Slam One Down had a show at Don Hills Friday night opening up for Anaka. We were the first band of the night so we were playing pretty early. All of us got there at a reasonable time and were able to setup our rigs comfortably. We play the set and crush it, albeit to a small crowd. Whatever. We figured it would be a glorified practice and treated it as such. People loved it and we got praise afterwards, just like we do at every show. So we did our thing and crushed it.
After packing up the trailer and my car, there were a couple of other shows going on in the city that I wanted to catch. So after a quick bite to eat at a burger place where my friend makes a racist/dorky remark at the Asian waitress:
Jose: (to the asian waitress) Make it so.
Roach: Did you just refer to her as Mr. Sulu?
Jose: Yes and thank you for catching the reference.
He also tries to steal the mirror from the bathroom and gets a woman to sing Winter Wonderland. These are the people I choose to hang out with. After eating we traveled to Brooklyn. Now I have in my car Mrs. Roach, a coworker of hers, Tania, and a friend of mine who came up from North Carolina to see the show, Jose. So the four of us drive to Trash Bar, but first we made a quick stop at Duffs because Jose hadn’t seen Laurie Anne, their regular bartender, in years.
I filmed him as we walked into the bar and he sang a partridge family song to announce his entrance. She immediately jumps over the bar and jumps on him, wrapping her arms around him in a huge hug. She then immediately gives us the finger and tells us to fuck off. This is what I love about Duffs and the people who work there. Once you get to know the bartenders and the owner, it’s like family. You can say whatever the fuck you want to them and everyone knows it’s all in good fun.
Now we immediately leave. We were literally in Duffs for 5 seconds to say hi. No drink or anything. We jump back into my car and head to Trash Bar.
We get to Trash Bar and the place is PACKED! I’m talking wall to wall, front to back, shoulder to shoulder packed. We make it into the back room for the show and we had to muscle our way to the bar for a drink. I see some people I know as well as the people who are running the show. Joseph Schuftan from Horns Up Rocks and ‘Evil’Steve Ventura who booked the show as a fund raiser for Toys for Tots.
Now my boys in Odd Man In were headlining this show and it was their record release show. I’m sorry to say I didn’t get to catch them this night because I had a birthday party to go to later on in the night where I was promised Spanish food, a bed, and a bottle of Jaegermeister. What I did get to catch at Trash bar were two bands: World Lost, who Slam One Down are playing with in March in Delaware. They were fucking amazing, let me tell you. Old school heavy beat and riff metal at its finest.
Once they were finished, some guys started passing around those light up devil horns you can buy at any Halloween stores. I get some and put it on and find it coincidental I’m wearing my devil shirt this night. The next band to go on was King Hell. If you haven’t heard of these guys then you need to. These guys brought the fucking house down; groovy, funky metal complete with character and style. They have two lead singers, one calling on the spirit of Rob Halford while the other one, with his red and black Zoot suit and deep voice, held the crowd in a metal infused trance. The guitarist had on football pads with spikes on it, the bass player had on a 70’s style outfit complete with glasses and a real afro. The drummer looked like a demonic samurai, wearing a giant black Chinese straw hat and a red and black kimono while he slightly grooved to the beats he was playing. Their charisma and stage presence was phenomenal. Go to kinghellmetal.com and check them out.
So now I’m done after seeing this amazing performance. The wifey tells me we need to go if we’re gonna make this party. We stop at Duffs one more time to drink some more and I see Alex Gugi, Pablo Diaz, and Johnny Kook, a band called Gas who my previous band used to play with all the time, and they’re close friends of mine. After talking with them and Jimmy Duff for a while, I leave my friend Jose there, Drop Tania off at a train, and drive to my friend’s birthday party.
My wife is worried that the party might be over. It’s only 1am and the birthday girl is Puerto Rican, I know better. The minute we get out of the car, we hear loud music. I know it’s coming from the party. At 1 in the morning I just start yelling her name out in the middle of street, Devil shirt and Devil horns still on my head. She looks out the window and screams when she sees us.
We walk up to her apartment and it’s packed with Spanish people, young and old, and the music is pumping. I down the first vodka and cranberry she gives me and quickly ask for another. The music starts getting good so everyone starts dancing. Now this girl bought a stripper pole and set it up in the living room for her birthday. I had my camera at the ready just in case a girl decided to do some crazy shit and totally fail at it. The music was good, the liquor was good, I was feeling good. Then at 4am her landlord comes up and shuts the party down. DJ’s pack their shit, the beds are set up and I pass out.
I wake up the next morning, the birthday girl makes everyone breakfast. Everyone wanted to make breakfast for her, but she’s Puerto Rican; having things done for her is unheard of. After some pancakes, eggs and bacon, me and Mrs. Roach left to go to Chelsea so I could teach a student. All in the life of a musician…
Monday, December 6, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Slam One Down for the Holiday Season
It is finally holiday season and I don't know about the rest of you but it is totally the season for good times. In the Slam One Down family it seems like every day there is a reason to get whacked but in all honesty, in the NYC area there is that unique feeling of good times, during December thru January. Now I really could care less about the actual Holidays specifically. At this point in my life they really do not have a lot of meaning. But, I do love the fact that everyone sneaks in a "Night Out" on a random day of the week. There is always some group of people in your circle "tying one on" somewhere. Sometimes its a couple of friends from work going out and grabbing a couple of drinks right after work. Its a couple of old-school buddies hitting up a strip-club for a once a year gathering to see each other. It could be a cool Metal show somewhere checking out a local favorite or a national act. Some people after they shop for whatever, just grab a quick drink by themselves and meet some cool new people. What is even better is that in every bar, there are lights and festive music playing, and there are always cool Holiday drinks that usually are good to the pallet. I dig it....any excuse to have a couple of cocktails works for me. So to my point...
In the Slam One Down camp we have a very specific goal in playing gigs and what we want to achieve in the Heavy Metal Music scene. We just don't play shows randomly, we set them up in a way that gives each show meaning to help get us to the main goal. However, every once in a while, you have to move laterally and stray off the path for one reason...."Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
This Holiday Season, Slam One Down will be playing quite a few shows in the local NYC area. We typically do not do that, we usually like to spread them out. But for this Holiday we are going to play a bunch with only one thing in mind....sharing good times with all of our friends and Heavy Metal family. No rules, no playing 20 minutes supporting some national act, no bullshit. Just good times with no strings attached. I am sure you know how we like to roll in....lots of booze lots of good times. So if you are available come and join us this Holiday season, you know I will be buying my friends some cocktails and showing my people a good time. Don't miss these events and stay in and complain about all the bullshit in your life....I guarantee you a good time.
Happy Holidays
J.R.
In the Slam One Down camp we have a very specific goal in playing gigs and what we want to achieve in the Heavy Metal Music scene. We just don't play shows randomly, we set them up in a way that gives each show meaning to help get us to the main goal. However, every once in a while, you have to move laterally and stray off the path for one reason...."Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
This Holiday Season, Slam One Down will be playing quite a few shows in the local NYC area. We typically do not do that, we usually like to spread them out. But for this Holiday we are going to play a bunch with only one thing in mind....sharing good times with all of our friends and Heavy Metal family. No rules, no playing 20 minutes supporting some national act, no bullshit. Just good times with no strings attached. I am sure you know how we like to roll in....lots of booze lots of good times. So if you are available come and join us this Holiday season, you know I will be buying my friends some cocktails and showing my people a good time. Don't miss these events and stay in and complain about all the bullshit in your life....I guarantee you a good time.
Happy Holidays
J.R.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Metal Sucks Review 11/22/10
I want to post a review by http://www.metalsucks.net
We played a gig at Crash Mansion, for the No Mercy Metal Showcase. Metal Sucks was sponsoring the event and as part of their sponsorship, they do a write up on the event and I believe single out a band that stood out to them for whatever reasons. So we got singled out with a great review. For the most part they compared us to Machine Head and Revocation, which I believe is a great thing. Feel free to visit the page and put in your comments and become a follower of Metal Sucks here is the excerpt:
http://www.metalsucks.net/2010/11/22/no-mercy-metal-slam-one-down-slam-it-down-on-halloween/
As part of our sponsorship of the No Mercy Metal showcases here in NYC — the most recent of which was held the night before Halloween, October 30th (hence the above photo) — we’ll be highlighting one band from each show here on MetalSucks in an effort to bring the best of the piping hot NYC metal scene to the rest of the world.
This edition’s featured band is Slam One Down, whose deathy-thrash attack reminds me at times of Revocation by way of Machine Head. Though Slam One Down aren’t quite as refined as either, they sound like what I might imagine Revocation’s very earliest demos sounding like; there’s plenty of promise here and skill equally divided amongst all the band members. Peep the track “To Live Forever” on their MySpace page, my personal favorite.
-VN
We played a gig at Crash Mansion, for the No Mercy Metal Showcase. Metal Sucks was sponsoring the event and as part of their sponsorship, they do a write up on the event and I believe single out a band that stood out to them for whatever reasons. So we got singled out with a great review. For the most part they compared us to Machine Head and Revocation, which I believe is a great thing. Feel free to visit the page and put in your comments and become a follower of Metal Sucks here is the excerpt:
http://www.metalsucks.net/2010/11/22/no-mercy-metal-slam-one-down-slam-it-down-on-halloween/
As part of our sponsorship of the No Mercy Metal showcases here in NYC — the most recent of which was held the night before Halloween, October 30th (hence the above photo) — we’ll be highlighting one band from each show here on MetalSucks in an effort to bring the best of the piping hot NYC metal scene to the rest of the world.
This edition’s featured band is Slam One Down, whose deathy-thrash attack reminds me at times of Revocation by way of Machine Head. Though Slam One Down aren’t quite as refined as either, they sound like what I might imagine Revocation’s very earliest demos sounding like; there’s plenty of promise here and skill equally divided amongst all the band members. Peep the track “To Live Forever” on their MySpace page, my personal favorite.
-VN
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
This Week in S1D Darketst Hour/Powerman 5000 Part 2 of 2
This Week in S1D Darketst Hour/Powerman 5000 Part 2 of 2
So this past Sunday we had the opportunity to open up for Darkest Hour/Veil of Maya/Periphery/Revocation and of course our good friends in Demilitia joined us. The show was held at Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA. It was a Sunday show and we had to be there relatively early at 2:30PM and it was about an hour and a half drive their from my house. I got up early and grabbed the trailer, changed guitar strings, bought beer/Jaeger for the cooler and shaved my head. Bobby text me at 11AM to ask me what time to be at my house. I told him be here by 12 so we can be on the road by 1PM. Big mistake, you see singers are DOUCHE BAGS, its the only way they can write good lyrics. So he showed up at 2PM making us and hour and half late. MY man was 2 hours late and remember he is a singer, he has nothing to do. No strings to change nothing all he had to do was get to my house, which is max a 20 minute ride. Needless to say as I was passing the 2 hours by that he was late I was saying to myself, I am done with this kid I am firing him....He pulled up, like nothing happened, pounded my hand and we got on our way.
For this particular show, we were asked to provide the back-line which included 2 Guitar Cabinets, A bass cabinet and full drum set. Since I am such a nice guy, I agreed to this. I probably could of asked to got paid for providing back-line, but I didn't because the head promoter gave us the best time slot on the main-stage before the main acts, so I figure it was a decent swap...It probably would have cost him a couple hundred dollars to rent the equipment. BUt like I said Bobby was late so we had to be there at 2:30 PM to set up the whole event with our equipment. We didn't get there until 3:45 PM and the show started at 4:10 promptly and doors opened at 4:00PM.
When we got there we basically where running around frantically, trying to get all of our stuff on stage within 15 minutes. It was cool though because all the club's stage hands where like "Nice of you to finally show up" which was kind of funny. So we literally unloaded my trailer and loaded the stage within 15 minutes, I'm talking a whole concert ready to go. After we got our stuff in I pulled the car into the lot next to the venue and set up camp.
What's nice about a trailer is that it kind of automatically sets up a cool chill spot anywhere you go, because of its size and dimensions. So we set up shop in the parking lot, pulled out the cooler and started pounding beers, shots of Jaeger and this drink called 4 Loco. Bobby grabbed one at the venue and it supposedly has like the equivalent of 5 beers and like 2 red-bulls. It tasted nasty, we all tried to down it but it sucked. So we sat outside for like two hours and had a pretty good time, while I tuned guitars and warmed up. Speaking of warming up, I was trying to warm up on the guitar but it was like 40 degrees out so I asked Bobby's girlfriend Gio if she had those gloves where the finger tips where exposed and she did. Problem was they were hot pink. So picture this, wanna-be metal god warming up outside in all black and hot pink gloves on and I think we got pictures.
We went on about 6 PM and the deal was that all opening bands got 20 minutes to play and the main acts all had like 25-30 mins. Kind of weird. So I said to the promoter, " SInce you are using our stuff, would you mind if our set was like 22-23 mins. He said no problem, but he forgot to tell the stage hands. So we go on and start playing. And typically what happens when you are a band that no one knows of, most of the people basically stare at you very weirdly. They don't know what to expect. But this crowd was really not emotional. They just watched, but after each song they cheered really loudly with a lot of emotion. But during the songs, no headbanging, no bopping around, just statues. It could have been a lot of reasons or it could just be the way the younger audiences are. Because there was about 100 kids watching us during the show. But they where all very young....since it was all ages. I knew this because the place is sectioned off between 21 and over and under age by a gate and there was very few people drinking at the bar. And it seemed even the national acts where getting the same kind of response from them.
So we finish our second song and the stage guy says last song and 2 mins left. And I was confused. I said to the guy, "It is mathmatically impossible to have 2 minutes left. Plus the head promoter gave us extra time. I said we are only 12 mins into the set and we still have 2 songs to go, plus you are using my stuff for all the other bands. Anyway, that really through my game off a bit, I tried my best to not let it bother me but I HATE being rushed on stage. It messes with my playing. And now I have to tell Bobby to speed it up which is no fun. We did still play the whole set and I do think it went over pretty well because a lot of kids came up to us at the end of the gig and told us how well we did.
But they rushed us off the stage after we where done. So you can see the humor in this, we brought in 50 people making the club $750, provided the backline for the whole main stage event and where treated like ass. I would call that the typical respect in this business.
