Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals

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.

Slayer 11/30/19

Slayer farewell ticket

It’s funny how life sometimes comes full circle. I saw the very first date of Slayer’s farewell tour in San Diego and here I was a year and a half later at the very last date of Slayer’s farewell tour in Los Angeles. Not just the last date of their tour but the last Slayer show EVER…or so they claim. I actually believe that these guys are done but time will tell. I was not sold on Slayer alone but when they announced Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals doing a set of only Pantera songs, Ministry and Primus as the openers on a Saturday that made for a pretty easy decision. I got Bob, Kyle and Larry interested but the problem as always was getting tickets so we ended up with shitty seats but when all was said and done we did not sit in our actual seats even once.

Ticketmaster BS Slayer

Usually the openers suck, which gives us time to suck down more beers at the hotel room but when the opener is Philip Anselmo & the Illegals playing an entire set of Pantera songs you get your ass to the venue. I had just seen them a month and a half earlier in Sacramento but this is the closest I am ever going to get to seeing Pantera again so better to strike while the iron is hot. They did play three songs that they did not play at Aftershock so that was the cherry on top, including “This Love” with a brief Jason Momoa appearance. This is about the time I started getting lit so it is not surprising that I have no pictures from this point forward in the night.

SETLIST: Mouth for War, Becoming, I’m Broken, Goddamn Electric, Strength Beyond Strength, Fucking Hostile, This Love, A New Level

Wait, there’s more after that kick in the nuts and the next band up is Ministry? Fuck yeah! This was the first time I got to see Ministry with ex-original Tool bassist Paul D’Amour and their choice of setlist was absolutely perfect. It was heavy as fuck and the songs seemed to have their edge back. Only much later did I find out that Joey Jordison was drumming for Ministry and now it all makes perfect sense.

SETLIST: The Missing, Deity, Stigmata, Supernaut, Just One Fix, N.W.O., Thieves, Jesus Built My Hotrod

Primus seemed slightly out of place in this lineup but then again Primus are kind of always out of place next to any other bands. Les and company brought it as usual and I especially enjoyed the songs they played from Sailing the Seas of Cheese and Pork Soda.

SETLIST: Those Damned Blue-Collared Tweekers, Too Many Puppies, Sgt. Baker, The Seven, Cygnus X-1, Southbound Pachyderm, Mr. Krinkle, Welcome To This World, Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats, My Name Is Mud, Jerry Was A Race Car Driver

Ironically Slayer was the band I was least excited to see at this show but the crescendo was finally here and being Los Angeles it was a star-studded event. Slayer did not have any guest appearances during their set but the likes of Kirk Hammett, Robert Truillo, Post Mallone, King Diamond and others were sighted milling about. Slayer played a monster 20 song set and then after they were done a very emotional Tom Araya stood on the stage afterwards for quite awhile to soak it all in and thank everyone for being a part of his life. It was a very tender moment from someone who made such non-tender music and it was perfect.

SETLIST: South of Heaven, Repentless, Postmortem, World Painted Blood, Hate Worldwide, War Ensemble, Stain of Mind, Disciple, When the Stillness Comes, Born of Fire, Payback, Seasons in the Abyss, Jesus Saves, Chemical Warfare, Hell Awaits, Dead Skin Mask, Show No Mercy, Raining Blood, Mandatory Suicide, Angel of Death

Metal Injection Writeup

Blabbermouth Writeup

Aftershock 10/11/19

Aftershock 10:11:19

Having previously always taken at least a year off between attending Aftershock festivals we had no intention of making 2019 our first back-to-back year… but then the lineup was released and it was too insanely good to pass up. Bob, Larry and I all flew in together and met up with Joe, who flew in from Portland within minutes of our flight landing. We then made our way over to the Embassy Suites where much to nobody’s surprise our room was not ready as this was only about 9:30 in the morning. We were not, however, too early to grab some beers at a nearby convenience store to go along with our omelet and potatoes that we snagged from the still open breakfast buffet at the Embassy Suites. A short while after refusing to pay $100 for a BS early check-in fee we were approached by the guy working the front desk who told us our room was suddenly ready. This is about the time Ken showed up to join in on the action so I am convinced management just did not want five degenerates sitting around getting wasted in their lobby at 10 am.

