Corpse’s Tour Diary Part the 1st: A Whimsical Introduction

When I woke up on the morning of August 18th the first thing I thought was, “Where am I?” My second thought was, “Whose room is this?”

It turns out I was back home at my apartment and in my own room. But for that split second of confusion, I thought I was still on the road crashing at someone’s house or in a strange hotel.

Tour life is odd when you don’t go out on the road a lot. For Gravehill, most of our tours consist of West Coast gigs that start Thursday night and end Sunday. Short jaunts with friends or as support for bigger bands that actually like us. The long tours are few and far between. 

2010 marked the first big Gravehill tour that had us out on the road with our label mates at the time Cardiac Arrest and Hod (we were on the Ibex Moon roster). Spanning about two weeks, that was a rough introduction (for me at least) into long drives, sparse shows, shitty convenience store food, and debt. Don’t get me wrong, there were great times as well. Meeting new people, traveling the U.S. and visiting cities I had never been to, and being in the company of great friends to name a few.

2013 had us back on the road with Deceased which was a bit more lucrative, not as long (about a week), and had some real fun moments. Touring with one of my favorite death metal bands was a dream come true and I was a fan boy the entire time.

The 2015 tour with fellow Dark Descent label mates Ghoulgotha was our first outing for any significant length of time in 5 years. We would be revisiting cities played before and trying out new locations for the first time. This tour was extremely important as well since Gravehill first announced its new lineup back in May. This wasn’t just another tour. This was a proving ground and trial by fire. We had to get back out there and let people know that even though the front man, bassist, and lead guitar had changed up, we were still the same entertaining assholes everyone was used to. 

This is an after action report of the entire tour. Most of this is based on my fuddled memory alone so some parts may be exaggerated but all of it is true. I won’t be calling anyone by their stage names either. I went on tour with my friends, not stage personas. But for the record, just in case you don’t know the cast of characters, here it is for your convenience. Note that we give out tour nicknames. Some people don’t like their nicknames but unfortunately you can’t pick them yourself. Shit happens when you party naked.

GRAVEHILL:

Vocals: Jason Thomas aka J. Corpsemolester aka JT Corpse aka Corpse aka J-Balls

Drums: Rhett Davis aka Thorgrimm aka Phil Rudd of Death Metal aka Dad

Guitar (R/L): Nelson Miranda aka Hell Messiah aka Nels aka The Rum King

Guitar (L/R): Elde Erickson aka Eldehelm aka The Valium Prince aka Snore Ravager

Bass: Bob Babcock aka Bodybag Bob aka Babs aka The All Nighter

GHOULGOTHA:

Vocals/Guitar: Wayne Sarantopoulos aka Uncle Wayne

Guitar: Ian Mann aka Ol Tangled Cords

Drums: Charlie Koryn aka Baby Bear

 

RHOADIE/DRIVER: Robert Gutierrez aka Bigg Robb (BR)

I think that’s a fair intro! The next installment:

Corpse’s Tour Diary Part the 2nd: When All Roads Lead to Dallas…

Central Illinois Metal Fest 2011: Part 3

DATELINE: 11:10 PM - July 24, 2011



Pouring over the copious amount of notes I made from the Central Illinois Metal (CIM) Fest, I see that I mostly wrote the following:

• A rough picture of Mike's beard with two eyes that are crossed.
• A pentagram. I was obviously feeling very metal.
  
  
• "Where all the white chicks at?"
• "This pen feels buttery slick."
• "Black and white cat, black and white cake."
• An accurate representation of Cthulhu.
• Several games of Tic-Tac-Toe. Except instead of "Xs" and "Os" they were multiplication symbols and zeroes.
  
  

So obviously, this last installment of my CIM adventure will be filled with more misinformation than a Fox News segment (BOOYAH!). I'm all about the cheap shots.