We never let things bother us....so we went downstairs to the second stage where our buddies in Demilitia headlined. They ripped it and a lot of kids really vibed with them. After the show us and Demilita met up by the Merch tables and hung out all night. We had a blast together. Funny story....we couldn't sell a t-shirt to save our lives....so I came up with the idea. How bout I offer people a Beer Funnel drink for $10 and they get a tshirt too. Well that seemed to work I sold like 5 tshirts like that. We went back to our trailer, everyone gave me $10 for a tshirt and they got to do one beer funnel from our cooler. Other than the fact I didn't check ID's it worked out really well.
That was basically it for the end of the night. Got to see some cool younger bands like Periphery and Veil of May whom had a much larger crowd then the headliner, Darkest Hour, which I thought was weird. I was not impressed too much by the crowd participation it was OK. I don't know what the reason was; but it is what it is. I have to say though after Periphery played and hung out at their own MErch table there was huge lines for them. They had a big following. One of the guitar players was nice enough to point us out and tell their fans to check us out. Totally cool so we gave him a free Slam One Down Beer Run Tshirt. Hopefully he wear's it on stage. All I got to say is thank God Demilitia was there or it may not have been as fun. Later, till the next one
J.R.
So this past Sunday we had the opportunity to open up for Darkest Hour/Veil of Maya/Periphery/Revocation and of course our good friends in Demilitia joined us. The show was held at Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA. It was a Sunday show and we had to be there relatively early at 2:30PM and it was about an hour and a half drive their from my house. I got up early and grabbed the trailer, changed guitar strings, bought beer/Jaeger for the cooler and shaved my head. Bobby text me at 11AM to ask me what time to be at my house. I told him be here by 12 so we can be on the road by 1PM. Big mistake, you see singers are DOUCHE BAGS, its the only way they can write good lyrics. So he showed up at 2PM making us and hour and half late. MY man was 2 hours late and remember he is a singer, he has nothing to do. No strings to change nothing all he had to do was get to my house, which is max a 20 minute ride. Needless to say as I was passing the 2 hours by that he was late I was saying to myself, I am done with this kid I am firing him....He pulled up, like nothing happened, pounded my hand and we got on our way.
For this particular show, we were asked to provide the back-line which included 2 Guitar Cabinets, A bass cabinet and full drum set. Since I am such a nice guy, I agreed to this. I probably could of asked to got paid for providing back-line, but I didn't because the head promoter gave us the best time slot on the main-stage before the main acts, so I figure it was a decent swap...It probably would have cost him a couple hundred dollars to rent the equipment. BUt like I said Bobby was late so we had to be there at 2:30 PM to set up the whole event with our equipment. We didn't get there until 3:45 PM and the show started at 4:10 promptly and doors opened at 4:00PM.
When we got there we basically where running around frantically, trying to get all of our stuff on stage within 15 minutes. It was cool though because all the club's stage hands where like "Nice of you to finally show up" which was kind of funny. So we literally unloaded my trailer and loaded the stage within 15 minutes, I'm talking a whole concert ready to go. After we got our stuff in I pulled the car into the lot next to the venue and set up camp.
What's nice about a trailer is that it kind of automatically sets up a cool chill spot anywhere you go, because of its size and dimensions. So we set up shop in the parking lot, pulled out the cooler and started pounding beers, shots of Jaeger and this drink called 4 Loco. Bobby grabbed one at the venue and it supposedly has like the equivalent of 5 beers and like 2 red-bulls. It tasted nasty, we all tried to down it but it sucked. So we sat outside for like two hours and had a pretty good time, while I tuned guitars and warmed up. Speaking of warming up, I was trying to warm up on the guitar but it was like 40 degrees out so I asked Bobby's girlfriend Gio if she had those gloves where the finger tips where exposed and she did. Problem was they were hot pink. So picture this, wanna-be metal god warming up outside in all black and hot pink gloves on and I think we got pictures.
We went on about 6 PM and the deal was that all opening bands got 20 minutes to play and the main acts all had like 25-30 mins. Kind of weird. So I said to the promoter, " SInce you are using our stuff, would you mind if our set was like 22-23 mins. He said no problem, but he forgot to tell the stage hands. So we go on and start playing. And typically what happens when you are a band that no one knows of, most of the people basically stare at you very weirdly. They don't know what to expect. But this crowd was really not emotional. They just watched, but after each song they cheered really loudly with a lot of emotion. But during the songs, no headbanging, no bopping around, just statues. It could have been a lot of reasons or it could just be the way the younger audiences are. Because there was about 100 kids watching us during the show. But they where all very young....since it was all ages. I knew this because the place is sectioned off between 21 and over and under age by a gate and there was very few people drinking at the bar. And it seemed even the national acts where getting the same kind of response from them.
So we finish our second song and the stage guy says last song and 2 mins left. And I was confused. I said to the guy, "It is mathmatically impossible to have 2 minutes left. Plus the head promoter gave us extra time. I said we are only 12 mins into the set and we still have 2 songs to go, plus you are using my stuff for all the other bands. Anyway, that really through my game off a bit, I tried my best to not let it bother me but I HATE being rushed on stage. It messes with my playing. And now I have to tell Bobby to speed it up which is no fun. We did still play the whole set and I do think it went over pretty well because a lot of kids came up to us at the end of the gig and told us how well we did.
But they rushed us off the stage after we where done. So you can see the humor in this, we brought in 50 people making the club $750, provided the backline for the whole main stage event and where treated like ass. I would call that the typical respect in this business.
We never let things bother us....so we went downstairs to the second stage where our buddies in Demilitia headlined. They ripped it and a lot of kids really vibed with them. After the show us and Demilita met up by the Merch tables and hung out all night. We had a blast together. Funny story....we couldn't sell a t-shirt to save our lives....so I came up with the idea. How bout I offer people a Beer Funnel drink for $10 and they get a tshirt too. Well that seemed to work I sold like 5 tshirts like that. We went back to our trailer, everyone gave me $10 for a tshirt and they got to do one beer funnel from our cooler. Other than the fact I didn't check ID's it worked out really well.
That was basically it for the end of the night. Got to see some cool younger bands like Periphery and Veil of May whom had a much larger crowd then the headliner, Darkest Hour, which I thought was weird. I was not impressed too much by the crowd participation it was OK. I don't know what the reason was; but it is what it is. I have to say though after Periphery played and hung out at their own MErch table there was huge lines for them. They had a big following. One of the guitar players was nice enough to point us out and tell their fans to check us out. Totally cool so we gave him a free Slam One Down Beer Run Tshirt. Hopefully he wear's it on stage. All I got to say is thank God Demilitia was there or it may not have been as fun. Later, till the next one
J.R.
Monday, November 15, 2010
This Week in S1D Darketst Hour/Powerman 5000 Part 1 of 2
This Week in S1D Darketst Hour/Powerman 5000 Part 1 of 2
We had 2 relatively large shows this past week. We opened for Powerman 5000 at the Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale (Long Island) NY and Darkest Hour/Veil of Maya/Periphery/Revocation at Crocodile Rock in Allentown PA. I want to give a recap of the events and some feelings about what I witnessed for those of you who missed the shows, would have loved to come or share similar feelings about the Metal scene.
Starting in chronological order, was the Powerman 5000 show at the Crazy Donkey. So we pull up to the venue in my car with a trailer attached to it. I drive a dodge charger (HEMI of course) with a (5x10) trailer attached to the back of it. So we have to pull in next to Powerman 5000's tour bus. Well if you see a tour bus and a dodge charger with a trailer attached to it you know that my car looks ridiculous next to this thing. I find it kind of funny, anyways we get there and start setting up. We brought a cooler with us with a bottle of Jager and a 30 pack. So I had about 3 shots and 3 beers before I went on stage. For the most part I was relatively sober. So we set up outside and it was definitely like 40 something degrees that night and it was definitely cold. The place has no back-stage so we have to set up right outside this kitchen-like area in the cold. SO there I am setting up my guitars and warming up in freezing whether next to a sink, an ice machine and the garbage cans outside very close to the dumpsters. I swear everyday we are getting closer and closer to Rock-Star amenities. Anyways, we go on at around 7 PM and in my opinion a little too early, but that's material for another conversation.
We start playing and I felt pretty good about the set and how we played. After watching the videos, I have to say we really killed it. My solo in "The Payback" was flawless. The people there were very receptive and I saw a lot of people singing along so, there was a definite connection there. However, what I do not understand is how terrible it sounded on stage. There was basically no monitors, soo I had to kind of stay in one spot the whole time, because it was the only spot on stage that I could here drums, vocals, bass and myself. Talk about professional club. You know it is so ridiculous. If these clubs would start doing the simple things like making it a little more professional for the bands, then the bands would play better and feel better about the venue and then in turn these bands would get more people to come and the club would make more money by more people coming. But the truth is, the place sucks, sound sucks now I have no reason to play there again hence now that's another band that is not gonna bring a decent following to that club.
So we get off stage after a very good performance and slowly start packing our stuff up. Since we had that cooler there that is when things started to really take off. You see I did something simple and it turned out really good for us. I went to the store bought a 30 pack and a bottle of Jager and offered it to all the people that were back-stage with us. ANd you know what, people were appreciative of it and we made some new friends with a simple act of sharing. We gave out our demos to people and some people actually told us that we had an awesome set. Of course I had to take it a step further and bust out the Beer Funnel. You see I thought it was a good idea to sell Slam One Down Beer Funnels. We have been successful at selling them but more successful at using them. So we started handing out funnels outside in the cold, in front of our trailer next to Powerman 5000 tour bus. I have to say our party outside was better than anything else going on that night. According to some sources, my friend Tim and I did like 6 funnels each. I ended up holding on to a friend to keep from falling on the ground, during the Powerman set. I passed out on the ride home. I woke up the next day and was like, "what the hell happened. I was like "Oh no, I blacked out... But I didn't wake up with that feeling like I did something bad to someone or something. SO I right away called Bobby and was like what happened. He was like "Well, you got a little too Drunk, you definitely where the life of the party, but you might want to limit yourself to giving out Funnels instead of doing them yourself." I then proceeded to my computer to find out through Facebook that a lot of people had a good time. We win again!!!
So Heavy Metal Road rule is: Start with an act of kindness and buy beer/cocktails to share with new and old friends at the event. Make sure after you play your gig, you thank people for listening and participating by offering them a beer/cocktail. Never pack up and leave after the event. And most importantly throw a party. I have to say our group of people had more fun then the national act did. So we kicked ass on stage, sold some T-shirts, had a killer party, made new friends and woke up with a solid Hangover.
We had 2 relatively large shows this past week. We opened for Powerman 5000 at the Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale (Long Island) NY and Darkest Hour/Veil of Maya/Periphery/Revocation at Crocodile Rock in Allentown PA. I want to give a recap of the events and some feelings about what I witnessed for those of you who missed the shows, would have loved to come or share similar feelings about the Metal scene.
Starting in chronological order, was the Powerman 5000 show at the Crazy Donkey. So we pull up to the venue in my car with a trailer attached to it. I drive a dodge charger (HEMI of course) with a (5x10) trailer attached to the back of it. So we have to pull in next to Powerman 5000's tour bus. Well if you see a tour bus and a dodge charger with a trailer attached to it you know that my car looks ridiculous next to this thing. I find it kind of funny, anyways we get there and start setting up. We brought a cooler with us with a bottle of Jager and a 30 pack. So I had about 3 shots and 3 beers before I went on stage. For the most part I was relatively sober. So we set up outside and it was definitely like 40 something degrees that night and it was definitely cold. The place has no back-stage so we have to set up right outside this kitchen-like area in the cold. SO there I am setting up my guitars and warming up in freezing whether next to a sink, an ice machine and the garbage cans outside very close to the dumpsters. I swear everyday we are getting closer and closer to Rock-Star amenities. Anyways, we go on at around 7 PM and in my opinion a little too early, but that's material for another conversation.
We start playing and I felt pretty good about the set and how we played. After watching the videos, I have to say we really killed it. My solo in "The Payback" was flawless. The people there were very receptive and I saw a lot of people singing along so, there was a definite connection there. However, what I do not understand is how terrible it sounded on stage. There was basically no monitors, soo I had to kind of stay in one spot the whole time, because it was the only spot on stage that I could here drums, vocals, bass and myself. Talk about professional club. You know it is so ridiculous. If these clubs would start doing the simple things like making it a little more professional for the bands, then the bands would play better and feel better about the venue and then in turn these bands would get more people to come and the club would make more money by more people coming. But the truth is, the place sucks, sound sucks now I have no reason to play there again hence now that's another band that is not gonna bring a decent following to that club.
So we get off stage after a very good performance and slowly start packing our stuff up. Since we had that cooler there that is when things started to really take off. You see I did something simple and it turned out really good for us. I went to the store bought a 30 pack and a bottle of Jager and offered it to all the people that were back-stage with us. ANd you know what, people were appreciative of it and we made some new friends with a simple act of sharing. We gave out our demos to people and some people actually told us that we had an awesome set. Of course I had to take it a step further and bust out the Beer Funnel. You see I thought it was a good idea to sell Slam One Down Beer Funnels. We have been successful at selling them but more successful at using them. So we started handing out funnels outside in the cold, in front of our trailer next to Powerman 5000 tour bus. I have to say our party outside was better than anything else going on that night. According to some sources, my friend Tim and I did like 6 funnels each. I ended up holding on to a friend to keep from falling on the ground, during the Powerman set. I passed out on the ride home. I woke up the next day and was like, "what the hell happened. I was like "Oh no, I blacked out... But I didn't wake up with that feeling like I did something bad to someone or something. SO I right away called Bobby and was like what happened. He was like "Well, you got a little too Drunk, you definitely where the life of the party, but you might want to limit yourself to giving out Funnels instead of doing them yourself." I then proceeded to my computer to find out through Facebook that a lot of people had a good time. We win again!!!
So Heavy Metal Road rule is: Start with an act of kindness and buy beer/cocktails to share with new and old friends at the event. Make sure after you play your gig, you thank people for listening and participating by offering them a beer/cocktail. Never pack up and leave after the event. And most importantly throw a party. I have to say our group of people had more fun then the national act did. So we kicked ass on stage, sold some T-shirts, had a killer party, made new friends and woke up with a solid Hangover.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
rock prose from Judge Roach called "The Calm"
“Alright we’re at the venue. That drive was fucking brutal. 45 minute wait across the bridge and no one lets you in. we’re gonna park in front of the venue and load off real quick and look for parking because everyone knows you can never find parking in front of any venue you play.
