Phoenix was fun, more in spite of the show than anything else. The Brickhouse was a nicely appointed club with a full kitchen and even a makeshift basketball court. Before long we had a two-on-two game going with me and Andreas of Rotting Christ versus Ross and Steve of Immolation. It was hotly contested though we lost 6 to 10 in the end (Steve was something of a ringer). This is always when tours are the most fun and in some ways the most surreal. As for the show, the sound man was a useless waste of skin who left the bands to fend for themselves so our set featured some of the worst sound of the tour. The drum triggers were pushed as loud as possible into the front monitor so Sanguine and I spent thirty minutes being punched in the face by what felt like artillery fire and we couldn't hear anything else. Somehow we stayed together and pulled it off, but it was not the most fun I have ever had on stage. The crowd was decent for the most part, though right before Belphegor played some drunk homonculoid came up front and started screaming relentlessly for Rotting Christ. He continued to heckle them throughout the set and started up again when Immolation hit the stage. There was finally retribution when he lurched into the back of some fans up front and one guy turned around and laid him out with repeated blows to the face. Then security threw the heckler out. Ross sent a song out to the punchy guy and we all had a good laugh. All the bands sounded pretty terrible and the trigger sounds were a nightmare. Only Belphegor was unfazed by the mess of it all, and Ras stated that he gauges the show only by crowd reaction (they had the best response of the night, of course). I would like our band needs to cultivate more of this kind of untouchable mindset, thought I think a fair amount of that comes from tight touring revolutions, which is what those guys have been doing for about eight years now.
There were some weird and obnoxious people at the show so I mostly stayed in the backstage and hung out on the bus with Immolation. I've known Ross and Bob for over fifteen years and this is the most time I've ever spent with them at once. We resolved last night that in the end the shows may be good or bad but the reliable constant is each other's company.
And now, bad news. We got a call that the Launchpad in Albuquerque is closed due to a fire in the adjacent building. We are all very disappointed as it seemed certain that this would be a good show. We also lose the entire tour payout so that is not a good thing for anyone. We will most certainly play there again but it is still unfortunate to miss it. Since we are now free to make our way to Texas at our leisure, we contacted the tour bus and agreed to meet in Roswell for some good old fashioned weirdness. The day may still prove to be a good one.
