Pentagram/Hidden Hand/Alabama Thunderpussy - Washington, DC,
http://www.hellridemusic.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=5422
Sometimes it's hard to even know where to begin.
As I sit in front of my computer today, last night's events still have not totally sunk in. I know what I saw, I know what I heard, and I now know a bit more about what happened behind the scenes, but I still have trouble wrapping my head around it. So I'll start from the beginning, and we'll see where my mind wanders.
I arrived at the Black Cat at about 8:15, hoping to buy a ticket before grabbing a pre-show bite to eat at the restaurant downstairs. People started to file in to the club's downstairs bar, appropriately named the Red Room, and I could see that the return of Pentagram would draw a mighty crowd of old school metal fans as well as the usual DC concertgoers. When the doors finally opened a bit after 9:30, I was one of the first to get upstairs and marvel at the wall of speakers on stage. I made my rounds through the room, visiting with old friends I hadn't seen in a while as well as the dedicated rockers who attend every show in the greater Washington area. By the time Alabama Thunderpussy took the stage at 10:00, at least 200 people were huddled around the stage and bars ready for the night to begin.
I've seen ATP eight times now, but never with this kind of audience. The band dedicated its set to Dimebag Darrel and seemed extra energized, both by the large crowd and the privilege of opening for two of the area's metal legends. ATP tore through a set that began with "Wage Slave" and finished with the happy-go-lucky "Sociopath Shitlist", and the return of "Hunting By Echo" and "Dryspell" to the set list made me a very happy Thunderpussy fan. The crowd, which at this point consisted mostly of older veterans of the 80s metal scene and numbered in the 400-500 range, received the band warmly, and I think it's safe to say that ATP will draw a larger crowd the next time they play a show at the Warehouse Next Door on the other side of the city. I can't wait to see them open for Gwar at the Recher Theater next month.
I'd said before the show that I'd be just as excited if any one of the three bands on the bill were playing alone, as ATP and The Hidden Hand put on absolutely amazing shows when I saw them in the closing months of 2004. ATP put on a set that blew away its December 3 show in DC, and I had every expectation of The Hidden Hand outdoing its October 29 show at the Black Cat. Sure enough, Wino, Bruce, and Dave came through. Other than the saddening news that Dave might be leaving the band, Wino's latest power trio couldn't do anything wrong. Even the usually annoying "Screw the Naysayers" and "Travesty As Usual" got my head bobbing and my foot stomping on this evening, while "Falconstone" and "Five Points" put a hefty exclamation point on a very, very heavy set. It's always a pleasure and an honor to see Wino play, and I couldn't stop smiling at the idea of seeing back-to-back performances by "living gods."
When Place of Skulls played at the Warehouse last summer, a crazy-looking old man with frizzed out hair took the stage and tore through three songs with Victor Griffin and company to finish off the night. Bobby Liebling looked like something out of a Mary Shelley movie that night, but he was also the most entertaining, engaging frontman I'd ever seen perform. I was completely captivated by his stage presence -- the crazed look in his eyes, the passion in his voice, the way he paced the stage like a boxer looking for a fight. Sure, he also looked fragile and more than a little worn down, but it didn't matter. This was Bobby-fucking-Liebling, and he was a living legend.
With that performance in mind, I had plenty of reasons to believe that Pentagram would, indeed, return to the stage on January 15, 2005 and tear the roof off. My friends and I made jokes about Bobby's reputation for missing shows, of course, but it was the kind of nervous joking that happens on shakey airplane take-offs and old, wooden roller coaster rides. We watched Bobby's latest bandmates -- the instrumental 3/4 of the fantastic Internal Void -- set up their gear, and the air filled with anticipation. Bobby hadn't shown his face all night, and we all expected him to make a grand entrance as the crowd roared with metallic appreciation.
Unfortunately, that isn't exactly what happened.
