www.Bitchslicer.com

King Gary's Rock-n-Roll War Journal

King Gary's Rock-n-Roll War Journal.
(For Bitchslicer, the Bitchslicer Acoustic sets by King Gary, the Hellside Wranglers,
and also for former bands ... Returner, & The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers)

December 22nd 2007 @ City Tap - Smyrna, DE
--- Lusionistics, Hellside Wranglers, Bitchslicer, Dead Gerber Babies, King Friday the 13th, Blessed Muthas, World Class Defects

Lusionistics played first. I don't really have anything bad to say about them, but it is really not my thing. They seemed really good at what they were doing and I do like the girls voice. They sound like a heavier "120 minutes" type band. They dress up like Christmas elves and play that pixies song, gigantic I think its called. I hate the Pixies !!!

Hellside Wranglers played second. At this point this is the sixth show I have done with these guys, we had two practices before the first one and then never practiced again. So I have not played these songs in a month since the last show ... and I feel as though it went fine. The other guys spit a lot of blood and then Rich knocked the bottle of blood over and as soon as the set was over the bar owner came over and flipped out on those guys. There was a lot of blood everywhere and all over the wall behind the drummer. This is one of those situations where everyone was out of line, it was kind of a dick move to make that big of a mess ... they used to bring shit to cover things up so nothing got mess up ... but the bar owner was over reacting too, I don't think they ruined anything and they offered to clean up but he would not have it, he was just really mad. I just shook my head and begin to set up the Bitchslicer gear.

Bitchslicer played third. Hands down our worst set since Ant joined the band, everything went wrong. First off, instead of bringing my cab I used a DGB cab, and a Blessed Muthas Cab, huge mistake. I turned up twice as much as my loudest volume and we could not hear any guitar. We just rolled it, what else can you do ???
So towards the end of Streetwalker, Justin breaks a string. Ant & I went into our new Five Bloody Graves which Justin does not know. We were not planning on playing it in the set but we pulled it out last minute just so there was not a huge gap. That song went pretty good all things considered. We got through the rest of the set, which did seem to get a decent response regardless, and then we closed our last set of 2007 with Symptom of the Universe and Scot from DGB singing.

Dead Gerber Babies played fourth. I spent the whole Dead Gerber Babies set looking for my glasses. I missed out on getting to hear the new songs that Ant has been talking about, sorry Ant !!!

King Friday the 13th played fifth. I spent the whole King Friday the 13th set looking for my glasses. Towards the end of their set Justin over heard me saying something about my lost glasses and revealed that he had them in his pocket. He thought that I asked him to hold on to the them at the beginning of the night and picked them up and put them in his pocket. Asides from a bit of anxiety it turned out to be great that he had them and they were not lost. But I did miss watching the two bands I already liked.

Blessed Muthas played sixth. I am not very into these guys so I drank whiskey in the alley with DJ while they played ... Jim Beam to be precise.

World Class Defects played seventh. By the time these cats went on I was tired, cranking, and drunk ... but, I liked them, they were a decent punk band. They were fun and they were having fun. I would like to see them again though and really catch their set. We started loading out during the second half of their set too so I definitely need to see them again.

Long Day, Long Night ... I am glad that I can say, that despite all of the things that went wrong tonight, we all did our best and we all gave it all we had. It is honor to finally be in a band where everyone can pitch in and help to keep it all going for once. This may have been one of our worst shows from one point of view but in some ways it may have been one of our best.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Five Bloody Graves
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Porn of the Dead
05 - Addicted to Porn
06 - Gore Whore
07 - Yeti
08 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
09 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)

Hellside Wranglers Set List
01 - Mad Beast
02 - Bundy Beach
03 - John Wayne Gacy
04 - BTK
05 - Hiednik Maneuver
06 - Spoon Me
07 - Moors Murders
08 - Bite It You Scum

December 21st 2007 @ Pale Dog Tavern - Newark, DE
--- My Version of It, Grave Mistake, Sex on Horses, Bitchslicer

Bitchslicer played first. We got to the show on time, so no one else was there ... and since there was no order, the dude who booked the show was not coming, and the sound guy didn't even know what bands were playing we immediately set up so when the show did start we would play first. We figured otherwise we would probably end up playing last because we are really into the whole nice guy finishes last thing. Our set went OK, but there were some major sound issues that really fucked with the overall vibe. First off, I normally set my amp behind Ant or at least beside him as far back as it will go and angled towards him. So where my amp should be there was a drum monitor and then a small wall. So my amp was away from where anyone else could hear it. Then ... the PA system in the Pale Dog is huge so I figured that I would fully cooperate with the sound guy which meant running my guitar volume at about 33% of my normal guitar volume, but since the PA was huge and everything was miked I figured the monitoring should make up for it at least somewhat and we would just roll through it regardless of the sound. Another thing about the Pale Dog I had noticed last time is that the room seemed to eat up the high end of everything and you are left with mids and TONS of bass. This mean everything sound pretty muddy. So we started and none of us could hear each other at all. I was in front of the guitar and could hear no guitar, Ant could hear no guitar so then I turned up but he could still hear nothing. So we just made the best of it and plowed ahead. Ant can play the set without hearing us so we just followed him. I am sure out front it was fine but it really killed it for us. This all being said, the sound guy was pretty cool and I am sure if we stood up there and pissed everyone in the bar off 15 minutes making him change and mess with everything for us it probably would have solved all of the problems we had ... but we are not whiny pussies so we just kick out the jams no matter what it sounded like.

Sex on Horses played second. Indy rock ... lots of time spent on hairdos ... no bass player ... one dude had an acoustic guitar and the other dude had a black explorer with binding and three matching cream colored humbuckers, cool guitar. I am positive I saw one like this in an older Def Leppard video. Def Leppard is awesome, I love that band. I do enjoy Hysteria, but not as much as the albums that came out before that one. What happened to them after Hysteria I have no idea ... I think they had one of those reunion, last attempts at a radio single with some acoustic some late in their careers when they all had short hair ... but as for this Sex on Horses, I just don't get it ???

Grave Mistake played third. These guys were fucking great !!! I was expecting them to be somewhat of a misfits clone from glancing at their myspace page, but they seriously kicked ass !!! They were very punk with an old thrash undertone and it was very ballsy with some Misfit flavor thrown in ... including a misfits parody cover. Plain and simple, they were a lot of fun.

My Version of it played fourth. Apparently there was some great merger with members of Grave Mistake and My Version of it because now both bands are made up of the same four people ... except they wore wigs for the beginning of the MVOI set. I guess I am really only familiar with the stuff I had recorded with these guys which is mainly in the rock-n-roll realm, but live they played some other material and also there a little bit more punk energy and metal sound mixed in. I really like these guys ... musically I feel as though they pull off a lot of stuff that I am not normally that into but they do it well. They are fun, have a sense of humor, and are really good song writers.

Halfway through the MVOI set, I walked over to the liquor store to buy a small bottle of bourbon (which I did not end up drinking) and then as I was walking back in Justin asked me if I wanted to go to get gas and some coffee with him, so that as soon as MVOI finished there set we could load out and leave Since we both had to work early the next morning. So we walked to his truck and on my side there was a car parked so close to the truck that I almost could not get into the truck ... and guess what was going on in that car ... cock sucking. Hahahaha yes that's right, some dude parked "out of the way" and had his seat back and this chic was blowing him. I don't think they noticed us until the truck doors shut. I kept watching them, that is why I don't think they noticed. So they jumped up a bit and then we pulled out ... of the parking lot and went to the gas station. We came back, loaded out, and went home. Regardless of the sound we had a good time and got a good response from the people there, but I definitely feel as though this was hands down our worst show.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Re-Penetrator
03 - Evil Awakening
04 - Porn of the Dead
05 - Addicted to Porn
06 - Gore Whore
07 - Yeti
08 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
09 - YCH (Hank Williams)

December 14th 2007 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- Sapremia, Bitchslicer, Adder

Adder played first. Good metal, Nice guys, SICK guitar player !!! I been in touch with these cats via the internet on and off for a while, talking about doing something so it was really cool to finally play together and hang out.

Bitchslicer played second. I felt as though our set kicked ass !!! We were a lot less "Death" the the other bands but it was fun. I did have to kind of passive aggressively butt heads with the sound guy sort of though. We need our on stage volume to hear each other. I always tell the sound guys we don't need anything but our stage volume. I don't care if we have no monitors at all, and in fact I kind of prefer when we don't. Asides from that we do have a loud stage volume, which is the same volume for every show and every practice ... it is what we are used to. The bottom line is this, Ant plays way harder than most drummers. This means that the drums are very loud and as instruments function better since the sound is based on the drum being physically hit and resonating. Our amps need to be loud enough to keep up with his acoustic volume but they also need to be loud enough for him to hear the music. Most bands set their amps up in front of the drums so there is no chance of the drummer hearing them, but we set our amps up as far back as possible and we also have the drums as far forward as possible which does cut down on our need for the volume it would take if we set up like other bands. So most sound guys will just roll with whatever, but this dude kept on me until my guitar was half of it's normal volume so I kept turning it down until he was happy and then as soon as we started I put it back where it normally is. He probably would have yelled at me in between songs but we do not stop in between songs so it worked out fine for us but I am sure he hates me. I don't blame him for doing what he thinks is the right thing to do, for any non metal show you would never have this problem ... but metal should never be quiet !!!

Sapremia played third. Musically these guys were very proficient players, and they were really nice guys. They used my 4x12 and thanked me like 20 times for it. But I can't really say that I got into what they were doing. I did look up the definition of the word Sapremia after the show ... "Blood poisoning resulting from the absorption of the products of putrefaction" or "septicemia caused by a saprophytic organism" ... and there you have it.

It was a really fun night. Two band dropped off last minute, and Sapremia got added last minute so I am sure that made a bit of a difference. Ant, Justin, & I got there early, loaded in, and went and got diner at the Mexican restaurant next door and hung out. It was a very laid back night.

December 13th 2007 @ Side Bar - Baltimore, MD
--- Mantooth, Bitchslicer, Iron Boss

Iron Boss played first. They were billed as "Hung like Horses" but it was actually Iron Boss. They had some bigger show coming up and were playing anyway but keeping it on the DL. These guys sound like ... if AC-DC was from Baltimore. It was cool but I will admit that they really killed it for me with there extensive sound checking. There was a vocal mic, a bass drum mic, and a few monitors. They sound checked and made the sound guy mess with shit for like 30 minutes before the show started ... it seemed very unnecessary to me.

Bitchslicer played second. We played really good, but the sound of the space was a bit weird and Justin ran through Rob's amp (which sounded great) but I think our mix on-stage was just off, but yeah ... no big deal. Although maybe it was only weird because Justin and I were on the opposite sides of the stage that we are normally on. That is probably what was weird.

Mantooth played third. Mantooth was fun as usual, Ned got up on the bar while singing ... I love it when bands do that.

There were not to many people at the show but it was still a lot of fun. It was really cool to get out of town and play, even on a very cold Thursday night in Baltimore. And this was show two of three in four days. That kind of shit is always cool. The guys from Mantooth all kept trying to give us alcohol all night and Rob gave me 3 7"s of his old band Jakkpot. I was talking to the door guy some after the show and he has this band called the Survivors of Camp Crystal lake and they all dress up as the 80's horror icons.

December 11th 2007 @ Tritone - Philadelphia, PA
--- Apogee, Bitchslicer, Clamfight, Atomic Warbride

Atomic Warbride played first. Good metal, and really nice guys !!! We met these guys at one of our shows in Allentown, and it was cool to bring them into Philly to hang out, drink beer, and play some metal.

Clamfight played second. These guys are so heavy and crushing ... and the drummer is so brutal. We had played together back in the summer of 2006 at this 20 band Angry Drunk Comics thing, but I had not seen them play live until October this year. Both Ant and I were blown away by them at that show so it was great to play together again. On a side note all the guys in Clamfight use the same tuner that I use.

Bitchslicer played third. Our set felt great though it was tough to follow Clamfight we gave it our best shot. The only thing about the set is that I think that Face Invaders is not a good fit in the set. I don't think we will play it live again. It was cool to mix it up and add something new, but I think that song just busted the vibe.

Apogee played fourth. These guys are a lot of fun, not metal like the rest of the bill but more like kind of an Indy / Punk / Experimental sort of mix. Not that long ago I had worked on recording the drum, bass, and guitar tracks for their album so I was familiar with the band and the music.

The show was a lot of fun and the turnout was pretty good for a Tuesday night. We were on the date for a while but a couple of days before the show we learned that no one else is was on the show so it got put together pretty last minute, but it worked out well. Thank You to all the bands for helping to make this work on such short notice.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Re-Penetrator
03 - Evil Awakening
04 - Porn of the Dead
05 - Face Invaders
06 - Addicted to Porn
07 - Gore Whore
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

December 08th 2007 @ City Tap - Smyrna, DE
--- Bitchslicer, Goatbag, Anasazi Ritual

Anasazi Ritual played first. These guys were really young and seemed an odd mix of influences. You could kind of see where each member of the band's musical interests went in a different direction than the other guys. That being said there was definitely some good playing and the music was not bad. In time these guys could really grow into their own.

