Thursday: Went to the Job Centre, managed to get out in record timing, told Fiona about the interview I have next week, we didn't bother job searching as she'd looked up admin a few times that day and there wasn't a lot there, talked about changing my sign in day to a Wednesday so I wouldn't have to come in once a week. Before I left I took my jacket off to see how people would react (that and it was hot) and had some Pikey lady tell me she liked my tattoos. Went straight to the train station and got on a train to Victoria. Had a look in HMV, went into Sister Ray and got a Nick Cave album and an Alias & Tariser CD, went to Reckless Records and found it was shut down and they moved all the stock into it's sister Dance/Hip Hop shop for a closing down sale, some guy from a bank called me while I was in there to tell me I'd have to take an online test before I could be considered for a position, went back in Sister Ray and bought a Grinderman seven inch, walked to Virgin and got Alexisonfire and The Bronx seven inches. Got the train to Camden, tried to buy a ticket for Acid King but they weren't on sale yet, got something to eat at the Vegan Chinese place, went to the second hand shop and bought an Electric Wizard CD, got the train to Kentish Town. I noticed a lot of commercial metal fans in the queue, it made me think that Mastodon could at as a Stoner Cradle Of Filth, like some of their fans dug deeper and got into proper Black Metal, maybe some of these kids will get further into Stoner Doom, that is if they realise that Mastodon are more than just a Prog band (fuck you Metal Hammer, fuck you, you already made Power Metal trendy (and calling it Battle Metal doesn't make it any less gay) don't try to bring back Prog Rock). When I got in the Forum I got a text from Mills saying he was going to try and make it to the show.
Saviours: Might have been the Californian accent but they just kind of made me think of a more doomy Fu Manchu. Good riffs, some songs felt like they were a bit longer than they should have been, undecided if I really liked them that much.
Mastodon: Before they came on I sent a text to Mills asking if he was there, he texted back saying he gave up trying to get up here as the tube was delayed because someone threw them self on the track. Stood near the stairs to get a good view of the stage. They opened with four new songs back to back, which I didn't mind as the main reason I wanted to see them was to see how they pulled off the new stuff live (very well as it happens). Played a good mixture of old and new stuff, impressed to see Bill Kelliher do Josh Humme's vocals (note perfect and all) when they played Colony Of Birchmen. The only thing that really disappointed me was they didn't talk at all between songs until right at the end to dedicate Blood And Thunder to Saviours. Played Hearts Alive as there last song which I didn't see coming as they used to open with it when they toured on Leviathan.
Got to Victoria, went to the kebab shop over the road to get chips in pita, found Mills, talked bollocks until our train came, talked more bollocks on the train. Across from us was a fat sleeping man snoring really loudly, it was funny as he had his head on his shoulder and the more he snored the more it looked like he was deflating, as Mills was talking about throwing something at him so he'd wake up the guys phone went off in his pocket, he head went straight up but he was still asleep, while his phone was going off he kept saying "hello" into the air until his phone stopped ringing then his head went straight back to his shoulder, I laughed 'til I wept. Got off at Rochester and walked home.