From my vantage point at the front of the stage, just two feet from guitarist Kelly Carmichael, I saw Bobby come through the backstage door and stand at the side of the stage. He looked shakey and weak, and he seemed to have trouble standing. I turned to my friends and commented, "This doesn't look good." When Bobby seemed to have trouble getting up to the stage, which sits a good three feet above the ground and lacks any kind of stairs or ramp, I tried to assure myself that he's just an old man who has trouble with tall steps. But as everyone has no doubt already heard, Bobby is not simply an old man with wild hair and a golden voice. He is also a 20-year heroin addict. And after he was finally lifted on to the stage by people who love him, this particular heroin addict could not stand up. He crawled across the stage on his hands and knees, adorned in a leather jacket and wearing a silver crucifix around his neck. Half the crowd screamed and high-fived at Bobby's arrival, while the other half stood in stunned silence and waited to see if he could get it together. Bobby crawled over to Kelly's feet, trying to pull himself upright using Kelly's microphone stand and pants leg. When that didn't work, two of his friends rushed over from the side of the stage and hoisted him to his feet by the armpits, standing him in front of his mic and telling him that it was time to play.
Instead, Bobby took one look at the sea of faces habitating the Black Cat and stumbled backward to the drum riser, sitting down next to the bass drum and rocking back and forth. A chair was brought on to the stage in the hopes that Bobby could perform from a sitting position, but instead the legendary singer curled up into a fetal position on the drum riser and refused to move. Eventually he was coaxed to come off the stage, and he was attended to by paramedics as the crowd chanted, "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby ..."
It was truly one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I have sat in rooms with musicians smoking pot, I have seen a certain frontman on a cocaine binge, and I have seen plenty of people tripping on acid. But never in my life had I ever seen a smack addict overdosing, much less on a stage in front of hundreds of fans. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything at all. I just stood there and hoped against hope that Bobby would suddenly jump on stage and take the microphone, screaming "Surprise you fuckers!" and launching in to "Wheel of Fortune". But it was not to be. And if I, a simple fan who had never so much as exchanged basic pleasantries with Bobby, felt awkward and shocked, I cannot even begin to imagine how his band felt. So Kelly, Adam Heinzmann, and Mike Smail did the only thing they could. They started to play.
The set, which I will loosely call "a Pentagram set," was a perfect metaphor for Bobby Liebling's career. It was marred by drug use and crippled by Bobby's addiction, yet the music it produced was as heavy and beautiful as any ever played. Pentagram ripped through "Wheel of Fortune" and "Elektra Glide", with Kelly's incredible solos taking over for the lost vocals and leading the songs. After "Elektra" Dave Sherman (Earthride) and J.D. Williams (Interval Void) called Adam to the side of the stage, and after a brief conversation they jumped on stage. Each man took a microphone, and Sherman explained to all of us that "Bobby won't be with us much longer" and could not perform. Instead, he and J.D. would attempt to fill in for a few songs, taking a "The show must go on" mentality.
I admit that I have made fun of Sherman a lot in the past. He says some pretty outrageous things, and he's still the only guy I have ever seen get on stage and ask with a straight face, "Anybody got any pills?" But last night Dave Sherman earned my respect. He and J.D. made the best of a bad situation, singing with heart and conviction on a slew of Pentagram classics and doing their best to get the crowd into the Bobby-less show. They managed to recruit Skull (Black Manta) and Joe Hasselvander (Sub-Basement-era Pentagram) to help with vocal duties, and the set turned into a Pentagram tribute. Hundreds of people sang along with the classic "Forever My Queen", and Joe ripped "20 Buck Spin" apart with such energy that he spiked the microphone into the stage afterward and effectively ended the dual vocalist part of the set. But I was most impressed by the guys with instruments, because they played their asses off in the face of adversity. They just tucked their heads down and played those songs as well as they've ever been played, and they ignored the occasional calls of "I want my money back!" and "This is bullshit!" I want to particularly stress Kelly's performance, because he really is the most underrated guitar player in this country. If there is one guy who can match Wino's talent and sincerity behind the axe, it is Internal Void's Kelly Carmichael. When you pair a talent like that with songs like those in the Pentagram catalogue, great things will be the result.