Goatbag played second. I really enjoyed these guys. The music was heavy and tight ... and they wore costumes and really put on a show. Normally I am not the biggest fan of this type of thing, but I think they pull it off really well. I guess normally the whole costume thing is a substitution for being able to actually play music. These cats are a total package ... and more than anything else they were having a good time.

Bitchslicer played third. Our set went fine. It was kind of funny playing to a giant empty room asides from Victoria, Fran, Goatbag, and the two people who work at the City Tap, but it was still fun. The highlight of the set was playing our new song "Face Invaders". We wrote it on Monday, taught it to Justin on Tuesday and then we didn't tell him that we were going to play it, we just sprung it on him midway through the set. His initial reaction was great, wide eyed confusion.

This show was originally billed as an all ages show, but when we got there I guess that had changed. So the bar owner or manager (I am not sure which he was) complained about the young kids, and made Anasazi Ritual play first so they could get out of the bar. They had actually brought a bunch of people with them who all left as well one Anasazi Ritual finished. Two other bands, who I am guessing where supposed to be the local drawing bands, never showed up. So no one was there to see Goatbag and Us ... but we all still had a great time.

November 30th 2007 @ Meatlocker - Montclaire, NJ
--- The Four Angry Drunks, Ex-Dementia, Bitchslicer, B.D.G., Sheeron, The Klix

The Klix played first. Young straight edge political punk kids who really like rancid.

Sheeron played second. These cats are playing some really good thrash / death metal. Lots of drunken energy !!!

B.D.G. played third. These guys were an OK punk band, we had to switch spots with them, and then switch with them again last minute because of something with them catching a train back to NY, but then they stayed and hung out ... whatever ???

Bitchslicer played fourth. We played HARD and it ruled !!! The kids were having a good time dancing and head banging ... it was a Thrashtastic set !!!!

Ex-Dementia played fifth. Ex-Dementia sounds like Portland goregrind. Cool guys, great metal, & lots of fake blood and gore through out the set.

Four Angry Drunks played sixth. They were OK, it was a shame that every left and no one stuck around to see these guys. They were really nice guys & the drummer is the dude who set up the show. They ended playing last since some of the other bands got bitchy about the order and then no one stayed to watch them.

We had a great time playing and hanging out !!! This place was like a mini CBGB's. Some of the bands were really great to see the crowd was amazing and right across the street was a pizza place, a liquor store, and a coffee shop ... what more could you need.

November 24th 2007 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- S.P.E.N.T., Dirt Road Randy Buttsex, Gorilla Labs, Hellside Wranglers, Bitchslicer, The Hated

The Hated played first. The Hated have been around since 1993, that is just awesome !!! Fun set, nice guys, and great kick off to a fun night.

Bitchslicer played second. Despite a few mishaps during our set everything kicked ass, I think that we all played really hard and everything felt great !!! Half way through our first song I broke a string on my main guitar. It happened towards the end of the first chorus of Streetwalker, so as I was switching Ant & Justin held out the little break until I was ready and we went back into the song without skipping a beat ... like the pros we are, hahahaha. We tried out a new song tonight called "The Supernatural Male Enhancement Drug" it went fine but looking back I really don't think that it fit into the set very well.

Hellside Wranglers played third. The set was fun, but it took way to long to set up !!! Beyond that I felt a little drained from the Bitchslicer set but it was fun. Randy and the guys from the Hated were all singing along with Bite It.

Gorilla Labs played fourth. Stoner Rap. I liked what they were doing but I think that 2 guys rapping over pre recorded audio ... in the middle of a show with live bands is kind a of weird fit as far as the vibe goes. But they were cool.

Dirt Road Randy Buttsex played fifth. This dude was awesome. A one man, solo acoustic, wrecking ball. His songs were good, and he put on quite a show. I was sitting at the bar with a direct view of the stage during his set, while all of my friends were buying me shots and beers at the bar. He played a few songs, pissed on an American flag, stuck his hand up his ass, smeared his own shit on his face ... "War Paint", and then set himself on fire. What is there not to love about it. The girl behind the bar was so freaking out about it so much that she actually put on rubber gloves (even though she was no where near anything that was going on). The cherry on top of the Sunday happened as he finished his set. He unplugged his guitar and slowly walked out of the bar. The bar was dead silent until the door closed behind him.

S.P.E.N.T played sixth. Super nice guys, and really fun music. These guys played last, the last time we played together at Mojo 13. Victoria, Ant, and I were the only ones watching their set, but they were great. They were having fun regardless of who was watching.

Great Night !!! Our 3rd show with Ant, it was so much fun. After we played the three of us were hanging out at the bar, talking and having a good time with absolutely no drama or bullshit ... how it should be !!!

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Re-Penetrator
03 - Evil Awakening
04 - Supernatural Male Enhancement Drug
05 - Porn of the Dead
06 - Addicted to Porn
07 - Gore Whore
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

Hellside Wranglers Set List
01 - Mad Beast
02 - Bundy Beach
03 - John Wayne Gacy
04 - BTK
05 - Hiednik Maneuver
06 - Spoon Me
07 - Moors Murders
08 - Bite It You Scum

November 17th 2007 @ Victoria's Thunderdome - Philadelphia, PA
--- Northern Liberties, Eph Tradition, Mantooth, Bitchslicer vs. Den of Germs

Bitchslicer vs. Den of Germs played first. First off I would like to thank, and really give it up to Rob and Chris !!! We learned two Den of Germs songs, and they learned three Bitchslicer songs AND the two covers we already knew, so they really went above and beyond to make this whole idea happen. The set was so much fun and like all things in life that feel too good, it seemed as though it was over within the blink of an eye. Before the set, we were working out some tuning issues since Den of Germs tunes to C, Bitchslicer tunes to B, and the two cover songs were in E. I learned all of the songs without changing my tuning, but Den of Germs did re-tune for our stuff. So we decided to play One Sip from Hell and Rowhouse Stomp first and then re-tune for the remainder of the set. One Sip from Hell went good once we got past the beginning, but I really felt like Rowhouse Stomp went a lot smoother. I think that after we got through the first song, everyone relaxed a little and adjusted to the sound and all of the other outside factors. The breakdown in Rowhouse Stomp went perfect !!! After we played those two songs, Rob & Chris re-tuned to B, and I explained to everyone in the basement exactly what we were doing with the set between the two bands. Then we played the Bitchslicer half of the set which was obviously more comfortable for Ant & I, but Chris and Rob really kept up with it, and it sounded and felt really really good. Those guys are a lot more competent players than I am, so they seemed to fare way better with our stuff, than I did with theirs. The highlight of the whole set for me, was Porn of the Dead. Since this was the only time the song has been played live with a second guitar, the harmony parts sounded like the recording. Then we finished up the set with Black Sabbath and Hank Williams covers. It seemed to me that everyone had as much fun with the set as I did so I hope we get to do it again sometime.

Mantooth played second. They were a lot of fun. As I was watching their set I was thinking that they seemed better than I remembered them being from when we played together back in April, but then I went back to the War Journal entry for that show and I didn't really get to see them. I took a few pictures and then walked down the road to go pickup the pizzas we ordered. So it was a very pleasant surprise to really see these cats for the first time. Rob from Den of Germs plays bass in Mantooth as well, that is how things happened in the course the show coming together. Mantooth seems to have a lot of different metal influences combined into one, thick and heavy metal sound. They consider themselves "punk/metal/core". I am not sure if that broad of categorization really paints the right picture, but it does describe what they do. Beyond that, the guys in Mantooth were all really cool, and definitely fit in with the vibe we are trying to create in having these basement shows.

Eph Tradition played third. Eph Tradition is such a laid back and fun band, it has been great playing so many shows together over the last year. I think this is the sixth or seventh show we have played together since March. The Hulkster's in the House.

Northern Liberties played fourth. Damn !!! Northern Liberties blows me away every time I see them. They kick so much ass, and rock so hard, it like a whipping on the spotted leopards ass with my belt ... their rock-n-roll is perfect !!! I do think seeing these guys in the basement is the best way to see them, and with the dim lighting and crazy ass fog machine they were using, it did give the band sort of a ghostly presence.

Overall the night was amazing, but it did have a few issues. A few crusty kids came to the show already way too drunk, and started acting disrespectful, destructive, and violent in a drunk and cowardly way towards women. Most everyone at the show pitched in to help restore the peace, expel the negative elements, and the show went on. Then "Block Captain" Steve came over and cried about having sand in his pussy while passing out his gentrification literature. Asides from those two situations, the night could not have been better. Good friends, great music, and lots of cheap beer ... a recipe for success.

Bitchslicer vs. Den of Germs Set List
01 - One Sip from Hell (Den of Germs)
02 - Rowhouse Stomp (Den of Germs)
03 - Porn of the Dead (Bitchslicer)
04 - Evil Awakening (Bitchslicer)
05 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell (Bitchslicer)
06 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
07 - YCH (Hank Williams)

October 31st 2007 @ Millcreek Tavern - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bitchslicer, Slumlord, The Spades, Eph Tradition

Eph Tradition played first. These guys were fun, as they usually are, they ended there set with the Hulkster's in the House.

The Spades played second. The Spades are great !!! They put on such a kick ass show of music and energy. This also turned out to be the last show with the original lineup. Right before the show they started jamming with a second guitar player who was not ready to play this show, and now the original guitar player is no longer in the band. So there are now going to be two new members and I think that Nick is going to move from playing guitar to playing bass.

Slumlord played third. Slumlord is such an amazing band, & one of my favorite bands to see live. They have the mix of an old r&b feel, with some jazz chords, odd time signatures, and Motorhead aggression.

Bitchslicer played fourth. The sound was a bit weird on-stage, there was barely any room to move, but I think this was the best set that I have ever played, and the best set that Bitchslicer has ever played. The energy was so good !!! It felt like our set only lasted a few minutes and then it was over. The absolute highlight of the evening for me was at the end of the new song Gore Whore, were everything cuts out but the guitar, I looked over to see Ant standing up behind the drumset all "Fuck Yeah" like he was gonna dive through the drumset or something ... and then everything kicked in harder than ever before, it was great !!!

There were a lot of things I found to be pretty irritating about this show, but at the end of the night after we played our set ... all that mattered was how good it felt to play.

October 27th 2007 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- S.P.e.N.T., Hellside Wranglers, Live Not on Evil, Old City Sideshow

Old City Sideshow played first. I hung around outside to avoid this ... don't get me wrong, the old sideshow & circus type stuff was amazing, but the whole revival of this kind of stuff is pretty sad, it is just a fashion.

Live Not on Evil played second. They were a decent punk band I guess. Although I can't really think of anything that stood out about them to me, good or bad.

Hellside Wranglers played third. This was by far the best of the four shows that I have played with the Hellside Wranglers. It was very laid back, no stupid bullshit, and I had fun ... I didn't even really fuck up the songs tonight.

S.P.e.N.T. played fourth. S.P.e.N.T. (Some People exhibit No Talent) was a fun punk band, with a good vibe and they were really nice guys !!! I felt bad for these guys they went on at 1 AM when the bar closes, but some people did stick around to watch them which was really cool.

Rich picked us up, and we made a few stops on the way. Once we were fully in route his car started to act weird for a minute, and then just died while driving on I-95 near the airport in philly. So Rich, Victoria, and I ended up hanging out in the grass in the middle of the highway for maybe an hour until Ryno came to pick us all up. We did eventually get to the show and the sideshow had still not went on. Every one, including the Hellside Wranglers, ended up going on late and then wasted a lot of time setting up which is why SPENT went on so late. We could have played our whole set in the time it took to set up.

Hellside Wranglers Set List
01 - Mad Beast
02 - Bundy Beach
03 - John Wayne Gacy
04 - Hiednik Maneuver
05 - BTK
06 - Spoon Me
07 - Moors Murders
08 - Bite It You Scum

October 22nd 2007 @ The Balcony - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bloody Wall of Gore, Clamfight, Hellside Wranglers, Old City Sideshow

Old City Sideshow went on first. I was eating delicious Chinese food at Tai Lake with Victoria while this was happening.

Hellside Wranglers played second. Rich called while I was at Tai Lake and said that we were going on in ten minutes. I walked in two minutes later, set my bag down, took off my hoodie, and strapped on the bass. The set went fine I guess.

Clamfight played third. These guys kick ass !!! I am not really sure how to describe the music, it was super thick, but not in the way you typically picture most metal bands being. The drummer was super awesome, the band had a really good energy going but the drummer was definitely the center of the energy.

