new CD, a tour of Europe with thrash's big four (that's Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax), Kerry also had a great year with his snake breeding and is going to take time out of his tour break to sell some of his snakes at the upcoming North American Reptile Breeders Conference in Anaheim. Along with his usual carpet pythons, Kerry says he will be signing autographs and selling some of his personal stash of merch so anyone wanting a chance to meet him, maybe buy a snake or a TShirt, he will be at the Anaheim Convention Center Sept 11 and 12th.
I won't see Kerry again until Dallas where the tour picks up again, this time with Anthrax, and hope to post a whole bunch of stuff from the road.
Successfully shaking off the sophomore blues Belton/Temple Texas based hard rock band Flyleaf is making a stop at Stubb's BarBQ on September 26th.
Fronted by the diminutive Lacey Mosley, the band proved it was no one hit wonder with their second album 2009's Memento Mori with the monster single "All Around Me" surpassing even the growly, gravelly "Im So Sick" from their freshman self-titled release in 2005.
Our last chance to cover Flyleaf was at Antone's in Austin back in 1997. The lighting was terrible, the venue was packed, and getting into the photo pit was a nightmare, so I for one am looking forward to seeing them in a larger venue. With the "hometown" buzz this will be a great show.
Tickets are still available through the Stubb's web site and Frontgate Tickets but I do expect this to sell out.
St. Louis, Missouri based Story of the Year opens.
The last tickets to this show sold just as I was picking up my photo pass, so for his live DVD Matisyahu can officially say "filmed before a sold out audience".
It was a close run thing too, because all that video equipment just invited a torrential rainstorm and just a mere 10 minutes north of the venue there was an absolute deluge. Call it luck or divine intervention, but nary a drop made it to Stubb's and in the end the army of videographers were able to put an awesome set down on film(?).
Although the humidity was near 100% and the temperatures were hovering in the 90's Matisyahu performed onstage in suit and a long head scarf, both part of his orthodox faith, and both were soaked by the end of the second song. Though he and his band played on seemingly oblivious to the heat and feeding off the energy of the crowd, I was not so lucky and had to replenish my fluids with many bottles of water passed to me by the security crew.
Matisyahu is one of those artists that is better live than in the studio. Something about his energy is tough to capture in a room filled with egg crate foam rather than fans. I look forward to seeing and hearing how both the CD and DVD turn out. If you can't make it to the show this tour, the DVD will be a close second. Click here for the rest of the Matisyahu pics.
Click for Nathen Maxwell and The Original Bunny Gang pics
Most people on Kingsnake.com know Derek Roddy as a breeder of some outstanding Australian Pythons. But like many of us, he does have a day job.
Derek has a long history with some of the greatest metal bands out there, either being a member or being a supporting player. He is most well known for his work with Malevolent Creation and Hate Eternal.
As a favor to his fans as well as the entire reptile community, Derek wanted to offer his latest musical release as a free download. From Derek:
Serpents Rise suggest downloading all the songs, THEN....listening to the entire recording.The work is intended to be seamless....and, taken in as one body of music.We hope you enjoy....and, interpret.
Serpents Rise....as you can hear....is an instrumental entity. But, this does not mean that we are opposed to hearing what vocal possibilities exist. With this in mind....Serpents Rise invites you to "be the vocalist".
Whether in your car, in your bedroom, on stage covering one of our songs, posting clips of you singing our tunes on youtube OR....in the event that we show up in your town.....you sing with us on stage! Have fun...create!
Without a cloud in the sky and a heat index still hovering in the triple digits, the crowd was slow to gather last night for the Crowded House show at Stubb's BarBQ and it's outdoor amphitheater, but eventually it filled in by the time the band reached the stage.
Veteran's of Austin's notoriously hot and dusty ACL fest, Crowded House put that experience to use as they worked their way through a 2 hour set in the sweltering summer temperatures, covering songs from throughout their vast catalog.
Drawing on a fan base that stretched all the way back to founding members Neil and Tim Finn's Split Enz days in the early 80s, the audience was distinctly older though some younger attendees were there, perhaps drawn by the band's ACL appearances. If so it was a perfect opportunity to catch them in a much more intimate venue and really the best way to appreciate the finely crafted songwriting of these New Zealanders.
Sadly, Paul Hesters contributions on percussion were greatly missed, although Matt Sherrod's outstanding musicianship went a long way towards filling in the gap.
Sarah McLachlan brought her Lilith Fair back to Toronto last Saturday and Club.Kingsnake photographer Walid Lodin was there to capture some outstanding images!