I was reinvigorated with new energy on Sunday. I had been drowning in a vomit-filled vat of misery since early Saturday morning and now I was awake, hungry, and ready to get the hell out of the hotel room because the corpse I found lying next to me started smelling like an Asian grocery. Rhett, Lili, Mike, Tom, Jill, and myself all decided to head across the street to this family run restaurant to get our grub on. We met up with the guys from Exhumed (and Cephalic Carnage and Withered I believe) and soon the restaurant was filled to the brim with out-of-town Hessian degenerates. The owners didn't mind at all since we were paying with cash for once and not small trouser buttons and pieces of lint as is usually the case.



Belly full, we left for the venue around 4:30 PM to catch our friends from Texas, Hod, take the stage to crush and kill. They did as such, playing some newer material as well as older stuff. They were definitely one of the highlights of the fest for me. I even bought a shirt. After about five minutes of digging, Dustin from Hod found a suitable size Large. By the way, that Celtic Frost shirt I bought? What a fuckin' ripoff! $20 and the Large I bought shrunk down to almost a medium. Cheap-ass t-shirt fabric is bullshit guys and dolls! T-shirts are a BIG part of the heavy metal scene correct? Sure, music will always be numero uno, but t-shirts sell just as much, if not more, than the music itself! You'd think the people who decide to get into the business of selling heavy metal merch would produce something of quality instead of finding the cheapest grade shirt available and slapping a band logo on it. Take a little pride in what you sell ya stingy fucks!



Let's see, where was I...oh yeah, just bought a t-shirt from Hod! After that, I mostly hung out at the bar with my friend Deedee who was working with Exhumed as their merch person and also Bodybag Bob Babcock (Gravehill/Exhumed for those not in the know). I started drinking but not as much as Friday. I was still haunted by the past two days so needless to say, my beer consumption was considerably lower. Bodybag certainly tied a few on and a few hours later he wanted to either wrestle you or kiss you (gender isn't of specific concern to Bodybag in either case hahaha). I'm used to his drunken antics by now after being in a band with him for 3 years so it wasn't too bad. The strangers he wanted to wrestle probably were a little more put off though!



As the night wore on, I caught Engaged in Mutilating (TX) who were good but I can't remember anything from them that particularly stood out. By this time, The Canopy Club was getting sparse. Like masturbating five times a day, 3-day fests are always a test of endurance. With the heat and humidity punching everyone in the nuts and the constant eardrum imploding sounds of death/grind/hurble-scurble metal for two days straight, by Sunday, most people were tired and started the drive back to where ever their hometowns were in the wasteland of the midwest. I stuck around and caught Flesh Parade (LA) who were grindy as hell but since I'm not much of a grindcore head, they didn't do much for me either. The band that did stand out was Embalmer (OH) which had Lou Spencer from Manticore playing bass. The dude's a madman and is such a pro on the bass that I wish he lived closer so I could get lessons. Apparently Embalmer has been around for years but this was my first time seeing and hearing them. I was impressed as it was a nice old school death metal sound which was a considerable change of pace since Hod took the stage hours earlier. I think their set was just a bit long though.



Unfortunately Mike and I had to prepare to leave the fest early as we had to wake up, turn in the rental car and be at the Bloomington airport on time the next day. We slowly but surely extricated ourselves but it wasn't an easy task as there were a lot of people to say goodbye to. Despite my disastrous Saturday, I still had a good time and always love events like this. I feel more at home amongst my own Hessian friends than I do anywhere else. And that includes my family who live 3,000 miles away.



The next stop on the Gravehill train is in Wyoming for the one-day Wolves of the Apocalypse Fest on August 20. We are actually headlining! Hahaha Well, hopefully there will be some people there. If not, then we'll make it a party anyway!

Central Illinois Metal Fest 2011: Part 1

DATELINE: 3:30 AM - July 22, 2011

So much for trying to get to bed early and getting a good night’s sleep. By 1:00 AM I had dozed off and it seemed like mere minutes had passed by until the alarm woke me up. I’m never quite happy in the morning so I curse quite profusely as I stumble out of my sweat-drenched, blood-soaked, crust-caked sheets. You’d think I would wash the linens regularly but in all honesty, I love my own and other people’s filth. The grunge and crust of it all arouses my tender loins!