Help the guys unload the guitars, bass guitars, amps, heads, miscellaneous things (like merch chest, beer cooler, etc) and then unload my stuff, the drum stuff. I got the hardware bag, which i’ve codenamed “the body bag”, my snare bag, floor tom, rack toms, cymbal bag, and the goddamn bass drum case which weighs a ton.
Everything is out of the trailer, now all we have to do is get it into the….
Shit, there’s stairs.
That’s fine. My body is so amped that we’re playing a show tonight I’m running on pure adrenaline right now. I haul my drums into the venue and find a corner to tuck them into, we won’t be playing for a while. I sit at the bar and order a beer from the hot bartender who gives me no smile, she’s all business. Oh and another beer for the wife.
The first band is already playing and they’re ok. Couple of people mulling about in front of the stage. Some are bobbing their head to the music, others are just staring, like people at a zoo looking unimpressed at the exotic animals they’ll never see outside of a cage. I notice some people i know and go over to say what’s up. It’s usually a “how you doin?” since i haven’t seen them since the last time i played. Sometimes I’ll have real conversations with someone I haven’t seen in a real long time. But I always manage to find my way back to the bar to get another drink and meditate in deafening silence.
I’m calming myself before the storm. The storm of the set we’re about to unleash. The adrenaline i had coming into the venue has long dissipated and now I’m at a low. I need it. The low recharges me and prepares me for the high I’m about to feel when i get up on stage and perform. But I know that before i do that, i need to set my shit up. That’s the hardest part.
Sometimes my low will include going outside with the wife and catching something to eat. Sometimes I walk around the block once or twice, to stretch out my legs and clear my mind. The low is great for me because it allows me to collect my thoughts and center my perception to the one goal, rocking out.
Couple of bands and beers in, the time is drawing closer. I do some stretching warmups and maybe do some rudiments with my sticks. This is about the time I start to set up my drums.
It starts with the bass drum. Everything in rhythm and music starts with the bass drum so i set that up first. Then i insert the arms for the rack toms. Once that’s done, I’ll set up my snare stand and snare drum. Then comes the most tedious part, the cymbals.
I have a couple of cymbal stands and a couple of cymbals and each time i do it a little differently depending on room on the stage, what i want to use that night, what I’m able to use that night. All my cymbals have a specific place on the stands, however, so its hard for someone to help me with this. That means i usually do it alone. I put the stick depot on the hihat stand and thats the finishing touch. Back to warming up.
The band before us is finishing up their last song and we’re getting ready to attack the stage and setup as quickly as possible. Time is key here because depending on our time, we either get to play our full set, or we may have to cut out a song. It doesn’t really matter in the long run, but that ability to play one more song is actually one of the best feelings in the world. I wish i could live my life playing just one more song.
The band is finally finished and it feels like forever to wait for them to breakdown. Its not proper band etiquette to jump on stage and start setting up while they’re breaking down, mostly because there’s no room for it. Once they’re finally off, we get on stage and setup.
Everyone is handling their own instrument while the singer is lending a hand wherever he can. (hey that rhymed!) That means im on drum duty by myself. The pre show adrenaline is pumping again and thats good because i need all my strength to muscle this combination of bass drum/rack toms onto the stage. I make sure that the bass/toms are in the exact position i need them to be on stage, everything gets built around it and won’t move once everythings done.
Now i get the floor tom and place it on the right side of the bass drum. Snare goes next but first i have to get my throne. Gives me something to sit on while i do this. Cymbals come next. Hihats go next to the snare, crash and china cymbal go above the floor tom, oh but first i have to put the ride cymbal in first. Ride goes over the floor tom, then the crash/china go over that. Other crash and any extra cymbal stands go to the left of the drums, where i have more room.
Everyone else is almost done with their setup and I’m the first one finished. Everything is going smoothly. I sit on my throne, grab my sticks and start to warm….shit. I forgot the fucking pedals. I slide my way around the drums and jump off stage and powerwalk to the corner my drums were in. My pedal case is tucked away and hidden in the shadows. No wonder i didn’t notice it. I take the bungee cord off, the only thing keeping the case together, the clamps had broken off long before. I flip open the case and grab the two pedals, connector bar, and the drumkey.
I hope up back on stage. Everyone is not finished setiing up yet so i still have some more time. I’ve become an expert at putting these pedals together fast. Just adjust the bar to the appropriate length, unscrew the screws, connect the bar between the primary and slave pedals, tighten as much as i can, and there. All finished.
Now i have to snake this thing in front of the snare drum but behind the bass drum and place it in the correct place so my feet are comfortable. Tighten the clasp onto the bass drum and now im ready. About this time, guitars and bass are already making sound and adjusting levels and tuning. I play a couple of beats to make sure everything is comfortably placed. Maybe adjust some of the cymbal stands to be closer or farther. One last run through of the setup and its perfect. Another setup succesful.
The singer announces us to the crowd and the people start to populate the front of the stage again, awaiting the rock thats about to pound them. I get the guitarist and bassist’s attention. Everyone’s ready?
1..2..3..4…
-The Judge
Help the guys unload the guitars, bass guitars, amps, heads, miscellaneous things (like merch chest, beer cooler, etc) and then unload my stuff, the drum stuff. I got the hardware bag, which i’ve codenamed “the body bag”, my snare bag, floor tom, rack toms, cymbal bag, and the goddamn bass drum case which weighs a ton.
Everything is out of the trailer, now all we have to do is get it into the….
Shit, there’s stairs.
That’s fine. My body is so amped that we’re playing a show tonight I’m running on pure adrenaline right now. I haul my drums into the venue and find a corner to tuck them into, we won’t be playing for a while. I sit at the bar and order a beer from the hot bartender who gives me no smile, she’s all business. Oh and another beer for the wife.
The first band is already playing and they’re ok. Couple of people mulling about in front of the stage. Some are bobbing their head to the music, others are just staring, like people at a zoo looking unimpressed at the exotic animals they’ll never see outside of a cage. I notice some people i know and go over to say what’s up. It’s usually a “how you doin?” since i haven’t seen them since the last time i played. Sometimes I’ll have real conversations with someone I haven’t seen in a real long time. But I always manage to find my way back to the bar to get another drink and meditate in deafening silence.
I’m calming myself before the storm. The storm of the set we’re about to unleash. The adrenaline i had coming into the venue has long dissipated and now I’m at a low. I need it. The low recharges me and prepares me for the high I’m about to feel when i get up on stage and perform. But I know that before i do that, i need to set my shit up. That’s the hardest part.
Sometimes my low will include going outside with the wife and catching something to eat. Sometimes I walk around the block once or twice, to stretch out my legs and clear my mind. The low is great for me because it allows me to collect my thoughts and center my perception to the one goal, rocking out.
Couple of bands and beers in, the time is drawing closer. I do some stretching warmups and maybe do some rudiments with my sticks. This is about the time I start to set up my drums.
It starts with the bass drum. Everything in rhythm and music starts with the bass drum so i set that up first. Then i insert the arms for the rack toms. Once that’s done, I’ll set up my snare stand and snare drum. Then comes the most tedious part, the cymbals.
I have a couple of cymbal stands and a couple of cymbals and each time i do it a little differently depending on room on the stage, what i want to use that night, what I’m able to use that night. All my cymbals have a specific place on the stands, however, so its hard for someone to help me with this. That means i usually do it alone. I put the stick depot on the hihat stand and thats the finishing touch. Back to warming up.
The band before us is finishing up their last song and we’re getting ready to attack the stage and setup as quickly as possible. Time is key here because depending on our time, we either get to play our full set, or we may have to cut out a song. It doesn’t really matter in the long run, but that ability to play one more song is actually one of the best feelings in the world. I wish i could live my life playing just one more song.
The band is finally finished and it feels like forever to wait for them to breakdown. Its not proper band etiquette to jump on stage and start setting up while they’re breaking down, mostly because there’s no room for it. Once they’re finally off, we get on stage and setup.
Everyone is handling their own instrument while the singer is lending a hand wherever he can. (hey that rhymed!) That means im on drum duty by myself. The pre show adrenaline is pumping again and thats good because i need all my strength to muscle this combination of bass drum/rack toms onto the stage. I make sure that the bass/toms are in the exact position i need them to be on stage, everything gets built around it and won’t move once everythings done.
Now i get the floor tom and place it on the right side of the bass drum. Snare goes next but first i have to get my throne. Gives me something to sit on while i do this. Cymbals come next. Hihats go next to the snare, crash and china cymbal go above the floor tom, oh but first i have to put the ride cymbal in first. Ride goes over the floor tom, then the crash/china go over that. Other crash and any extra cymbal stands go to the left of the drums, where i have more room.
Everyone else is almost done with their setup and I’m the first one finished. Everything is going smoothly. I sit on my throne, grab my sticks and start to warm….shit. I forgot the fucking pedals. I slide my way around the drums and jump off stage and powerwalk to the corner my drums were in. My pedal case is tucked away and hidden in the shadows. No wonder i didn’t notice it. I take the bungee cord off, the only thing keeping the case together, the clamps had broken off long before. I flip open the case and grab the two pedals, connector bar, and the drumkey.
I hope up back on stage. Everyone is not finished setiing up yet so i still have some more time. I’ve become an expert at putting these pedals together fast. Just adjust the bar to the appropriate length, unscrew the screws, connect the bar between the primary and slave pedals, tighten as much as i can, and there. All finished.
Now i have to snake this thing in front of the snare drum but behind the bass drum and place it in the correct place so my feet are comfortable. Tighten the clasp onto the bass drum and now im ready. About this time, guitars and bass are already making sound and adjusting levels and tuning. I play a couple of beats to make sure everything is comfortably placed. Maybe adjust some of the cymbal stands to be closer or farther. One last run through of the setup and its perfect. Another setup succesful.
The singer announces us to the crowd and the people start to populate the front of the stage again, awaiting the rock thats about to pound them. I get the guitarist and bassist’s attention. Everyone’s ready?
1..2..3..4…
-The Judge
Friday, September 10, 2010
Pour One Out lyrics
POUR ONE OUT
Here’s to tonight
Here’s to eternity
Here’s to the good life
Here’s to the ones we keep
Pour some out for love
Pour some out for sanity
Pour some out for fun
Pour one out for you and me
I am madness
I am the baddest
Not even I can understand this
CHORUS 2X
You wake up and you realize
Last night is not over
Sober you can’t believe your eyes
I‘ll drink to that
Pour some out for friends
Pour some out for family
Pour one out again
Pour one out for you and me
I am madness
I am the baddest
Not even I can understand this
CHORUS 2X
You wake up and you realize
Last night is not over
Sober you can’t believe your eyes
I‘ll drink to that
You hate me
Cause I don’t love you
Like you love me
Unless you’re on your knees
You blame me
Cause I don’t need you
Like you need me
I don’t even know your name
I’ll drink to that
Was this everything you dreamed
Was this everything you thought it would be
Was this everything you need
This was everything to me
CHORUS 2X
You wake up and you realize
Last night is not over
Sober you can’t believe your eyes
I‘ll drink to that
Here’s to tonight
Here’s to eternity
Here’s to the good life
Here’s to the ones we keep
Pour some out for love
Pour some out for sanity
Pour some out for fun
Pour one out for you and me
I am madness
I am the baddest
Not even I can understand this
CHORUS 2X
You wake up and you realize
Last night is not over
Sober you can’t believe your eyes
I‘ll drink to that
Pour some out for friends
Pour some out for family
Pour one out again
Pour one out for you and me
I am madness
I am the baddest
Not even I can understand this
CHORUS 2X
You wake up and you realize
Last night is not over
Sober you can’t believe your eyes
I‘ll drink to that
You hate me
Cause I don’t love you
Like you love me
Unless you’re on your knees
You blame me
Cause I don’t need you
Like you need me
I don’t even know your name
I’ll drink to that
Was this everything you dreamed
Was this everything you thought it would be
Was this everything you need
This was everything to me
CHORUS 2X
You wake up and you realize
Last night is not over
Sober you can’t believe your eyes
I‘ll drink to that
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Slam One Down @ Nikstock
A funny road story for all of you....
We were asked to play a 3 day Metal/Rock festival up in a town called Owego, NY on Friday August 13th. The town is right near Binghamton, NY about a 3.5 hour drive west from NYC. The Festival was called Nikstock. Basically some guy Nick from California puts on this festival in the Upstate NY area every year. He invites like 50 bands to come and play at some campsite. Well it was more like an open field next to some raceway. He put together some half ass stage and rented a PA for a decent sound I guess. It didn't sound so good on the stage but facing the stage sounded decent.
The festival started on Friday and ended Sunday. We were asked to play Friday night at 8PM. So we packed up the trailer and this time brought with us a couple of tents, a canopy, some zero gravity chairs, a beer pong table, and a cooler of about 5 Thirty packs of beer.
Of course, Slam One Down is always late, so we arrived around 7:30PM and we were supposed to be there at like 6PM. So we pull right up to the stage and it was kind of funny because as you look around the field it was all covered in tents. We pull up to the stage and we are of course rushing to get our gear on stage.
Perfect for us, was that we went on right before the bikini contest. Now I guess a bikini contest in upstate NY is the kind where every guy grabs a chick and throws them on the stage and then they basically have to take off all of their clothes. I thought that was pretty cool. So now picture this; Slam One Down on stage with all of our equipment and watching about 10 naked drunk girls on stage dancing all over and around us. I guess that is enough to put a smile on anyone's face.
As soon as the contest was over. We started playing and we crushed it as usual. Made some new friends/fans of the band and converted people to the Slam One Down family.
So we finish up playing and get all the equipment back into the trailer and now have to set up camp. We basically drove right into the middle of the whole party and set up two tents, a huge canopy, chairs and a beer pong table within like 30 minutes. Unfortunately for them, Scott and Roach had to leave because of work and other engagements. So all you have left is Bobby, his girl, and me all by myself. Bobby starts playing beer pong and really gets a huge crowd around us. I have to say our little camp was the funnest party of all the little campsites. We met some great new friends and had some good times. There was go-cart races and everyone was really cool and kept screaming out "Slam One Down" to us as we walked by.
