Heavy Metal

Went to Enchanted Forest (the famous one “7 miles south of Salem, OR” as the 80s TV commercial would always say) a few weekends ago for a special record release party. The person that made all the music for the park put out an album (label Wyrd War) of her music for the park. Vinyl of course. The release party was at the park itself where she played music from the album, a show from her band Almost Irish, and that was proceeded by a metal show with Thrones and Danava.

Fuggin awesome show! Here’s Wyrd War’s blog post about itand a ton of cool pictures.

I’ve gone to four Wyrd War events this year so far and they have all been phenomenal. Like, I feel at home at their events and they have all been fun, affordable, fun, and highly entertaining. Tiffany and Dennis are good people too and I enjoy that they love what they are doing. For a guy that always feels like an outsider like me, I have never felt like one at a Wyrd War show.

I’ve mentioned before I am a metal-head. I like a lot of stuff – punk, hardcore, new wave, hip-hop, rock, metal, funk, R&B (and many of the niches and sub-genres in between) … actually it’s easier to list what I am not into:
1) Pop (in all iterations)…. I’ve liked a couple pop songs but I’m just not into pop.
2) Jazz… I respect, but that’s a lot of work to get into it.

3) EDM or whatever it’s called now …

It started with AC/DC. Before that I liked Adam (and the) Ant(s), DEVO, and whatever but AC/DC is what got into me. Then Black Sabbath, then Van Halen, then I got into British stuff like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, et al. *

*then came punk, then came hard core, then came the Big Four and all that thrash…

Instead of listing the history of my metal-pedigree, I’ll just note some points in my life.

My very first concert was Ozzy and Motley Crue. Shout at the Devil – Bark at the Moon tour. I was in 7th grade so 1984? The whole concert-going process was new to me and this was to be my first experience, at Portland Memorial Coliseum. I bought one ticket at the Ticket Master kiosk in GI Joes sporting goods, I had saved up some money from some allowances and my Mom gave me some to cover the cost. I got some nose-bleeds.

My Dad dropped me off at The Coliseum and there were thousands of metal/stoners there. None of them scared me. I even ran across a guy I was in Tae Kwon Do with and we chatted but had to take off as he was meeting friends and he was a little older and “cooler” than me but I understood.  I found out where to stand in line and kept to myself mostly.

While waiting in line a youth minister (they were there in force protesting the show and reiterating the Ozzy Bites Chicken Heads off myth) approached me and said he saw I looked scared. I told him this was my first concert. I mean, I was a perfect target for them – some lonely fat kid with braces. Some stoner girls (18 years old or there-abouts) stood up for me. Told the minister to leave me alone and not scare me. The minister offered to buy my ticket off me and take me to the nearby church where they were having a party and praying for everyone at the Ozzy concert. No way man! I saw that after school special… I mean:
Get in a stranger’s van, go drink some kool aid, sing hymns, pray, get $20 back.

--or—

See Ozzy and Crue, fire and giant bats, and think I’m going to score on hot stoner chicks I have zero chance with.

I chose the latter. I had a good time!

In the same year I saw the exact opposite of the above show – Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I believe the B52s opened? I’m not sure. This show was great. My first look at “gay-music culture”, so many pretty people, and I made out with a girl I went to junior high with though I forgot her name… it was a one-night summer romance.

The following year I went to my third show, again this was totally different than the previous two, and saw Poison Idea and Suicidal tendencies. There were a few other bands playing before them too but I’ve forgotten who they were. Hard core, mosh pit, cheap beer flying in the air, and sweet sweet 3 chord riffs really loud. Plus it was cheap and a small venue and I got to meet ST and Poison Idea (who are from Portland!). This was it for me. These guys were not gods, they were what I was looking to be when I grew up in a few years… well, not literally as I was never in a band. This was it for me – songs actually about how I felt which was pissed off, guarded, and ready to fight back.

I followed the above with Circle Jerks and 7 Seconds, Poison Idea and Cro Mags, ??? and Black Flag. Seeing Rollins sing My War was a chapter in my life.

Mid 80s and MTV was playing The Young Ones. First episode I saw introduced me to Lemmy and Motorhead. Later I figured out that’s what all the kids at hard core shows, and later thrash shows, were wearing Motorhead shirts for. I loved them.

I loved Thrash; Anthrax, Metallica, and Slayer mainly. Not so much Megadeath. I also got into SOD and the Thrash/HC cross-over was heavy on the west coast. Especially in a suburb like Vancouver, WA, only so many punk-metal kids and access to it so you got into it all. I never went full-stoner though as those guys were burn-outs and I got into sports.

90s came grunge (which I already was leaning towards as I was into stoner stuff back then and grunge comes from that and punk hybrid stuff) but I was in the Navy and out to see so most of that scene I missed. It cleaned the world or a lot of the lame shit though – hair and smile metal. By the time I got out of the Navy I was into White Zombie and Ministry.

By 1999 I had been burnt out on metal. Everything was so serious and/or industrial. Someone burnt me a copy of Sleep’s Holy Mountain and that was about all the metal I listened too for a few years.

In 2005 I was introduced to High on Fire. Fuck that was awesome! About a year after that I found out Matt Pike was also in Sleep… Holy Shit!! 2006 rolled around and I would cruise Comcast On Demand “metal station” and I found The Sword and Early Man. I was totally back into metal.

The only consistent in my life from the late 80s to now was GWAR. I love GWAR. I have never been let down by GWAR. Dave Brockie dying a few years ago was a serious shot to me. Lemmy too but every day after Lemmy turned 50 was a blessing to us (so, 20 year’s worth of blessing). Brockie was still pretty young (50) and I miss him today. I cried at the last GWAR show I went to last year as we said goodbye to Oderus, I’ve never cried at a show before and I was not alone. GWAR still moves on though.

In the late 90s I saw TOOL. That was, probably, the best show I ever saw. I got lucky and got ground floor tickets. Before this show I kind of liked TOOL. After that show I loved TOOL for the rest of my life. There have been a few nights in my life that I was feeling alone and worthless and not in a good place and I listened to TOOL all night long and I heard wisdom and picked myself up and made things better. Mainly the thought it was my fault thus my responsibility thus under my control.

I never got into the darker/spookier/Satanic-y-er stuff like Norwegian Black Metal. I don’t think Satan is real (I’m an atheist) and, though I appreciate the neo-satanic-atheist movements currently, it’s all just dumb to me. Also, way too much neo-nazism.

Currently really into the Doom/Stoner/Sludge stuff. At 45 years old that may be where I settle too as my wife also likes a lot of it (she’s a recovering goth) and I think I’m just getting to old to spend so much energy discovering new things. I’m pretty satisfied now.

Have a good day and I’m off to buy a record player!!