Upcoming Show’s I’ll Be Attending

Posted on November 15, 2015November 17, 2015 by Mike

So here’s a short list of the next few show’s I’m going to in either New Jersey or Manhattan within the next week and again in February.

King Diamond w/ Exodus live at PlayStation Theater, New York, NY – Friday, November 20, 2015

This was very last minute. I wasn’t counting on seeing this show because this date in particular is sold out but a co-worker of my girlfriend offered her his tickets. Sucker! This is going to be amazing. I love King. She can’t stand him but is willing to go see him out of respect, knowing that there’d probably never be bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax or Slayer had it not been for Mercyful Fate, King’s pre-solo band. Being that this will be my first time seeing King, it’ll also be interesting to hear how he sounds after years away, having recovered from back AND heart surgeries. I also know I’m absolutely going to jizz myself silly when I finally hear Andy LaRoque solo his brains out for the first time ever! Not looking too forward to Exodus. I’m probably one of the few would cannot stand Souza’s voice…at all. What the fuck was Gary Holt thinking when he got rid of Rob Dukes? Was he even thinking at all?!?! You dumb fuck.

Angel Vivaldi live at Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ – Sunday, November 22, 2015

Since I last wrote about Angel Vivaldi this YouTube sensation has been on the road for the last two months, promoting his most recent album, Away With Words, Pt.1. This show will be his homecoming show, bringing that tour to an end. If you haven’t heard him yet I suggest you go to Dingbatz on the 22nd to see why he gets namedropped by peers such as Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss.

Black Sabbath live at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – Thursday, February 25, 2016

Well, here it is. And more important than that, it’s for real this time. Tony Iommi himself has gone on record saying that he finally cannot handle it anymore. It’s incredible he was able to hang on for as long as he has, all things considered. But it was going to happen eventually – I’m just grateful that their last show wasn’t an Ozzfest gig in Japan! What really got me mad was finding out after I bought the tickets that they’re playing another show at the Garden two days later – on a Saturday. But I honestly don’t mind taking a day off from work the next day – especially with the jackasses I deal with on a day to day basis! They’ll also be playing throughout the summer including dates at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ.

I just hope that Ozzy doesn’t fuck this up. The two times I tried to see Sabbath he was sick, but I’ll definitely get into those times in future blogs, trust me. I know for a fucking fact that I’m not the only one who’d LOVE for Bill Ward to be a part of this last tour. But I guess it’s up to Bill in the end; but hell, he should be a part of this, if not even for us at least for himself! I’d love to see the classic line up that started it all just once. C’mon Bill! Ozzy fucked it up for me twice – don’t you be the one to fuck it up this time!

Anaka live at Gramercy Theater; New Angel Vivaldi Premiere

Posted on June 17, 2015June 19, 2015 by Mike

Anaka Live at Gramercy Theater

I recently got tickets for Anaka’s next show, a headliner at Gramercy Theater in Manhattan on the heels of their latest album, The Unwavering, that’s happening next Saturday, June 26th with support from Brand of Julez and Tempest City. If you don’t know who they are they are an aggresive as FUCK metal band from Brooklyn. I started talking with Jimmy Pallis, the band’s singer on facebook about four years ago; when the conversation went into Megadeth and how they essentially lost their balls after Youthanasia (some of you would say otherwise) I knew this guy was the real deal!

So we exchanged numbers and as it turns out this and his guitar player brother, Peter Pallis, are so into connecting with their fans that they will have no problem driving to you to sell you tickets. This was the case last week when I bought my tickets for this upcoming show. Not a lot of bands do that. It was a funny few minutes. They’ve been on the scene a long ass time and when i told them about my blog post regarding my first metal concert and brought up a few old names the jokes just started flying. Fuck…Jimmy…Peter…we’re old.

If you want a good time and are in the area next Saturday I’d definitely recommend seeing them. A great live show with a very loyal following. Quick story for you; I finally saw Anaka for the first time at a free show they played at a bar called Killarney’s on 95th St in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to promote their latest acoustic EP, Into The Great Unknown – The Acoustic Sessions back in February 2012. I took my then-girlfriend, Nicole, with me along with my then-bassist, Joe, and his friend Shake (yeah, I know, a dopey nickname. But he’s awesome). Now…when you see a band play a bar this tiny the last thing you’re going to expect is for a mosh pit to break out, right? Well…no sooner did they hit one note did the whole bar break out into a pit. I was siting right where the band was and I found myself pinned to the bar by my left leg! I struggled to get out and I think it was Joe who finally pulled me out to safety. But man, driving home from the show that night my left quad was in exquisite pain and it stayed that way for the next two weeks – that’s more of a souvenir of a good time than the t-shirt I bought from Jimmy that night!