Friday: Goddamn the sun, how can I have a lie in with that cunt shining through my window. Went food shopping in Chatham, I passed a couple of Chavs, one commented that I was "all Rocked up," better than being called Goth or Grunger. Got to Tap about eight, found Liam and Gabriel with Paul and his older brother Dan (I only just learnt that he's older, always figured Paul would have been the eldest) with Joe or Annoying Indie Bloke as I like to call him (had to deal with him talking at me during the course of the night), but later I met this guy who's even more annoying than him. There's this guy at the Tap who always comes up to me and says "hey it's that guy who lives on my road" but I've never gotten into a conversation with him, every time he talked to me it was the same "you live on my road" thing over and over again, then he'd try to tell a joke but it went nowhere, and every time it was the same joke about some bloke who hunts whales (some times he'd change it to dolphins), it was kind of like the "yeah, no, but yeah" character on Little Britton on even less funny, the guy was talking about having a conversation with the whaler and just stated talking really fast, after his third attempt at telling this joke I just wound up shouting "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP" at him, and even after that he tried telling the joke again. Later I found Ollie with his mate Liam, told me Chris and Zak were about, found them on the top floor with Mills. I could see Mills wasn't having a good time listening to dance music so I asked if he wanted to go downstairs, brought him to the table with Liam and Gabriel and talked bollocks, Steve came minus girlfriend (I doubt if she would have gotten into the Tap) asked why I haven't been to the Manor as I'm not banned anymore "because it's still shit" which Steve had to agree with, apparently Steve the bouncer has his son DJing in the Rock room which I imagine wouldn't be too bad as I know he's a big Punk fan. Mills left after twelve as he had to be at work in four hours, the had Steve lecture me on why this area is so shit for Metal and why everyone at the Tap is a cunt. Left after two am, got something to eat at the kebab shop, Liam was so drunk he couldn't stand, I had to watch him while Steve was getting his food. This Black guy Liam knew came along and he told him he looked like the guy from Block Party (well actually it came out "yeah, Block Party, yeah") but the guy just laughed it off and called him a Racist bastard. After much difficulty Me, Steve and Gabriel managed to walk Liam to the taxi rank, we tried getting in one taxi but the guy wouldn't let us in as Liam was falling about the place manically laughing, the next two taxis saw that and drove off before we could ask if we could get in. Some guy was yelling so Liam started yelling at him like he wanted to fight him, to which we all surrounded Liam and told him to shut the fuck up but thankfully the guy yelling turned out to be Deano. We finally got a taxi, Steve, Liam and Gabriel got off at the petrol station, Steve gave me some money then I took the taxi back to my house.
Saturday: Only managed a few hours of sleep, took a walk round Rochester then did some food shopping in Strood.
Sunday: Gave Mum and big fancy candle for Mother's Day. Steve came round my house at half ten then we started walking to Rochester. Got a train to Victoria after half eleven, found Mills and talked bollocks all the way there. Went straight to Camden, got albums by Joe Lally and only Crime in the second hand place, went into Resurrection records, found nothing but Steve got some Wired flyers in with all the other ones, went to the market and bought a Subhumans album. Went to the Vegan Chinese place, Steve and Mills waited outside while I got something to eat, they went to Burger King, I ate outside while they were getting there food. Went to an Irish pub round the corner from Koko and stayed there for a couple of hours until Mills got a call from Nick then we went to an Irish themed pub (run by European and Asian people) to meet Nick, his girlfriend and her mate. Nick that writes for Kerrang came down, had a chat with me about the promoter at the Tap N Tin (as he's trying to get his Doom band a gig there) so I got Steve to tell him his problems with Wired playing there. Went to Koko after five, got Celtic Frost's new album and a free poster then put my backpack in the cloak room before the bands started.
Watain: Considering that I don't like Black Metal I thought they were ok. I noticed the singer had dead mice on chains from his wrist bands, I heard earlier that they usually throw pigs blood on the audience at their own shows and stink while they are on tour as they don't bother to wash off the blood they get on themselves. I tried imagining PETA dealing with them by throwing fake blood over them but that wouldn't piss them off that much so maybe it would be an idea to throw hot soapy water over them.
Legion Of The Damned: Boring.
Celtic Frost: Came out in corpse paint (Steve kept bitching about how they were over contemporising to the new Black Metal fans), I had heard that they were playing everything slow since they reformed, actually they just played the slow parts of the songs even slower (in fact they played Dethroned Emperor so slow I didn't recognise it until the chorus), still plenty of Thrash in their sound. Before they played Ain Elohim Martin Ain approached the mic and asked "how many of you have attended mass latterly? I attended a Catholic funeral mass in the wake of my Mother, praying to her god for the last time that she might see the paradise she hoped for knowing full well that I would never see her again for as it says in the book of books; Psalm (I can't remember the chapter or number, can't be arsed to flick through my bible to try and find it) 'only a fool says there is no god' well tonight I am the fool and I say unto you THERE IS NO GOD!" every artist has their own way of expressing pain and loss through their medium. Bought a Celtic Frost army cap after they finished, needed a new one, plus I thought it would be cool to get one of an old school Metal band as they're normally associated with trendy Hardcore.
