Close to a world below

Both Immolation and Rotting Christ are 20 years old this year. That is pretty amazing, especially when I consider that I've been listening to Immolation since their inception. It is impossible for me to know if we will last that long, but we have no planned termination point so who can say? If we end up as revered as either band then I will be more than satisfied regardless of where it ends. Cleveland was good, particularly for a Monday night. I finally watched a Belphegor set and was struck by Ras' chokehold approach to playing guitar. His presence is brutish and imposing and it is not hard to figure why so many girls tend to approach him with doe-eyed and tentative demeanors. I have now missed two Immolation sets so I plan to get caught up tonight. Other than that it was just cold and uncomfortable weather that made load out a bracing experience. We played at Peabody's this time and this served to purge my bad memories of the execrable Jigsaw show from last year.

Now in Detroit: Sara the merch girl has presented with the flu and as usual BB King's completely messed up all the band shirt counts, so we were forced to bring in every last box and recount all of the shirts and CDs. It was tedious, but then again there is absolutely no place to go in this area and it is still blisteringly cold so it isn't as if we had plenty of other things to do. I am curious to see if anyone shows up tonight. I hear a lot of people cross here from Canada so perhaps it will be another respectable showing. We got a hotel last night and are rested enough so the upcoming drive to Louisville, KY, will hopefully not be too arduous. Perhaps it will be a bit warmer as well.

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.

Passion Kill

Mark's Place fucking sucks, and I hope we do not play there again any time soon. The growing snow storm kept the audience relatively small (though I say relatively as it is clear that we will not play to any empty rooms on this tour), and while the attendant were sufficiently roused by the set I could not hear myself very well and did not like my performance. Mark's Place has a trillion rules for entry and crowd conduct, all of which are asinine and designed to discourage anyone from attending. I think this is likely because the whole operation is clearly a front for hookers, drugs, and whatever else, so they don't really care if the shows are well-attended. We make it a point of not ever taking out these kinds of frustrations on our fans as we always appreciate their support, but all the same, fuck that place.

Later: onward to NYC. We beat the snow storm by inches and now drive on a clear road. We should get there plenty early so lunch and a good parking spot are the two priorities. Jos A. Smith and his wife Charissa are to be present tonight, and I am excited to show him all the shirts and posters that feature his amazing work. As I write this, however, a blizzard is setting in on the city and it is possible he may not make it from Pennsylvania. I can only hope for the best.

Bring them down

It is rare that you'll read the words “excellent” and “Poughkeepsie” in the same sentence, but that is the only fair description of last night's show. We were greeted by a host of enthusiastically headbanging maniacs who made the show a great one for us. We also received our superb-looking new hooded sweatshirts from Blunt Force Graphics and finally our advance copies of “Advent Parallax” which sold briskly. All the bands had great reactions and great performances. Another addition to the flavor of the evening is that the Chance Theater is clearly haunted. When I was in the upper mezzanine before show time, the floorboards creaked with footsteps behind me and I turned to see nobody at all. Sanguine reported a similar situation as he went up the stairs to the dressing rooms. It was intriguing up until the point when I went back into the venue at the end of the night and found a darkened stairwell actively staring back at me. I decided I had intruded enough. We slept surprisingly well in our van despite the cold and now we are at Mark's Place in New Hampshire- you know, the venue that's attached to a strip club that's attached to a building that is definitely not a hotel? That's the one.

Not everything is bigger in Texas...

D'oh.

No Jesus, No Beast

Rochester was exactly how we remembered it- grey, dreary, and encased in ice and stale snow. Fortunately the bad weather blew past us quickly and the roads were clear. We were very pleased to have the hotel and I ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours after we arrived. It turns out the Hartford show was canceled because the promoter drowned while visiting the Virgin Islands. Apparently his body was only recently discovered and he was missing since Xmas. Grim. The strange part for me was that in charting the maps between venues I routed us straight from Springfield to Rochester and completely skipped Hartford. I was planning on correcting it but something told me not to bother. I did the same thing with Nashville, so if this show is also canceled then I will take it as one of my random echoes of divination at work. As for the Rochester show, the turnout was about as good as it could be for this town; nobody has any money and the weather is not an additional incentive. Still, I should not complain as the crowds have been responsive and attentive regardless of their size, We experienced several technical problems attached to the drum kit and triggers that forced us to start, abort, and reattempt our opening song, “Descension”. That is never a good thing, but luckily the audience was accommodating about it. Overall the stage sound was awful for all the bands, but we managed to pull off a good showing. Immolation was great as usual, and I'm trying to log more time watching Belphegor and Rotting Christ. It is difficult since we invariably miss any band that immediately follows us as we are usually packing our gear and cleaning up. Still, it would be a pity to not actually see the bands with whom we share the stage. Merchandise sales have not been terribly good for any of the bands so far from what I can tell. Hopefully we will see an upswing in the bigger market. I hope that the shadow of the recession is not a factor in this, as it is merch sales that keep us and our tour mates afloat.

On to Poughkeepsie. We got a bit of a late start but the thruway is a straight show across the state and the roads are clear, so we should arrive on time without incident. We play a large and venerable theater called the Chance, so I hope the show will prove memorable.

Those Left Behind

Jaxx had a relatively lean turnout, which I suppose should be expected on a Tuesday night. Still, over 200 people is not a shameful showing. Immolation was once again incredible and they added “Those Left Behind” to the set which was a real triumph of the night. Their current lineup is definitely my favorite to date. Steve and Bill back Bob and Ross seamlessly and do justice to both new and classic material. We are tired already, as our initial drive from Texas to North Carolina was compressed into a day due to my illness. Fortunately our show in Hartford was canceled so we have a day off and plenty of time to drive to Rochester. I will not further speculate on what shows will be good as it seems that it is anyone's guess, but I am indeed excited to see many old friends we haven't seen since 1999 when Averse Sefira operated out of western New York. We did not successfully sleep in the van last night as we seem to be in the mode where we are too exhausted to sleep. Also, I seem to have pinched some nerves in my left leg that is making it seem like my foot is being held to a low flame. We will take advantage of the free time and get a hotel tonight in order to rest sufficiently. The Rotting Christ/Immolation/Belphegor bus apparently died about an hour south of Rochester and they will have to remain there until a replacement bus arrives. In the meantime we are wending our way through the back roads of Pennsylvania as those are the only roads there are in this state. We'll arrive in New York in a few hours and several ugly little townships later.