Day 1 - Art drinks metal buffet

Got acclimated to the boat. It’s massive.

We had tickets for one free drink each and I had the champagne and the bartender at the Irish Pub gave me a full big plastic cup-full of it. I eventually got Liz's too, so I started to feel a buzz as we made our way upstairs.

4:30 ish
The first event we happened upon was the tail-end of the "Death By Design" graphic novel panel. We were just checking out the boat and it was in the Spinnaker Lounge. There, we met Cap, Emily and Logan. The latter two are married. Cap is a lawyer from DC and he shelled out the dough for the book -- which is a magnificent collection of short comic book stories inspired by 'Deth song titles. The collection's casing was quite nice, as well.

Liz took some shots of me next to the art panels. Cap was very gracious and bought us a Saison 13 and I will reciprocate when he inevitably returns to NY for bizness. We connected a few times at other events & days so their names will resurface.


6:30PM
My first real "event" was the photo experience with Metal Church, Death Angel and Dragonforce. I was waiting on the 13th floor deck as Metalachi played down at the pool. They were fun. They are a drumless mariachi band that covers heavy metal classics. I remember hearing "Epic" and "One." While in line I met Nick and Austn, two young dudes from the midwest (Indiana?) who were vested and tatted up with all sorts of band logos, many of which were on the ship. They were especially into Death Angel, which became a recurring theme on the boat. It was also where I met Thomas, an earth sci teacher from Cali and his son, Dylan, an up-and-coming guitar prodigy. Their names will come up a few times, too.

So we get in and Metal Church was the first band to photo with. They have taken me by storm the past few years, esp since 2016 when Mike Howe rejoined. I have almost all their albums and all the studio albums with Howe. Those are the superior ones IMO anyway. I really love those last two they did with him -- XI and Damned If You Do.

Anyway, upon seeing them my spirit downed 10 energy drinks and it was like I was a football player getting ready to take the field. They loved the energy and I high-fived all of them and gave Mike a hug and a bro-hug to Kurdt. More on them later.

The staff moves you along quickly from band to band. There is no signing.

Next was Dragonforce. I'm a fan but all their stuff sort of blends together. Really fun speed-power metal that is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I run elliptical to them. IDK how they play that effing fast. I high-fived them and we took the shot and moved on.

Death Angel was last. I had wanted to introduce myself to Ted A., their rhythm guitarist, since I'd be interviewing him but there was no time. I was pumped to meet them, though, b/c I have almost all their albums. I've been into them for the last 2-3 years but mostly LOVE their Nuclear Blast output -- particularly from Relentless forward. One of the guys got distracted and wasn't looking at the camera (I want to say it was Mark but cannot really remember). And that was it I was out and back to the pool. I mingled with some people and did some celebrity-spotting.

845 PM
First show was COC at the pool. Small crowd due in part to Anthrax performance. That worked better for me bc I was up close.

Corrosion of conformity set: open w bottom feeder intro and then shake like you and paranoid opioid then in no particular order performed Albatros and who’s got the fire and my grain and   heavens not overflowing and senior limpio  and broken man and vote with a bullet closed within my wounds.  They jammed on that for a while it was pretty groovy.  Maybe 50 min total set. Nothing off No Cross nor Wiseblood, which is a bit of a bummer. But they seem to be playing Deliverance songs bc it's the 25th anniversary. 

They kept complaining that the sound was bad for them and for the most part the audience and I were telling them it was fine and could not tell. One of their techs was dressed up like Jesus.  It was distracting bc it kept happening and he kept coming out, standing in the spot to check the sound and then would run back off. So Pepper intermittently moved the mic Stand to the front a few times which is why my shots were so close. 

DORO, PT 1 Next up at the pool was Doro. I was curious bc this is one of 2 female-fronted groups and I met her bass player, Nick Douglas, in my hotel that morning.  It’s like Kiss with a woman singer. The players really came alive. I was impressed, even further back from the stage area.  

But it was getting cold.  And Overkill was due to start in the Stardust Theater at midnight.  So after a few songs I made my way.  This is my second-ever Overkill show. The first time was 2 years ago at Irving Plaza. 

I wound up in third row center.

SET LIST: Last Man standing electric rattle snake. elimination head of a pin ironbound bring me the night hello from the gutter mean green killing machine rotten to the core feel the fire bastard nation fuck you welcome to the garden state 80 minutes. Sooooo good.  

Derek the Skull Tailer (in all black sleeveless with hat, no beard) was having some tech issues. During the show I could see he was getting a little PO'd with it but he just plowed through it.

I had seen that they had been playing "Bring me the night" recently and was thrilled when they did that one it was a highlight. It's incredibly fast. Guess what the line of the chorus is.

Bobby hops off-stage during solos or long instrumental parts, which I've always admired. He's such a presence that it would be too distracting otherwise. Plus I would guess he needs a lot of water for the billion lyrics and wailing.

DD and Jason had a cool bass-and-drum solo interlude that lasted a while. I want to say it was the lead-in to "Feel the Fire."

I had been breaking in "Bastard Nation" in the last six months b/c I'd also seen that was weaved back into the setlist. I like WFO a lot but I've only had it about 2 years so its songs had not been on regular rotation as long as some others. Glad I did so I could sing along during that killer chorus.

I'm having trouble remembering exactly what happened after that show. I might have gone back up to get some tea or something on 12, but that was the last show of the night.