As the night rolled on, I thought to myself, "Wow, these upstate NYers really like to get (Fucked Up)." I would say like 90% of the people there were either tripping on Acid or Tripping on Ecstasy. I sat down next to one dude and he was like, yo the trees are flying up into the sky. He took his first hit around 4am, I was like whoa that is harcore. Than everyone was talking about some drug called Molly, but with their accents it sounded kind of funny. Towards the end of the night everyone ran out of beer except for us. Everyone kept asking to buy a beer from me and me being the Entrepreneur that I am, gladly provided the service. I woke up the next morning with all of these dollar bills in my pocket. Needless to say every party must come to a close so I passed out in the tent only to wake up to the 6am sun beaming down on my tent. I swear I must have sweated out like 10 pounds of booze and water through my pours. Bobby woke me up around 10am and I had the biggest hangover ever, with that pounding headache you get right in the front of your head. One good thing was that I woke up around 6:30 am to hear somebody playing the whole "Slam One Down" CD from beginning to end on their car stereo.
Bobby and I did nothing but lay in a chair until around 2:30 PM Saturday afternoon. The campsite was disgusting, it was like a Frat housed exploded in the middle of the woods. There were beer cans and garbage everywhere. So we packed up and I slept the whole way home as Bobby drove....sucker!!!
In conclusion, we had a great show, made some awesome friends, got wasted, and saw some naked women. I guess, .....We win again!!!
Love ya's
J.R.
Slam One Down
We were asked to play a 3 day Metal/Rock festival up in a town called Owego, NY on Friday August 13th. The town is right near Binghamton, NY about a 3.5 hour drive west from NYC. The Festival was called Nikstock. Basically some guy Nick from California puts on this festival in the Upstate NY area every year. He invites like 50 bands to come and play at some campsite. Well it was more like an open field next to some raceway. He put together some half ass stage and rented a PA for a decent sound I guess. It didn't sound so good on the stage but facing the stage sounded decent.
The festival started on Friday and ended Sunday. We were asked to play Friday night at 8PM. So we packed up the trailer and this time brought with us a couple of tents, a canopy, some zero gravity chairs, a beer pong table, and a cooler of about 5 Thirty packs of beer.
Of course, Slam One Down is always late, so we arrived around 7:30PM and we were supposed to be there at like 6PM. So we pull right up to the stage and it was kind of funny because as you look around the field it was all covered in tents. We pull up to the stage and we are of course rushing to get our gear on stage.
Perfect for us, was that we went on right before the bikini contest. Now I guess a bikini contest in upstate NY is the kind where every guy grabs a chick and throws them on the stage and then they basically have to take off all of their clothes. I thought that was pretty cool. So now picture this; Slam One Down on stage with all of our equipment and watching about 10 naked drunk girls on stage dancing all over and around us. I guess that is enough to put a smile on anyone's face.
As soon as the contest was over. We started playing and we crushed it as usual. Made some new friends/fans of the band and converted people to the Slam One Down family.
So we finish up playing and get all the equipment back into the trailer and now have to set up camp. We basically drove right into the middle of the whole party and set up two tents, a huge canopy, chairs and a beer pong table within like 30 minutes. Unfortunately for them, Scott and Roach had to leave because of work and other engagements. So all you have left is Bobby, his girl, and me all by myself. Bobby starts playing beer pong and really gets a huge crowd around us. I have to say our little camp was the funnest party of all the little campsites. We met some great new friends and had some good times. There was go-cart races and everyone was really cool and kept screaming out "Slam One Down" to us as we walked by.
As the night rolled on, I thought to myself, "Wow, these upstate NYers really like to get (Fucked Up)." I would say like 90% of the people there were either tripping on Acid or Tripping on Ecstasy. I sat down next to one dude and he was like, yo the trees are flying up into the sky. He took his first hit around 4am, I was like whoa that is harcore. Than everyone was talking about some drug called Molly, but with their accents it sounded kind of funny. Towards the end of the night everyone ran out of beer except for us. Everyone kept asking to buy a beer from me and me being the Entrepreneur that I am, gladly provided the service. I woke up the next morning with all of these dollar bills in my pocket. Needless to say every party must come to a close so I passed out in the tent only to wake up to the 6am sun beaming down on my tent. I swear I must have sweated out like 10 pounds of booze and water through my pours. Bobby woke me up around 10am and I had the biggest hangover ever, with that pounding headache you get right in the front of your head. One good thing was that I woke up around 6:30 am to hear somebody playing the whole "Slam One Down" CD from beginning to end on their car stereo.
Bobby and I did nothing but lay in a chair until around 2:30 PM Saturday afternoon. The campsite was disgusting, it was like a Frat housed exploded in the middle of the woods. There were beer cans and garbage everywhere. So we packed up and I slept the whole way home as Bobby drove....sucker!!!
In conclusion, we had a great show, made some awesome friends, got wasted, and saw some naked women. I guess, .....We win again!!!
Love ya's
J.R.
Slam One Down
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
our first three day road trip - part 1
Roach here wanting to talk about the insanity that was this past weekend. S1D went on their first three day road trip to three different states to play some shows outside of New York City. A lot of shit happened so let's get into this:
first stop was friday July 30 in Bethlehem, PA. we get to the place and its a nice, small place. Some sort of gathering hall for members of some community. The beer was cheap, the people at the bar were nice and it seemed like it was going to be a good show.
I won't lie to you folks, the show didn't go the way we expected it to go. First off, almost nobody but the other bands showed up. There were maybe 8 people there in total. I'm not saying this to shit on the promoters. They were awesome people and they worked their asses off promoting and trying to get people to the show. It just didn't work out the way they wanted.
We set up our stuff and start our set and even with the small space, hard walls and hardwood floors, making for bad acoustics, it actually sounded really good. Of the people who were there, though, nobody is moving. Nobody is getting into the show were trying to put on. We do our covers and I see that one guy is wearing a Metallica shirt so I'm thinking "he's gonna love Seek & Destroy." He doesn't move at all when J.R. goes into the opening riff. He doesn't move for the entire song. Not...one...bit. He doesn't sing along, He doesn't even bob his head. He just stands there with his arms folded half sitting on the table behind him.
We finish the cover and Bobby immediately goes to us and stops the show. He then proceeds to yell at the people who were there for not interacting with us or even reacting to what we were doing. We seriously could've been playing to a morgue and we would've gotten a better response. And it wasn't because we weren't on our game. I think we sounded and played tighter than we ever have. The people just weren't into it for some reason. So we brushed it off and finished our set.
We go downstairs to drink some more and i notice a little sign behind the bar that saids "Hot Bologne in a cooler: 75 cents" J.R. tells us he's ordering a pizza pie for us before he disappears. We wait for the pie and laugh our asses off when it finally comes because its one of those personal pan pizza. The diameter was no longer than a dollar bill. We all took a bite before J.R. comes back to see the tiniest slice a pizza can be.
So everyone else notices the hot bologne sign and we're intrigued. How can a bologne be hot but also in a cooler? I couldn't let this question get away from us. So i waved the bartender over and with a wave of my finger i ordered up 5 hot bolognes in a cooler. She gives it to us and we're about to dive in when she immediately stops us and saids "YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE SKIN OFF" After removing the thin layer of skin from the bologne we tried it and, while it was cold from being in the cooler, it was sort of spicy but really good. We all approved.
Day two: Worcester, Mass
We drive up to Mass and we found out we were going to be playing with Hemlock. If you haven't heard Hemlock then you NEED to we also got some friends of ours on the bill too, Odd Man In. There another band you should be on the lookout for.
The drive wasn't bad. We get to the venue and I don't know about you people, but Worcester looked as ghetto as can be. I mean when I see a Fried Chicken place, bullet holes in the restaurant next to it and iron bars on the window of the pizzeria next to that, something tells me "ghetto" right away. We unload our stuff and for the first time I think we weren't the ones who brought the most equipment. Anyone who has seen us knows how much equipment we bring, but i think Hemlock beats us out. Odd Man In goes on first and they kill it. There's a drunk guy dancing, moshing, jumping on stage with them. Guys were running around acting crazy. It was a fun show.
Fuel of War goes on next. This band features a midget paraplegic in a wheelchair on guitar and this guy is amazing. He's fucking shredding and rocking out more than most guitarists I've seen. People were definitely into them and they kept the metal going.
We go on next and we destroy this stage. Everything is tight as hell and everything is working. Odd Man In jump in and start singing some of the songs on the mic with some of the audience, including Beer Run. Let me tell you its fun as shit to see a bunch of guys grouped around a mic yelling Beer Run as loud as they can.
Hemlock closes out the show and, after packing up my drums, i jump into the fray to mosh and bang my head to this amazing band. Their music is tight, their stage show is phenomenal and their talent is undeniable. These guys are amazing and if you haven't seen them live, you should see the next time they're in your town and check them out. Not something to be missed.
Now before i move on i want to tell you a mini story. A story of getting food in Worcester Mass. As i mentioned before there was a chicken place, a diner, and a pizzeria next to each other a block away from the bar. So me and the mrs go to get food before the show starts. The diner is closed. its 6 in the evening. So we go to the chicken place. There's a indian/spanish guy behind the counter and saids hi to us. we look at the menu and my wife wants shrimp. So i order the 21 piece shrimp with fries (not 20...21. i dont know either) the guy looks at me confused. So i point to it on the menu and say shrimp again. hes still confused. So i say the number of the order. He goes to a back table to get his glasses, which dont have handles. he looks at the menu for a longer period of time than i thought was necessary, but he finally saids shrimp in spanish which i understood and agreed with. He then proceeds to go to the back room where another guy is and converses with him while looking in the cooler for the shrimp. They're not looking for the shrimp, they're trying to figure out what shrimp is. at this point i look at my wife and say "thats ok. thank you." and we walk out of the chicken place to go to the pizzeria. we get pernil sandwiches (pork shoulder for you non spanish people out there) and it was actually quite good, but that one things nags me to this day. how do you not know what shrimp is? i mean i can understand if he was retarded or something, but he wasn't. he just simply did not know what shrimp was. and the fact that he had to go to a back room to converse with someone else who also didn't know what shrimp was boggled my mind even more.
this story isn't over by the way...
so we're walking back up the block to the bar when a car screeches up the hill beside us and spins out right in front of us. it literally was two steps away from hitting us. the two guys in the car just stare at us for a minute before reversing the car and parking it on the street they just spun out on and then run up the hill past us laughing. they almost killed us and were laughing about it.
needless to say i wanted to get out of worcester as soon as possible.
we rented a hotel for the night in Auburn Mass to save time for the drive to Walden the next day. I passed out right away while J.R., Mrs Roach, Gio, and Bobby explored the hotel and had a party of it.
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion...
-Roach
first stop was friday July 30 in Bethlehem, PA. we get to the place and its a nice, small place. Some sort of gathering hall for members of some community. The beer was cheap, the people at the bar were nice and it seemed like it was going to be a good show.
I won't lie to you folks, the show didn't go the way we expected it to go. First off, almost nobody but the other bands showed up. There were maybe 8 people there in total. I'm not saying this to shit on the promoters. They were awesome people and they worked their asses off promoting and trying to get people to the show. It just didn't work out the way they wanted.
We set up our stuff and start our set and even with the small space, hard walls and hardwood floors, making for bad acoustics, it actually sounded really good. Of the people who were there, though, nobody is moving. Nobody is getting into the show were trying to put on. We do our covers and I see that one guy is wearing a Metallica shirt so I'm thinking "he's gonna love Seek & Destroy." He doesn't move at all when J.R. goes into the opening riff. He doesn't move for the entire song. Not...one...bit. He doesn't sing along, He doesn't even bob his head. He just stands there with his arms folded half sitting on the table behind him.
We finish the cover and Bobby immediately goes to us and stops the show. He then proceeds to yell at the people who were there for not interacting with us or even reacting to what we were doing. We seriously could've been playing to a morgue and we would've gotten a better response. And it wasn't because we weren't on our game. I think we sounded and played tighter than we ever have. The people just weren't into it for some reason. So we brushed it off and finished our set.
We go downstairs to drink some more and i notice a little sign behind the bar that saids "Hot Bologne in a cooler: 75 cents" J.R. tells us he's ordering a pizza pie for us before he disappears. We wait for the pie and laugh our asses off when it finally comes because its one of those personal pan pizza. The diameter was no longer than a dollar bill. We all took a bite before J.R. comes back to see the tiniest slice a pizza can be.
So everyone else notices the hot bologne sign and we're intrigued. How can a bologne be hot but also in a cooler? I couldn't let this question get away from us. So i waved the bartender over and with a wave of my finger i ordered up 5 hot bolognes in a cooler. She gives it to us and we're about to dive in when she immediately stops us and saids "YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE SKIN OFF" After removing the thin layer of skin from the bologne we tried it and, while it was cold from being in the cooler, it was sort of spicy but really good. We all approved.
Day two: Worcester, Mass
We drive up to Mass and we found out we were going to be playing with Hemlock. If you haven't heard Hemlock then you NEED to we also got some friends of ours on the bill too, Odd Man In. There another band you should be on the lookout for.
The drive wasn't bad. We get to the venue and I don't know about you people, but Worcester looked as ghetto as can be. I mean when I see a Fried Chicken place, bullet holes in the restaurant next to it and iron bars on the window of the pizzeria next to that, something tells me "ghetto" right away. We unload our stuff and for the first time I think we weren't the ones who brought the most equipment. Anyone who has seen us knows how much equipment we bring, but i think Hemlock beats us out. Odd Man In goes on first and they kill it. There's a drunk guy dancing, moshing, jumping on stage with them. Guys were running around acting crazy. It was a fun show.
Fuel of War goes on next. This band features a midget paraplegic in a wheelchair on guitar and this guy is amazing. He's fucking shredding and rocking out more than most guitarists I've seen. People were definitely into them and they kept the metal going.
We go on next and we destroy this stage. Everything is tight as hell and everything is working. Odd Man In jump in and start singing some of the songs on the mic with some of the audience, including Beer Run. Let me tell you its fun as shit to see a bunch of guys grouped around a mic yelling Beer Run as loud as they can.
Hemlock closes out the show and, after packing up my drums, i jump into the fray to mosh and bang my head to this amazing band. Their music is tight, their stage show is phenomenal and their talent is undeniable. These guys are amazing and if you haven't seen them live, you should see the next time they're in your town and check them out. Not something to be missed.