Bloody Wall of Gore played fourth. They dress as knights and played a sort of, weirdo, humorous, screamo, metal type thing ... I didn't see to much of their set I would really need to see them again to say more.

I woke up at 7 AM to ride buses for an hour and a half to the warehouse, to then record for ten hours. Afterwards I got a shower, met up with Victoria, got food, and then played a set.. The absolute best part of my day was hanging out front of the Troc talking to Fran, Ant, Victoria, & Ryno after the show.

Hellside Wranglers Set List
01 - Mad Beast
02 - Bundy Beach
03 - John Wayne Gacy
04 - Hiednik Maneuver
05 - BTK
06 - Spoon Me
07 - Moors Murders
08 - Bite It You Scum

October 20th 2007 @ Victoria's Thunderdome - Philadelphia, PA
--- Hellside Wranglers, Scareho, Bitchslicer, Dead Gerber Babies, Mikey Wild

Mikey Wild played first. Mikey rules and he always seems to be having a great time, I think that what makes it so much fun to watch him play. He screams, plays acoustic guitar, and pulls his dick out - so I guess I would call him acoustic-punk.

Dead Gerber Babies played second. There was set was really good but shit kept going wrong and breaking so I don't think they got as lost, into the set as they usually do.

Bitchslicer played third. Just ... Awesome !!! Ant kicked ass, and tore it the fuck up. Justin was laughing afterwards and telling Ant that he did a good job and made way less mistakes than I did ... which is totally true. But everything felt good and sounded great. Evil Awakening was fun to bring back, the last time we did that was in late Oct 2004 with Whit & Sherm. Also, it felt so fucking good to finally get to play some new stuff after almost nine months of not being able to do anything new. I felt like the first four songs seriously kicked some ass, but when we hit the two new songs it shifted into a higher gear. I can't wait to write even more new stuff !!!

Scareho played fourth. It is so fun to watch these guys, the lyrics always make me laugh ... even thought I already know them. Fran didn't end up saying anything obscene or offensive about my girlfriend though, so I was a little disappointed. I guess this is the eighth show we have played together in the last eight months ... that's pretty awesome.

Hellside Wranglers played fifth. The set was fun, but from my point of view it didn't seem as good as the last show though, at least for me. I fucked up way more shit on bass this time. That lead to me paying less attention to everyone else and focusing more on what I was doing. It is fun playing music with Rich again, that dude Ryno is awesome, and Pat the drummer reminds me of Borris Karloff.

The night was pretty ideal. Low key, all friends, no outside chaos ... the way things should be but never are.

Hellside Wranglers Set List
01 - Mad Beast
02 - Bundy Beach
03 - John Wayne Gacy
04 - Hiednik Maneuver
05 - BTK
06 - Spoon Me
07 - Moors Murders
08 - Bite It You Scum

October 13th 2007 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- Busted Knuckles, Jake and the Stiffs, Hellside Wranglers, Blessed Muthas, Dead Gerber Babies, Jared Lord, Vengeance, Whigor Mortis, King Friday the 13th

King Friday the 13th played first. They were almost done with their set when I walked in. They are very Rock-n-Roll. Maybe a sort of a cross between that 70's New York rock stuff that kind of blended into the early Punk sound.

Whigor Mortis played second. I totally missed their set, Victoria and I were getting diner at the Mexican restaurant next door which is fucking amazing !!!

Vengeance played third. These guys were a two man band playing in a sort of metalcore / emo type style. The drummer had an enormous drumset / drumrack with two bass drums, 87 tom, & 43 cymbals. The guitar player used 4 - 4x12's.

Jared Lord played fourth. One man acoustic band from Boston, MA. He drove the whole way down to play his second acoustic show ever. His stuff was really cool. There was some humor, some Hank Williams, and some really solid guitar playing.

Dead Gerber Babies played fifth. Great as always. They did play a new song, Al puked during the Kiss cover "Parasite", and then they ended the set with Ant rolling around on the floor with his guitar during the AC-DC song "Whole lot of Rosie".

Blessed Muthas played sixth. These guys are a really tight band, and they are really good at what they do ... but its just not my cup of tea.

Hellside Wranglers played seventh. The set went good, and it really was a lot of fun. It's the same old Crawlspace songs, but now with more fake blood. Honestly I think that this version of the band is really the best fit of all the different line ups, asides from the original two man acoustic version of the Crawlspace Brothers. I guess the music is more straight ahead than it ever was before, and Rich's whole stage performance is way more straight ahead than ever before as well, I really didn't mess up that much which was pretty sweet. I had not played any of these songs in a year and we did one full band practice, one practice without a drummer, and then did the show. I got to feel like Gene Simmons a little as I played a bass all low and rockin' out while covered in blood. At the end of the set Rich covered me in so much fake blood that I could no longer hold onto the pick, and the neck of the bass was so wet that I could not play it very well since my hand had no anchor what so ever. Even though it is a temporary situation with me, hanging out and playing with these guys has already been great.

Jake and the Stiffs played eighth. I wasn't really feeling it, so I went outside and to give all the fake blood that I was covered in, a chance to dry.

Busted Knuckles played ninth. The train was pulling out so I didn't catch any of their set either. Jake and the Stiffs should have been the last band though, it seemed like that was what most of the people were waiting for, and afterwards everyone left. This is the second show I have played with these guys and I have yet to see them. They played last at the strip club in DE, but I was so drunk I don't remember their set at all.

The show was supposed to be 10 bands for $10.00 but Lowdown 302 canceled. The show was a benefit for Vince, who is in jail awaiting a trail for various things, and they raised $1,200 dollars towards his legal fees.

Hellside Wranglers Set List
01 - Mad Beast
02 - Bundy Beach
03 - John Wayne Gacy
04 - BTK
05 - Heidnik Maneuver
06 - Moors Murders
07 - Bite It You Scum

September 29th 2007 @ Some Old Firehouse - Philadelphia, PA
--- Scareho, Bitchslicer, Dead Gerber Babies, Mikey Wild

Mikey Wild played first. This was the first time I have ever seen this dude play. It was great, it was fun, it was indescribable !!!

Dead Gerber Babies played second. Man did these guys sound good. The bands were all playing in this big courtyard behind the firehouse. The courtyard was maybe 40 feet by 40 feet with no roof. The walls of the courtyard were made up by the firehouse and the two neighboring buildings on three sides, and then behind the bands was an overgrown area filled with trees. It was a very different environment to play in, and the sound was really cool bouncing off the buildings one time and then dissipating into the trees and up in the sky. The highlight of the set was the cops coming in while the band was playing to tell them to turn everything down. Victoria took pictures of the Dead Gerber Babies and the cops. As the cops left I told them to hold up until they really left, otherwise they would probably jsut say no more music. So I went out front with the cops and to make sure things were cool, and while we were all out front, Ant was playing "Gimme Drugs" by himself slow and with clean guitar ... but you could still clearly hear it out front. That was pretty halarious.

Bitchslicer was supposed to play third. I was having a good time watching the Dead Gerber Babies, and I was really exited about playing in the courtyard because of how cool the sound was there. DGB had two songs left when Shane walked up to me and told me that he was not going to play the show because he was too worked up. At the time, all I knew was that it looked like he was fighting with his girlfriend about something. Thirty minutes earlier we where all standing together by our equipment laughing, making fun of things, and having what I thought to be a good time. After he said that he was not going to play, he walked away to begin tearing down his drumset. All of our gear was already set up and ready to go. As he walked away, I followed him and over to the drums and told him to give the keys to our practice spot (my warehouse space), back to me. He did, and that was it. He packed up and left. We didn't get to play. Ten minutes later Anthony was on board to be the new drummer in Bitchslicer.

Scareho played fourth. I missed the first half of their set since I was out front talking to Anthony about playing drums. But the second half of the set was great. It was a good feeling watching them play and have fun. Mikey Wild sang the song "Masturbation" with them.

Asides from the thing with Shane and us not getting to play, the rest of the night actually turned out to be pretty amazing. Fran, Anthony, & Victoria were especially cool and supportive, THANK YOU ALL !!! I can't really go into specifics right now, but I feel very fortunate to know these people.

September 22nd 2007 @ Victoria's Basement - Philadelphia, PA
--- Humanasaur, The Spades, Eph Tradition, Bitchslicer

Bitchslicer played first. The exact twenty five minute window of time that the three of us were playing music together was fun and felt really good. Most everything else surrounding our set was in fact, quite the opposite of that..

Eph Tradition played second. I think that this was the best set I have seen these cats play, even better than the Mojo 13 show. They sounded great in the basement, playing through the Bitchslicer gear with the Bitchslicer sound. Eph Tradition's bass player could not make the show so their old drummer filled in on bass and he was really awesome and added a lot of energy to their set.

The Spades played third. The Spades sounded really good through the floor. The night turned out to be a bit more chaotic than the past shows had been, so I ended up hanging out upstairs to keep an eye on things instead of watching the bands.

Humanasaur played fourth. Humanasaur sounded really good through the floor. The one guitar player had been drinking a lot through out the night that he was upstairs unconscious on the couch during their set.

The night went pretty good. All of the bands had a great time playing and there was a decent turnout. The downside of the night was I think, mostly a side effect of how "way too drunk" a lot of the people who came ended up getting. That being said, it was pretty awesome how all of our friends helped out with trying to keep the house clean and helped keep a watchful eye on the things going on around them. I think we are going to start doing things a bit differently if the monthly house shows are to continue.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Thrasher
05 - Born Erect
06 - Gangbang at Necropolis
07 - Porn of the Dead
08 - Sex with Sharks
09 - Yeti
10 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
11 - YCH (Hank Williams)

September 15th 2007 @ El Bar - Philadelphia, PA
--- Hellblock 6, Bitchslicer, Decontrol, Blessed Muthas, Sollubi, Combat Crisis, Dead Gerber Babies

Dead Gerber Babies played first. The DGB set was fun & they sounded really good. I spent most of their set on the other side of a wall where the mixer for the PA was located. Before their set it was being weird and something tripped the fuse or breaker. So I hung out back there watching the band through a small gap in the wall, adjusting the vocal levels, and keeping an eye on the PA in case the breaker shut it down again. They ended the set with "Parasite" by Kiss, and "Whole Lot of Rosie" by AC-DC. Parasite was especially bad ass due to the sweet drum solo breakdown. Al is awesome.

Combat Crisis played second. I didn't really watch these guys play. They had been outside bitching about how fucked up it was that their friends all had to pay to get in ... even though it was a benefit, whatever.

Sollubi played third. This band is awesome. Brutal droning & crawling doom. I had spent all day, the day before the show hanging out with and recording these guys so I was familiar with and already really liked the music. The singer and guitar player were from the band PA Connection, & the bass player and drummer were from a ton of other bands including Fistula. I would say they sound like a slower, heavier, ballsier version of PA connection.

Blessed Muthas played fourth. I was outside talking with Justin during their set.

Decontrol played fifth. These guys were fucking awesome. I am pretty sure that they formed in 1980, & that alone is just mind blowing, but they were really nice guys and a super kick ass band. It was very inspiring to me. We talked about them playing a show in Victoria's Basement sometime soon.

Bitchslicer played sixth. Our set felt really good. Nothing in particular really stood out to me about it though. I thought we played pretty tight, and the energy was really good. One difference in the sound ... I normally use my 400 watt guitar cab, but I ended up using two regular 4x12's, the guitar was fuller kicked ass. Also we brought back the song "Thrasher". Shane and I used to play before Justin joined up, and now it's back.

Hellblock 6 played seventh. It was so great to see these guys together again. The set was pretty short but kicked ass. They played a few songs that they didn't really used to play back when they were still together. Since this was a one time reunion for this benefit, I am trying to convince them all to take another stab at recording the fourth Hellblock 6 record. We all set up and began to record it 2 other times, neither of which resulted in any finished recordings. Most of the music on the fourth record is stuff they were playing live before they split up, but let me tell you ... those songs are so fucking heavy !!! Cross your fingers, and who knows maybe they will have fun and keep playing.

The overall of the night was great. The bands were good, there was a good turnout, and over $1,000 was raised for Autism Research.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Re-Penetrator
03 - Thrasher
04 - Born Erect
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Porn of the Dead
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
10 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell

September 06th 2007 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- Brutal Newts, Bitchslicer, Shatterhook, Eph Tradition, Rise & the Fall

Rise & the Fall played first. There is absolutely no doubt about it, these guys were contemporary hardcore. The singer had recognized me from when I booked his old band, Substratum, at the Speakeasy.

Eph Tradition played second. Tonight was the best set I have seen these guys play there brand of New Castle Hardcore. Going into it I knew that Phil, the drummer had not played in a month due to a saw injury on his right hand but you would have never guessed that from his playing. The music all sounded good, but DJ, the bands singer, was fucking ON !!! He was just running around, having fun, and being a lot of fun to watch.