New Angel Vivaldi Premiere

What a fuckin’ week it’s been for Angel Vivaldi! The youtube sensation only released the video for his new single “._ _ _ _” just a few days ago via Guitar World and it already has over 20,000 views and more than 24,000 views on Ibanez Guitars’ facebook page. I actually posted a video of him performing this song at Dingbatz a few blog posts ago so this the song proper. Here’s the video now:

He recently made the ballsy decision to quit his fulltime job to go on tour based on all his success so if and when he comes to your town you should go show your support. You won’t regret it.

Final Thoughts…

Anyone here read what Kerry King said about Jeff Hanneman yet? Apparently Kerry was asked if he feels like Jeff’s spirit is guiding the band. Kerry’s reply? “Jeff is worm food. When you die, you go in the dirt. There is no doubt. Doubt’s called agnostic. I’m not agnostic.” Well Kerry is there’s on thing you ARE it’s a real piece of SHIT. “Worm food”? It’s one thing to say that you don’t feel like his spirit is guiding the band. That’s fine. But calling the guy that wrote Slayer’s greatest music “worm food” is as disrespectful and as slimy as it gets man. There are a Lot of people I can’t wait to call worm food but if I was in your position and my co-guitarist who contributed so much was gone I wouldn’t say that shit about him. Scumbag!

Angel Vivaldi Live at Dingbatz

Posted on April 22, 2015April 22, 2015 by Mike

See this guy? Nice guitar! Also looks metro as FUCK, right? I would know. The night I met him he pointed at my forehead and told me “You have great eyebrows!” Well, for those of you who haven’t a clue who he is – because I sure as fuck had no idea until last summer/fall – this is former VeXt and Black Market Hero guitarist, 7 string guitar GOD and current YouTube sensation Angel Vivaldi and he can bury you and even every single one of your idols on guitar. As I said, I had no idea who he was until last summer when I met my girlfriend…who happens to be this guy’s best friend. So of course I learned a lot about the guy. All there really is to know though is the guy’s is absolutely IN-FUCKIN’-CREDIBLE! His aggression and his attitude on the guitar are unmatched. His creativity as a songwriter and as a soloist? Second to none. Below is the link to his latest music video from his latest album released late last year, Away With Words Part 1:

So this past Saturday Courtenay and I went to go see him play at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ, during an all day festival, where he was playing a makeup gig since he injured his hand a few months back. We both showed up a minute or two apart from each other by chance and as soon as he saw me, “Eyebrows!”, he proclaimed before hugging me a tad too intently. Okay…

I had to take a picture of the Deception Theory sticker on the wall there. I used to work at Home Depot with their drummer, very awesome guy. I wonder how he’s doing.

I was starving so before we went inside we went to Dingo’s across the street. I’d say it’s like what Lucky 13’s was before they were able to relocate and feature bands again, a cool rock themed bar.

I’ve just got to hear what these guys sounded like!

So after leaving during one real shitty band we came back in time for an instrumental metal band called Oraculum. We saw them the last time we were there when they were filling in for Angel after his injury. They were ok when I first saw them but this time they were better, especially their lead guitarist. All that his millions of solos need is the attitude to go with the speed and aggression that’s already there and he’ll be going places.

And while they were on we caught this hipster looking fuckface.

This guy’s dumb head was constantly getting in the way once I began filming Angel’s set and I wanted to choke him so fucking badly.

Anyway, Angel Vivaldi had a one hour set. One hour. To obliterate everyone who went one before him. Here are the opening two songs from the set:

I do apologize for the sound quality. I hope to get a real camcorder soon so I don’t have to use the phone anymore.

The most people showed up just to see him, I know it, because I didn’t see a lot of people when I came in. Also, it was so nice out that unless Alice In Chains were playing a secret show at this place I doubt many people would have been there for anything. Just a year or two back no one would’ve given a shit about Angel Vivaldi or how hard he worked to get where he is and now he’s about to go on tour for his latest album. His entire band were so on point, so tight, so badass. Jake Skylyr had this amazing looking Carvin double neck 6 string bass, one neck with frets the other without. His single neck bass is the reason I couldn’t post my other video. That shit just ROARED over the whole band! Also, Bill Fore is a BEAST of a drummer. I swear he could play any style of metal…I’m pretty sure I heard them all that night. Jason Tarantino is an awesome guitarist, very capable of keeping up with Angel. I also heard him rip a few licks of his own that surely kicked my ass.

It was an awesome show and if he ever comes to your town I’d totally recommend you get your asses down to wherever he and his band are playing. I see nothing but a bright future for him.

As we were leaving I had to take this picture. As I was getting my phone ready some jackass opened the door, hit my head and had the dumbest look on his fuckin’ stupid face when asking me if I was ok before walking away like a retard. Some people are just dumb motherfuckers.

Here are some links to Angel’s music:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AngelVivaldi

http://www.facebook.com/angelvivaldi

http://www.angevivaldi.bigcartel.com

Confessions of an Angry Metalhead

Tag: Bill Fore

Upcoming Show’s I’ll Be Attending

Anaka live at Gramercy Theater; New Angel Vivaldi Premiere

Angel Vivaldi Live at Dingbatz