With most of my luggage packed and ready to go, all I need to do is brush my teeth and drive the 50+ miles to Orange County where I will meet up with Mike Abominator at the Santa Ana Airport. Oh, and I guess I need to put on some pants as well. TSA is really picky about people and their pants.

6:45 AM

Mike and I make it through the bag check-in process and TSA security with no problem. I chuckle to myself as I see an elderly man pulled for a rigorous pat down and anal cavity check. Mike and I look like the biggest troublemakers in this upscale, white person haven and the fact that the gentlemen was Latino didn’t pass unnoticed to even my alcohol-dulled senses.

SOME TIME MID-FLIGHT

The girl that sits next to me has some fine gams on her. Quite a little dame. I don’t engage in any small-talk as it looks like she’s fairly uncomfortable sitting next to me. I don’t blame her; especially after I ask if she wants to sit on my lap.

2:35 PM

We had a brief layover in Dallas (less than an hour) before taking off to the small airport in Bloomington, Illinois. The journey itself hasn’t been bad and is uneventful. Stepping off the plane in Bloomington is like stepping into Hell. Illinois, like most of the Midwest and east coast, has been plunged into this massive heat wave. The humidity has to be 100% and it’s oppressive. Mike’s face is beaded with sweat as we wait outside for the rental car company to pick us up. I offer to splash him with some water from my water bottle, but he’s not fond of hot urine. Whatever.

4:45 PM

The trip from Bloomington to Urbana is relatively short. It’s about 50 or so miles. The bitch of it was that I had directions to get back to the airport from our hotel on our last day, but no directions to GET to the hotel. Since Mike and I are navigational geniuses, we turn the map around and reverse the directions. After numerous wrong turns and second guesses, we find ourselves on the right track. There’s an Arby’s off the main highway and we’re starving. Neither of us have had anything to eat all day. We grab some grub and proceed to Urbana with no more problems.

5:30 PM

Apparently, back in 2007, the Lincoln Lodge in Urbana was the shiznit. All I heard was good things about it until we arrive there. Thorgrimm and his girlfriend Lili have been traveling with Tom from Cardiac Arrest and his fiancé Jill. We arrive only to find that the hotel has been taken over by new owners and crackheads and tweekers now live there. Actually sounds rather pleasant. I love my fellow crackheads and tweekers. That’s only because there’s usually a surplus of filthy hookers walking around. Plus the air conditioning doesn’t work. I think if the air condition worked, we probably would have stayed. Instead of finding another hotel right away, we take off for the venue because Tom has to get there for the Cardiac Arrest performance which is in about an hour and a half.

7:00 PM

We dropped Tom and Jill off at the venue while Thorgrimm, Mike, Lili, and myself searched for another hotel. Thorgrimm suggested the Comfort Suites so we headed there. Compared to the Lincoln Love Lodge (as I so warmly call it now), the Comfort Suites is the Hilton of Urbana! A bit more expensive but Gravehill isn’t known for being particularly cheap when it comes to finding suitable accommodations when out on the road. We like our comfort goddammit!!

The Canopy Club seems to be embedded with several other local businesses on the same block. Across from the main campus of the University of Illinois, the area reeks of patchouli and hipster premadonnas. Otherwise, it’s very nice. Better than I expected. I feel right at home and actually manage to find my way around the town quite easily.

I head inside, get my paper wrist bands, and make a beeline straight for the bar. I buy a drink and saunter down to the stage area as Cardiac Arrest starts to play. Cardiac starts their set and they rage as usual. I’ve seen them numerous times and it’s just unbelievable how heavy they are; straight, pure, death metal from the bowels of Satan’s colon. During the set I finish my beer and head up for another one. While I’m waiting, I meet up with Beer Reebs from Hod. We chat for a few seconds and he buys shots for me, the bartender, and some random fellow who just happens to be lucky enough to be hanging around the bar. I don’t know what it was I drank, but I downed it quickly and chased it with a couple of gulps from my beer. I head back down into the pit area with a nice buzz already ringing between my ears.

