Nailed to gold

New York could not have gone any better. We arrived in plenty of time to be buffeted by arctic winds that blasted down the chasm of 42^nd street like the blizzard beasts of Immortal lore, but we had little trouble in loading and parking the van. A masseuse was on hand downstairs and we all partook of her alarmingly strong hands. I was in dire need of the attention as my neck and left shoulder were a network of burning knots. Just as I emerged from my lactic acid trip I was greeted by Jos Smith and Charissa. There was concern that the oncoming snow would prevent them from coming but thankfully this was not the case. Soon after we turned in an electric performance to a full room. We had a couple of technical outages with our pedals but they were quickly remedied and did not undermine the impact. Jos was pleased with all the merchandise and posters and he enthused about our performance. The prestige of the evening was compounded by the fulfillment of a very long-standing aspiration of mine, which was to play a show with Immolation in New York. I have been waiting to do that since 1991, though I never imagined that we would not only play in New York with them but 24 other dates as well. This will not be the last time either, as they are already looking into taking us to Europe by year's end.

A couple of young girls found their way backstage and they excitedly told us how much they enjoyed our set before being hustled into the dressing room by Belphegor members. Those guys are a randy crew, indeed, and they are not shy about taking what they want. In the meantime, we stayed in the back and talked to many of our friends from the city, along with a seemingly deep-fried Dani Filth. Random. It speaks a lot of the great time we were having that we did not actually go out front to watch Immolation tonight.

The end of the night brought more terrifyingly cold winds and then a visit to the world famous Gray's Papaya. $4.50 for a great meal in downtown New York is an unbeatable deal. The only down side to an otherwise perfect evening was that our favorite jewelry store, C'est Magnifique, was closed on Sundays. Last time we were here with Emperor, Sanguine trumped me mightily with the purchase of an octopus ring and I was anxious to find something comparable. We will return sooner than later, so there will be other opportunities.

We slept at a truck stop in six degree weather which was not comfortable at all. I expect we will have to splurge on a hotel tonight as we left the van running for a couple of hours and nearly ran out of gas in the process. Cleveland is tonight, and I hope it will be better than last time as I really cannot tolerate that town.