The Blackest of the Black Tour 2010 in Louisville, KY – 11/3/10
Last week, I saw the 2010 installment of Danzig’s Blackest of the Black Tour at my favorite giant, overturned Pringles can, Louisville’s Expo Five. Just like the last show I attended at this venue — October’s Black Label Society show — this one had a strict anti-camera policy, so I unfortunately am unable to provide video or photos. Brooding over this for the past several days is the primary reason this post has been delayed.
The first band to hit the stage was Withered, whose sound was a combination of black, death, and doom metal. If that description doesn’t mean anything to you, let me put it this way: Imagine the biggest, meanest, burliest dude you’ve ever seen. Now imagine that dude giving you the most brutal beating imaginable in slow motion. Now hear the sound that would emanate from said brutal, slow motion beating in your head and you have the sound of Withered.
What sticks out in my memory about Withered’s set more than anything is that their positions on stage were somewhat confusing. The band’s two guitarist-vocalists, Mike Thompson and Dylan Kilgore, were on either side of the stage with bassist Mike Longoria standing center stage. I kept wanting a microphone to appear in front of Longoria because of this, especially when he was mouthing the words to the songs. Not that this was necessarily a bad thing — it made them stand out, after all.
Following Withered were Toxic Holocaust. Prior to this show, I had seen Toxic Holocaust open for GWAR in October 2008. On both occasions, their most notable trait was that each of the speed metal trio’s members look like they should be in a different band. Guitarist-vocalist Joel Grind looks like he just walked off of the Sunset Strip circa-1982, bassist Phil Zeller could be a long-lost member of Pearl Jam, and drummer Nick Bellmore would look right at home in any number of hardcore bands. This clusterfuck of image is deceiving, though, as this Portland, OR act packs a tight speed metal punch with songs like “I Am Disease” and “War is Hell.” Word of advice, though, Joel… You don’t have to let us know that a song called “666” is about Satan. We know.
Next up were Swedish black metal battalion Marduk. I imagine I would have enjoyed their set much more if I hadn’t had some random jackass standing off to my left ceaselessly yelling “MARDOOOOOOOOK!” every 5 seconds between the band’s songs. Other than that, I don’t remember much about their set other than being pleasantly surprised by the amount of melody present in their brand of black metal.
The best surprise of the evening was, hands down, San Francisco death metal legends Possessed. I’ve known of them by name for several years, but I have no idea why I had never heard their music prior to the Blackest of the Black Tour. In spite of vocalist Jeff Becerra being confined to a wheelchair for the duration of the set (supposedly due to severely spraining an ankle a few nights before this show), Possessed had the crowd in the palm of their hands for the duration of their performance.
By the time Danzig took the stage, the crowd was worked into a frenzy. He launched into a career-spanning set with “Skin Carver” before taking the crowd back to his band’s early days with “Twist of Cain.” New cuts like “On A Wicked Night” and “Hammer of the Gods” blended almost seamlessly with the bluesy goth metal of his early solo material. There are few bands I have seen who live up to expectations, but this was one of those much rarer occasions where a band surpasses expectations.
For those interested, Danzig’s set list consisted of the following:
– Skin Carver
– Twist of Cain
– Hammer of the Gods
– Deth Red Moon
– Tired of Being Alive
– Her Black Wings
– How The Gods Kill
– On A Wicked Night
– Ju Ju Bone
– Thirteen
– Bringer of Death
– Black Angel
– Mother
– She Rides (encore)
– Dirty Black Summer (encore)
Heavier Than Your Mom 