While Cardiac nears the end of their bowel-destroying set, I notice a dude has the same shirt I’m wearing. That annoys me to no end. I don’t know why I’m obsessed so much with it. I guess it’s almost a heavy metal fashion faux paux. It’s an Asphyx “Death the Brutal Way” t-shirt and while it’s one of my favorites to wear, I’m determined to find something else. After Cardiac ends, I look around at all the merch tables and see nothing but indecipherable logos of bands I’ve either never heard of or bands that, more than likely, all sound the same. Herble-scurble bullshit. I like my Death Metal old school. Finally I come across a table that has a smattering of cool t-shirts. I see a Morgoth one that looks promising but then my eye catches a Celtic Frost “To Mega Therion”. That’s the one. I want it! The guy wants $20. FUCK! I pay it anyway. It’s Celtic Frost anyway. If it were any other band, I’d say fuck it and continue to wear my Asphyx shirt.

Sporting my new shirt, I strut my shit to another bar and grab some more brews. I meet up with some Facebook friends and meet some new friends as well. The drinking continues and some drugs are consumed. By the time I head back into the bar for another round of drinks, I meet up with Beer from Hod again. He buys shots, I throw back, and I buy more booze.

10:00 PM(?)

I stumble into the main room to catch some of Putrid Pile’s set. The lone man bands aren’t my style but I have to give them credit. It takes some talent to throw all that shit together.

Things are blurring now. I don’t know what time it is. I vaguely remember talking in Spanish to some Mexican kids who looked at me with amusement. I guess I thought I was asking where they were from but instead I told them to “Keep your burrito out of my face!” Very rude.

Another beer down and Nachtmystium plays. They sound out of place among all the grind, death, and herble-scurble bands; and it’s refreshing. I dig it. More beer is consumed somehow. I don’t know how or why, but I’m two-fisting beers. One is a Pabst and the other a Bud Light. What the hell?

11:00 PM(?)

I’m outside the club and I stumble toward where we parked the rental car.

A light shines in my face and I realize I’m lying on the curb beside the car. A University of Illinois campus cop is asking me, “Hey, you okay, pal?” I tell him I’m just waiting on friends and amazingly enough, he leaves me alone. I don’t know how long I’ve been lying on the sidewalk but I’m fed up with waiting around and decide to walk back to the hotel.

12:00 AM(?)

The walk doesn’t seem long and I assume I stay on the sidewalk with relatively little problem. Some black kid on a bicycle is riding in my direction. I hold up my hand for a high five and he slaps it as he cruises on by. The brothers know I’m down.

I try to bull my way into several convenience stores but out of the four I try, all of them but one are locked! The one I find open is manned by a long-hair, scraggly-bearded gent who has this large, heavy brow from which tiny, porcine eyes peer out. I feel vaguely uncomfortable as this blast from the past of human evolution judges me. I wonder if he has a gun under the counter or a large wooden club.

12:30 AM(?)

I stumble into my hotel room munching on stale donut sticks, strip down to my boxers and pass out on the bed.

Several hours later, I wake up to find Abominator, Dave from Cardiac Arrest, and several other people hanging out. It matters to me none. I walk by all of them in my boxers, tell them to fuck off, collapse in the bathroom and start to give sacrificial offerings of vomit to the Porcelain Altar. Hey, it’s Saturday. Oh shit, we play Saturday! These next 24 hours are going to be rough.

Campaign for Death Metal Purity 2010: Our Loss in the Heat of Austin, Texas

The day starts off fine as we gas up and take the “legitimate” way out of Prescott and not the back-asswards way we came in the day before. Most of it is downhill and we come across a fancy-schmancy shopping center and decide to stop for some eats. Hellfiend, Thorgrimm, and I opt for some Mexican fast food (though Hellfiend and I eat salads so as to keep our trim and lithe figures) while Abominator and Bodybag head for Subway. The highlights of this place are the bathrooms though. Immaculate with not only individual stalls for pooping, but they are almost like small rooms with no spaces underneath where you can see other peoples feet or hear the sounds of straining and grunting as someone tries to pass a big brown football out of their ass. We all partook of this last bit of luxury before hitting the real open road.

