Stevie Nicks, the world-renowned Great Sage and Eminent Philosopher, once said, "You can only rock out so much. Then you have to go rest." I personally experienced this universal truth this past Monday evening when my long-awaited Fear Factory show finally arrived and then I spent much of Tuesday lying on the couch, complaining my neck was stiff.
That's the theory I'm going with, anyway. I'd much rather believe that I needed that rest on Tuesday because seeing Fear Factory and the mighty Prong rocked my socks so hard that I, y'know... ended up with some kind of 24 hour, metal-induced form of polio, and not that I'm maybe getting a little too old to bang my head as vigorously as I did in days of future passed (or past, if you're Uncanny like that). Why? Because,
like baseball, there's no crying in metal. Ask Tom Araya - you just
get a titanium plate installed in your neck, and then you just walk it off, flower.
Anyway, I say all of that just so I can say all of this: the show was frakkin' epic. I love me some Fear Factory like
Gene Hoglan, Dino Cazares, and Byron Stroud love cake, and I'm so damn glad to see Dino back in the band, you have no idea - and having the legendary Gene "The Atomic Clock" Hoglan in there now is just gold, y'all.
My ass was front & center, clinging to the security rail like a demented monkey so no one could dislodge me. The set was great, and finally hearing "
Self Bias Resistor," one of my long-time theme songs, live was just epic.
I was double lucky, though. Not only did I get to see FF, but I also got to see the mighty Prong on the same night - another band I have loved forever, and you can bet your ass I bounced like an idiot during "
Rude Awakening," (like this,
, only way more metal) because that song is unbearably catchy. AND I got picks from both Tommy Victor and Tony Campos, to add to my Official Collection of Picks What I Have Collected from Various Artists that Use Picks. Score!
Speaking of which - Byron Stroud tried to toss a pick down my shirt, but alas, it bounced off and some doucherocket stole it away from me before I could catch it. So, like...a pox on
that guy's house. A really BIG pox. Yea, even unto the seventh generation! That'll fix his little red wagon but good, yo.
Anyway, there were three other bands, too. The first one was some act called The Gorge, who were not exactly bad, I don't think, but I can't tell for sure, because I was completely distracted by the fact that the vocalist had a strange tiny moustache like Cochese from
that one Beastie Boys video.
Second band, Thy Will Be Done, were awesome. I talked to the vocalist for a few minutes later in the evening, and he was really sweet. He'd made a nice speech before dedicating a song to Peter Steele, Dio, and Paul Gray of Slipknot, who had died just that morning, so I told him I appreciated that, and he was all adorable about it. Gotta love a cuddly metal dude with
epic facial hair.
The other band was Silent Civilian. I had heard Silent Civilian was the new brainchild of Jonny Santos, ex member of
Spineshank. I was a big fan of Spineshank back in the day, and they had some great albums. Even got nominated for a Grammy. So I figured, hey, these guys might be good, because Spineshank! Yay! But Santos has apparently decided the right thing to do with his life is to trade making awesome music like that of Spineshank's for...metalcore? Yeah, I don't get it, either.
At any rate, I have to go now. I'm going to blast a Slayer album and see about developing a vaccine for the metal-induced polio thing. After that, just in case, I'm going to see about devising a way to bang my head that involves less in the way of neck injury and more in the way of relaxing Swedish massage and/or soothing acupuncture session.
Perhaps a headbang/Tai Chi hybrid?
Can someone get me Coach from Survivor's number? His hair's kinda long and I know he likes him some Tai Chi. Let's make this happen, people! Vertebrae are at stake! Shake your asses!