by Bryan 'Venomdoc' Fry - Staff Writer


The crowd at the Megadeth/Slayer double-bill was mostly male unshaven tattooed sorts, so I fit right in. The few women around were wearing the latest-and-greatest fashions from Biker's Moll Weekly. Apparently black was this season's black.

The opening act (Double Dragon) did a workmanship job of warming the crowd up. Leading them on several drum-driven chants of MEGADETH! and SLAYER!!

Then came Megadeth, or as they are more rightly known, Dave Mustaine and three other guys. While Dave has a vocal capacity that spans the full range from A to B, he uses it with precision and devastating efficiency. Just like the Pied Piper, he led the crowd into a passionate pit. Peace may sell, but they crowd wasn't buying that. They were however eagerly lapping up all that he put out to tender. By the time Megadeth finished their scorcher of a set, the front of stage was a holy war indeed.

Slayer came on and the concert unfortunately descended into a true season in the abyss. The first song had sparing vocals but was the hardest wall of metal I have ever had the privelage to be assaulted by. Wrapping the crowd up in it's muscular arms just as one of guitart Kerry King's beloved pythons coils around a prey item. The drummer was hitting the frenetic pace that can only be fueled by enough red bull to give an elephant's heart a stop. After the first song, Tom Araya motioned for the crowd to be quiet and then informed everyone that his voice was shot and that there wasn't going to be much singing. The band then launched into a series of instrumentals. Not Spinal-Tapian free-form jazz, but rather something much heavier. However, in the absence of vocals, the pace could not be sustained and the band flagged.

The rapport with the crowd was also lost when there were complete blackouts between songs lasting a minute or longer as roadies wandered around with flashlights, perhaps looking for Tom's voice. Kerry may be able to sing as well as play guitar, but unlike walking and chewing gum, he can't do them at the same time. So the band brought on random people from backstage to sing. They did it in good spirit and while the crowd were positive about the attempt, none of them had the power of Tom in full-flight, when he has the voice of two mortals. The filler-attempt reminded me too-much of the movie Rock Star. I half expected one of the walk-ons to launch into a spirirted rendition of 'Stand up and shout' including the sustained vocal note. Slayer finished their set abruptly and without the obligatory encore.

One hopes Tom's voice hits its former glory and that this is not a harbinger of the tour to come. The show is worth going to for Megadeth alone though. Perhaps it should be re-billed as MegaDave!

Concert promoter Live Nation continues its promotional streak by offering another recession busting deal to get music fans off the couch and into the clubs. According to a press release that landed on our news desk this morning:

Live Nation announced today a 2-for-1 club concert ticket deal on 200,000 tickets to over 350 concerts in 29 of its club venues across the country. Available only at LiveNation.com this Wednesday, fans will get two tickets for the price of one, a 50% savings, to see any of a wide variety of artists across genres including Hanson, Colbie Callait Trey Songz, Mario, The Bravery, The Used and Moby, and many others.

The 24 hour only 2-for-1 super sale begins this Wednesday October 7th at 12:01a.m. only at www.LiveNation.com.

And LiveNation's not kidding when it comes to the artist lineup either, with heavy acts such as Paramore and Dethklok also on the list. (not so much on the Hanson)

Look for the press release over in our press release section.

by Jeff Barringer - Staff Writer Headlining one of this years ACL main stages, and firing this years opening volley to start the fest, a new band, Them Crooked Vultures opened the festival with a sold out pre-fest gig at Stubb's BarBQ last night. Begun as a special project in 2005 by super-musician Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, the band played a handful of disparate gigs in the United States and Europe back in August, but the Stubb's stop is officially the very first stop on their very first American tour. It is a wise man that attends one of Dave Grohls' side project bands live gigs with no pre-conceived notions. Much like his experimental Probot project, nothing about the sound of this band bears any relationship to either Foo Fighters or Nirvana. In fact it probably derives more of it's sound from 60's classic "heavy" bands such as Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly than anything produced in the last 20 years. With the legendary John Paul Jones of Led Zepplelin on the bass and the keyboard, the bands direction was probably inevitable, and yet there was a twinge of frenetic "Jack White" experimentalism which when layered with that deep late 60's blues rock, creates a melange different from anything else you'll hear today. With the off key vocals of Queens of The Stone Age's Josh Homme highlighting and accentuating the esoteric nature of the music, these songs wouldn't sound out of place in 1968 London. I think they need to ask Blue Cheer to open for them. THAT would be a great double bill. But this is a chimera, a once in a lifetime chance to see these musicians play together, something that after this tour is never likely to happen again. With the tour selling out in record time few people will get the opportunity. Luckily for all of us, they taped a set for the Austin City Limits TV show on PBS Thursday. Look for it to be aired sometime in early 2010. Click here to check out the rest of the pics. photos by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

