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LIVE MUSIC 2022

twiztor

By twiztor
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DEAN

DEAN

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Damn near 39 year old me is saying "FUCK YEAH!"

56 year old me is saying, "I don't like the look of those teenagers...."

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Curt McGirt

Curt McGirt

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Posted (edited)

MERCYFUL FATE/KREATOR/MIDNIGHT - 11/3/22 - GARY, INDIANA

Surprisingly this was a shorter drive than expected so more like 2 1/2 hours, basically the same time as a trip to Chicago. Speaking of which, it felt like every single metalhead from the Midwest who had no other option came to this -- I had a group of friends that drove six hours from Des Moines to see this show. Why they picked a godforsaken wasteland like Gary is beyond me. Maybe King Diamond is a degenerate gambler and wanted his hand at the slots. Who knows? 

The drive wasn't bad and we made the requisite stop at a White Castle. I had exactly one slider, and this time they had the Impossible fake meat which was fine. Why anyone would ever put a pickle on a burger though is beyond me. I have grown up enough to deal with even raw onions in gyros but pickles need to be fresh, cold, dill, and not swimming in yellow piss juice. Apparently they now have Ghost Pepper Cheese as a topping which you can just imagine the agonizing sounds coming out of someone's bathroom after eating.

Anyway, the venue was at what seems to be the only other spot open in Gary aside from gas stations, the Hard Rock Casino. As soon as you walk in the smell of cigarette smoke hits you like a hammer and you remember the Before Times when people could smoke inside a place of business. There are one-armed bandits and a bar waiting on you as soon as you walk in (btw, we had to park on the grass right in front of, ironically, a church [where me and a friend promptly took a piss]) so you know where the money comes from and where it goes. After the rigamarole of an absurd Ticketmaster phone session we got in and good lord there is a lot of people here. I followed my friends in as they barreled toward the front because we were late for Midnight and immediately get hit in the arm by somebody starting a circle pit up because a song was fast. Great, nice start. Having already seen Midnight with Mayhem earlier this year I was fine with missing whatever. They still sounded fine, had too many strobes but I think that's a fall-back thing for a lighting guy at shows. I also hate strobe lights so figure that in too. 

After getting my bearings and looking around at things I went to get a drink and it was FIFTEEN fucking dollars for either a beer or a mixed drink. A canned one, that they put in a plastic cup. So that's what kind of markup? Somebody that knows math can do this better than me. Anyway, it was ridiculous, and I spent a total of $30 on two drinks. The second one was a Tito's on the rocks with a lime wedge and she didn't even pour by eye but with the little double-sided shot thingymajigger. Good lord. 

Okay, this reads like I am complaining a lot... wait for it...

Kreator shows up and has some crazy impaled fake bodies onstage but plays the intro to "Awakening of the Gods", my favorite Kreator song, and then stops and plays a new song instead. I decide to go outside and grab another drink and get literally pulled by the shirt into a conversation with a very old friend and a friend I've known for probably 20+ years online and never met in person. Things are warming up and I'm feeling way more cordial at this point. My other good friend from Des Moines showed up and we got a brief chat and a long, beautiful hug in before Mille and Co. started. Thank Satan for Instagram because I didn't have his number in my phone, and he seemed to be the one person who decided to wear a mask in the entire casino. I went back in in time to see them play "Pleasure To Kill". I respect Kreator for being a "continuing band", not just relying on their hits, putting out new records that they want to play live and all but really, I just want to hear "Storm of the Beast" and "Ripping Corpse", shit like that. Give me the hits. Maybe I missed it but I didn't even hear "Flag of Hate"!

And then. Mercyful Fate. 

Me and Kyle from Des Moines have a longer talk and decide to post up towards the back (which is a good idea as the guys I went with were up front and witnessed a fist fight with a guy's finger getting broken. Why you would do this at a show you probably drove hours to is beyond me; don't be stupid, kids). The banner comes down on Fate. 

GIANT inverted cross hanging from the ceiling. GIANT pentagram with goat's head (the one off of Vital Remains' Forever Underground record, actually) against the wall/back. Stairs running up on either side of the stage to the pentagram. Such a wonderful, simple, but perfect stage setup for a band with any kind of... hmmm... pomposity? What's the word I'm looking for? It just seems small for a band that I expected to have goat skulls explode into fire onstage, but at the same time it's exactly what needed to be there. Setup, lights, music, magic. No more strobes. Just King Diamond who has somehow suffered through basically a heart attack and had to relearn how to sing singing BETTER THAN HE'S EVER SOUNDED EVER and a band that knew just what to do, including a Hank Shermann who sadly didn't have Michael Denner with him but still ripped it out like a monster. The setlist was incredible. As if they read my mind about Kreator they played nothing but stuff from the first two albums and EP ("Doomed by the Living Dead" and "Corpse Without A Soul"~!) while me and Kyle lost our minds. I'd look over and he would just have his hands over his mask against his face in shock. It was such an experience. They played "Melissa" and I broke down and openly wept. They came back for an encore and played "Satan's Fall". They opened with "The Oath" and surprisingly played mostly Melissa songs, cutting "Egypt" from the first reunion record for a new song (which sounded great), but did "A Dangerous Meeting" and "Come to the Sabbath" (a big mark-out moment) off of Don't Break the Oath and "To One Far Away" played over them wrapping up as King shook hands with the front row like a real motherfucker and thanked the audience. He was so, so good -- even running down the bandmates and what they'd been up to. A total class act. I'm getting misty just thinking about it. I can now die knowing I saw Mercyful Fate live, with a good friend by my side the whole time. You can't buy that. 

So then we went and ran through busted-ass Gary because our driver is an abandoned building connoisseur who has been in places as dire as Detroit and East St. Louis and has taken enough awesome pictures to have made his own yearly calendar from them. We went through some destroyed cinemas and it was oddly peaceful and, really, gorgeous. I kept a piece of tile that had fallen from one of the buildings after blowing the asbestos off. Though I felt a little like an asshole tourist we took a lot of pictures and it capped the night off perfectly. I can still hear "To One Far Away" playing in my head right now. 

Edited by Curt McGirt
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  • 1 month later...
Chaos

Chaos

Posted
Posted

I'm doing my first new year's run in awhile and splitting it up (Other New Year's related concerts I've attended was night 3 of 4 of Umphrey's on 12/30/18 and Widespread Panic on 12/31/16 in Nashville) by seeing Greensky Bluegrass tomorrow night at Tabernacle and then seeing a show by Truist Park at the Roxy for the first time.

I'm hoping for a fun time in Atlanta and to be driving back to Alabama on Sunday with a ton of butthurt Georgia fans in my rear mirror. 

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