Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals Livestream 4/9/21

Anyone who knows me knows Pantera holds a special place in my heart that taps into something very primal. When it was announced the Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals would be doing a stream of nothing but Pantera songs dubbed “A Vulgar Display of Pantera” it was a no-brainer. I have seen Phil and Co. twice now in person and the last time at Aftershock was also a set of only Pantera songs.

I could have swore I saw something that said King Parrot would start at 4 pm PST and Phil would go on at 5 PST but alas when I logged in at 4 pm instead of King Parrot I got a slowed down shot of a hog and two chickens in a coop. After about 15 minutes the feed switched to footage of Phil with the Illegals doing “Utopian” from a past show, which started off a montage of general tomfoolery from previous shows/tours. This assortment of footage concluded with a full performance of “Photographic Taunts” from the Lair and that cut straight into the opening act King Parrot.

Despite my best efforts to familiarize myself with King Parrot beforehand I just never made the time. This being said I cannot give a great assessment but I can say they were not terrible or great. They were allotted about 20 minutes and then it was on to the main presentation.

The switch from King Parrot to Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals was fraught with technical difficulties. At first there were spotty visuals and then finally the audio kicked in to reveal the band opening with  “Suicide Note Part I.” By the time the feed evened out the band was fairly deep into the song, which I was ready to forget all about when I thought they might go right into “Suicide Note Part II” like the album but no dice. It was a very blue balls way to start off the show and left me feeling the same way I feel when I hear “We Will Rock You” without hearing “We Are the Champions” right behind it.

This blue ball feeling quickly melted away once “A New Level” began. The band was on but Phil was fucking lost from the start so he stopped the band and had them start over. The sound guy was still trying to recover from whatever caused the troubles because it would get quieter then louder but this did not slow the forward momentum down one bit. 

During “Mouth For War” I realized Phil was barefoot rocking “Classic Not Classy” on the back of his sleeveless t-shirt. There is something to be said about being comfortable. This was followed by “Becoming” with the ending of “Throes of Rejection” tacked on. One of my favorites from Reinventing The Steel “We’ll Grind That Axe For A Long Time” was up next, which is when I finally put the pieces together that they were doing an actual concert somewhere with a lessened capacity. That somewhere ended up being The Fillmore in New Orleans for 50 people. Those lucky 50 people were then treated to “Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit” and “Fucking Hostile.”

Before playing “War Nerve” Phil professed that he had never played it with the Illegals and that it was one of his and Dimebag’s favorite songs on the album. I especially got a kick out of “Nice Phil” before he got to the part where he screamed “fuck you all.” “This Love” was nicely done with the help of backup singer Calvin from En Minor.

“I’m Broken” with the ending of “By Demons Be Driven” was followed by a comment of “I’m Sloppy” and an apology saying they were sloppy from not playing live for a year. Whatever perceived sloppiness that existed was erased with a rousing version of  “Strength Beyond Strength” nicely merged with the ending of “Goddamn Electric” and ending of “Suicide Note Part II.”

It was here the band took a short intermission for some “unfinished business,” which ended up being a Dime & Vinnie Tribute as the breakdown of “Living Through Me (Hells’ Wrath)” played underneath. They came out of the break with Suicide Note Part I , Part Deux to make up for the botched beginning of the stream. “Hellbound” was followed by “Domination” and  “Hollow” right where it gets heavy. Crowd pleaser “Walk” was done with a little boy named Roman, which made it even more of a crowd pleaser and then the end of “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin” concluded the stream.

Altogether this stream got me into it and gave me a taste of the concerts I’ve been missing so dearly. I fucking love Pantera and even though it was not Pantera it knocked me out. The fact that it was actually a live livestream instead of pre-recorded definitely helped and I am pretty sure I have not rocked out harder to another stream. Even though the mouthpiece had weathered a little from years of hard living he was still there. The need for two guitarists to even attempt to recreate what one Mr. Dimebag was able to do speaks volumes to how massive he was. RIP Abbott Bros.

Ozzfest 8/24/00

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Main Stage: Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Godsmack, Static-X, Incubus, Methods of Mayhem, P.O.D., Queens of the Stone Age

Second Stage: Soulfly, Kittie, Disturbed, Taproot, Reveille, Primer 55, Black Label Society

So here I am again returning to the Gorge with my honey Lucinda for some good old rock/metal. Friends Mark and Claude joined us. Taproot was touring for their debut album Gift and the first band up that we were interested in seeing. They seemed pretty polished to be playing on the second stage. Disturbed played next. There was a buzz around them and they did not disappoint. They had just released The Sickness in March and played the finer moments of the album in their set. I remember wanting to watch Soulfly but the distance between the second and main stages at the Gorge is sometimes too great for the time allowed between bands. I didn’t want to miss whoever was up next on the main stage. Speaking of the main stage, Queens of the Stone Age should have been there but for some reason our show was the first they were not at (they took a break from Ozzfest August 24th-30th). Methods of Mayhem were the first band there that we watched on the main stage instead. Tommy Lee did a great job as a frontman/guitarist for being known as a drummer. He had a funny narrative about crawling back home after a night of heavy drinking. Incubus was next and this was the first time I had got to see them perform songs from Make Yourself. After seeing them open for 311 I forgot about them until I heard an acoustic version of “Pardon Me” that blew my mind. They definitely impressed the crowd. Static-X followed with almost the same setlist as the year before but had pumped up their stage show a little. Wayne’s hair may have grew a little longer too, which for those who are unfamiliar with it is about two feet of hair sticking straight toward the sky. Godsmack was after Static-X. Their debut album slowly grew on me after hearing Lucinda play it a number of times to the point of me actually looking forward to seeing them. They rocked their ass off and even played the then unreleased song “Awake.” As the theme of the summer seemed to be, I was once again really at this show to see one band: the almighty Pantera. I was turned onto them by Claude right after Vulgar Display of Power came out and have been a fan ever since. I was lucky enough to be able to buy Far Beyond Driven and The Great Southern Trendkill the day the albums came out. For this show they were on tour for the album Reinventing the Steel that had just been released a few months prior. I remember the crowd going crazier than I have ever seen a crowd go. They were fucking going off. I remember trying to protect Lucinda from the debauchery since she was so small and we were in the floor section. Dimebag was a showboater but with his level of talent had every reason to be. We stayed around to watch Ozzy but weren’t really that stoked to be there. Pantera kicked our ass and I’ve never really been a fan of Ozzy’s solo efforts because I have Black Sabbath to compare to. Don’t get me wrong, he was nuts but unfortunately he had the displeasure of playing after Pantera and competing against my previous year’s experience of watching Black Sabbath. If you are fan of Pantera then unfortunately you know how the rest of their story unfolded, which is why I never got to see them again.