Kreator: Opened with Violent Revolution and had the video for the song projected onto a screen behind them (in fact they did that for every song they had a video for, gone all Tool all of a sudden?) played Pleasure To Kill straight afterwards and the place went fucking apeshit. After an hour I went to the bar for a bottle of water and got my backpack out of the cloakroom, found Steve and Mills who wanted to leave early, they played all the songs I wanted to hear already so I didn't have a problem with missing the rest of their set, Celtic Frost so should have headlined this.
Got to Victoria, Mills went to Burger King, Steve went to MacDonald's and I went to the Japanese place to get tofu and noodles, then we all got on our train. Me and Steve got off at Rochester and waited for his Mum to give us a lift home.
Saviours: Might have been the Californian accent but they just kind of made me think of a more doomy Fu Manchu. Good riffs, some songs felt like they were a bit longer than they should have been, undecided if I really liked them that much.
Mastodon: Before they came on I sent a text to Mills asking if he was there, he texted back saying he gave up trying to get up here as the tube was delayed because someone threw them self on the track. Stood near the stairs to get a good view of the stage. They opened with four new songs back to back, which I didn't mind as the main reason I wanted to see them was to see how they pulled off the new stuff live (very well as it happens). Played a good mixture of old and new stuff, impressed to see Bill Kelliher do Josh Humme's vocals (note perfect and all) when they played Colony Of Birchmen. The only thing that really disappointed me was they didn't talk at all between songs until right at the end to dedicate Blood And Thunder to Saviours. Played Hearts Alive as there last song which I didn't see coming as they used to open with it when they toured on Leviathan.
Got to Victoria, went to the kebab shop over the road to get chips in pita, found Mills, talked bollocks until our train came, talked more bollocks on the train. Across from us was a fat sleeping man snoring really loudly, it was funny as he had his head on his shoulder and the more he snored the more it looked like he was deflating, as Mills was talking about throwing something at him so he'd wake up the guys phone went off in his pocket, he head went straight up but he was still asleep, while his phone was going off he kept saying "hello" into the air until his phone stopped ringing then his head went straight back to his shoulder, I laughed 'til I wept. Got off at Rochester and walked home.
Friday: Goddamn the sun, how can I have a lie in with that cunt shining through my window. Went food shopping in Chatham, I passed a couple of Chavs, one commented that I was "all Rocked up," better than being called Goth or Grunger. Got to Tap about eight, found Liam and Gabriel with Paul and his older brother Dan (I only just learnt that he's older, always figured Paul would have been the eldest) with Joe or Annoying Indie Bloke as I like to call him (had to deal with him talking at me during the course of the night), but later I met this guy who's even more annoying than him. There's this guy at the Tap who always comes up to me and says "hey it's that guy who lives on my road" but I've never gotten into a conversation with him, every time he talked to me it was the same "you live on my road" thing over and over again, then he'd try to tell a joke but it went nowhere, and every time it was the same joke about some bloke who hunts whales (some times he'd change it to dolphins), it was kind of like the "yeah, no, but yeah" character on Little Britton on even less funny, the guy was talking about having a conversation with the whaler and just stated talking really fast, after his third attempt at telling this joke I just wound up shouting "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP" at him, and even after that he tried telling the joke again. Later I found Ollie with his mate Liam, told me Chris and Zak were about, found them on the top floor with Mills. I could see Mills wasn't having a good time listening to dance music so I asked if he wanted to go downstairs, brought him to the table with Liam and Gabriel and talked bollocks, Steve came minus girlfriend (I doubt if she would have gotten into the Tap) asked why I haven't been to the Manor as I'm not banned anymore "because it's still shit" which Steve had to agree with, apparently Steve the bouncer has his son DJing in the Rock room which I imagine wouldn't be too bad as I know he's a big Punk fan. Mills left after twelve as he had to be at work in four hours, the had Steve lecture me on why this area is so shit for Metal and why everyone at the Tap is a cunt. Left after two am, got something to eat at the kebab shop, Liam was so drunk he couldn't stand, I had to watch him while Steve was getting his food. This Black guy Liam knew came along and he told him he looked like the guy from Block Party (well actually it came out "yeah, Block Party, yeah") but the guy just laughed it off and called him a Racist bastard. After much difficulty Me, Steve and Gabriel managed to walk Liam to the taxi rank, we tried getting in one taxi but the guy wouldn't let us in as Liam was falling about the place manically laughing, the next two taxis saw that and drove off before we could ask if we could get in. Some guy was yelling so Liam started yelling at him like he wanted to fight him, to which we all surrounded Liam and told him to shut the fuck up but thankfully the guy yelling turned out to be Deano. We finally got a taxi, Steve, Liam and Gabriel got off at the petrol station, Steve gave me some money then I took the taxi back to my house.