Shatterhook played third. These guys were really good, also a hardcore band, three in a row. They were really tight, had a really big sound / full sound, good energy, and they were really nice guys.

Bitchslicer played fourth. Our set felt great. We broke the streak of hardcore bands playing the show. I had suggested cutting our set a bit short since there were five bands. So we took some songs out of the set, but then ended up adding other songs back in. Once we kind of settled on the set, Shane pointed out that we haven't used a set list in over a year. I guess in May 2006 we put together a good set, and then learned it inside and out so now when we switch everything around it is just a variation of the same set (even though half the songs are different). I bet our set was still under 25 minutes though, but my plan was to maybe do 20 minutes originally. The energy felt high, and everyone seemed to have a good time. They only negative thing I can think of is that some setting got messed with on my rig to make it way louder than normal. I didn't have the volume up until it was time to play so I didn't notice before hand. Whatever it was I didn't notice any settings when I glanced at my settings after I set up either. I wasn't about to start messing with things so I pulled the input level back a bit which really made the noise gate react tightly. A couple times through the set it cut out on me, but it was not that big of a deal. On an overall level, I feel like something has been gradually changing with our set over the last handful of shows. When Justin first came on board, we had to break him in and then get into show mode. Then we were adding stuff to the set and trying to trouble shoot live sound issues, all the while our set kept getting tighter with each show. But now, during the last few shows it feel like its not even really about u splaying the songs anymore. It is almost as if we play our whole set just to tap into this energy, & when you do it right you forget that you are even playing until it's all over with, or at least I feel that way. That sounds kind of silly I guess, but when it's "ON", I can't think of any other way to describe it.

Brutal Newts played fifth. I liked these guys, they were a young punk band and this was their first show. In the beginning of their set we were joking about whose girlfriend the bass player must be, eventually settling on the guitar player / singer. After they played a few songs, the singer introduced the band and said she was his girlfriend. That was pretty funny.

The night was fun. The dude Chuck who put on the show was cool. I think the highlight of he night was getting to hang out with Eph Tradition all night. After the show we went back to the warehouse, unloaded, and then went to get some food. After we hit the 2am drive thru, we got pulled over on the on ramp to 95. While they were running Walt's info (he was driving, it was his car) we were all trying to figure out what we got pulled over for. No one had drank all night, the on ramp was in between two redlights so there was not even enough room to speed. The only thing that I could think of was maybe it was about seatbelts. We pulled out from getting food, made one right turn on green with no cops behind us, and then turned right onto the on ramp. The cops were parked across the street from the on ramp. They immediately pulled out and pulled us over. Seatbelts were the only logical thing I could think of. Everyone was handing food around and no one had seatbelts on. So after we sat their for a long time, while a second car pulled up and then they all hung out for a while, he came up and handed Walt a ticket for make a right turn at a redlight that was clearly marked "no turn on red". The fucked up thing about this is that the red light that says no turn on red is about 10 feet after the on ramp to 95. So if we had turned on red we would have been driven past the on ramp to 95. What can you do though, cops are above the law.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Re-Penetrator
03 - Born Erect
04 - Gangbang at Necropolis
05 - Porn of the Dead
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Yeti
08 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

August 25th 2007 @ Victoria's Basement - Philadelphia, PA
--- Revocation, The Spades, Bitchslicer, The Estelles

The Estelles played first. An hour after finishing up their set at the Kaffa Crossing Cafe which is two blocks away, the Estelles came over and played a set in the basement. I saw them play before and really enjoyed their set, so I was very exited about seeing them again and play together. Musically I guess they would be considered "old timey" or maybe "traditional folk" (not 60's hippie folk). Someone referred to them as bluegrass but I don't know if that is technically correct, or at least the term "blue grass" might paint a very different picture from what they do. The band consists of three girls playing guitar, banjo, fiddle, and two of the girls sing. Their set is made up of these very soft and melodic songs, that still have a little bit of darkness to them. I don't know if that is the best way to describe it as darkness, but it is something I think of when I listen to some of that really old music. It is very sincere and hopeful feel to it, yet it is still distant and lonesome. Like a song that someone who was really sad wrote about something that made them happy. Anyway ... normally I would have assumed a group like this would not be interested in playing a basement show with metal bands, (and especially our band) but since we were all hanging out drinking beers at one of their shows, and then again at one of our shows, I figured asking them was worth a try. They were all into it and really seemed to have a good time, and every one hanging out very much enjoyed it.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set felt really good, very energetic. Earlier in the day I was thinking about the song Born Erect, that we had been playing as an instrumental asides from the chorus. We have been doing it for a while now, and today I changed my mind about having vocals. I pictured how and were the vocals would go over what is already their so tonight I added vocals. I had no lyrics written but I figured I would just wing it, and see how it felt with vocals, it felt good.

The Spades played third. AWESOME !!! They played a great, super high energy set set. I would not call these guys metal or punk, but they have a lot of characteristics of both but more like a hopped up Rock-n-Roll band like Motorhead, I think I said all that about them before. It was great hanging out and playing with these guys all night.

Revocation played fourth. Sick Sick Sick Metal, and very chill, laid back kind of guys. Musically they were very heavy, technical, thrashy & energetic. I spaced out through most of their set drinking beer and just staring at the guitar players fret hand, he was doing a lot of crazy stuff. Unfortunately our DIY PA system was not loud enough for their vocals to be heard over the music, so even though you could see the vocals happening, you could not hear them. The vocals I heard to the songs on myspace sounded really cool, but even as an instrumental band it sounded great.

What a long day, and what a great night. I got a case of St. Pauli Girl, and enjoyed a very relaxing evening of great music and hanging out, talking shit, and playing the 50th Bitchslicer show (28 of them have been in the last 7 months). After all the bands finished playing we broke out this bottle of moonshine from North Carolina that I have had for a long time. My old boss gave it to me when I was a courier a few years ago. So everyone was doing shots of moonshine and getting good and drunk. Then the guitar player from the Spades mom came to pick him up, and she ended up coming in and drinking moonshine with everyone. That was great.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Born Erect
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Porn of the Dead
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

August 18th 2007 @ Den of Germs BBQ - Elkton, MD
--- Bitchslicer, Den of Germs, Buried Beneath the Ruins

Buried Beneath the Ruins played first. I thought that they were pretty good at what they were doing, and I thought they were even better after I found out more about them. After they finished up their set I was talking to Nort, from Den of Germs, and he was telling me all about the band. They are high school kids, and they have only been together as a band for two months, which was pretty impressive. After only two months the band already had a set together that included all kinds of crazy guitar harmonies. Then Nort was telling me about how the drummer was the son of one his friends. He had given the kid his first drum set when he was younger and the kid stuck with it, & now they are playing a show together. It was just really cool to hear that. In real life things seldom work out that well.

Den of Germs played second. I enjoy these guys more and more as time goes on. It has been really great hanging out and playing shows with these cats over the last few months, and today was just killer. At one point during their set, there was a build up during one of the songs that ended in Nort doing this super rock-n-roll drum fill, and then everything really kicked in hard. He was head banging, the other guys were rockin' out, & everyone looked like they were having the best time in the world just playing music, it's a rare thing to see. Apparently this is the first time they have played together since the last show in philly. I would have never guessed. The music sounded tight, and the energy was amazing.

Bitchslicer played third. Asides from a few particular moments, our set felt amazing. We used Den of Germs gear for our set. Everything sounded really good, but the drum configuration gave Shane a lot of problems at certain points. On the technical side, I know a lot of stuff in our set got noodley (a Jon Kois term), but I felt as though the energy was very high, and that's way more important. Plus I am sure it's all stuff that we noticed, but no one else did ... and then there was Symptom of the Universe. As soon as Shane had the drums set up, he said that he could not play Symptom on this set. So we played our whole set, not intending to play Symptom of the Universe, and once the set was over the guys from Den of Germs were yelling at us to play Symptom, so we did. Shane said "fuck it, let's do it". Well the big drum fills that set up the ultimate heavyness, gave Shane problems since there was one mount & two floor toms instead of vice versa. So every time the part of the song that makes you go FUCK YEAH happened, his fills were a little off and then I would kick in a little off. Man did that ruin how much fun it is to play that song. We really should not have done Symptom of the Universe, but oh well.

The BBQ was a lot of fun, the food was good, the people were all very laid back, the bands rocked, & Rob's chili was fucking awesome !!!

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Born Erect
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Yeti
08 - Porn of the Dead
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)
11 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)

August 13th 2007 @ Queen of Sheba II - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bitchslicer, Vermefug, Killin' It, Farcial Hoodwink

Farcial Hoodwink played first. They were a decent punk band, but I didn't really want to like them. Everyone in the band was wearing matching pink shirts, everyone was wearing sun glasses except for the guy with regular glasses, and the guitar and bass player both had matching danaelectro type guitars. I just don't get that whole having an image thing.

Killin' It played second. I napped through most of their set, but from what I heard it was hard to really tell what was going on. I could not hear the vocals, bass, or any of the drums except for the cymbals. So honestly I am not really sure what they sound like.

Vermefug played third. They were great. I would describe them as sounding somewhat like very early slayer. They were really good players, & they had some really good energy. They also had two shredding guitar players, so every song had great solos back and forth.

Bitchslicer played fourth. Our set went alright, it way better than the last two shows we played even with the slow start. First off we had to set up weird. Our amps we basically behind Shane. There was not enough room to have them to the side at all, but it ended up sounding alright. Justin broke a string during the first song, and the dude from Vermefug came right up with their bass, which was really cool !!! After we played the second song, I guess there was a turning issue with the new bass so Justin had to tune it. This is pretty funny ... I couldn't really get to my amp once we were fully set up, and Justin forgot his tuner ... so he had to now climb over shit to get back to my amp, and plug the bass into my tuner to tune up the bass. My tuner is fixed into my pedal board that sits on top of my amp, and is run off of the second output from my processor. So he could tune without killing my guitar signal. I could tell this was gonna be a minute or two so I started playing this, made up on the spot, slow doomy kind of riff. I figured that this was way better than having dead silence or even worse, me getting up the mic and talking. The only thing that was really on my mind was how I have been really sick the last few days, and felt like I was about to puke. Also how for the last 4 days every 15 to 20 minutes I get the "Evacuator" like I just ate $20.00 worth of McDonalds food. I was joking with the guys before the set about how they should just jam if I take off the guitar and disappear during our set. After Justin finished tuning the rest of our set went fine. We kept it short, but I felt like we rocked it really hard. Most of the people who were there earlier left by the time we played, BUT, Kit & Kevin showed up right before our set. Kit and Kevin are way cooler than a room full of kids that I don't know or relate to because I am old and grumpy.

The night was cool, and pretty laid back. I wish I had been less sick and had a chance to talk to a few of the guys at the show a little more but what can you do. Strangely enough, the dude Matt who set up the show, first saw us play in February at Victoria's birthday party. So he asked us to play this show, which was the first show he ever booked. I thought that was pretty awesome, thanks Matt !!!

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Gangbang at Necropolis
05 - Porn of the Dead
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Yeti
08 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
09 - YCH (Hank Williams)

July 31st 2007 @ Tritone - Philadelphia, PA
--- The Spades, Bitchslicer, Baptist Preachers

Baptist Preachers played first. I wasn't sure what to expect from this band by the name, but I did enjoy their set. The guitar player was fooling around while the sound guy messed with stuff for a while before their set, and he was a really good player. He did some cool stuff in the songs, but he for sure kicked it back a lot. I would describe them as a funky rock-n-roll band with a kind of 70's soul style vocals. I think it was a good mix.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set was a lot better than the set we play on the 28th did, but I would say it was great. I made some adjustments and switched the 65 gauge guitar string I use for a low B, to a 65 gauge bass string like I normally use. I switched the strings and stretched it out really good before we played but I still had 3 or 4 songs on tuning difficulties BUT, after it got situated it stayed in for the remainder of the set. We seemed to still go over pretty well. I guess as long as we are rockin' out, the the technical issues go some what unnoticed.

The Spades played third. They were so kick ass !!! Picture a high energy mix of Hendrix & Motorhead. I am really glad I finally got to see these guys. We played simultaneously across the street from each other on July 04th, and they were supposed to play the house party with us this past weekend. I would say that this is hands down, way more bad ass than any of the previous Macklin Brothers bands. They did a punked out cover "Soul Man" as well which was great. I am sure we are gonna do more shows together in the future.

Overall, asides from our tech problems the only bad thing about the night is PA problems the sound guy was having. The first band started almost an hour late. Besides that it was a fun night the ended in me getting very drunk. Playing at the Tritone is always fun, and especially on these diverse music nights. We get to hang out and play with a lot of bands we would never get to play with in most normal settings.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Born Erect
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Porn of the Dead
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

July 28th 2007 @ Victoria's Basement - Philadelphia, PA
--- My Version of It, Scareho, Dead Gerber Babies, Bitchslicer, Rich Hillen Jr.

