It had been a bizarre weekend.
Friday night, I went to a Spur’s game. I rarely do anything besides go to concerts, and I don’t follow sports, so this was a very foreign activity for me…but I felt at home when a bat disrupted the game. Then my friends took me to a male strip club….something I’ve never done before….and might never do again….but hey, I’m a single girl and that was the most action I’ve gotten in a while.
The rest of the weekend was spent completing an online driver’s safety course for my ticket dismissal, spring cleaning like a mad person, and playing Words With Friends with some of my readers.
I was ready for the metal.
Pulling up to the White Rabbit revealed a sea of metalheads in line already. I regret not getting a photo of a handwritten sign posted on the wall that said ‘no drugs, no weapons, no faygo’. Ha!
Once inside, I chatted with Abysmal Dawn near merch after getting kicked out of the band room for not having laminates. You can check out the interview here.
When seeing a show at a new venue (the only other time I’d been here was in the smaller room) I have to stand in at least 10 different places before committing to a spot. Unfortunately for me this meant wandering around and almost falling flat on my face when missing that there was a step down to the main floor. Did anyone see that? Yep.
Abysmal Dawn were a force of nature. I realized that it’s been a while since I’ve experienced the heaviness of a death metal set. Charles Elliott’s vocals are fantastic, it’s exactly what you want to hear over the speedy drums and guitar. I watched the crowd to see if their enthusiasm would trump that of the Seattle show they had told me about in their interview…and I think they almost got there but not quite.
Due to an extremely busy week ahead of me, I did something very uncharacteristic for me: I watched the rest of the show sitting down behind the soundboard. I realized that I’ve never really watched the soundboard at a show before….man there are a lot of little knobs and switches on there. I just don’t get it and honestly I prefer that it remains a mystery. After the show I realized that it’s the first time I’ve sat down and focused on one thing in a couple weeks, thus All Shall Perish and Kataklysm became a metal-style meditation for me. It was relaxing. Moments I snapped out of it would be when the surfers and stage dive action got pretty intense during Kataklysm…there’s no barrier or security at this venue….nothing! It’s old school, indicative of the most terrible bathrooms at any venue I’ve ever been to (no doors on some of the girls’ stalls? come on. And no signs on the bathrooms meant I almost walked in on the boys….oops). Another moment was when Kataklysm said San Antonio is the most metal city in the U.S…..hmmm…..And having Scott air drumming next to me during Kataklysm surely trumped mine.
And there you have it…show 1 of about 20 for the week.
I remember going to the White Rabbit for a GWAR show in June of last year and there was a security barrier and actual guards, but that changed during the first three songs of GWAR’s performance; the fans literally broke the barrier and drove off the security guards, leaving a ramp to the stage at a 45 degree angle, allowing some fans to lie down or get a good angle to stagedive from…or get cut on and not notice because of the fake blood from the show if they were unfortunate. Guess they got rid of it after that.
holy moly that sounds crazy!!!