Happy Mother's Day! I would personally like to thank my Mom for being such a great mother and helping my family and I through many tough times, especially financially. I love you Mom. I would also like to thank my wife for bringing our four kids into the world. She went through a lot to do that. She had severe morning sickness with our first kid. She then carried our three other kids to full term and all the hard work that goes with that. Then our last child provided excitement. First of all my wife was pregnant with him through a hot summer, then that same child was anxious to come into the world. He was born in a bathtub on Halloween morning. Both have been stalwart mothers through the years. I love you Stefanie. Thanks to both again and all those great mothers who have made our world what it is.
On Tuesday, May 5th thanks to my brother we went to the Black Label Society/ Dope/ Cycle of Pain concert.
The concert was suppose to start at 8:00. My brother and I left for the venue about 6:30, we were in no hurry. We drove to the Gateway and went and ate at the Skybox, a sports themed restaurant. We then wandered over to the Depot, where the concert is at. We got into the venue about 7:45 and Cycle of Pain was already playing. I can't say I was too sad that I missed part of their set. The two opening bands were both living the heavy metal stereotype to the letter. Just like any other thing the heavy metal community is all about conformity. It's just that the conformity is to the heavy metal lifestyle. I'll tell you in advance that I'm not very familiar with the music of any of these bands. I don't have a lot of song titles, I'm doing what I can to identify the songs though. Please excuse my ignorance if I write something that is incorrect.
Cycle of Pain is a 6 man band with a black keyboardist that looks like Darius Rucker. Okay so that's a stereotype that they broke. We only caught two of the songs they sang. They sang the very funny "Do My Work High" which was actually a half decent song. It's a rock song with a funky vibe. They closed out their short set by talking about their new CD that was released this past week. Apparently it is #18 on the metal charts, I hadn't even realized there were metal charts. They closed out their set with a song centered around the lyric "What You Sew Is What You Get". That is a very definitive heavy metal theme.
A few minutes later the band Dope took the stage, a very apt named band. They are a bunch of dopes. I call them the f band, because their favorite word is a certain four letter f word. As my brother said they are lyrical midgets. Their short set still had a couple of highlights. Dope is a four man band from Chicago. As I'm not familiar with their music sometimes I couldn't tell where one song ended and another began.
Dope played for about 35 minutes which was perfect. They opened up their set with a song that I could barely understand. After that unintelligible song they sang one of their f songs "F- Tomorrow". They urged people not to go to work tomorrow, like that's an option. They got the Depot rocking by covering Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell", they added another layer of rock toughness to an already rocking song. That song is one of the highlights of their set, two of the three highlights are covers. Then the lyrical midgets went with another one of their obscenely titled songs, "Die - Die". This is a pretty good song, other than it needs a lyrical face lift. The song lasted about 10 minutes and it includes the line, "When the sound goes boom". I listened a little bit to Dope on Rhapsody before going to the concert. I stopped after awhile because of their excess use of the f bomb.
Dope closed out their short set with "F- Tha Police" and then another cover song. They sang the classic 80's Dead or Alive song "You Spin Me Round", a song they called "the stupidest song". You may think it's a stupid song but it's one of the highlights of your set. Their last song of the night is, I think, an original song. It repeats the refrain, "Cocaine, Heroin, Alcohol and Vicodin". As near as I can tell the song is titled "She's My Addiction". That is a pretty cool song. After playing that song they thankfully left the stage.
Dope's set list:
1) Unintelligible. I have no idea what that song is.
2) "$%#@ Tomorrow"
3) Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell"
4) "Die Mother- Die" This is the song with the line "When the sound goes boom".
5) "- The Police"
6) "You Spin Me 'Round"
7) "She's My Addiction".
We then had a 55 minute wait until Zack and the Boys took the stage. While waiting the pa system played some Alice in Chains and Patsy Cline's "Crazy".
Finally at 9:55 Black Label Society, which should be known as the Zakk Wylde Band, took the stage for a 13 song set. Again I'm not familiar with their music so the song titles are as close to being accurate as possible.
Black Label Society played from 9:55 to 11:30. Black Label Society finally took the stage at 9:55. BLS is led by the hand clapping, chest bumping, heaven pointing, band member hugging and spitting Zack Wylde. I'm going to use a medical term to describe the first 5 songs of their set, blunt force trauma. It was about 25 minutes of straight forward, butt kicking heavy metal. After the fifth song Zakk took a few minutes to introduce, harass and mock his fellow band members. He does have a pretty tight band behind him.
For the sixth and seventh song Zakk Wylde played the keyboards. The sixth song they performed is "Damage Is Done" a song "dedicated to the troops". This is the very melodic rock that BLS does so well. The 7th song I think is called "Devil's Dime". It's a tribute to Dimebag Darrell of Pantera fame. He was killed while performing in concert by a deranged madman. Pictures of Darrell dropped from two stacks of speakers and then taken down after that song was performed.
The next three songs I couldn't catch much of what Zakk was singing. In the midst of these songs there was a brutally long Zakk guitar solo. It's all about Zakk, no doubt. The set closing three songs all were good. Concrete Jungle" came with an extended jam. Again it's all about Zakk. Following "Here For You", the band had a farewell bow accompanied by extended feedback.
I thought it was interesting as we were leaving the show we saw some of the band members come out of the Depot and pile into the tour bus. Meanwhile Zakk was taken to a van going back to a hotel.
Overall a half decent set by Black Label Society.
Black Label Society's set list:
1) "Heroin"
2) "Reality"
3) "Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!"
4) "Suicide Decider" followed by a Zack led "BLS" chant.
5) "Respect Through Fear"
Zack then introduced the Salt Lake Chapter of the the Black Label Society club to his fellow band members.
6) "Damage is Done"
7) "Devil's Dime" (I think) A tribute to Pantera's Dimebag Darrell.
8) "Coming Back"
9) "Honesty" Zakk performed an extra long guitar solo. He threw in a snippet of "The Star Spangled Banner" immortalized by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.
10) ?
11) "Blessed Hellride"
12) "Concrete Jungle"/ extended jam
13) "Here For You"
I'll either be back later today or tomorrow morning with my Top ? list for "AI". Be nice to your Moms today.
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