Rich Hillen Jr. played first. I missed most of his very short set. I had just arrived from work when his set started. By the time I got my stuff together for our set and went downstairs to watch his set, I only ended up catching the last two songs he played. "Jeffrey Says" & "Outlaw Scumfuc". He was having tuning issue from the heat and humidity in the basement so he cut his set short. I did manage to take a few pictures of him though.

Bitchslicer played second. Everyone said that our set was great, so I am glad the problems were not that obvious to everyone. My guitar would not stay in tune. The strings are new and broken in so ... I am blaming the heat and humidity in the basement. In between every song, every time I held a chord out, and during most of the leads, I was tuning. The rest of the time I was going out of tune, that sucked. Besides that it was still fun, but it might have been the worst set we have ever played ... I really think it was the worst set we have ever played. Also since we cut some songs out of the set, I had to listen to Fran from Scareho gave me shit the rest of the night for not playing Drag My own Coffin to Hell.

Dead Gerber Babies played third. Tonight hey played with a new drummer. I think that is three drummers now since April. This dude Al, who was also in the Drunken Bandits with Ant & Scot, is the new drummer. I thought it was a better fit with him and they sounded really good. He uses two bass drums which kicks ass. They had some tuning problems through out the set, & eventually Ant broke a string, got really pissed off and threw his guitar. It sounded good to me and was great to watch. There was a lot of energy and a little bit of hostility mixed in with the set.

Scareho played fourth. These guys also showed up with a new drummer. So it was a little loose but not bad. I enjoyed there set but at this point in the night my day had really started to catch up with me so it is a little hazy.

My Version of It played fifth. This band is really cool, I had been working on some recordings with them all week. So when the Spades canceled they said they would play the party instead. I was kind of stoked that they were gonna play so we would all get a chance to hang out. I felt that through the week we were not really vibing together that well, and hanging out and having some beers would smooth things over. I liked the guys in the band and the music, otherwise I would not have really given a shit about that. I guess that no one really watched them since everyone was outside and leaving during their set ... which really sucked.

The Upside of the Night. A lot of people who I have not seen in a long time came to hang out, and a lot of people I see fairly often came out. The house was filled with all these people that I could have individually spent the whole night talking to. That was very cool. Most of them ended up meeting and interacting with one another which was also very cool. I think as a gathering the party was very laid back and successful.

The Downside of the Night. Most aspects of the band related part of the night did not go very well. Only two of the originally scheduled bands ended up playing the show. I had only slept for two hours the night before, then I was at work for 14 hours with all of the symptoms of Strep Throat (I am not a doctor so who knows ???), so when I got to the house a few minutes before Rich Hillen started playing his set, the original plan for the night was already out the window. The original lineup was supposed to be Rich Hillen, My Version of It, Bitchslicer, Scareho, & Dead Gerber Babies. The Dead Gerber Babies who were supposed to play last but now said they had to play ASAP because the one dude had to go to work. I now wanted Bitchslicer to either play first or not at all because of how shitty I was feeling. Scareho played last, the last time and they have played last at a bunch of shows we have played together so I did not want them to play last. The new order then became Rich Hillen, Bitchslicer, Dead Gerber Babies, Scareho, My Version of It. The basement being a sauna kept people from hanging out and watching the bands as much as they did at the other shows.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Born Erect
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Porn of the Dead
07 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
08 - Sex with Sharks
09 - Yeti
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

July 04th 2007 @ Tritone - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bitchslicer, ???, Skip Heller Trio, Bobby Blue, Slumlord

Slumlord played first. Great as always. It was killer to play to finally play a show with these cats again, the last one was October 28th, 2004 when kit and I started doing shows at the speakeasy. I took some pictures during the set which I thought came out pretty cool.

Bobby Blue played second. This dude was great. He sang and played acoustic guitar, and another guy play accompanying percussion, and his voice was amazing. He did a mixed set of originals and traditional Costa Rican songs, and a cover of Madonna's Erotica. These guys were hardcore, the brought all of their gear to Philly from new York on a bus.

Skip Heller Trio played third. These guys were playing a sort of surfy, jazzy, lounge kind of thing. I was really enjoying their set until they did "Punk Rock Girl" by the Dead Milkmen. I hate the Dead Milkmen, and I really really hate that stupid song.

??? played fourth. I never caught the name of this band. It was a weird mix of elements. I kind of got the impression that the people in this band were all very into a different musical genre than the others in the band, and together they didn't seem to gel. The one dude I was talking to said that it sounded like a high school battle of the bands type band. I thought that summed it pretty well, and they were kind of young.

Bitchslicer played fifth. Wow !!! The vibe at Tritone is completely priceless. This is the third time that I have played here and it is always very laid back and very unlike playing in regular bars. The people who hang out at Tritone always seem to be interested in the music which is very unusual for bar shows. I know that I have said this a lot lately, but this might of been the best set we have ever played. First off, right before we started playing it began to rain outside so everyone who was hanging out in the courtyard or out in front of the bar smoking came inside. The bar was really full and everyone seemed to be really into what we were doing. I think that the combination of us playing a lot of shows lately & being dead on, mixed with the energy of the crowd, pushed things over the edge. Not to mention the fact that everyone seemed to know "Symptom of the Universe" ... it surprises me how many people don't know that fucking song. The main guitar riff in that song is the heaviest riff of all time !!!

The show was cool, most of the music was really cool, but these long shows can be pretty brutal. I got to the Tritone at 3:30 and left a little before midnight. That's a long time to sit around. I actually brought my laptop and sat in the back working on our website and resizing old show pictures for a large portion of the day.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Gangbang at Necropolis
05 - Porn of the Dead
06 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

June 30th 2007 @ Victoria's Basement - Philadelphia, PA
--- Scareho, Dead Gerber Babies, Bitchslicer, Den of Germs, Condemned by Hatred

Condemned by Hatred played first. They started 25 minutes late and had a lot of problems through out their set, but what they were doing was cool enough to hold everyone's interest anyway. They are doing a metal / A.C. style grind type thing with only a singer and a drummer. Everything else is coming out of a laptop run through two large carvin keyboard or bass amps. In between the song they played samples through the laptop, and then for the songs the laptop played sounds ranging from guitar riffs, to pure noise. I know that they had to scrap a few things they normally use from the technical issues they were having, like vocal effects, a second vocals mic, and a chainsaw.

Den of Germs played second. Great Set !!! They played earlier in the day near Baltimore, and then drove up to Philly afterwards to play the party. They sounded great, and everyone was really into what they were doing. I took a bunch of cool pictures while they played which was also a lot of fun.

Bitchslicer played third. It has been great lately to walk away from almost every show, feeling as if it was the best show I can remember playing. Tonight was no exception. The sound was perfect. Every thing sounded crystal clear and really good. I also think our playing was magically tight. Normally I think we are pretty tight, but I think that the sound being so good in the basement just made it effortless, (we could hear each other even better than at practice). Most of the time when the sound is muddy and things get off a little here and there and everyone gets through and picks it back up with out a hitch but tonight everything was dead on. On top of all that, it was such a fun set. It felt really good, and everyone was having a good time, GREAT ENERGY !!! I wish that there were more basement shows and parties to play. House shows are almost always way more fun than playing bars.

Dead Gerber Babies played forth. They sounded great and were a lot of fun as always, though I wish I had caught more of their set. I ended up getting a little sidetracked in the pursuit of alcohol during most of their set..

Scareho played fifth. I started drinking heavy after our set and by the time Scareho played I was already good and drunk. They were fun, Fran said a lot of inappropriate things about my lady and I ... which I guess is to be expected at this point. I love hanging out and playing shows with these guys. After the bands had finished we all hung out, out front talking shit until 5am. I think we are gonna do this again next month. I can't wait.

The overall for the night was damn near perfect. All of the bands were friends of mine so I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone, and they all got to hang out with each other, and we all had a good time. "The life I love is making music with my friends" - Willie

June 23rd 2007 @ Champion's - Trenton, NJ
--- Bitchslicer, Black Cloud 13, Hollow-Point, Horrifyer, Fyrbrand

Fyrbrand played first. They had a newer hardcore sound. They sounded pretty tight. The mix was a bit weird for their set however, you could not hear the bass at all, the guitar was low and the vocals were very loud. But they were into and put on a good show.

Horrifyer played second. These guys were awesome !!! They kind of had an old Anthrax style of thrash metal sound. Apparently they are noramlly a five piece, but only three of the guys showed up to play the show. A friend of theirs filled in on vocals, and the 2nd guitar player switched to bass. That being said it sounded really good. It was hard to clearly make it all out but the guitar player was doing some crazy shit. Also the dude filling in on vocals did a really good job. He had lyric sheets and song on every song but one I think. We were hanging out a bit, and talked about doing some more shows together in the future, that would rule.

Hollow-Point played third. I only caught a little bit of there set. They were tight and had more of a rock-n-roll type sound with a bit of metal flavor, and a singer that actually sang. Really nice guys though.

Black Cloud 13 played forth. These guys seemed to have a lot of old hard rock, pre-metal influence.Like Deep Purple comes to mind.

Bitchslicer played fifth. Our set felt amazing. Going into it we were all dragging pretty hard from sitting around all night. Both Jusin & I had got home late from last nights show, worked all day, then arrived at Champion's at about 8:30. The first band started at 10. We supposed to go on at 1am, but the show was running behind. Black Cloud 13 Finished thier last song at 1:05, then decide to play another long song. We set up like lightning and started between 1:20-1:25. As we hit our first chord I know that everyone was feeling like we blow threw this set that no one is left to watch and go home, but as we kicked off "Street Walker" I think the pure enjoyment of rockin it kicked it and the set felt great. We had the typical shit go wrong in the set but it was just a great time. I had just re-strung my guitar and instead of using a .65 gauge bass string, I tried this .60 gauge guitar string and it sucks. It's too loose and won't stay in tune like the shit I normally use. So I had to tune before, after, and even during most of the songs that used the low B. But we were having a great time plaing so none of that shit mattered.

The overall vibe of the show was pretty awesome. The second I walked in, everyone I walked past said hello to me, that's pretty rare, most shows are not that friendly. The guys in all of the other bands were all really laid back and cool. Everyone was having fun hanging out and listening to the music. We did sit around for 5 hours waiting to play whihc kind of sucked, but in the end it was well worth it.

June 22nd 2007 @ Sterling Hotel - Allentown, PA
--- Mandy Lion & WWIII, Witness To The End, Fatal Corruption, Jekyl n Hyde, Splinterfuse, Bereavement, ???, Bitchslicer

Bitchslicer played first. Our set was pure lightning. We got there really late from being stuck in traffic and loaded in as fast as we could. Once all of our gear was loaded in and sitting on-stage when they told us that it was 7:30 and we had exactly 30 minutes. So we set everything up, played our old 10 song set, and finished with about 5 minutes to spare. I would say that we played to maybe 40 or 50 people.

Pretty much the whole day sucked, it took me an hour and half to get to the warehouse on public transit. Then I packed up and waited for Justin. It took us like three hours to get to the venue since traffic sucked. Once we got there it was a rush to get on stage and play. We blew through the set hung out for a bit and then went home and sat in traffic another few hours. Fuck, what a terrible night. The 20 minutes we played was awesome but the rest sucked. The whole ticket thing with the show was kind of weird too. We were not obligated to sell anything but we did our best and sold like 15 tickets (Thank you Erin !!!) to a show a little over an hour and a half away from us (minus traffic of course), but it just had a very different vibe. It didn't really hit me at first but I suppose it was just a very "business" oriented show which I am not at all used to. I am not knocking the hustle, I am just analyzing the situation and thinking about all of the things that are not upfront and obvious.

The headlining band has a binding contract for a cash guarantee that is probably a stretch for the booking agent to feel comfortable with, based solely on the draw of the headlining band alone. So the promoter does all of the promotion that he can, but he also sets up the show with 7 or 8 local bands who all sell tickets for the show. It makes sense, the bands all get to play in front of what might be a large crowd and they get to say that they played with a major label band (that I had never heard of), and then in exchange the booking agent makes good on his commitments. I guess that's the point of the music "business", it is all about money. That doesn't mean things can't be fun, and that the music can not be unique and interesting, but those thing are all very secondary to the money. Only two of the seven local bands were on the fliers made to promote the show. I was in the loading area talking to some of the other bands, and none of them knew what the hell was going, who else was playing, or anything. So you can't help but feel a little bit like we all just showed up to hand over money until the real show started.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Gangbang at Necropolis
05 - Sex with Sharks
06 - Porn of the Dead
07 - Yeti
08 - Lycanthropic Fellatio
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

June 13th 2007 @ Whiskey Dix - Philadelphia, PA
--- Bitchslicer, Dead Gerber Babies, Path Aesthetic

Path Aesthetic played first. I was not into what these cats were doing at all, but they were amazing musicians. The bass player was mind blowing. Musically they sounded like a cross between Sonic Youth and Tool, with extremely radio friendly vocals.

