Wow! Helmet is in town again and I consciously decided that I didn’t care to see them because I didn’t think they would be able to top their last performance @ the Casbah. Boy was I wrong…Marvin let me know the day of the show that he scored two free tickets and asked me if I wanted to go. Without hesitation I was in. When Marvin got home from work I was pleasantly informed that Nick Oliveri’s band was opening. The moment we flipped the corner to enter Cane’s who was there going in at the same time? Nick Oliveri. Funny huh? Especially since I had randomly seen him at the recent Foo Fighters show in the midst of that fiasco. So Marvin and I go to the bar to talk to his bartender friend Sabrina and who comes rolling up next to us to order a drink? Nick Oliveri. We just couldn’t shake this guy. I gave him a fist bump and life was good. He was on next and his little three piece band busted out some punk rock fury and three Queens of the Stone Age songs, “I’m Gonna Leave You,” “Hidden EP,” and “Rated R.” Next up, Helmet. The same incarnation as the last Casbah show with the exception of a different guitarist. They started out with the first song on Aftertaste, “Pure,” and got about five into it before he stopped and started bantering with the crowd. I didn’t catch anything he said but, “No. First we’re going to play the rest of Aftertaste and then we’ll take requests.” I thought he was kidding but he wasn’t. I’ll be damned if they did not play the whole fucking album in sequence from front to back! That’s when they left the stage before the inevitable encore. They came back and played “In the Meantime,” “Wilma’s Rainbow,” “Milquetoast,” and “Give It.” Amazing. Then after the show Page decided to hang out by the T-Shirt stand. I went and started chatting him up. I told him he should make his new band learn “Clean” and “Speechless.” He told me they knew “Speechless” and then he picked up a copy of Strap It On and pointed out the songs they knew from that album. I praised him for the show they had just done and went on my way. I was content and obviously elated. Thank you Marvin.