Now before i move on i want to tell you a mini story. A story of getting food in Worcester Mass. As i mentioned before there was a chicken place, a diner, and a pizzeria next to each other a block away from the bar. So me and the mrs go to get food before the show starts. The diner is closed. its 6 in the evening. So we go to the chicken place. There's a indian/spanish guy behind the counter and saids hi to us. we look at the menu and my wife wants shrimp. So i order the 21 piece shrimp with fries (not 20...21. i dont know either) the guy looks at me confused. So i point to it on the menu and say shrimp again. hes still confused. So i say the number of the order. He goes to a back table to get his glasses, which dont have handles. he looks at the menu for a longer period of time than i thought was necessary, but he finally saids shrimp in spanish which i understood and agreed with. He then proceeds to go to the back room where another guy is and converses with him while looking in the cooler for the shrimp. They're not looking for the shrimp, they're trying to figure out what shrimp is. at this point i look at my wife and say "thats ok. thank you." and we walk out of the chicken place to go to the pizzeria. we get pernil sandwiches (pork shoulder for you non spanish people out there) and it was actually quite good, but that one things nags me to this day. how do you not know what shrimp is? i mean i can understand if he was retarded or something, but he wasn't. he just simply did not know what shrimp was. and the fact that he had to go to a back room to converse with someone else who also didn't know what shrimp was boggled my mind even more.
this story isn't over by the way...
so we're walking back up the block to the bar when a car screeches up the hill beside us and spins out right in front of us. it literally was two steps away from hitting us. the two guys in the car just stare at us for a minute before reversing the car and parking it on the street they just spun out on and then run up the hill past us laughing. they almost killed us and were laughing about it.
needless to say i wanted to get out of worcester as soon as possible.
we rented a hotel for the night in Auburn Mass to save time for the drive to Walden the next day. I passed out right away while J.R., Mrs Roach, Gio, and Bobby explored the hotel and had a party of it.
Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion...
-Roach
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
this past weekend at the Pickwick Pub
So we drive up to Poughkeepsie, New York to play with our friends No Remission, Left In Ruins, and Assault (F.Y.C.) J.R. and I drive up together while Bobby and Scotty took their own cars. We get there around 7:30 and start having some drinks with some of the other bands who are already there. Scott arrives and we unload the trailer and have more drinks. After a pizza dinner, we find out that Bobby is going to be late to the show. People are already filling the bar and are getting a little antsy. Before we even play one note a guy walks up to us and asks to buy a shirt because he loves the BEER RUN on the back. This was already turning out to be a good experience.
After a couple of more drinks, J.R. is feeling the buzz and sets up his guitar and starts warming up. He plays some old school Metallica and Black Sabbath tracks and the people start yelling. I jump on the drums and Luigi, the lead singer of Left In Ruins, grabs a bass and we start to play any and every cover song we know. Metallica, Ozzy, Pantera. The crowd is going nuts. People are taking turns jumping on the mic to sing whatever parts of the songs they knew. We were having way too much fun.
Bobby finally shows up and we crush our set. The fans are going crazy and we loved every minute of it. Definitely a fun show to play. Afterwards we go outside and start mingling and selling t-shirts. A couple of people buy some shirts before a guy walks up to us and saids "I'll take a shot in the nuts if you give me a free shirt." Everyone starts getting in on it, taking bets and egging people on to do it. This girl raises her hand and offers to do it. Turns out shes a dancer and a martial artist. She's stretching her leg right in front of me and her leg seriously went straight into the air. I was like "holy shit!" Everyone starts to call foul, however. She has flip flops on and everyone saids that its not going to hurt. This dude then raises his hand and saids "she can use my steel toed boots!" Everyone starts to go nuts.
She laces up the boot and starts warming up. Everyone is chanting. This dude assumes the position and, while the kick was not full force, it still obliterated him. He's on the floor for a good 20 minutes and he was coughing the rest of the night. We decided to give him two shirts for each of his testicles.
We go back inside and No Remission is picking up where we left off, destroying the stage. Left In Ruins keeps it going, always a pleasure to see those guys, and Assault finishes up the night in true metal fashion.
More drinking, more partying. J.R. tells me to get some sleep because I'm driving us home. at 2AM i jump in the passenger seat, lower it, and take a nap. He wakes me up at 4AM. The bar is closing. The owner and the bartender are leaving with everyone and the party is over. I'm still a little groggy and A LOT hungover, but i managed to keep it together enough to get us back into Jersey. We stop at a MCdonalds and J.R., having recovered enough, drove the rest of the way home. We unpack the trailer and i realize its 6:30AM. I have to be at work at 7AM. J.R. throws me the spare keys to the car and tells me to go to work. I drive to work on two hours sleep, take two aspirin, and get through the workday. I drive back to J.R.'s to return the car and then he drives me home.
Insane insane fucking weekend with a lot of booze, a lot of cool people. A lot of new memories were made and a lot of metal was had. We're definitely coming back to Pickwick in the future.
After a couple of more drinks, J.R. is feeling the buzz and sets up his guitar and starts warming up. He plays some old school Metallica and Black Sabbath tracks and the people start yelling. I jump on the drums and Luigi, the lead singer of Left In Ruins, grabs a bass and we start to play any and every cover song we know. Metallica, Ozzy, Pantera. The crowd is going nuts. People are taking turns jumping on the mic to sing whatever parts of the songs they knew. We were having way too much fun.
Bobby finally shows up and we crush our set. The fans are going crazy and we loved every minute of it. Definitely a fun show to play. Afterwards we go outside and start mingling and selling t-shirts. A couple of people buy some shirts before a guy walks up to us and saids "I'll take a shot in the nuts if you give me a free shirt." Everyone starts getting in on it, taking bets and egging people on to do it. This girl raises her hand and offers to do it. Turns out shes a dancer and a martial artist. She's stretching her leg right in front of me and her leg seriously went straight into the air. I was like "holy shit!" Everyone starts to call foul, however. She has flip flops on and everyone saids that its not going to hurt. This dude then raises his hand and saids "she can use my steel toed boots!" Everyone starts to go nuts.
She laces up the boot and starts warming up. Everyone is chanting. This dude assumes the position and, while the kick was not full force, it still obliterated him. He's on the floor for a good 20 minutes and he was coughing the rest of the night. We decided to give him two shirts for each of his testicles.
We go back inside and No Remission is picking up where we left off, destroying the stage. Left In Ruins keeps it going, always a pleasure to see those guys, and Assault finishes up the night in true metal fashion.
More drinking, more partying. J.R. tells me to get some sleep because I'm driving us home. at 2AM i jump in the passenger seat, lower it, and take a nap. He wakes me up at 4AM. The bar is closing. The owner and the bartender are leaving with everyone and the party is over. I'm still a little groggy and A LOT hungover, but i managed to keep it together enough to get us back into Jersey. We stop at a MCdonalds and J.R., having recovered enough, drove the rest of the way home. We unpack the trailer and i realize its 6:30AM. I have to be at work at 7AM. J.R. throws me the spare keys to the car and tells me to go to work. I drive to work on two hours sleep, take two aspirin, and get through the workday. I drive back to J.R.'s to return the car and then he drives me home.
Insane insane fucking weekend with a lot of booze, a lot of cool people. A lot of new memories were made and a lot of metal was had. We're definitely coming back to Pickwick in the future.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Underground Heavy Metal Scen in New York City Part 1
I am writing this blog not to complain but to talk about some of the things that I have observed being a member of one of the Heavy Metal Bands in the Underground Heavy Metal Scene. I also am writing this to offer some guidance to all of the bands that make up this scene. You know who you are. I bet some of the advice that I offer here can help other Metal scenes throughout the country or the world, but this is specific to NYC only because it is all I know.
The greatest thing about the underground is the freedom of musical expression that is so readily available. I mean lets face it...if you call up a local venue or promoter and tell them that you will bring 20 people to one of their events, you are pretty much guaranteed to play a show no matter how good or bad you are. And that shouldn't be too hard, 4 guys in a band all bring one girlfriend and 4 friends each you got your 20 right there. Like I said, this is a good thing because I think everyone should have a platform to express themselves musically. So if you are honest about the fact that all you are there to do is express yourself and you are not trying to reach a larger audience, the underground is a great place for you....however....
Most of the people that I run into are using the underground to get to another place. I would say a lot of them are looking for a record label to "discover" them and offer them some sort of recording deal, and an avenue for them to tour the world playing their music....Slam One Down is for sure.
The New York City Underground is a double edged sword. And when I say NYC underground I mean NYC, the 5 boroughs, Rockland etc., North Jersey & Long Island etc. The reason that it is a double edged sword is because there are a ton of places to play. This is a good thing and bad thing...the reason that it is a good thing is because it is very easy to get a show and play live. The reason that it is bad is because....
....So here is the problem...there are soooooo many bands and sooo many venues and we have a very small and concentrated scene (or better said, not a lot of people). SO what happens is every band takes their 10 or 20 people and take them to wherever they can get a show. Then what happens is the band plays 1 week in NYC, the next week in Brooklyn, the next week in Jersey and the next week in L.I. The problem is that now they keep asking their friends to follow them to every show and their friends go to the first 2 shows and then say to themselves I wont go this week, I'll go next week because they will obviously be playing again next week or so. I mean let's face it, even if Metallica played every Friday for 6 months at the Garden, by the end of the first month there would be like 100 people there. What Metallica does is plays once and then leaves and does not come back for a year and makes people come out everytime they play. It's a simple strategy.
You can ask anyone in the scene, I go to almost every underground show that I can. The only time i don't is if we have a show or practice. If someone invites me, I go and you don't even have to call me. I go on facebook and look at today's events and I go to whoever is playing wherever. But I have to, because I am a true supporter and I have to promote my band. I also hope and expect people to do the same for me. But guess what, most people are not like me and do not care about the scene the way I do.
So here is what is happening, their are about 20 or 30 solid bands that are really doing well and making some noise in the scene. They perform well, write good music, get the crowds involved, bring 20-60 people and throw a good party. But most of them are not getting anywhere because the whole scene is being watered down. Everyone is playing every week in the city and all the time. So I have a bit of a solution to the problem. This is not a perfect solution and is going to take time to organize but if we all start working together it can work well....to be continued!!!!-J.R.
The greatest thing about the underground is the freedom of musical expression that is so readily available. I mean lets face it...if you call up a local venue or promoter and tell them that you will bring 20 people to one of their events, you are pretty much guaranteed to play a show no matter how good or bad you are. And that shouldn't be too hard, 4 guys in a band all bring one girlfriend and 4 friends each you got your 20 right there. Like I said, this is a good thing because I think everyone should have a platform to express themselves musically. So if you are honest about the fact that all you are there to do is express yourself and you are not trying to reach a larger audience, the underground is a great place for you....however....
Most of the people that I run into are using the underground to get to another place. I would say a lot of them are looking for a record label to "discover" them and offer them some sort of recording deal, and an avenue for them to tour the world playing their music....Slam One Down is for sure.
The New York City Underground is a double edged sword. And when I say NYC underground I mean NYC, the 5 boroughs, Rockland etc., North Jersey & Long Island etc. The reason that it is a double edged sword is because there are a ton of places to play. This is a good thing and bad thing...the reason that it is a good thing is because it is very easy to get a show and play live. The reason that it is bad is because....
....So here is the problem...there are soooooo many bands and sooo many venues and we have a very small and concentrated scene (or better said, not a lot of people). SO what happens is every band takes their 10 or 20 people and take them to wherever they can get a show. Then what happens is the band plays 1 week in NYC, the next week in Brooklyn, the next week in Jersey and the next week in L.I. The problem is that now they keep asking their friends to follow them to every show and their friends go to the first 2 shows and then say to themselves I wont go this week, I'll go next week because they will obviously be playing again next week or so. I mean let's face it, even if Metallica played every Friday for 6 months at the Garden, by the end of the first month there would be like 100 people there. What Metallica does is plays once and then leaves and does not come back for a year and makes people come out everytime they play. It's a simple strategy.
You can ask anyone in the scene, I go to almost every underground show that I can. The only time i don't is if we have a show or practice. If someone invites me, I go and you don't even have to call me. I go on facebook and look at today's events and I go to whoever is playing wherever. But I have to, because I am a true supporter and I have to promote my band. I also hope and expect people to do the same for me. But guess what, most people are not like me and do not care about the scene the way I do.
So here is what is happening, their are about 20 or 30 solid bands that are really doing well and making some noise in the scene. They perform well, write good music, get the crowds involved, bring 20-60 people and throw a good party. But most of them are not getting anywhere because the whole scene is being watered down. Everyone is playing every week in the city and all the time. So I have a bit of a solution to the problem. This is not a perfect solution and is going to take time to organize but if we all start working together it can work well....to be continued!!!!-J.R.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Slam One Down to open for Devildriver
S1D needs your help...we were asked to open up for Devildriver & Kittie at Eleanor Rigby's in Jermyn, PA about 2 hours from NYC on Thurs Aug. 26th @ 7pm..tix are $20each we need to know if people are willing to come with us on a bus road trip again and if people near the PA venue will buy tix from us...otherwise we cannot afford to do the show, we need to sell 100 tix, this could be huge for us...please respond.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Who gets thrown out of the woods?
This has to be the most ridiculous story ever. We were asked to play a 3 day mini tour in upstate NY near Niagara Falls, called the campfire sessions by a management company called Kalamazoo Recording and Management Company. The company invites 10 metal type bands to campsites all over the country for 3 day mini tours. So what you do is go to a campsite and set up your tents and so on and then drive to three different venues, play a show and then return to the campsite to sleep and then do that for three days from Friday through Sunday. So we thought that sounds like a cool way to get out of the area and invite more people into the Slam One Down family.
So everyone tried to get out of work as early as possible and we hit the road to Niagara Falls which is about a 6 hour drive. Our navigation system told us that we were going to arrive at the campsite around 10 and when I told the promoter that he said we were going to miss the first show. We were kind of pissed about that but new we would make it up somehow. We finally arrive at the campsite at 10:00PM. And the whole place was closed and shut down. The promoter told us where to go and we found the site.
When we arrive we saw about 6 other bands with their campsites set up. It looked like everyone was having a good time. SO we start setting up immediately. We had a canopy, two tents, a beer pong table, acoustic guitars, a fire, 6 chairs and a cooler full of about 6 thirty packs, a beer funnel, a bottle of crown royal, and a bottle of Jagermeister.
So we start attacking the booze like every good metal band does. Now remember we are in the middle of the woods, with about 6 other metal bands, a cooler full of beer and its about 11:00 PM. We are now having a party in the middle of the woods. We were singing songs by the fire, playing beer pong, laughing and having a fucking amazing time. The weird thing was out of 6 bands only 2 people came over to hang out. All the other bands went to bed around 11:30PM. Now no-one said anything to us about noise or being loud. We just went about our partying like everything was OK. It didn't seem like there is anyone around us.
Then at around 2AM, out of nowhere in the pitch black night someone walks up to us yells, "What the FUCK are you guys doing." We were completely freaked out and didn't know where he came from. It was a cop in the middle of the woods and he snuck up on us. He was flashing a light at us and Bobby was flashing his light back at him, because we didn't know what was going on. That pissed the cop off. He starts asking for our IDs and what not....One of the guys in our group was mouthing off to him a little because the cope was very rude for no reason. Now think about this for a second. What kind of cop sneaks up on people in the middle of the woods. He didn't ever pull up in a cop car he came out of the blackness of the woods....who does that. So he takes our IDs and disappears back into the blackness of the woods. So we continue to drink and do funnels.
Then all of a sudden 3 more cop cars come pulling up. I guess he called for back-up. And returns to us and says he is not going to do anything and said we have to leave the campsite at 10AM tomorrow morning. SO we are like "Cool" now we will get a hotel room and not have to sleep in the fucking woods. Most of us passed out around 3-4 AM.
We wake up around 10:30 AM to pack up and now drive to the show that we were supposed to play. This time a different cop comes back around 10:30 and said that we need to leave around 1PM which was perfect because that was the time we needed to go to the show. However, he walks up to the promoters and tells them what happens. These two kids are like 17-years old and proceeds to tell us that we are off the tour and have to go home. We couldn't understand why, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't break any rules. See the way we look at it....if we were causing a problem, why didn't we get a warning. Someone should have come up to us and tell us we were being "TOO Loud" in the middle of the woods and we would have gladly brought it down a notch. So these 17 year olds who we have never met and apparently were at the campsite monitoring the campsite says to us well you guys were kind of loud but we didn't want to stop you from having a good time. They then allow someone to call the cops on us and then have the nerve to tell us that we cannot play the shows that we already paid $125 to play. They kept blaming it on their boss, but I didnt see any boss anywhere. At that point there was no reason to argue, we were dealing with morons.
Now that I think back, who the hell would call the cops on us. Was it one of the other "Metal" bands that we were camped out with. I mean is that the weakest thing ever. You call the cops on us and not ask us first to quiet down. That is pathetic. Or could it have been some neighboring campers who were not part of the group. Those people had to be pretty far away for our voices to travel that far and have them call the cops. Either way I would say that is the promoters fault because he should have made sure that we were far enough away from people that 10 metal bands couldnt bother them. I mean lets be realistic...there was hundreds of miles of open space I hope you didnt put us that close to other people. Plus these guys will not give back my $125.
Anyways we drove home around 11AM laughing the whole way home. I mean how does anybody manage to get thrown out of the woods by cops who sneak up on you in the black of the night. Only Slam One Down can. I guess this is the stuff that "Legends are made of" Thanks for reading....J.R.
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http://www.myspace.com/slamonedown
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953?ref=ts
So everyone tried to get out of work as early as possible and we hit the road to Niagara Falls which is about a 6 hour drive. Our navigation system told us that we were going to arrive at the campsite around 10 and when I told the promoter that he said we were going to miss the first show. We were kind of pissed about that but new we would make it up somehow. We finally arrive at the campsite at 10:00PM. And the whole place was closed and shut down. The promoter told us where to go and we found the site.
When we arrive we saw about 6 other bands with their campsites set up. It looked like everyone was having a good time. SO we start setting up immediately. We had a canopy, two tents, a beer pong table, acoustic guitars, a fire, 6 chairs and a cooler full of about 6 thirty packs, a beer funnel, a bottle of crown royal, and a bottle of Jagermeister.
So we start attacking the booze like every good metal band does. Now remember we are in the middle of the woods, with about 6 other metal bands, a cooler full of beer and its about 11:00 PM. We are now having a party in the middle of the woods. We were singing songs by the fire, playing beer pong, laughing and having a fucking amazing time. The weird thing was out of 6 bands only 2 people came over to hang out. All the other bands went to bed around 11:30PM. Now no-one said anything to us about noise or being loud. We just went about our partying like everything was OK. It didn't seem like there is anyone around us.
Then at around 2AM, out of nowhere in the pitch black night someone walks up to us yells, "What the FUCK are you guys doing." We were completely freaked out and didn't know where he came from. It was a cop in the middle of the woods and he snuck up on us. He was flashing a light at us and Bobby was flashing his light back at him, because we didn't know what was going on. That pissed the cop off. He starts asking for our IDs and what not....One of the guys in our group was mouthing off to him a little because the cope was very rude for no reason. Now think about this for a second. What kind of cop sneaks up on people in the middle of the woods. He didn't ever pull up in a cop car he came out of the blackness of the woods....who does that. So he takes our IDs and disappears back into the blackness of the woods. So we continue to drink and do funnels.
Then all of a sudden 3 more cop cars come pulling up. I guess he called for back-up. And returns to us and says he is not going to do anything and said we have to leave the campsite at 10AM tomorrow morning. SO we are like "Cool" now we will get a hotel room and not have to sleep in the fucking woods. Most of us passed out around 3-4 AM.
We wake up around 10:30 AM to pack up and now drive to the show that we were supposed to play. This time a different cop comes back around 10:30 and said that we need to leave around 1PM which was perfect because that was the time we needed to go to the show. However, he walks up to the promoters and tells them what happens. These two kids are like 17-years old and proceeds to tell us that we are off the tour and have to go home. We couldn't understand why, we didn't do anything wrong. We didn't break any rules. See the way we look at it....if we were causing a problem, why didn't we get a warning. Someone should have come up to us and tell us we were being "TOO Loud" in the middle of the woods and we would have gladly brought it down a notch. So these 17 year olds who we have never met and apparently were at the campsite monitoring the campsite says to us well you guys were kind of loud but we didn't want to stop you from having a good time. They then allow someone to call the cops on us and then have the nerve to tell us that we cannot play the shows that we already paid $125 to play. They kept blaming it on their boss, but I didnt see any boss anywhere. At that point there was no reason to argue, we were dealing with morons.
Now that I think back, who the hell would call the cops on us. Was it one of the other "Metal" bands that we were camped out with. I mean is that the weakest thing ever. You call the cops on us and not ask us first to quiet down. That is pathetic. Or could it have been some neighboring campers who were not part of the group. Those people had to be pretty far away for our voices to travel that far and have them call the cops. Either way I would say that is the promoters fault because he should have made sure that we were far enough away from people that 10 metal bands couldnt bother them. I mean lets be realistic...there was hundreds of miles of open space I hope you didnt put us that close to other people. Plus these guys will not give back my $125.
Anyways we drove home around 11AM laughing the whole way home. I mean how does anybody manage to get thrown out of the woods by cops who sneak up on you in the black of the night. Only Slam One Down can. I guess this is the stuff that "Legends are made of" Thanks for reading....J.R.
http://www.slamonedown.com
http://www.myspace.com/slamonedown
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953?ref=ts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
show this last saturday. meeting Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister
So we had a show this past saturday night in honor of J.R. and Scott's birthdays. It was at a bar called The Blue Room. Nice place, nice stage. Thanks to our good friend and unofficial/official manager Stevie, a couple of people showed up to the place, including Eddie Ojeda. If that name doesn't ring a bell then I'll spell it out for you. He's the lead guitarist for Twisted Sister. Coolest fucking guy in the world. Now i have a bit of history with this guy before i even meet him.
A band i was in two years ago recorded in a studio in Long Island run by a guy named George Marshall. That name is not familiar to you, but he's the guy who does ALL the sound for Twisted Sister on their tours. They take him everywhere. We instantly became family with this guy and we had a blast at the studio. He told us stories of touring with Twisted Sister and all the places they went in the world. So seeing a member of the band was doubly amazing for me.
After he had a conversation with J.R. I sat next to him and introduced myself. I mention that i recorded with George Marshall and he immediately lights up and i knew right away that this was the right thing to do. We get into a conversation about playing on the road when Steve comes back into the picture and mentions were both Puerto Rican. We look at each other and give each other five. We start talking about the Puerto Rican Day parade, being young and Puerto Rican in the city, about being close with family, and even how the Italians treated us like family as well. In summation, Eddie Ojeda is the coolest fucking guy I've ever met.
Its our turn to go up on stage. We set up everything and this was a special performance. It was our first one hour set show so we were debuting some new songs, including Hell Doesn't Want Me, which marks the first time Bobby Brazen sings instead of screams. He was obviously nervous and we had rehearse the song hundreds of times before the show trying to get it perfect, but i was confident he would pull it off. The opening goes fine, we're getting into it, then comes time for HDWM. The minute Bobby started singing, I knew he hit it. He was on point with every note and he didn't crack once. Even the part where I jump in sounded amazing.
The rest of the show went without a hitch, Eddie and company loved every minute of it and the birthday show was a complete success. Afterwards the crew went next door to AJ's, which is a strip club connected with the bar. That story can't be told by me, probably because it would get some people in trouble, but mostly because I didn't get to go. I had to hop on the 2:18AM train back into NY (last one for the night) so i can get home and get some sleep. I had a funeral and a procession to play the next day. Me and my endless weeks.
So thats it. Met a bonafide rock star and he was awesome, great show, and great friends to hang with. stay tuned for more from SLAM...ONE...DOWN!
-Roach
www.slamonedown.com
www.myspace.com/slamonedown
www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953
A band i was in two years ago recorded in a studio in Long Island run by a guy named George Marshall. That name is not familiar to you, but he's the guy who does ALL the sound for Twisted Sister on their tours. They take him everywhere. We instantly became family with this guy and we had a blast at the studio. He told us stories of touring with Twisted Sister and all the places they went in the world. So seeing a member of the band was doubly amazing for me.
After he had a conversation with J.R. I sat next to him and introduced myself. I mention that i recorded with George Marshall and he immediately lights up and i knew right away that this was the right thing to do. We get into a conversation about playing on the road when Steve comes back into the picture and mentions were both Puerto Rican. We look at each other and give each other five. We start talking about the Puerto Rican Day parade, being young and Puerto Rican in the city, about being close with family, and even how the Italians treated us like family as well. In summation, Eddie Ojeda is the coolest fucking guy I've ever met.
Its our turn to go up on stage. We set up everything and this was a special performance. It was our first one hour set show so we were debuting some new songs, including Hell Doesn't Want Me, which marks the first time Bobby Brazen sings instead of screams. He was obviously nervous and we had rehearse the song hundreds of times before the show trying to get it perfect, but i was confident he would pull it off. The opening goes fine, we're getting into it, then comes time for HDWM. The minute Bobby started singing, I knew he hit it. He was on point with every note and he didn't crack once. Even the part where I jump in sounded amazing.
The rest of the show went without a hitch, Eddie and company loved every minute of it and the birthday show was a complete success. Afterwards the crew went next door to AJ's, which is a strip club connected with the bar. That story can't be told by me, probably because it would get some people in trouble, but mostly because I didn't get to go. I had to hop on the 2:18AM train back into NY (last one for the night) so i can get home and get some sleep. I had a funeral and a procession to play the next day. Me and my endless weeks.
So thats it. Met a bonafide rock star and he was awesome, great show, and great friends to hang with. stay tuned for more from SLAM...ONE...DOWN!
-Roach
www.slamonedown.com
www.myspace.com/slamonedown
www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Slam-One-Down/130550258953
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Hellyeah show last night - Roach's thoughts
Roach here. J.R. will probably write one of these about the show last night, but i thought i would chime in with my thoughts on the show.
I get there at 730 and doors are still closed. J.R. says hes leaving his house at that moment, which means i have an hour and a half to kill seeing as how he lives in north jersey. After a sandwich and water i come back to the venue and they're letting people in. now for people who don't know music hall of williamsburg, its a nice venue to be at. there's a separate bar where you can sit and drink before the show starts and bullshit with your friends. i sat there by myself, had a cup of beer, and watched the other fans yelling and act like fools, thinking i was only going to drink a little before the show actually started. Black Water Rising started their set and after a couple of SECONDS listening to them, i decided to go back to the bar and drink some more. 6 beers in J.R. finally shows up and im already feeling the beer. I don't know if this goes for anybody else, but when im drunk my body suddenly becomes numb and all the pain i feel from working the day suddenly disappears. We go into the main hall and Hellyeah just started their set.
As soon as the first song started, a giant circle pit formed and about ten guys were moshing and running around. i originally wanted to lay back and watch the show without getting pushed, but the combination of being drunk and seeing the pit, i thought "fuck this" and ran into the fray. I still had my leather jacket on and didn't bother going to coat check to put it away and i damn sure wasn't going to put it down somewhere so i moshed with my jacket on.
Chad on vocals was amazing and i don't even have to say anything about Vin Paul on drums. The guitarists didn't seem to be into it though. They played their riffs and bobbed their heads a little, but compared to Chad and Vin, it seemed like they were standing still. The music was amazing, though, and all the shit from their new forthcoming album sounded just as good as the old shit. No Pantera covers, but oh well maybe next time.
So I'm pushing people around, getting pushed around, elbowing people, got punched in the jaw, got knocked down, helped some people up, gave guys i don't know pounds and probably made 6 new friends from the show. I spent the entire set in the pit, with my jacket on, and it was the best thing ever. i haven't moshed in a while and it was just what i needed. Two fights that i saw broke out, but nothing serious happened.
Right after Hellyeah finished their set, i met up with J.R. again and he gives me a stack of cds to give out. let me tell you, I've never seen a stack of cds go so fast. i just kept yelling out "FREE CD" and people just took them. One person didn't take it and i yelled out "YOU DON'T LIKE FREE SHIT?" to which he gave me a weird look and kept walking. seriously, who doesn't like free shit?
I saw a couple of people that i know at the show too. I ran into a friend from another band in the pit and a friend of my wife's rockin out too. We also ran into some people who knew of us and had seen us perform at a previous show. Small metal world we live in. After talking with them, we drove to Duffs and had some more drinks there. I was talking to Jimmy Duff, the owner of the bar, and we're thinking of doing a summer show there sometime. We were just about to leave, when Hellyeah comes in. We're in the car ready to drive away when we see Vin Paul walk into the bar and J.R. said's "i think we can stay a couple more minutes."
I saw each member of the band and congratulated them on the show. I'm not one of these guys who shits himself when he sees a celebrity of any kind because, not to sound full of myself, i know someday that i will be at that status and i want to be a colleague, a contemporary, and hopefully a friend to some of these guys and not just another fan. Chad finds his way to the bar and orders a drink while this super hot chick is talking his ear off about her tattoo and how it has something to do with him and i'm thinking "this super hot chick, who knows shes hot, was playing it all cool before he showed up and now shes throwing her vagina at him and all he wants is a drink. i love this guy."
after meeting the band and saying whats up, we leave, stop by at another bar in the city, say hello to some friends, stop by a pizza place, get a slice, and J.R. drives me home. I stumble past two people sleeping in my living room (my wife had some friends over and killed a bottle of wine and half a cake) got into bed and went to sleep. An awesome night of metal, an awesome night of drinking, an awesome night for meeting new people and saying hello to some old faces. The night couldn't have gone any better.
I get there at 730 and doors are still closed. J.R. says hes leaving his house at that moment, which means i have an hour and a half to kill seeing as how he lives in north jersey. After a sandwich and water i come back to the venue and they're letting people in. now for people who don't know music hall of williamsburg, its a nice venue to be at. there's a separate bar where you can sit and drink before the show starts and bullshit with your friends. i sat there by myself, had a cup of beer, and watched the other fans yelling and act like fools, thinking i was only going to drink a little before the show actually started. Black Water Rising started their set and after a couple of SECONDS listening to them, i decided to go back to the bar and drink some more. 6 beers in J.R. finally shows up and im already feeling the beer. I don't know if this goes for anybody else, but when im drunk my body suddenly becomes numb and all the pain i feel from working the day suddenly disappears. We go into the main hall and Hellyeah just started their set.
As soon as the first song started, a giant circle pit formed and about ten guys were moshing and running around. i originally wanted to lay back and watch the show without getting pushed, but the combination of being drunk and seeing the pit, i thought "fuck this" and ran into the fray. I still had my leather jacket on and didn't bother going to coat check to put it away and i damn sure wasn't going to put it down somewhere so i moshed with my jacket on.
Chad on vocals was amazing and i don't even have to say anything about Vin Paul on drums. The guitarists didn't seem to be into it though. They played their riffs and bobbed their heads a little, but compared to Chad and Vin, it seemed like they were standing still. The music was amazing, though, and all the shit from their new forthcoming album sounded just as good as the old shit. No Pantera covers, but oh well maybe next time.
So I'm pushing people around, getting pushed around, elbowing people, got punched in the jaw, got knocked down, helped some people up, gave guys i don't know pounds and probably made 6 new friends from the show. I spent the entire set in the pit, with my jacket on, and it was the best thing ever. i haven't moshed in a while and it was just what i needed. Two fights that i saw broke out, but nothing serious happened.
Right after Hellyeah finished their set, i met up with J.R. again and he gives me a stack of cds to give out. let me tell you, I've never seen a stack of cds go so fast. i just kept yelling out "FREE CD" and people just took them. One person didn't take it and i yelled out "YOU DON'T LIKE FREE SHIT?" to which he gave me a weird look and kept walking. seriously, who doesn't like free shit?
I saw a couple of people that i know at the show too. I ran into a friend from another band in the pit and a friend of my wife's rockin out too. We also ran into some people who knew of us and had seen us perform at a previous show. Small metal world we live in. After talking with them, we drove to Duffs and had some more drinks there. I was talking to Jimmy Duff, the owner of the bar, and we're thinking of doing a summer show there sometime. We were just about to leave, when Hellyeah comes in. We're in the car ready to drive away when we see Vin Paul walk into the bar and J.R. said's "i think we can stay a couple more minutes."
I saw each member of the band and congratulated them on the show. I'm not one of these guys who shits himself when he sees a celebrity of any kind because, not to sound full of myself, i know someday that i will be at that status and i want to be a colleague, a contemporary, and hopefully a friend to some of these guys and not just another fan. Chad finds his way to the bar and orders a drink while this super hot chick is talking his ear off about her tattoo and how it has something to do with him and i'm thinking "this super hot chick, who knows shes hot, was playing it all cool before he showed up and now shes throwing her vagina at him and all he wants is a drink. i love this guy."
after meeting the band and saying whats up, we leave, stop by at another bar in the city, say hello to some friends, stop by a pizza place, get a slice, and J.R. drives me home. I stumble past two people sleeping in my living room (my wife had some friends over and killed a bottle of wine and half a cake) got into bed and went to sleep. An awesome night of metal, an awesome night of drinking, an awesome night for meeting new people and saying hello to some old faces. The night couldn't have gone any better.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Mastodon
I checked out Mastodon and Between the Buried and me the other day and I was very impressed by both bands live sets. It was an excellent night of music. It definitely got my creative juices flowing again to write new music. I love when that happens. We here at Slam One Down definitely want to write music from all different styles and we don't ever want to box ourselves into one style. I would love to implement more progressive type riffs into our songs, but of course S1D style!
....funny story though...both bands stopped in the middle of the set to yell at either people in the crowd or their road crew. BTBAM- yelled at someone in the crowd for cursing at them. Mastodon's Brett Hinds, started yelling at his roadies' saying that they get paid too much money to tune his guitars and they must have been out of tune. Then he yelled at the sound board engineer and told him to lower the subs, because he couldn't hear anything. I understood what they were going through. It sucks when you get rude people or you can't get into the vibe of your own music, due to technical diffuculties. However, it totally disrupted the vibe. One lesson I learned is always keep the party going, never let your emotions get the best of you. Nothing is perfect, but the fact you are up there and playing live and playing in front of 2000 people should be all you need. -J.R.
....funny story though...both bands stopped in the middle of the set to yell at either people in the crowd or their road crew. BTBAM- yelled at someone in the crowd for cursing at them. Mastodon's Brett Hinds, started yelling at his roadies' saying that they get paid too much money to tune his guitars and they must have been out of tune. Then he yelled at the sound board engineer and told him to lower the subs, because he couldn't hear anything. I understood what they were going through. It sucks when you get rude people or you can't get into the vibe of your own music, due to technical diffuculties. However, it totally disrupted the vibe. One lesson I learned is always keep the party going, never let your emotions get the best of you. Nothing is perfect, but the fact you are up there and playing live and playing in front of 2000 people should be all you need. -J.R.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Roach's thoughts on Slam One Down Part 3...
Well here it is folks. you've all been eagerly awaiting the last installment in this series and i finally have some free time to write this. I'm at work right now but its a saturday and it is shit slow around here let me tell you. Its days like these i wish i was already touring and doing what i love behind my baby. Anyway lets get on with this...
When i left off, the bass player from my very first band called me and asked if i wanted to join his current project. I agreed and sat in on a couple of practices. Heavy metal, right up my alley, with a little humor, another one of my alleys. I already knew the guys he was working with and everything seemed to gel naturally. We did a couple of shows together and the music was sounding good and the show aspect was getting better. We were starting to get buzz. We made a full fledged album out of our own pocket and it was good. we had enough material for a second album that was forthcoming. We made it to a final of an international battle of the bands and got to play at Webster Hall, which i find to be our crowning achievement. People were taking notice of us, our music, our antics on and off stage, and it seemed like we had nowhere to go but up.
this was to me the long term relationship girlfriend. the one you marry. the one you have kids and get a house with.
there were a couple of things going on in the band, however, that raised some concerns, not just to me, but everyone involved. some things can be argued, some things cannot. I always thought we would be able to get through those issues and come out the other side in one piece. The fates proved me wrong.
One thing we didn't do enough of was advertisement. The fact of me writing this blog is me learning from my own mistakes as well as the band. the online community is so vast and easy to connect to, but you have to put the work in to connect with them. I didn't do enough of that on my own and im trying to fix that.
Another mistake we made was coasting with booking shows. We allowed the head of another band, whom we were real good friends with, book shows and include us with them. The only problem was that this guy didnt know how to book cohesive shows. Everything was erratic and utter chaos. We always swore we would never use him again but then he would call and we'd go "alright lets do it" and start the cycle of pain over again.
we didn't promote ourselves as much as we should have. We gave out the cds for free, which is cool, but at the same time we weren't seeing any returns on the money we put into making the album. We also had a lot of ideas for merchandise, videos, shows, comics, movies, etc, all pertaining to the band, but we never followed through with them. Its like those times your drunk with your friends and you spew out all these ideas about taking a road trip to alaska or climbing the adirondack mountains. Then the next day you totally forget what you were talking about.
In short, the music was good and tight, but the business side was lacking.
being in a band and trying to make it is not about the music. its probably 10% music actually. Most of what you do is what im doing right now, write about your band, promote, advertise, get the name out, let people know you exist. I get people complaining to me that Slam One Down posts 500 times in a single day on facebook or myspace. but look at it this way, they're noticing that my band is there and alive and kicking. The music industry has very little to do with the actual music. Look at Britney Spears, The Spice Girls, the Jonas Brothers, and Miley Cyrus for references.
So after our last show, we sort of drifted apart and didnt talk to each other for months. I wondered what was going on, but in the back of my head i knew what was coming. We started to email each other and have meetings about whats the next step for us. We had the answers, but we were wondering if it was worth it. a couple more months passed by with no correspondence and what i had originality thought happened, we were breaking up. After three years of playing non stop shows, recording, joking around and coming up with great ideas that fell to the wasteside, we broke up. It wasn't a fast and clean break either, it was slow, tedious, and painful.
The girl who i thought was the one drifted away from me and sort of broke up with me without actually saying it.
Thats the worst kind, because for years after on top of the "what if?" factor, you have this nagging feeling that you might actually get back together if those differences got patched up, but you know they never will.
While the slow breakup was happening, i went back online to look for more bands to play with. I get an anonymous email from someone in jersey who has a band and is looking for a drummer. I was interested and because of the slow breakup, i was left bandless, so i decided to reply. the guy, J.R., sent me the music and i immediately loved it. i replied and we set up an audition day.
TO BE CONTINUED?...hehe you guys guessed this was the last part, well its not. im throwing a curve ball. The Epilogue is coming. With that, i bid you guys an adieu and remember, kids, KEEP IT METAL!
-Roach
When i left off, the bass player from my very first band called me and asked if i wanted to join his current project. I agreed and sat in on a couple of practices. Heavy metal, right up my alley, with a little humor, another one of my alleys. I already knew the guys he was working with and everything seemed to gel naturally. We did a couple of shows together and the music was sounding good and the show aspect was getting better. We were starting to get buzz. We made a full fledged album out of our own pocket and it was good. we had enough material for a second album that was forthcoming. We made it to a final of an international battle of the bands and got to play at Webster Hall, which i find to be our crowning achievement. People were taking notice of us, our music, our antics on and off stage, and it seemed like we had nowhere to go but up.
this was to me the long term relationship girlfriend. the one you marry. the one you have kids and get a house with.
there were a couple of things going on in the band, however, that raised some concerns, not just to me, but everyone involved. some things can be argued, some things cannot. I always thought we would be able to get through those issues and come out the other side in one piece. The fates proved me wrong.
One thing we didn't do enough of was advertisement. The fact of me writing this blog is me learning from my own mistakes as well as the band. the online community is so vast and easy to connect to, but you have to put the work in to connect with them. I didn't do enough of that on my own and im trying to fix that.
Another mistake we made was coasting with booking shows. We allowed the head of another band, whom we were real good friends with, book shows and include us with them. The only problem was that this guy didnt know how to book cohesive shows. Everything was erratic and utter chaos. We always swore we would never use him again but then he would call and we'd go "alright lets do it" and start the cycle of pain over again.
we didn't promote ourselves as much as we should have. We gave out the cds for free, which is cool, but at the same time we weren't seeing any returns on the money we put into making the album. We also had a lot of ideas for merchandise, videos, shows, comics, movies, etc, all pertaining to the band, but we never followed through with them. Its like those times your drunk with your friends and you spew out all these ideas about taking a road trip to alaska or climbing the adirondack mountains. Then the next day you totally forget what you were talking about.
In short, the music was good and tight, but the business side was lacking.
being in a band and trying to make it is not about the music. its probably 10% music actually. Most of what you do is what im doing right now, write about your band, promote, advertise, get the name out, let people know you exist. I get people complaining to me that Slam One Down posts 500 times in a single day on facebook or myspace. but look at it this way, they're noticing that my band is there and alive and kicking. The music industry has very little to do with the actual music. Look at Britney Spears, The Spice Girls, the Jonas Brothers, and Miley Cyrus for references.
So after our last show, we sort of drifted apart and didnt talk to each other for months. I wondered what was going on, but in the back of my head i knew what was coming. We started to email each other and have meetings about whats the next step for us. We had the answers, but we were wondering if it was worth it. a couple more months passed by with no correspondence and what i had originality thought happened, we were breaking up. After three years of playing non stop shows, recording, joking around and coming up with great ideas that fell to the wasteside, we broke up. It wasn't a fast and clean break either, it was slow, tedious, and painful.
The girl who i thought was the one drifted away from me and sort of broke up with me without actually saying it.
Thats the worst kind, because for years after on top of the "what if?" factor, you have this nagging feeling that you might actually get back together if those differences got patched up, but you know they never will.
While the slow breakup was happening, i went back online to look for more bands to play with. I get an anonymous email from someone in jersey who has a band and is looking for a drummer. I was interested and because of the slow breakup, i was left bandless, so i decided to reply. the guy, J.R., sent me the music and i immediately loved it. i replied and we set up an audition day.
TO BE CONTINUED?...hehe you guys guessed this was the last part, well its not. im throwing a curve ball. The Epilogue is coming. With that, i bid you guys an adieu and remember, kids, KEEP IT METAL!
-Roach
Monday, January 11, 2010
Our First Press Review
Hey everyone, we had our first press review of our demo entitled, "The Basement Demos." It was published this January 2010 in the magazine, "More Sugar." It was written by Jaymz Delisle in Chris Rush's column entitled "A little more Metal." Thanks to both of those guys!! Here it is.
Hey More Sugar readers, it's Jaymz from Left In Ruins back to give you Metalheads my first brutal review of 2010!!! So I was recently at the Metallica/Lamb of God show at MSG, in NYC, and in the midst of Lamb of God ripping my face off with their brutal Southern Fried Thrash Metally goodness, my buddy J.R., former guitarist of NY Underground Hardcore veterans 4 In The Chamber, greeted me with a hug and put a disk in my hand. He said "Check out my new band, Slam One Down!!!" I thanked him, we went our separate ways and enjoyed the rest of the show. After 2 full listens to this disk, I immediately went to my computer and went to www.myspace.com/slamonedown and to my surprise, this band also enlisted in their ranks, the vocal skills of former 4 In The Chamber front-man Bobby Brazen!!! As you could imagine, Slam One Down does pay homage to their hardcore roots much in the same way 4ITC did, but the guys in Slam One Down also bring a mighty *#@%-load of old-school Metal to the table here as well!!! Thrashy riffs, often give way to catchy choruses, killer guitar solo's and yes, even the occasional mosh-friendly breakdown. Mr. Brazen sounds as evil as ever, with a throat full of whiskey fueled fire, and all the attitude to boot! Slam One Down is, as Jimmy Bower would put it, "All About The Riff!". These guys know how to tear it up the right way, and there is absolutely no lack of groove or rhythm on Slam One Down's "The Basement Demo's". For me the ultimate surprise here, comes in at track 3. "Hell Doesn't Want Me" starts off very mellow, with clean acoustic guitars, and Bobby Brazen crooning with a voice reminiscent of Down-era Phil Anselmo and Zakk Wylde. And c'mon, how can you not love a band that not only does the "Beer Run" song, but also does an acoustic version of it which reminds one of Pantera's "Planet Caravan" cover?!?! Personal favorites of mine on this CD are "Too Far Gone" with it's thuggish Hardcore stomp, "Music,Money & Girls" with it's Pantera meets Crowbar sludginess, and "To Live Forever" with it's gallopy, Iron Maiden-esque main riff. While Slam One Down may be a relatively new band, it's members have been doing this for a long time, and I gotta say I'm looking forward to seeing these guys at a lot of shows ripping it up in the near future and hoping to get the chance to share the stage with them myself!!! These guys will be at Popeye's Pub along with CT. Black Death Metallers Theogonia and more on January 9th, so make sure to come out and catch another killer FYC Metal show!!! Also hit them up at www.myspace.com/slamonedown to keep up with the band and their other upcoming gigs.
Hey More Sugar readers, it's Jaymz from Left In Ruins back to give you Metalheads my first brutal review of 2010!!! So I was recently at the Metallica/Lamb of God show at MSG, in NYC, and in the midst of Lamb of God ripping my face off with their brutal Southern Fried Thrash Metally goodness, my buddy J.R., former guitarist of NY Underground Hardcore veterans 4 In The Chamber, greeted me with a hug and put a disk in my hand. He said "Check out my new band, Slam One Down!!!" I thanked him, we went our separate ways and enjoyed the rest of the show. After 2 full listens to this disk, I immediately went to my computer and went to www.myspace.com/slamonedown and to my surprise, this band also enlisted in their ranks, the vocal skills of former 4 In The Chamber front-man Bobby Brazen!!! As you could imagine, Slam One Down does pay homage to their hardcore roots much in the same way 4ITC did, but the guys in Slam One Down also bring a mighty *#@%-load of old-school Metal to the table here as well!!! Thrashy riffs, often give way to catchy choruses, killer guitar solo's and yes, even the occasional mosh-friendly breakdown. Mr. Brazen sounds as evil as ever, with a throat full of whiskey fueled fire, and all the attitude to boot! Slam One Down is, as Jimmy Bower would put it, "All About The Riff!". These guys know how to tear it up the right way, and there is absolutely no lack of groove or rhythm on Slam One Down's "The Basement Demo's". For me the ultimate surprise here, comes in at track 3. "Hell Doesn't Want Me" starts off very mellow, with clean acoustic guitars, and Bobby Brazen crooning with a voice reminiscent of Down-era Phil Anselmo and Zakk Wylde. And c'mon, how can you not love a band that not only does the "Beer Run" song, but also does an acoustic version of it which reminds one of Pantera's "Planet Caravan" cover?!?! Personal favorites of mine on this CD are "Too Far Gone" with it's thuggish Hardcore stomp, "Music,Money & Girls" with it's Pantera meets Crowbar sludginess, and "To Live Forever" with it's gallopy, Iron Maiden-esque main riff. While Slam One Down may be a relatively new band, it's members have been doing this for a long time, and I gotta say I'm looking forward to seeing these guys at a lot of shows ripping it up in the near future and hoping to get the chance to share the stage with them myself!!! These guys will be at Popeye's Pub along with CT. Black Death Metallers Theogonia and more on January 9th, so make sure to come out and catch another killer FYC Metal show!!! Also hit them up at www.myspace.com/slamonedown to keep up with the band and their other upcoming gigs.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
this week in shows, Trash Bar, Connoly's, Popeyes
Hey this is Roach again from Slam One Down. I posted something the other day about our show at the Trash Bar and how sick that show was, but its Sunday now and after two more shows this week i wanted to give the full week in review.
Now when I first heard we were booked for three shows in one week, i 'll admit i wasn't sure if all three of those shows were going to be great. The problem with a band with no national notoriety that's just starting out is that you always get your friends to come to your shows. Most bookers and agents all agree that doing more than two shows a month is not a good strategy because all you end up doing is annoy your audience (basically your friends) by forcing them to come to the same show over and over. You also run the risk of getting stale really quickly because your playing the same songs in front of the same people. This is within a month, mind you, let alone a week.
Well if you read the last blog you know how the Trash Bar went. It was a sick show and we met new bands and people. Connoly's I wasn't too sure about because it was a late show (we went on at midnight) and it was Times Square, a place where metal fans don't tend to frequent anymore. My fears were crushed, however, when i saw the crowd that was there. We met a couple of them beforehand and just like true metal fans, they stayed till the very end of our set. The most surprising thing i saw at that show was that more girls were moshing it up than the guys. Now I'm not going to point any of you out, but fellas, the girls were showin you up at this show. If i wasn't behind a drum set at the time, i would've jumped into that. You guys have no excuse. You better make it up to us on the next one.
The last show we did was last night at Popeyes Pub in Cortlandt manor, ny. Before we even get to the show disaster almost struck. We took two cars, Bobby J.R. and Scotty took the S1D-mobile with the hitch up and Me and the misses took my car with my drum gear from the city. We both get stopped by the cops. Now my comrades were stopped because they had a trailer on a parkway, something you're not supposed to do apparently. They were let go, however, but given a warning. I, on the other hand, was stopped because i was speeding in a small westchester town. The cops comes back and tells me my license has been suspended since November. The city, in it's infinite wisdom, failed to notify me.
They actually arrested me and took me to the precinct. The cops, however, were really nice and after i told them about the show and everything, were very accomodating and fast tracked the paper work that needed to be done. After about an hour waiting in a jail cell, the paper work was done and i was back on the road (needless to say, my wife drove the rest of the way)
we get to the venue and lemme tell you, it is TINY. We barely had room enough to get our gear into the back where the stage was. after a drink and a laugh about our excursions with law enforcement, it was our turn to play. we set up our gear and went on with the show. We threw all the bullshit and drama to the side and rocked the fucking joint. Everyone was banging their heads and moshing. just like the last two shows this week, this was starting out to be a great show.
then something happened. During one of our songs, I'm looking down, concentrating on the certain part i had to play. I look up and EVERYONE is on stage, moshing, head banging, yelling and screaming. The place went absolutely nuts. Scotty got drenched in beer, people were air guitaring with J.R. and Bobby joined in the moshing. After 8 years of playing live shows, i thought i'd seen it all. This was probably one of the sickest things i'd ever seen. The crowd was fuckin hot and we gave them what they wanted.
This was also the first crowd that got Beer Run right. We like to turn the mics around and let the fans sing this one, but the last couple of shows nobody's been willing to participate. Well Popeye's destroyed that. We had the entire place singing B-DOUBLE E-DOUBLE R-U-N BEER RUN! BEER RUN! it was such an amazing experience and i hope Popeye's has shown the rest of you how it's done.
So with all our fears and apprehension of playing three shows in one week, we rose to the occasion and crushed all three. each show was better than the last with Popeye's being the culmination of all this. We're learning our lesson from this experience, though, and we're going to stick with a two show a month formula. Of course if someone throws us a free show here and there we won't turn them down, but we're gonna focus more on picking and choosing our shows, working on more original music as well as covers, and getting merchandise for you crazy fuckheads.
be sure to check out our sites myspace.com/slamonedown reverbnation.com/slamonedown. and also on facebook search for Slam One Down. Also on Facebook search for our mascot Brew Ski. I'm getting a lot of people asking who Brew Ski is, thats the mascot for the band. So if you get a friend request from a ripped metalhead with a chump in a headlock forcing a tap into his mouth, accept it and check out the music. Until next time, keep it metal!
-Roach
Now when I first heard we were booked for three shows in one week, i 'll admit i wasn't sure if all three of those shows were going to be great. The problem with a band with no national notoriety that's just starting out is that you always get your friends to come to your shows. Most bookers and agents all agree that doing more than two shows a month is not a good strategy because all you end up doing is annoy your audience (basically your friends) by forcing them to come to the same show over and over. You also run the risk of getting stale really quickly because your playing the same songs in front of the same people. This is within a month, mind you, let alone a week.
Well if you read the last blog you know how the Trash Bar went. It was a sick show and we met new bands and people. Connoly's I wasn't too sure about because it was a late show (we went on at midnight) and it was Times Square, a place where metal fans don't tend to frequent anymore. My fears were crushed, however, when i saw the crowd that was there. We met a couple of them beforehand and just like true metal fans, they stayed till the very end of our set. The most surprising thing i saw at that show was that more girls were moshing it up than the guys. Now I'm not going to point any of you out, but fellas, the girls were showin you up at this show. If i wasn't behind a drum set at the time, i would've jumped into that. You guys have no excuse. You better make it up to us on the next one.
The last show we did was last night at Popeyes Pub in Cortlandt manor, ny. Before we even get to the show disaster almost struck. We took two cars, Bobby J.R. and Scotty took the S1D-mobile with the hitch up and Me and the misses took my car with my drum gear from the city. We both get stopped by the cops. Now my comrades were stopped because they had a trailer on a parkway, something you're not supposed to do apparently. They were let go, however, but given a warning. I, on the other hand, was stopped because i was speeding in a small westchester town. The cops comes back and tells me my license has been suspended since November. The city, in it's infinite wisdom, failed to notify me.
They actually arrested me and took me to the precinct. The cops, however, were really nice and after i told them about the show and everything, were very accomodating and fast tracked the paper work that needed to be done. After about an hour waiting in a jail cell, the paper work was done and i was back on the road (needless to say, my wife drove the rest of the way)
we get to the venue and lemme tell you, it is TINY. We barely had room enough to get our gear into the back where the stage was. after a drink and a laugh about our excursions with law enforcement, it was our turn to play. we set up our gear and went on with the show. We threw all the bullshit and drama to the side and rocked the fucking joint. Everyone was banging their heads and moshing. just like the last two shows this week, this was starting out to be a great show.
then something happened. During one of our songs, I'm looking down, concentrating on the certain part i had to play. I look up and EVERYONE is on stage, moshing, head banging, yelling and screaming. The place went absolutely nuts. Scotty got drenched in beer, people were air guitaring with J.R. and Bobby joined in the moshing. After 8 years of playing live shows, i thought i'd seen it all. This was probably one of the sickest things i'd ever seen. The crowd was fuckin hot and we gave them what they wanted.
This was also the first crowd that got Beer Run right. We like to turn the mics around and let the fans sing this one, but the last couple of shows nobody's been willing to participate. Well Popeye's destroyed that. We had the entire place singing B-DOUBLE E-DOUBLE R-U-N BEER RUN! BEER RUN! it was such an amazing experience and i hope Popeye's has shown the rest of you how it's done.
So with all our fears and apprehension of playing three shows in one week, we rose to the occasion and crushed all three. each show was better than the last with Popeye's being the culmination of all this. We're learning our lesson from this experience, though, and we're going to stick with a two show a month formula. Of course if someone throws us a free show here and there we won't turn them down, but we're gonna focus more on picking and choosing our shows, working on more original music as well as covers, and getting merchandise for you crazy fuckheads.
be sure to check out our sites myspace.com/slamonedown reverbnation.com/slamonedown. and also on facebook search for Slam One Down. Also on Facebook search for our mascot Brew Ski. I'm getting a lot of people asking who Brew Ski is, thats the mascot for the band. So if you get a friend request from a ripped metalhead with a chump in a headlock forcing a tap into his mouth, accept it and check out the music. Until next time, keep it metal!
-Roach
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Trashin it up at the Trash Bar
hey this is roach from Slam One Down. Just wanted to reflect on last nights show. It was an awesome time as usual. a few of the regulars showed up and rocked the house, but since we were playing in brooklyn, i had a couple of my own close personal friends show up to check us out. it made the night even better. I walked into the show after a day that i was up since 8am running errands and a weekend where i got 4 hours sleep combined. i was dead tired when i got there and i didnt feel like participating in anything until the show started. two Jaeger shots later, my friends showed up and just like popeye i reenergized and went into the fray.
We met a band called savior from long island and these guys were awesome. They shot a promo video and included us. we were our roudy selves as usual. they took the stage and rocked brooklyn to its core. old school metal at its finest. the bassist broke his strap and the guitarist broke a string on the same song. Thats fucking brutal. I jumped, i yelled, i moshed, i was feeling good. One of those natural highs you get when you're doing something you love.
we took the stage and the crowd was already warmed up. We slayed the stage and everyone in that place and left only a few survivors. Technical issues aside, the band was tight, the songs were brutal, J.R. shredded, Scotty head banged, Bobby turned into the American Psycho we all know and love, and I damn near broke a hole in each of my drums. I saw people moshing, people jumping up on stage to sing along, and although i missed the boob shot (yes there was a boob shot), i can always imagine and imagination is the greatest gift of all.
All in all it was a great night. I personally love the Trash bar. I've played there several times with several other bands and its always a guaranteed good time. Last night was no different. Till next time, Cheers.
-R
We met a band called savior from long island and these guys were awesome. They shot a promo video and included us. we were our roudy selves as usual. they took the stage and rocked brooklyn to its core. old school metal at its finest. the bassist broke his strap and the guitarist broke a string on the same song. Thats fucking brutal. I jumped, i yelled, i moshed, i was feeling good. One of those natural highs you get when you're doing something you love.
we took the stage and the crowd was already warmed up. We slayed the stage and everyone in that place and left only a few survivors. Technical issues aside, the band was tight, the songs were brutal, J.R. shredded, Scotty head banged, Bobby turned into the American Psycho we all know and love, and I damn near broke a hole in each of my drums. I saw people moshing, people jumping up on stage to sing along, and although i missed the boob shot (yes there was a boob shot), i can always imagine and imagination is the greatest gift of all.
All in all it was a great night. I personally love the Trash bar. I've played there several times with several other bands and its always a guaranteed good time. Last night was no different. Till next time, Cheers.
-R
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