Dead Gerber Babies played second. Fun as always. The sound on-stage was pretty bad and it was pretty funny watching Anthony getting frustrated with it through there set. It looked like he was about to throw his guitar at one point, and then he walked over and kicked the door, it was funny.

Bitchslicer played third. The sound on-stage was very bad, but I doubt that no one noticed any of the flubs. This was the second time we ever played "Symptom of the Universe" as a band and it went great. We also did an unrehearsed version "Bite It, You Scum" with Anthony singing with us. Justin had never heard the song before so it was fun to whip it out. A couple of our friends came but no one else was there so it was the perfect night to just screw around a bit and have fun.

It was a laid back evening. Just hanging out more than being at a show. The bar actually sells 40's which is bad ass but they cost $8.00. They also have a photo booth and we tried to take band photos twice and both times Justin was too stupid to get his face in the picture.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Born Erect
02 - Streetwalker
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
06 - Gangbang at Necropolis
07 - Porn of the Dead
08 - Sex with Sharks
09 - Yeti
10 - Bite It, You Scum (GG Allin)
11 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
12 - YCH (Hank Williams)

June 10th 2007 @ Thrash Fest - Downingtown, PA
Thrash Fest
--- Infernal Stronghold, Sacrificial Blood, Bludwulf, Trasher, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Bitchslicer, Raw Sewage, Dissector, Severed Hand, Oblivion

Oblivion played first. They were really good players but it is hard to say if the band is any good or not, since they only played covers. They played Exodus, Megadeth, Anthrax, GG Allin, and some other covers that I can't recall. It was fun though.

Severed Hand played second. The first song was OK I suppose, then the second song was a cover of "This Love" by Pantera. The singer was so over doing it like he was on American idol or something during the slow singing part in the beginning. After that I went outside and hung out until they were done. Later the dude form Trasher told me the drummer was the son of Sebastian Bach.

Dissector played third. Dissector Rules !!! This would be the third time we have played together I believe. I always thought of Dissector as more of a gore-grind band. I would never have really considered them thrash, but they do have a punk element in their music that is more present live I think which does bridge the gap. Their set was great, Rich Horror sang a Cro-Mags cover with them.

Raw Sewage played forth. They were a two piece, a drummer and a guitar player, I think that they both did vocals. They were fun very THRASH.

Bitchslicer played fifth. Our set went great I thought. We played a completely unrehearsed version of Black Sabbath's "Symptom of the Universe" it went perfect except for the middle breakdown ... which I think is pretty good when you consider that we had never played it together before. The sound in the place was really good and the stage monitoring was possibly the best we have ever had. We could all hear everything.

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder played sixth. These guys are such brutal musicians, they jsut sound amazing. They are a mix of Thrash Metal and a little bit of Progressive Metal. They have some really heavy hooks mixed in with some insane guitar leads and some interesting musical arrangements. I have seen these guys a bunch of times but this is the first time I have seen them as a four piece with no lead singer. The one guitar player, and the bass player split the vocals. I think that makes them a lot heavier & tighter of a band.

Trasher played seventh. These cats were awesome !!! They are the band who hosted and put on the show. They looked and sounded like they were form the mid 80's. I couldn't help but think that must have spent a lot of money on ebay buying old band patches, and old white high tops. But they seriously kicked ass !!! Cool guys, great energy, great players, PURE THRASH !!!

Bludwulf played eight. Great band, they had a very thrashing sound. Musically it reminded me of that early 80's type stuff where the guitar riffs were more of a rock-n-roll feel that was being played really fast. There was also a very punk feel to what they were doing, let alone two of the members having giant mohawks.

Sacrificial Blood played ninth. These cats are doing an older death / thrash style of metal but it has an almost black metal feel in the vocal style and overall kind of darkness to the music. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it, but it does have a range of influence and an old school sound. After watching half of their set i went outside to chill and it sounded so cool listening to them from outside. About 30 feet directly in front of them was a loading dock style garage door. The door was open and the sound was bouncing off of the brick wall another 30 feet away back to where i was sitting. It just created this really cool huge castle sound.

Infernal Stronghold played tenth. These guys ended up playing the show last minute since Rabid didn't end up playing. They played as a two piece since some of the band could't make it, just a guitar / vocalist, & and a drummer (I think there are actually 4 of them). They were good and seemed to be having a lot more fun on stage than any one else had. That made them really fun to watch but I am curiosu as to what the full band sounds like. We started packing up and loading out after watching a bit of their set.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Gangbang at Necropolis
05 - Born Erect
06 - Porn of the Dead
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Symptom of the Universe (Black Sabbath)
10 - Lycanthropic Fellatio
11 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
12 - YCH (Hank Williams)

June 06th 2007 @ Pontiac - Philadelphia, PA
--- Gut, XXX Maniac, Goretex, Waking the Cadaver, Goretex, Scareho, Bitchslicer

Bitchslicer played first. Our set went well. I did feel like we were a little out of place of this line up however with Gut & XXX Maniac. I really dig both bands but asides from the subject matter revolving around porn, we don't really fit in with them. But I guess with Scareho and Goretex it was a mixed bag. I like shows better when it's mixed up a bit, but most of the people at the shows normally don't like that.

Scareho played second. They were great. It was Fran's birthday so during the set, they brought cake up in-between songs. Before the cake had reached the stage Fran kicked the cake out of the hands of the girl who was carrying it. Buy the end of the set the stage and the guys in the band were all covered with cake. Fran also dedicated R.I.T.A. to "Gary's new girlfriend" which was hilarious. Outside he was telling every one who walked by "this is Victoria, she's fucking Gary from Bitchslicer". I am glad we have playing shows together lately, it is always a good time.

Waking the Cadaver played third. They were tight and had good energy. They seemed to have a cannibal corpse goregrind style with a lot of slow breakdowns. The sound was really fucked up though when the were playing. The low end of the bass and this weird low end feed back just buried everything else. So it is really hard to say much more about their sound.

Goretex played forth. Goretex consisted of two guys rapping and a DJ. They seemed pretty cool but it was really hard to make out what was going on with them due to the sound. If the music itself was on "05" then the vocals were on "10", but ... the vocals were really muddy so it was impossible to make out any of the lyrics. The style they doing was a dark, heavy kind of old school style of rap, more like Wu-Tang than the shit that is popular now. Everyone said that they kind of sounded like ICP but I don't know. I do listen to rap but I don't listen to ICP so I don't know. After the show I was listening to some of their stuff online and I like it. Between seeing them live with bad sound, & then hearing some of the recorded music, sort of helped to fill in the gaps in my opinion of the band, they are definitely pretty good. I wish now that I had grabbed a CD at the show, oh well.

XXX Maniac played fifth. They were awesome. The sound still sucked as with the other bands, but there was so much visually going on that you really didn't notice as much I guess. It was all Rumble, Drums, & Vocals. These cats actually put on a "show". Themed skits, samples, and banter relative to the songs. I guess it's hard to explain but it was really fun. There was a beer bong type dick they were drinking out of, there was an inflatable goat ... you get the picture.

Gut played sixth. It took forever for them to get rolling due to some technical issues. But when they finally got to playing, it was awesome. They actually got a sound check, so they had the privilege of being the only band of the night to not have terrible sound. They had octave effects on everything which sounded really cool & they had no bass player. They put on a good show, although half of their set was hearing them and seeing the backs of the two guys filming and taking pictures of them front right in front of them center stage. I think that originally there was supposed to be some XXX type stuff going on at the show before the venue change, but during the Gut set, there were two girls that did some stuff that was maybe the censored version, I am not sure about that though. You saw some almost nudity, there was a didlo, who knows.

Long night, I was at the Ponitac from 6:30 PM - 2:00 AM. We got there so early. The venue switch had changed the door time from 7PM to 8PM, which we did not know. When we started playing at 9:15, I don't think all of the bands had loaded in yet. The show was fun though. My only complaint is that bands fuck around so much setting up and tearing down that it makes the night really drag on slowly. Twice in between bands the stage sat totally empty for 10 minutes. All the fucking around did fuck Gut, because they ended up starting their set at 1:35 and then they got cut off at exactly 2am in mid song.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Gangbang at Necropolis
05 - Porn of the Dead
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Yeti
08 - Lycanthropic Fellatio
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

May 25th 2007 @ Sterling Hotel - Allentown, PA
--- Bitchslicer, Lay Waste, Fighting Zero, Ferrum, Slightly Bent, Shadows Smile, Mark Williams Band

Mark Williams Band played first. High school kids playing soulless covers of shit like the Beatles for their parents. These guys were really good players but they are 100% destined to be one of those top 40 cover bands that play other peoples music note for note perfect in bars every weekend. They sound checked with a police song and when they finished their mom yelled out "perfect". The best thing about these guys was that Shane over heard them talking shit on us outside before the show started, saying how much it sucked to be playing a show with a band called Bitchslicer.

Shadows Smile played second. I missed their set while I was out eating pizza. I heard they had a computer for a drum machine.

Slightly Bent played third. I missed their set while I was out eating pizza. I heard they were a sax player.

Ferrum played forth. I missed their set while I was out eating pizza. I heard they were an instrumental band.

Fighting Zero played fifth. These guys had no balls what so ever, but they tried so hard to compensate by having lots & lots of the "Look". They were a tight band, and they were pretty good at doing what they were trying to do I guess, but they def have aspirations of being on MTV someday. The singer / guitar player had his hair all standing straight up. His hair was kind of long so it must have taken him a really long time to do his hair, and he was wearing a headband as part of his rocker outfit. It was just very comical to me.

Lay Waste played sixth. Being the only other metal band on the show alone made them awesome, but they were really good. The sound of the room def worked against them however. For every band that I saw before, the bass was the loudest the most dominant, then the cymbals & vocals, & then finally the guitar which was the quietest thing in the mix. Most of the guitar leads stood out just enough to hear them, I guess due to the higher register of the notes. Lay Waste was a very tight and heavy, older death style, that got kind of melodic at times. I think their set got better as it went on too, with the last few songs being the most brutal. I would imagine the few songs at the end of the set were newer songs. They even did a Decapitated cover. They were pretty laid back and we all seemed to get along pretty well, so hopefully we will play together again sometime. I would really like to see these guys again in a different room with better sound.

Bitchslicer played seventh. Our set went well enough from a robotic, going through the motions sort of stand point. Musically it was accurate enough, but it just felt off. I know that waiting almost seven hours to play was very draining, but at least we got to watch Lay Waste play before we went on. They had to go straight from suck fest right into shred time cold. Besides that the whole vibe was just off. I could not hear anything very well, and I could not hear the guitar at all. The only thing going through the PA was vocals so I think the sound problems were mainly the room. The room itself seemed the eat all of the high end and amplify the low end.

Apparently there was supposed to be 2 separate shows on each of the two stages at the Sterling's separate rooms, but shit went wrong and there ended up being one, long, mismatched show on the one stage. Load in was 6 PM and we started playing around 1 AM. All of the people working at the Sterling were really cool to us, but it was just such a long, long night.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Born Erect
05 - Porn of the Dead
06 - Gangbang at Necropolis
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Lycanthropic Fellatio
10 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
11 - YCH (Hank Williams)

May 07th 2007 @ Balcony - Philadelphia, PA
Rich Hillen Jr's 40th Birthday Party
--- Scareho, Bitchslicer, Love Cinema Volume 06, Headkick Rodeo, Winocreep

Winocreep played first. Ethan is amazing. He has a very wide range and tonight he played mainly comical stuff, which probably translates better for live set. His one song was called "This Dick ain't gonna Suck Itself". I can't remember the others, but it was funny.

Headkick Rodeo played second. They were a pretty tight hardcore band. I took a walk around the neighborhood and only caught the last few minutes of their set.

Love Cinema Volume 06 played third. LCV6 is awesome. They are such a weird mix of elements. They are a great Rock-n-Roll band with a cross dressing singer. Well maybe not cross dressing but the dude starts out with a motor cycle helmet, a long blonde braided wig, a skirt and nylons, with biker boots. I am honestly not sure what he was doing for sure, but it seemed like he was taking off panties as the set went on. If they were panties, he must have been wearing a bunch of them. But they were great. It's always fun to watch a band that is having a lot of fun playing.

Bitchslicer played fourth. Our set went good, nothing bad happened, nothing great happened. If Saturday was a 10, tonight was a 6. It was a lot of fun though. Happy Birthday Rich.