Saturday: Only managed a few hours of sleep, took a walk round Rochester then did some food shopping in Strood.
Sunday: Gave Mum and big fancy candle for Mother's Day. Steve came round my house at half ten then we started walking to Rochester. Got a train to Victoria after half eleven, found Mills and talked bollocks all the way there. Went straight to Camden, got albums by Joe Lally and only Crime in the second hand place, went into Resurrection records, found nothing but Steve got some Wired flyers in with all the other ones, went to the market and bought a Subhumans album. Went to the Vegan Chinese place, Steve and Mills waited outside while I got something to eat, they went to Burger King, I ate outside while they were getting there food. Went to an Irish pub round the corner from Koko and stayed there for a couple of hours until Mills got a call from Nick then we went to an Irish themed pub (run by European and Asian people) to meet Nick, his girlfriend and her mate. Nick that writes for Kerrang came down, had a chat with me about the promoter at the Tap N Tin (as he's trying to get his Doom band a gig there) so I got Steve to tell him his problems with Wired playing there. Went to Koko after five, got Celtic Frost's new album and a free poster then put my backpack in the cloak room before the bands started.
Watain: Considering that I don't like Black Metal I thought they were ok. I noticed the singer had dead mice on chains from his wrist bands, I heard earlier that they usually throw pigs blood on the audience at their own shows and stink while they are on tour as they don't bother to wash off the blood they get on themselves. I tried imagining PETA dealing with them by throwing fake blood over them but that wouldn't piss them off that much so maybe it would be an idea to throw hot soapy water over them.
Legion Of The Damned: Boring.
Celtic Frost: Came out in corpse paint (Steve kept bitching about how they were over contemporising to the new Black Metal fans), I had heard that they were playing everything slow since they reformed, actually they just played the slow parts of the songs even slower (in fact they played Dethroned Emperor so slow I didn't recognise it until the chorus), still plenty of Thrash in their sound. Before they played Ain Elohim Martin Ain approached the mic and asked "how many of you have attended mass latterly? I attended a Catholic funeral mass in the wake of my Mother, praying to her god for the last time that she might see the paradise she hoped for knowing full well that I would never see her again for as it says in the book of books; Psalm (I can't remember the chapter or number, can't be arsed to flick through my bible to try and find it) 'only a fool says there is no god' well tonight I am the fool and I say unto you THERE IS NO GOD!" every artist has their own way of expressing pain and loss through their medium. Bought a Celtic Frost army cap after they finished, needed a new one, plus I thought it would be cool to get one of an old school Metal band as they're normally associated with trendy Hardcore.
Kreator: Opened with Violent Revolution and had the video for the song projected onto a screen behind them (in fact they did that for every song they had a video for, gone all Tool all of a sudden?) played Pleasure To Kill straight afterwards and the place went fucking apeshit. After an hour I went to the bar for a bottle of water and got my backpack out of the cloakroom, found Steve and Mills who wanted to leave early, they played all the songs I wanted to hear already so I didn't have a problem with missing the rest of their set, Celtic Frost so should have headlined this.
Got to Victoria, Mills went to Burger King, Steve went to MacDonald's and I went to the Japanese place to get tofu and noodles, then we all got on our train. Me and Steve got off at Rochester and waited for his Mum to give us a lift home.