The trip to Austin, Texas is a long drive and mostly through the sweltering heat of the Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas deserts. By the time we hit Texas, it is night which alleviates some of the discomfort of the heat. But it was brutal. The SUV would constantly heat up and once it went past a certain point on the temperature gauge, the windows would roll down and the heater turned on. We stopped at this gas station in the middle of the desert and we all bought ice cream, slushies, cold water, whatever and didn’t bother eating or drinking, we just shoved them down our pants. Heaven!

I take over the last bit of driving as we head toward Austin to our friends Haily and Jayson’s house. They live about 10 minutes away from the venue and they welcome us with open arms (luckily)! We’re all tired and cranky from driving for about 24 hours straight and everyone starts to pull their bags out of the stuffed trailer. Thorgrimm notices one of the tires on the SUV has a deep gash in it. As the rest of the guys head in to catch up on some sleep, Thorgrimm and I realize there won’t be any of that for us yet. The bitch about it is that this is a brand new tire. Jayson tags along with us and points us to a tire place nearby and we spend $200 for a brand new one. Fuckin-A. Luckily it doesn’t take too long and we get back to the house in time for Thorgrimm to crash out for a bit.

I stay up and chit-chat with Haily and we eat like a dozen mini-oranges between us. I guess I needed a significant boost in my vitamin C intake. They bbq a shit ton of ribs and sausages and Haily makes this BADASS potato salad in which I shovel down my gullet. Unfortunately time is short and we all get ready to head to the venue, aptly titled “Beerland” in downtown Austin.

We get there a bit too early as the place isn’t even open yet. Usually that isn’t a problem but Austin has to be a sweltering 90-something degrees and the humidity is 100%. As soon as we step out of the SUV, we all immediately begin sweating. Holy shit, you can cut the air with a knife because of the humidity! Shane from the grind band Phobia shows up and we all start shooting the shit. Not knowing when the place will open, Hellfiend, Bodybag, Shane, and I take off to try and visit some bars in the area. We don’t get far as it looks like Beerland is opening up for business so we head back and get to work.

Beer tickets are handed out and Hellfiend, Bodybag, and I start drinking. I haven’t had Lone Star in a while so I grab some bottles and down them. Cold beer on a hot day rules.

People start showing up and filing into the venue. Overall the attendance on a non-weekend night looks promising. We meet old and new friends. Tom (from Nokturnal) and Eloisa show up who are great friends of ours. When Gravehill was out in Texas doing a short mini-tour with Hod, they came to every show! Haily and Jayson show up as well. We all take a bunch of goofy pictures with each other and of course I look like the biggest creep in all of them. I hate getting my picture taken. It’s one of the reasons I wear a helmet on stage. Another is that I’m fugly.

Birth A.D. hit the stage first and though the music is more punk/metal, they fit in well and sounded great. Plus they were funny mofos which upped them in coolness points.

Cardiac took the stage next and near the end, their bassist Dave gets his hair caught in the guitarist Tom’s axe. They have to finish out their set next to each other and it is hilarious to watch! They take it in good stride and pull off a memorable performance.

The decision was made to have Hod headline this show (and several others) since this is pretty much their territory and most people would hang out for them so Gravehill takes the stage after Cardiac.

The night goes well until it is time to pack up and leave. The original plan was to head back to Haily and Jayson’s pad, crash for a few hours, and then take off to Kansas City. Then we decided it was probably best just to get on the road. We can’t make up our mind.

Dennis from Hod, Tom from Cardiac, myself, Thorgrimm and a few others try to load up the trailer. But a chink has been thrown into the mix. Hod decided to hire a full-time driver to be behind the wheel of the van. While in theory, this isn’t a bad idea, in practice it is a fail. The trailer is full, the SUV is full, and van is full. There is no space for any extra baggage or people. So as we are packing the trailer, extra gear shows up that wasn’t in the trailer before. There just isn’t any room. Dennis gets pissed because shit just isn’t fitting right and he finally breaks and leaves the trailer packing to a few of us. I don’t blame him though. The space situation was already an issue from day one so I am exasperated by it as well. Small arguments erupt from various band members and there’s some shit-talking. Not the joking around kind of shit-talking either.

I start to see the cracks in the camaraderie I thought we all had. I tell Abominator this in private and realize one of my worst fears was coming true. The tour we had all worked and spent a shit-load of resources on was faltering.

Gravehill decides to leave the venue after the trailer is stuffed (we can barely get the door closed) and the SUV is packed to the gills. We tell Hod and Cardiac that we’ll see them in Kansas City and take off back to Haily and Jayson’s to shower up, catch a few winks, eat, and be on our merry way.

Several calls come through on Thorgrimm’s cell and Abominator’s. I don’t know the content of these conversations but I only watch as Hellfiend grabs one of the phones and talks to one person and Thorgrimm talks to another at the same time in different rooms. Bodybag, Abominator, and I try to keep things light with Haily and Jayson because we don’t want them to be involved at all with our drama so we snack and wait
.
Thorgrimm comes into the kitchen to tell us that Hod is dropping off the tour and I’m shocked. I thought, or I hoped, that whatever was happening would just smooth over and we would all be on our way to Kansas City.

Up to this point in the tour, our pay for shows was mediocre at best. Some, like Prescott, didn’t even pay enough for gas to the next gig. What money we made from merch sales went into gas tanks or food in our stomachs. There was never any money left over and apparently Hod really felt the bite. The catalyst (in my eyes at least) was the space issue and that just boiled over into the realization that financially, Hod just could not continue.

You see folks, promises of getting paid and actually getting paid are two different things. If there’s nothing in writing, no booking agent involved, etc... you kind of just have to eat the loss. Sure, you can threaten the promoter with violence, but where would that leave you? With a hundred bucks in your pocket (if you’re lucky) and a guarantee you would never play that venue again. It’s a finicky world of politics, business, and last of all music wrapped up into one. It’s fucking tough.

So Hod is gone. Gravehill heads back to the venue and we all unload gear in front of Beerland at 4:00 AM in the morning. It’s awkward. I can tell there’s bad blood already between some members of Hod and Gravehill. I get it. Words have been exchanged, egos bruised, accusations made, blah blah blah. But I will genuinely miss having the guys on the road with us. Hod is a powerhouse of killer, Texas-style, blackened-death metal and I always enjoyed watching them play. I wish them nothing but success.

There is a decision to be made though. Cancel the rest of the tour or continue on? Cardiac Arrest steps up to the plate. Between us and Chicago, there is one show and that is Kansas City, Missouri. If we can use a local backline in Kansas City, once we hit Chicago, Cardiac will pull their gear out of storage and we can finish the tour with their equipment. That fucking rocks! There is no way I want to go home and I’m ecstatic that the tour can continue. Logistically, there are problems with finishing all of the tour dates but we can figure that out later once we hit Chicago. But for now, the tour is back on track!

Cardiac and Gravehill head back to Haily and Jayson’s house, shower, nap (maybe an hour or two), eat, and haul ass out of Texas in the morning. I just want to say thank you so much Haily and Jayson for your hospitality and letting us crash at your pad! You guys rule so much. I hope it wasn’t too traumatic for you!

For every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. With Hod now gone, the trailer and van are significantly much lighter. Abominator hitches a ride with the Cardiac guys while the rest of us chill in the SUV. The room is a luxury and soothes some of the tension of the past couple of days. Kansas City would be a fresh start...if we can get there on time...

Campaign for Death Metal Purity 2010: Sour Home Los Angeles

The trip home is almost uneventful. Thorgrimm starts us off in the wee hours of the morning right after the San Francisco show and takes us on this weird, back road journey. We are following Hellfiend’s directions and I guess he wants to take us on a scenic route. Scenic routes in the dark really don’t work out too well but I imagine that the terrain is really pretty and I fade off into a weird dream. William Shatner was in it. I can’t remember that much, but fuckin’ Captain Kirk had no patience for people being late to his Social Studies class so we fought each other like in a Star Trek episode; all cheesily choreographed with the stupid music playing in the background. Ironically, I don’t think I’ve ever watched an entire episode of Star Trek all the way through.