Scareho played fifth. It was pretty late by the time these cats went on, but their set was good. I know a lot of the words to the Scareho set, which makes it a lot more fun to watch. It is always good to play with these guys. Right before they played the song "Cunt like You", Fran dedicated the song to Rich's girlfriend Gina, I could not stop laughing about that.

This was Rich Hillen's 40th birthday party. It was a fun night, he had a great time.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Streetwalker
02 - Night of the Living Bourbon
03 - Re-Penetrator
04 - Born Erect
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Porn of the Dead
07 - Sex with Sharks
08 - Yeti
09 - Lycanthropic Fellatio
10 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
11 - YCH (Hank Williams)

May 05th 2007 @ Alexander's - Fleetwood, PA
--- Northern Liberties, Bitchslicer, Order of Merlin, The Marx, Super Buick, Exit Wound

Exit Wound played first. We started loading in just as they were finishing up their set. So I really didn't catch much of their set.

Super Buick played second. They were a pretty decent punk/hardcore band. The vocalist had a very strong voice. I was into watching them, but after working all day and then driving an hour a half to Alexanders I was pretty tired. I ended up napping a bit on the bench outside

The Marx played third. After napping outside I came in to catch the end of these guys set. They had a punk/hardcore type sound going on.

Order of Merlin played fourth. Order of Merlin KICKS ASS !!! They have seemed a more together each time I have seen them, and they are jsut so much fun. You watch them having fun, and it is just FUN !!! I wish I could tell what more of the lyrics were though, I bet Proffesor Werewolf has great lyrics.

Bitchslicer played fifth. Our set could not have went much better. We played a new song called "Born Erect", it went good. We were still a bit shaky on it since there has been very little practice but it went good. I was adding all kinds of improvised shit to the songs, everything was just "ON" and it was fun.

Northern Liberties played sixth. FUCK !!! This was by far the best NL set I have ever seen, and they are one of the best live bands I have ever seen, it was amazing. First off their entire set was almost all heavy songs, normally it is a mix. I do not dislike the more mellow songs they do but they don't kick you in the balls live, like the heavy songs do. I had not seen them in a while and they have been playing so many shows lately so they must have been in peak shape, it was just unreal.

Great Show !!! I love Alexander's and playing with OOM & NL. Beyond that, it was a really fun, & laid back evening.

April 28th 2007 @ Pontiac Grille, Philadelphia PA
Shifty Shane Jenkin's 21st Birthday Party
--- Necktie, Dead Gerber Babies, Bitchslicer, Dark Lords of Stone Hurst

Dark Lords of Stone Hurst played first. They kicked ass. They were a cross between melodic death & thrash. This was their very first show. Asides from hearing Shane talk about them I didn't really know what to expect, but it was good.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set was dead on and seemed to go over really well.. I had actually been dreading us playing this show, I hate being anywhere near south street for so many reasons. Once we got in & settled everything was cool though. Right before we played our last song, YCH, Shane, Justin, & I all had a double shot of Jim Beam to toast Shane's 21st birthday.

Dead Gerber Babies played third. We have played together on all three of the shows they have played since getting back together and I think that this one really topped the others. I think after doing a show the night before with a new lineup they were a bit more comfortable together. Anthony was rolling on the floor, climbing up on top of the PA speakers shit like that, all while playing guitar. They sounded really good, and they were great to watch.

Necktie played fourth. They were cool, very excessive. Picture a 3 piece hardcore / punk band ... that has 7 members, all of the extra guys throw beer everywhere.
They didn't play very long before Shane ended up on the floor unconscious so I didn't really get to see that much of their set.

After the show we played last night, I got 2 and a half hours of sleep and then sold porn all day. After selling porn I went home and got shit ready to go to this show. We got there pretty early, loaded in, and then Justin and I went out for sushi. The show was a lot of fun. Since I was in one of the bands, when I bought 3 doubles of Jim Beam it only cost me $6.00 so I ended up getting pretty drunk by enjoying these $2.00 doubles. I ran into a ton of people that I hadn't seen in a while too. I ended up not sleeping at all before going to work again the next day ... it was a truly great Rock-n-Roll weekend.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Streetwalker
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Yeti
08 - Lycanthropic Fellatio
09 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
10 - YCH (Hank Williams)

April 27th 2007 @ Pale Dog Tavern - Newark, DE
--- Call the Paramedics, Dead Gerber Babies, Bitchslicer, Den of Germs

Den of Germs played first. This band kicks so much ass. They were great, but the sound was kind of weird. Kind of like all the high end had been filtered out of the mix. There was lots of body and thump, but little clarity. The system seemed pretty crazy so it might just have been the room. But either way they were a lot of fun.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set went good. On stage everything sounded great. We hadn't really practiced much through April since we had been recording bass tracks on every available opportunity, but the set went smooth and honestly it felt "fresh" from not playing the songs all month.

Dead Gerber Babies played third. They had a very different line up than last time I saw them. The original drummer who had played with them in March split, and the drummer from Broken Trigger was now playing with them. Also Greg was no longer playing 2nd guitar, and Anthony was now playing guitar & doing vocals. They did seem a lot more together tonight. I know the new drummer is a way more solid which I am sure makes a huge difference.

Call the Paramedics played fourth. This band is awesome !!! I felt bad for them, they kind of got the raw end of the deal for the night. First off the show started way later than it should have, and bars close at 1 AM in Delaware, so they hit the stage right at closing time. Their guitar player had gear malfunctions for the first part of the set. And it was being circulated that if the singer started bleeding they were gonna get shut down. Rumor has it that was the reason they were take off the March 24th show with us, & the Dead Gerber Babies at Mojo 13. I still thought that they played an awesome set, but I don't think the band had much fun.

Really fun night !!! All the bands were great and fun to hang out with. I ended up getting really drunk for free. DJ from Eph Tradition was a riot. He got to the show really drunk. We were all hanging out outside before the show and he was harassing people and talking about going and smashing mailboxes after the show, which he did go and do.

April 01st 2007 @ Macs the Club - Essex, MD
--- Concrete, Mantooth, Den of Germs, Bitchslicer, It Cuts the Bodies

It Cuts the Bodies played first. They have a newer metal sound, a sort of grindcore / metalcore mix. Good set, good energy, cool guys. I was a bit distracted during their set from messing with the settings on my new camera. I did manage to get a few shots of these guys.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set went pretty good, all things considered. I had been really sick all week before hand and I ended up feeling completely drained of all energy by the third song of our set. I also was surprised that my voice lasted for the whole set. I cold barely talk at all before the show. I had that, 80 year old blues man voice, which would actually get so bad at times that no sound would come out at all when I tried to talk. Beyond all that, this venue was amazing. It was a pretty "rock star" stage, with a drum rising tons of monitors, and a Godzilla pa system.

Den of Germs played third. This band is AWESOME !!! Den of Germs are pure old school thrash, and they were all really cool guys too. This band reminds me of all the great thrash music I used to listen to when I was a kid, hanging out, skating, getting into trouble. We are playing with these guys again on the 27th at the Pale Dog in Delaware, I can't wait.

Mantooth played fourth. I don't remember too much about their set. The bass player from Den of Germs played bass with them. They started off with some technical difficulties, their guitar head wasn't working. Once they started playing I took some pictures of them, and then I went and picked up my pizza from down the street. By the time I got back they had just finished up.

Concrete played fifth. They were really young kids, great players, with great energy, & the guitar player was unbelievable. What they are doing is not the most original music, and it is very obvious what bands they are influenced by, but I cut them a lot of slack for being so young because you got to start somewhere. I would bet this band got together jamming on covers and then just started writing there own stuff. I would expect if they are still together in a few years they will come into their own sound.

The show attendance could have been a little better, but besides that it was a lot of fun. What a great show. We met a bunch of cool people, and this dude Danny, a friend of Den of Germs took a bunch killer photos. Thanks Again Man !!! It was pretty awesome to play an early show for a change, AND not have to get up early for work the next day. It made everything feel a lot more laid back. I hope we get to play at this spot again.

March 24th 2007 @ Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
--- Walk Among Us, Dead Gerber Babies, Scareho, Bitchslicer, Eph Tradition

Eph Tradition played first. Their set sounded good, but they seemed a little deflated from the other times that I have seen them. I know that DJ, the singer of the band, was really sick. He didn't want to cancel the show, so he played anyway which was really cool.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set felt great. This was possibly the best set we have played together so far, except for the show on my birthday at the Tritone. One funny thing though ... for some reason Shane set his drums up really far towards my side of the stage. So in between the drums, my amp, & the floor monitor there was little room for me to comfortably situate myself and the mic stand. After moving things a little between each song, I ended up playing off beside the stage on the floor.

Scareho played third. It is always fun playing with these guys.

Dead Gerber Babies played fourth. Their set was a lot of fun. This is the first show the DGB's have played in five years. Anthony said they only practiced three times before this show. This band is sort of punk / scum rock type thing. They played one song that was called the rectum ripper & they did a cover of drink fight and fuck. Anthony the singer had a bag of Cadbury cream eggs that he was throwing at everyone. We are playing with these guys again on April 27th & April 28th.

Walk Among Us played fifth. They are a Misfits Tribute band. I expected that they would be fun, but they actually sounded really good too. The band was tight and had good Misfits sound going, & the singer had a very Danzig-esque voice. All of their friends were on stage, singing along, throwing beer around, it was a good time.

The night started out really slow. We were all tired when we met up at the house. Since the show was not that far away we got there pretty early and sat around for a long time. Once the show started everything up a bit though. It was a fun night. I thought our set went amazing, or at least it felt good. At the very end of the night there was a a bar fight. I couldn't really see what was going on, I could only see what was around it. I did see bar stools up in the air and heard a lot of screaming. Overall, it was a very good night.

March 10th 2007 @ Fairways Inn - Smyrna, DE
--- Odd Squad, Eph Tradition, Busted Knuckles, Bitchslicer, Kill Whitey

Kill Whitey played first. They were straight up punk from DC. They had a good sense of humor and made jokes about stripping in between their songs.

Bitchslicer played second. Musically our set went well. It was a blast playing in this place. There was a girl dancing right in front me for the second half of our set. She started dancing during "Sex with Sharks", that was just awesome.

Busted Knuckles played third. I was to drunk to really remember much about their set.

Eph Tradition played fourth. I was to drunk to really remember much about their set. But I do recall Amy playing bass standing on the bar.

Odd Squad played fifth. I was to drunk to really remember much about their set.

Apparently in Delaware, Bitchslicer merchandise can be used as currency in titty bars. The ladies were really cool to me, and they got me all fucked up. Over an hour passed in between our set and the next bands set. By the time they started playing I already had a few shots and a few beers and the night just sort of shifted into cruise control, but hey this was the first time I had ever been to strip joint so I was having a good time. I sold porn all day, then played metal in a strip joint while watching a girl dance, got mad drunk, and then I even got a couch dance, What a great fucking night !!!

March 09th 2007 @ Hamilton Street Cafe - Bound Brook, NJ
--- Swashbuckle, Ex Dementia, Re-Animator, Bitchslicer, Pattern of Analysis

Pattern of Analysis played first. These guys were really crazy musicians. I think they were going for more of a progressive type thing, but it was kind of difficult to hear. I guess that the guitar amps where quiet and boosted though the PA. So where I was standing up front you could really hear the guitars, especially the lead guitar. This show was the drummers 47th birthday.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set was a lot of fun. I messed up a bunch of shit though When there are only stage lights in front of you, you cannot set the fret markers at all. So when you move around a lot and cannot see the fret markers on top of the sound being a little tricky ... it happens. Better to have fun and put on a good show than to even worry about it though. Yeah, so asides from me not being a even close to a flawless player, it rocked. We were supposed to play third but since Re-Animator was stuck in traffic and had not yet arrived, we played early.

Re-Animator played third. They were a lot of fun, playing some really good horror thrash. These guys were originally supposed to play second. Apparently on their way to the show from Baltimore they got stuck in a lot of traffic and ended up arriving hours late. We were suppose to play with these guys in NY over the summer but they ended up not being on the show. Upon talking to these cats after wards they where telling me that this was the singers second show with the band, his first show being less than a week earlier. I also found out that these guys are really young and all still in high school. I am probably going to record a demo for these guys in early April.

Ex Dementia played fourth. This band is Bad Ass !!! They did the fake blood thing, had a good time, and played some brutal horror thrash. Their new CD was supposed to be out for the show but it got delayed so that didn't get them until a few days later. I was into these guys before hand from the music I had listened to online. So hopefully we will play some more shows with these cats again and I will get a copy their new CD soon.

Swashbuckle played fifth. Swashbuckle was AWESOME !!! Three guys dressed up as pirates, with all sorts of various pirate props, there own DIY light show, playing some really really good thrash metal. It was fucking great, and even more than that it was fun. We are hopefully going to be playing with these guys again in May. I am actually listening to their CD right now as I am writing this. It is also very killer. Almost every other track is an traditional themed acoustical interlude.