by Jeff Barringer - Staff Writer It didn't feel quite like a Raul's reunion in the audience at the Psychedelic Furs show at Stubb's last night, more like a VH1 80's retrospective as brothers Richard Butler and Tim Butler brought the seminal 70's punk cum new wave band to Austin. The Fur's have a long history influencing the Austin alternative music scene, in fact going all the way back to their show at Raul's in 1980, Austin's legendary well-spring punk club down on the U.T. campus. Many Austin bands sprang from that gig, and as one of the first foreign punk acts to play an Austin club, the Fur's's helped to establish Austin's punk/alternative music scene on an international level. This iteration of the Fur's has changed somewhat, with the Butler's being the only remaining original members, but with Rich Good on guitar, Mars Williams on saxophone, Amanda Kramer on keys, and Paul Garisto drums providing able accompaniment the songs sounded album perfect. And what songs there were too, a litany of FM radio favorites of the 80's and 90's. If I had only one complaint about thesong mix it would be that aside from "Sister Europe" they didn't play anything else off their first album. Those songs were so much darker than their later work, less radio friendly, and more experimental for the time. Certainly tame by todays standards, in the FM world of the 70's & 80's where The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac ruled the airwaves, those songs were groundbreaking. But I digress. Looking at the set list I don't see anything I didn't enjoy hearing, and I would be hard pressed to pick songs to cut to find room for others. Great show, great set, I could watch the Psychedelic Furs again and again. Click here to check out the rest of the pics. photos by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

Dark, ethereal, mystical and that was just their stage lighting! Nottingham, UK. based Amusement Parks On Fire opened for the Psychedelic Furs at Stubb's, September 24, 2009. They reminded me a lot of The Catherine Wheel. Click here to check out the rest of the pics. photos by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

Lemmy and the rest of the crew in Motörhead didn't make picture taking easy with their fog machine going full blast, but we managed to eek out a few shots during their September 20, 2009 stop at Stubb's. Click here to check out the rest of the pics. photos by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

Texas Psychobilly legend Reverend Horton Heat also opened for Motörhead, a nod towards Lemmy's rockabilly side, Stubb's BarBQ September 20, 2009. Click here to check out the rest of the pics. photos by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

Nashville Pussy made a great opening act for Motörhead in Austin at Stubb's BarBQ on September 20, 2009. Click here to check out the rest of the pics. photos by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer

LiveNation has announced a special deal for live music fans across the U.S. that will allow them to see an unlimited number of shows at their club venues, including the House of Blues chain, for a paltry $49.99 for the rest of 2009.

For a limited time only, concert fans can buy The Live Nation Club Passport for $49.99, All-In and No Fees, and see every show at Live Nation clubs in their city for the rest of the year, subject to availability. If you’re a Live Nation Club Passport holder, and the show’s not sold-out, you’re in! The Live Nation Club Passport is available only at www.livenation.com.

Participating venues include:

Avalon Los Angeles, CA
Bogart’s Cincinatti, OH
Egyptian Room at the Murat Theatre Indianapolis, IN
The Fillmore Auditorium Denver, CO
The Fillmore Charlotte Charlotte, NC
The Fillmore Miami Beach Miami Beach, FL
The Fillmore NY at Irving Plaza New York, NY
The Fillmore San Francisco, CA
The Fillmore Detroit Detroit, MI
Gramercy Theatre New York, NY
Hollywood Palladium Hollywood, CA
House of Blues Anaheim Anaheim, CA
House of Blues Boston Boston, MA
House of Blues Chicago Chicago, IL
House of Blues Cleveland Cleveland, OH
House of Blues Dallas Dallas, TX
House of Blues Houston Houston, TX
House of Blues Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV
House of Blues Sunset Strip West Hollywood, CA
House of Blues Myrtle Beach North Myrtle Beach, SC
House of Blues New Orleans New Orleans, LA
House of Blues Orlando Lake Buena Vista, FL
House of Blues San Diego San Diego, CA
Tabernacle Atlanta, GA
Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA
The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA

When he wasn't busy selling snakes from his booth at the North American Reptile Breeder's Conference in Anaheim California earlier this month, noted reptile breeder Kerry King found time to do a few things to keep fans of his day job with Slayer happy.

After zooming over to Europe to play a couple key shows, he made it back in time to man his booth at the reptile show, then launched a new Slayer Web Site, then announced an Asian tour, then announced the track listings for the new album "World Painted Blood", scheduled to release November 3rd in the states.

Now Slayer has announced a Canadian tour with Megadeth and released the artwork for the new album. Slayer's new dates in Canada include:

11.08.09 Moncton, NB Moncton Coliseum
11.09.09 Halifax, NS Halifax Metro Center
11.11.09 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
11.12.09 Quebec City, QC Colisee Pepsi Arena
11.13.09 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre

To check out the new cover for Slayer's forthcoming Album, visit http://www.slayer.net/us/news/album-art-revealed.