It is about this time that Larry started to question if he should stay the whole weekend because of surprise work that was doled out to him. He found out a massive project was going to be due Monday morning when he checked his email as soon as we landed in Sacramento. At first he thought he could slough it off but as the morning went on reality sunk in that he simply could not so he made the decision to stay only the first day and catch a plane back to San Diego on Saturday morning. It sucked that we were going to lose him for two of the three days but one less body was not completely unwelcome as our room turned out to have two double beds and a pull out couch instead of two queen beds as originally thought.

First up for the festival and the day was Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. It was announced that these lads would be opening on the final leg of Slayer’s farewell tour and playing nothing but Pantera songs so it seemed reasonable that we may get nothing but Pantera songs for this set as well. That turned out to be the case and jeezus it was awesome! They played eight choice songs that whipped everyone into a frenzy and left my voice raw from screaming along. Why the festival organizers put these guys on so early I will never know.

SETLIST: Mouth For War, Strength Beyond Strength, Becoming, Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit, I’m Broken, Walk, Domination/Hollow, Fucking Hostile

After climaxing so early in the day it was a welcome respite to have some time to burn before Clutch, which was the next band I really cared about. In the meantime we checked out Motionless in White, which I can only describe as Marilyn Manson Jr., and I Prevail, which basically followed the Linkin Park template but with far worse results.

While I am always pumped to see Clutch unfortunately they never play the old shit that I really want to hear, which is material from the first few albums. This occasion was no different but it was a solid overall set with newer staples “Earth Rocker” and “X-Ray Visions” as well as a couple songs from Blast Tyrant and one from Jam Room.

SETLIST: The Mob Goes Wild, X-Ray Visions, Evil, Cypress Grove, In Walks Barbarella, Earth Rocker, Gimme the Keys, Willie Nelson, Electric Worry, One Eye Dollar

A wildcard for the festival was Staind because they had been on hiatus off and on since about 2012 when Aaron Lewis decided to do a solo country thing. I had not personally seen them for 16 years but did get a chance to see them five times before this in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. They sounded great and Aaron Lewis was moving around much more than he used to back in the day. I am sure this was in no small part due to his diversion into country music.

SETLIST: Eyes Wide Open, Paper Jesus, Not Again, Fade, For You, Crawl, Right Here, Outside, So Far Away, Raw. It’s Been Awhile, Mudshovel

It is about this time I passed out the gummy rings I had brought to everyone but Larry because I wanted them to kick in right as the night’s headliner Slipknot was going on. Besides Philip H. Alselmo and the Illegals today was all about Slipknot for me. It had been three years since I last saw them and now they had a new album under their belt, the outstanding We Are Not Your Kind that was released two months prior to this show, which was just enough time to digest it before witnessing the juggernaut that is Slipknot. Less than an hour after eating the gummy rings everyone in our group got separated from each other and phones do not do a bit of good in densely packed situations such as this so unfortunately I found myself watching Slipknot by myself…unless you count the other 49,995 people that were there. No matter how many times I see Slipknot I am astounded by the energy projected from nine guys going crazy on a stage. It is almost like a giant fireball getting as close as it can to burning you without actually burning you. “Solway Firth” killed live and I was just about dead after they played “The Heretic Anthem” right after but this was only halfway through their set.

SETLIST: People = Shit, (sic), Get This, Unsainted, Before I Forget, Solway Firth, The Heretic Anthem, Psychosocial, The Devil In I, Prostetics, Vermillion, Wait and Bleed, Sulfur, All Out Life, Duality, Spit It Out, Surfacing

It does not surprise me that everyone got separated after the weed kicked in because we had been drinking since 10 am but it did surprise me that I found Larry before I left. We decided to avoid the craziness of catching an Uber and walked along the river all the way back to the hotel to find our compadres waiting for us with a cold one.