Thursday, May 21, 2009

Testament w/ Martyrd, Nethereal @ BB King - 4/6/08

Okay, so it's taken me ten days to write this momentous occasion that occurred early this month. I got a chance to see thrash legends Testament live at my favorite club in New York.

Let's skip the opening acts, shall we? Martryd and Nethereal were fine but nothing to write home about. For $27, I should have gotten more from the opening act. But Testament did bring the pain and the fun when it was their turn to come out and play some classics and new shit off their new album "Formation of Damnation." Chuck Billy, looking as bloated and larger than ever, was an amazing sight. A man who battled cancer some time ago is back doing what he does best, or at least what is expected of him. Without all the cheesy air-guitaring with the mic stand, it was fun watching Chuck belt out some familiar tunes. Lots of good ones like "Alone in the Dark," "The Preacher," "Practice What You Preach," "Low," "The Ritual," and "Disciples of the Watch," plus the new ones, which unfortunately can't recall their names because I haven't had a chance to download -- er, buy the album, which comes out April 29th.

Lots of not-so-metal moments did abound, like the appearance of the annoying, bloated loser radio host and VH1 VJ Eddie "Fat-Boy" Trunk, who threw out a couple of his stupid lame-ass T-shirts, which I promptly threw back at him when I discovered the shirt I caught was XL. And another lame moment was when Chuck Billy made several references to one annoyingly obnoxious Sirius radio host named Jose Mangin, the same piece of shit Mexican douchebag loser who promised me a shot at demoing a radio spot for him but ultimately didn't come through for me. I, being the loudmouth jerk that I am, yelled out "Fuck Jose!" many times, just to get my point across. And judging by Chuck Billy's smile, he seemed to hear me loud and clear.

Overall, a great show. Testament packed the house with maniacs and people looking for a good time. A special final moment came in the form of original Testament drummer Louie Clemente, who looked like a hunchback in his hoodie. Announced as "the original fucker" (or something to that effect) it was cool to see that Louie had maintained his friendship with the other guys. I had a chance to meet the drunken Louie, along with Chuck, Alex, Eric, Paul and Greg afterwards and talked with some dudes about -- what else? -- metal.

Great show that rivals even the Exodus show back in February. Now let's see if the Hate Eternal "refund" show on the 28th can hold its own.

No comments: