Saint Vitus w/ Pallbearer, Hookers 10.17.13 The Note West Chester, PA

[SabbathJeff]

This was a hilariously interesting and loud gig for me.  As you may well know, this was my lady friend's very first gig; she's older than I and has led a pretty damned sheltered life.  There were 3-4 moments at this gig that I almost died of embarressment, but it was so cute because she was a virgin.

She's outside finishing a smoke, we walk up as Hookers are in their 1st song.  She opens the door, closes it, and says, no no no...need earplugs.  Three guys outside heard this and started laughing their asses off with me.  I mean the stage is like 100 feet away.  It was like, really?

Then their's the door bitch.  Now, I got in relativly easily, just wanted to make sure we weren't narcs I guess, but that dude felt like harrassing my lady friend, who was just not having it.  She was like, "This is my first gig...this is my weekend...I'm getting in this venue...you're just going to have to wrap your head around it because this is happening" etc.  It was so funny.  She finally got in, and we took a seat at the bar.

Now, Wino and Dave were seated right next to us, eating some grub.  Wino finished last, and got up to leave.  I said hey Scott, good to see you, how are you, just wanted to introduce you to my lady friend, she's really digging your acoustic stuff I've played for her.

And my lady friend, shook his hand, smiled, and not much else.  Starstruck.  By Wino.   In a bar.   I was like, ugh...he's just Wino man...like, he's okay.  You can say hi.  Yeah, that one was pretty good.

And then there was the gig flyer spam bitch, seated next to us.  My lady friend asked if those flyers were free, and I said they were, and she proceeded to pick one up at a time and pocket it.  After doing this like 3 or 4 times, she noticed that the little spam bitch kept placing out new flyers for her to pick up.  She enjoyed holding this power.  Actually, she picked a flyer up for the month's shows at the Note, and wouldn't you know it, the Vitus gig actually said Saint Virus.  I was like, it's 2013, like, you should know the band's name at this point if they date back to '78.  Really? Saint Virus?  Come on.

That was the basically the entertainment portion of the night, so I'll get onto the rock now.

Hookers, who I'd never heard a note of before but by doing some reading I'd guess the best way to subscribe them was like a party metal band, but their party involved satan, sluts, and whisky, judas priest as much as bathory.  It was fast, it was fun, it was loud.  They really seemed to enjoy what they were doing, and it came across as such.  Using speed as a weapon, they melded classic metal with really fast shit, and it was a winning combination, but not who I came for.  I bought a sticker and would try an album.

Pallbearer.  Now, Pallbearer I've talked about at length a few times, and their debut and still only album from early last year still holds a very, very special in my heart.  I've never heard such slow, sorrowful music sound so uplifting, positivly angelic at times with the singer's voices melding over those soaring twin harmonies.  They played two from the debut, two new tracks, and the cover (Over and Over from Mob Rules?) didn't sound particularly sabbathian with the two guitars; the sound was much fuller and it was slowed down a lot and the singer wasn't intoning Dio, rather using his style and making the riff fit around his voice, not the other way around.  It was a well done cover that i barely recognized aside from a few riffs, but i was their for the other 4 songs.  Covers are nice, especially when a band makes it their own or makes their sound the vibe of the song, that's fine and all, but I want to hear the stuff you wrote, I didn't buy a ticket to a cover band show, you know?  I like your original shit just fine and dandy.

The two off the debut were my favorites of their set because the band has been on the road playing this debut for two years now, and there were so many more intricacies and touches utilized in the old tracks that I barely recognized from when I first caught this band in May 2012.  The guitar solos particularly sounded more vibrant, piercing and beautiful; soulful and emotive.

The two new tracks weren't far from that, very moving and fluid and setting a great doomy beautiful atmosphere.  I actually saw them outside after Vitus and finally got to say thanks for that debut in person, looking forward to the next chapter and hope to see you again, cheers, etc.

The vibe I'm getting is that the new album, set to record in February, is still getting plenty tweaked and polished and thought about.  Not that the new songs sounded off or bad; not embryonic even..just a little like like..."Yeah, I can't wait to hear that proper" You know?

Then came Vitus, who unlike Pallbearer, whom I have only seen once before (to be corrected!), Vitus I've seen now 4 times, actually seen Wino do his thing 6 altogether.

I missed two or three titles, i'm not good with titles, but for like Vitus or Electric Wizard you know what they're called basically.  Pallbearer is an album band, like YOB, no one song is better or whatever.  Vitus and say Pentagram, those are song oriented bands, Born Too Late, Dying Inside, just classics.  You can memorize lyrics.  They played that i could write down: Blessed Night, Clear Windowpane, Living backwards, I Bleed Black, War Is Our Destiny, Let Them Fall, The Bleeding ground, The Troll, (Lillie Track/..."fists in the air..."?), into fucking Shotting Gallery, White Stallions, with an encore of Dying Inside capped with Born Too Late, in that order. 

Now that I've seen them 4 times, I'm starting to get a sense of the vibes they like give off in different cities, in Brooklyn, Baltimore, NYC, or West Chester PA.  That gig they played at THEIR bar was a fucking classic stone cold piece of history that you had to be there for, but honestly, they sounded really good from where I was banging (Dave's side, actually.)  Wino sparked one and put his hands behind his back for cuffs; my lady friend grabbed a pic of that. 

Yeah, very good outing, a downright FIRST for my lady friend all around, and she's still on cloud nine about it, we have'nt stopped talking music since she came over for this gig on thursday. 

SabbathJeff over and out
xoxo from my lady friend, who is no longer a virgin