I awake as the sun starts to rise and Thorgrimm pulls over to get gas. I take over driving duties but decide to grab some donuts before we take off. My acid reflux has been hell over the past couple of days plus my appetite is returning so I’m pretty hungry. If you have acid reflux or GERD, you shouldn’t eat quickly or bad stuff will happen. Well, I am so hungry that I just start choking down donuts and I forget all about my malady. I get in the driver’s seat, drive about 20 feet and suddenly feel the donuts start to come back up along with some tasty stomach acid. I hop out and puke for a couple of minutes while Thorgrimm, Abominator, and Hellfiend make fun of me and talk shit, “Oh, so that’s how Corpsie keeps his trim figure!” Haha. With friends like these...

I drive for a couple of hours and then Abominator takes the wheel. We pull up to Thorgrimm’s pad, I leap out, grab my stuff, get the keys to my friend’s car, and speed off to my pad for a shower, shit, and sleep. I don’t sleep for long though as I still have to wash a few clothes and get ready for the show in L.A.

Eventually I head back to Thorgrimm’s place and we all chill for a few before leaving for The Blvd.

We arrive at The Blvd apparently late (around 7-ish). There is another tour package in town so this show is a merging of the two in one location. Insidious Discrepancy, Disfigured, and another band are playing as well. Somehow and for some odd reason, Fatalist is put on the bill second (instead of in the regular tour line up that we’ve been doing) and since they are using most of our backline, it delays the show! What the hell? I just don’t get why Fatalist is going on now. So right off the bat we start hauling shit in fast so they can get set up to play.

Another disappointment of the night is the fact that locals Imminent Death had played already and it was barely after seven o’clock! I wanted to check them out but it looks like I’ll be delayed in completing that goal yet again.

By the way, East L.A. on July 4^th is quite an experience. You don’t know if people are setting off fireworks or firing guns. All you hear is “pop pop pop”. Also, are those screams of people having fun or getting shot?

I hang out for Fatalist, some of Disfigured, and a little of the one man act Insidious Discrepancy. The one man acts are cool I guess. It takes some talent to put all that shit together but the music is so chaotic and artificial that it’s hard to get into. I decide to vacate the area and hang outside.

I meet with friends and talk to a number of people. Tom from Cardiac and I head next door to this hole in the wall Mexican place and have some of the best tacos in L.A. for only a buck each. Cheap, good food rules the schools!

I should mention that Cosmo Lee of invisibleoranges.com and a freelancer for other metal zine outlets is at the show. Always beside him is this brooding, large guy with a camera. Honestly, the camera looks like a prop. I bet he’d be more comfortable with some brass knuckles and a steel pipe than an expensive piece of equipment like the camera he holds. (Note: Cosmo’s review of the show can be found here: http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2010/07/death-metal-purity-tour-the-blvd/ It’s an amusing piece on hair in heavy metal...)

So this entire time I’ve been texting and calling my friend. “I need you to pick me up from the show. You’re my ride home. It’s important that you come to the show tonight. You’re on the guest list.” Oh, did I mention I lent him my car? Well, he replies early on, “Yeah, no problem.” Showtime for Gravehill creeps up and still my friend hasn’t arrived. I try to call several times and get no answer. I leave a couple of voice mails and send a few texts. We’re about to hit the stage when I finally get a text response, “Dude, I fell asleep. It’s too late now to head to the venue. Sorry!” I am furious! I want to punch something real bad. I feel my jaw muscles clench and I see shades of red flash in front of my eyes (literally). My smooth laid out plan to get home early for some rest falls apart. I try to use that negative energy and focus it in my performance but it hinders me. My mind isn’t really there and I go through the motions but I’m not into it. I’m a pretty laid back guy and slow to anger and this is the first time in a long time that I am enraged. I don’t like that feeling. I’m a happy go-lucky corpse fondler. Not an angry one!

After we play, we hang around and drink for a bit. Someone asks if I’ve seen the merch table and I remember seeing one in the back. When I come out with the table, I get a scolding from the promoter that I had his table. Turns out ours was already in the vehicle. The Corpse just can’t get a break!

Los Angeles turns out to be a night filled with ups and downs. I make it home eventually, shower again, and manage to get some sleep before our trip to Arizona starts in the morning.