I think I may have been listening to Bloody Kisses
The Jagermeister Music tour brought the great purveyors of doom metal to SF last night. The heavily branded Grand Ballroom was filled with people who looked like they were going to either a funeral or a fight.
The Type O Negative antics started when they tried to drive us crazy by playing the Village People’s ‘San Francisco’ on repeat during the half hour set up. 3 female mannequins with black wigs and leis are set on stage, only fitting for a band who’s biggest hit is about a girl’s black hair dye.
The band comes out, a tribe of ridiculously long haired demons. Peter Steele straps on his bass, his height making it look the size of a guitar. The music begins. Their hair blows dramatically.
The guitarist sports a green guitar, and flails around wildly. Steele moves like a giant, slightly awkward yet totally intimidating. The keyboardist is like some dramatic organist at a church in hell. I can’t see the drummer, but I’m sure he’s cool.
“We come in peace. You leave in pieces” quips Steele while doing the vulcan hand sign. “How many white people are in the crowd?” lurches us into ‘Kill All the White People’. A brutal mosh pit begins to knock down innocent bystanders.
Steele’s monitor appears to not be working, as he keeps holding it in his ear with one finger and he sounds a little off. Regardless, his baritone voice is like the 5th instrument in the band; it vibrates my soul just like when I was driving around in my first car.
I saw Type O Negative when I was 16, and they were opening for Ozzy. I was out of my mind, but I can remember sitting on a hill of this outdoor venue, listening to Christian Woman, and thinking that this was the best song ever written. This whole album just takes me to a place that no other album can. Type O occupies a space that no other band has ever touched, doom metal with a twist.
‘Christian Woman’ live lacks the dramatic production value on the record, but Steele infuses it with his personality. You must check out the vid below. You can tell everyone there is a lover of the song, standing their in disbelief as the it comes to life before them. I find it interesting that Steel doesn’t say the word ‘deep’- it’s just ‘inside of her’. I wonder why…
Black No. 1 is their best song, the longest of their long concertos, with different movements, tempo changes, and personalities. I love that many people in crowd do the fist pumps and the number 1, all synchronized. The vid for this is so long that it crashed my computer and youtube rejects it- but below should do it.
The show ended with Steel ripping the strings off his bass. That’s when you know there’s not gonna be an encore.
Type O Negative is a must see. They’re unique, dramatic, energetic, stylistic- everything I look for in a band.
OVERALL: 8/10
Type O Negative performance: 8/10
venue (The Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center): 6.5/10
crowd/scene: 7/10
value ($25.00/ticket): 7/10
memorable: 8/10
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