At the end of the set, I paused long enough to give the band a richly-deserved ovation. The instrumental portion of Pentagram endured as difficult a situation as I have ever seen, and they still pulled off an incredible, powerful, and heavy set of rich doom metal. I found out afterward that, just as I had feared, Bobby did shoot up before the show, and had to be revived from an overdose just to get him to the stage. The paramedics had taken him to the hospital, and nobody seemed to know how he was doing. Strangely enough, I almost wonder if a lot of those in attendance cared. I felt a tremendous sadness for a human being who had let his life be so savagely destroyed by heroin, and it made me think of how many lives smack has destroyed. It is the one drug that literally ruins everyone it touches, from musical revolutionaries like Kurt Cobain to guys who work at convenience stores and live with their parents. I hoped that Bobby would survive this latest scare and beat the drug that had taken his chance at stardom away, but in my heart I knew that he'd just do the same thing over and over again. So while I felt that sadness and that sympathy, at the same time I couldn't help but be a bit angry. Angry not for me, but for all those people who he had truly let down. For the guys in his band, for the fans who had driven many hours to be in DC on that night, for the friends who had set up the show and encouraged him to get back on stage and "show 'em how." For the people who really had put their hearts and souls into making Pentagram live and breathe again. What right did I have to be sad? I live 10 minutes away and have been a Pentagram fan for less than two years. Screw me. What about them?
But this concert, as difficult and troubling as it was, also proved an old axiom to be true: rock-n-roll lives forever. Even though Bobby couldn't keep his shit together long enough to come through for us and give everyone what they'd come to see, he was the only one. ATP was as good as I've ever seen then. The Hidden Hand was as good as I've ever seen them. And all the people who made the Pentagram set happen, God bless them, were as good as I've ever seen a band in disarray. In the end, I did not get to see a Pentagram set. I got to see a sad, broken old man embarrass himself in front of hundreds of people who wanted to love him and cheer for him. That is a shame. But out of darkness comes light, as they say, and the 14 other musicians who performed at the Black Cat last night brought a perfect sunbeam into the dark club. It was something I will likely never forget, and I can only hope that Bobby Liebling will be as inspired by it as I was. If he can commit himself to cleaning up his act for one final run at life, maybe at the next Pentagram show he can have as much fun as I did last night. And if not, I know now that something good will still come of it. If nothing else, the songs Bobby has given us will always outlive and outshine the failures of the man himself.
ATP:
Wage Slave / Whore Adore/ Dryspell / Infested / Blasphemy / Esteem Fiend / Lunar Eclipse / Hunting By Echo / Sociopath Shitlist
HH:
Travesty As Usual / For All the Wrong Reasons / Oamyata / Screw the Naysayers / Welcome To Sunshine / Five Points / The Crossing / Falconstone / Rebellion / Desensitized
Pentagram:
Wheel of Fortune / Elektra Glide / The Ghoul (w/ Dave Sherman and J.D. Williams) / Walk in the Blue Light (w/ Dave Sherman and J.D. Williams) / Forever My Queen (w/ Dave Sherman, J.D. Williams, and Skull) / Walk in the Blue Light (w/ Dave Sherman and J.D. Williams) / Day of Reckoning (w/ Dave Sherman) / 20 Buck Spin (w/ Joe Hasselvander) / Earth Flight (w/ Dave Sherman) / Mad Dog / Show 'em How (w/ Skull)
The planned Pentagram set:
Wheel of Fortune / Elektra Glide / The Ghoul / Day of Reckoning / Starlady / Walk in the Blue Light / Catwalk / Earth Flight / Mad Dog / Prayer For an Exit Before the Dead End / Forever My Queen / City Romance / Show 'em How / 20 Buck Spin
Originally Posted by regularpaul