This was a really great show. All the bands stayed for the whole show, hung out together, and watched all of the other bands which is very rare. I wish more shows were like this. The venue was pretty awesome. It was a cafe / theater that spanned the inside of three store fronts. The first was a cafe, the second was the venue, and the third was a room of couches and pool tables. The drive up was fairly uneventful accept for Justin driving through the EZ pass lane and not paying a toll, which was pretty funny. Then we got to the venue before anyone else and had some old German guy from the market next door yell at us for turning around in his parking lot. After load in we got a super Hawaiian pizza across the street and then we just took it easy until the show started.

February 24th 2007 @ Victoria's Basement - Philadelphia, PA
--- Sacrificial Blood, Bitchslicer, Scareho

Scareho played first. Scareho is awesome. They are such a laid back group of guys just having a good time. Before they began to play their first song, they introduced themselves as Bitchslicer. Musically what they are doing is pretty straight forward rock-n-roll. Lyrically the songs are all about crack whores, strippers, drugs, you get the idea. They grow on me more every time I see them. It was really cool to finally play a Bitchslicer show with them, we played a lot of shows together when I was in the Crawlspace Brothers.

Bitchslicer played second. Our set went really good with very minimal sound issues. It was a lot of fun getting to play a basement show again. The overall vibe is almost always way cooler than playing in bars. The very first Bitchslicer show was in a west Philly basement, then we played a basement in MA on tour this summer, and I think that's it, everything else has been bars.

Sacrificial Blood played third. I listened to their set sitting on the couch right above where they where playing, the set sounded good and tight. I normally make it a point to watch the other bands and all but I was feeling kind of nauseous after we played, so I just chilled on the couch upstairs. We are playing with them again in March so I will definitely see them play again.

The party was fun, although it would have been a great deal more fun if I didn't have to worry about getting the gear home and then getting up at 6AM afterwards. The people who had the party, and most of the people that I met there, all seemed pretty cool and very laid back. The overall night was really good.

February 19th 2007 @ Bar Noir - Philadelphia, PA
--- Rich Hillen Jr., Shifty Shane Jenkins, King Gary, Kermit Hell Lyman III

Kermit Hell Lyman III played first. Kit is amazing !!! He should not have played before me, HAHAHAHA. One really cool think about his set is that he played a lot of songs that I know really well from the CD's I have of his, but he did a few of those songs really different.

King Gary played second. At the last minute I decide not to play most of the set that I had prepared. I ended playing more of a slow, sad, old country set. It was fun but I fucked up a lot of shit. I think I am going to retire the Waylon cover "We Had it All" that I been doing, I love that damn song but both times I tried to play it live I really fucked up the singing pretty bad. I played a few songs of mine that I had never played out before, With Death Tonight, So God Damn Long, & I ended the set with a really slow, sad version of Willie Nelson's Whiskey River.

Shifty Shane Jenkins played third. Shane's set was awesome as usual. I think he played pretty much the same set as the last time we did an acoustic show. He yodels, he plays harmonica, he covers DAC & Hank, what more could you ask for.

Rich Hillen Jr. played fourth. Rich did more of his own stuff rather than doing a mostly Crawlspace Brothers set like the last few times I have seen him play solo. He has this one song Called "I hate to play in bars" which is pretty funny, and it really does some up what its like to play in bars.

Overall it was a fun night. It's pretty weird starting over with these acoustic shows. I played my first metal show when I was 15, and I played my first acoustic show when I was 30, & let me tell you ... it is so fucking totally different !!! Asides from me being too critical of my set and a couple idiots annoying me at the show, it was an amazing day. Before the show Meany & Rob came down and took me out for sushi and bought me a whole bunch of beer since they couldn't come down for birthday last week. After my set I got pretty drunk on free beer and whiskey at the bar. The bar tender was really cool, he told me that my set reminded him Uncle Tupelo, whom I have never listened to, but he meant it as a compliment though so hopefully it's cool stuff.

King Gary's Set List
01 - So God Damn Long
02 - Nails in My Coffin (Ernest Tubb)
03 - Lost without You Blues
04 - With Death Tonight
05 - Danielle's Eyes
06 - We Had it All (Waylon Jennings)
07 - Jerkin' Off, Drinkin' Whiskey, & Watching Porn
08 - Whiskey River (Willie Nelson)

February 17th 2007 @ Old Maple Inn - Honey Brook, PA
--- Primal Embrace, Neocracy, Black Baccara, From Dissension, Bitchslicer, Warhawk

Warhawk played first. They opened their set with a cover of Judas Priest's "Electric Eye". They were very young, and they were playing a very late 80's style thrash set. I think they said that the were from York, PA. One of the best things about their set was that they did a Slayer cover, and it was NOT Reign in Blood, they did Die by the Sword. For some reason everyone covers Reign in Blood. I traded CD's with them after our set, and their demo was really good. It sounded just like the live set.

Bitchslicer played second. I felt that we played pretty good but it was a little bit weird. The room itself muddied things up a little bit and there were a few tricky spots. For some reason it felt like our set didn't really get going until it was almost over. But it seemed to over pretty good, I think everyone that did not hate us, love us it seemed. We sold a bunch of shit afterwards. Apparently we blew out one of the mains during our set. I apologized when the sound guy told me that and he laughed and said "no, you where doing something right" that was pretty funny. After our set was over and the next band was setting up, I heard some one say "Now it's time for some Real Metal"

From Dissension played third. These guys where really tight metalcore with a lot of energy. Cool guys too, pretty laid back.

Black Baccara played fourth. The one dude from this band booked the show and invited us down to play. These guys where also really tight metalcore. Good energy.

Neocracy played fifth. These guys were totally mind blowing !!! Five guys playing really really crazy music flawlessly as they all went totally ape shit. Musically they where a mixture of everything metal. Really nice guys too. I bought the CD after their set was over. The CD was cool, but it was nothing at all like the monstrous live set these guys put on. Neocracy is one of the best live bands I have ever seen !!!

Primal Embrace played sixth. I felt bad for these dudes. The first band started at 9:00 PM, and it was a little after 1:00 AM when they started their stet so the place had thinned out a bit. I think that they did have a group of people to just come see them though. They where also very tight metal core.

After our set the bar manager came up to me and said "I don't think Hank would've done that way". I think that might be one of the funniest thing anyone ever said to me about our set. There were some older people at the bar just drinking and hanging out and a few of them came up to me afterwards and commented on how they enjoyed our Hank Williams cover. That was great !!! Overall it was a good time, but I definitely think that a lot of people who were really into the metalcore stuff did not like us at all. I also don't really think that the bands were very into us that much either but they where still cool.

February 11th 2007 @ Sky Bar - Somerville, MA
--- Psycho, Hirudinea, It will End in Pure Horror, Bitchslicer

Bitchslicer played first. We played a really good set, not as good as Friday but still solid. Justin detuned his bass to play a Returner song during sound check and then never tuned back. He did not realize this until we began the first song of our set but after the first few notes he adjusted.

It will End in Pure Horror played second. They kicked ass !!! They where a lot better than on Friday in Philly. They began their set with a moment of silence for Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Half of their set was just Rich basically doing stand up comedy, and at one point he and the drummer where just making fun of each through the PA system for about two minutes.

Hirudinea played third. They were very tight, and put on a good show. There was something about the sound with these guys though, it was really hard for me to tell what they where doing. I was close enough that I wasn't really hearing them through the PA so I guess that their on stage volume was actually pretty quiet maybe ???

Psycho played fourth. Psycho was fucking awesome !!! They where doing a sort of a thrash punk kind of thing with a lot of energy, and really short flashy metal guitar solos, a perfect mix of great elements. This band originally formed in 1981. You got to give it up to a band that is over 25 years old. They where all really cool guys too, i really hope we get to play some more shows with them in the future.

It sucked that our Saturday show in Rochester fell through, but besides that it was a great weekend. The drive up to MA & back to PA was fun, but pretty uneventful. We drove right to the show, crashed at Joe's (Not Common Records), and then woke up early and drove home. Asides from a lot of interesting conversations, one of the highlights on the way home was Justin turning me on to some old Stevie Wonder. He said that the early to mid 70's was his best era. I had only ever heard a few radio hits from later periods that where not that interesting, but the older stuff was amazing.

February 09th 2007 @ Tri Tone - Philly, PA
King Gary's 31st Birthday Party
--- Humanasaur, Bitchslicer, The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers, It will End in Pure Horror

It will End in Pure Horror played first. They put on a really fun set, though I think they where too harsh for most of the people at the show, which is a shame. I think more bands should be and should have this much fun while playing. They are kind of a spastic thrash punk style band with grind vocals. They call it power-violence.

The World Famous Crawlspace Brothers played second. The Crawlspace Brothers currently consists of Rich Hillen Jr. by his lonesome. He played a solo TWFCB set. Rich is awesome. He almost didn't make it to the show but at the last minute he pulled it together. He went over really well playing in between heavy bands.

Bitchslicer played third. I felt like our set kicked ass. Everyone there really seemed to be into it. I think this was by far the best show we have played since Justin joined, and quite possibly one of the best to date. The set was tight and lightning fast. We added a new song to the set also "Lycanthropic Fellatio" the title track off of the newest CD. Kit (from Slumlord) came up and sang "Drag my Own Coffin to Hell"

Humanasaur played fourth. AWESOME !!! They where so thick and heavy it was just crushing. As a two piece they used to sound like a crusty basement Neurosis, but as a five piece they have a bigger, fuller, smoother sound. Kind of stoner / doom type sound but not really coming from the same place as most stoner doom bands.

Today was one of the best birthdays I can remember having. My family came down for the show, the "Sex with Sharks" shirts came today, and we all went out for BBQ before the show. The show kicked ass, there was a decent turnout, and everyone had a good time. We sold a bunch of the new shirts and CD's that we just got it.

February 03rd 2007 @ Alexander's - Fleetwood, PA
--- Bitchslicer, Shotgun Facelift, Kickface, Seduce the Machine

Seduce the Machine played first. They weren't bad, it kind of seemed to me like they are maybe going for something that they haven't quite nailed yet. They where heavy but the songs all really slow and really long, so it started to really drag on. They looked pretty young though so maybe this is there first band or something ??? They did pull the dickhead band maneuver and as soon as they where done playing the whole band packed up and left.

Kickface played second. Good, Tight, Heavy Metal. These guys had a very Pantera / Soulfy type of metal going on. They had good energy, & and an AMAZING drummer !!!

Shotgun Facelift played third. These guys where awesome. There bass player was not there so it was a drummer, guitar player, & a singer. I would say they where a really straight forward with a sort of Pantera / Cannibal Corpse kind of feel.

Bitchslicer played fourth. I think we played a lot better than we did last week here.

This show was offered to us last minute, two days before hand. Apparently the first band also played last minute. Not many people where there and most of the ones that did show up left after the first band. It's always fun to play, but it wasn't much of a show.

Bitchslicer Set List
01 - Porn of the Dead
02 - Streetwalker
03 - Night of the Living Bourbon
04 - Re-Penetrator
05 - Gangbang at Necropolis
06 - Sex with Sharks
07 - Yeti
08 - Drag My Own Coffin to Hell
09 - YCH (Hank Williams)

January 27th 2007 @ Alexander's - Fleetwood, PA
--- The Current, Bitchslicer, Order of Merlin, Shifty Shane Jenkins, Tina Olson-Wilkins, King Gary

King Gary played first. My set was a disaster. I had not played my acoustic guitar through an amp since the last acoustic show in November. I had forgotten that the input jack needed fixed (thanks to Rich Hillen Jr.), so whenever I moved around the guitar would cut in and out. On top of that, about halfway through the set my "singing voice" blew out and my five note range was then reduced to a two note range. I don't think any one really noticed but still I cut two songs from my set to get it over with quicker.

Tina Olson-Wilkins played second. She played solo, singing over a clean electric guitar. I can't really think of anything to compare her to. Justin had mentioned thinking she had a sort of Liz Phair feel but not as dirty. She said this was the first time she didn't have to open the night by playing first.

Shifty Shane Jenkins played third. His set was good, he kicked ass with the harmonica & yodeling, although he only played six songs.

Order of Merlin played fourth. They sounded way heavier live than I was expecting from listening to their online recordings. These guys are great !!! They have not been together that long & this was the their third show. All of there songs are roll playing game inspired so it just had this really fun feel to it. I guess they where saying it is called "Wizard Rock", I will have to look into that.

Bitchslicer played fifth. Our set went pretty good. There was definitely some fuck ups, but i think that most of the shit is so fast that no one ever notices. This was our first show with Justin, & he had a lot of fun so it was a success. He has been having a lot of fun jamming with us but iI think that this show sealed the deal. He is 100% on board. We hadn't played any shows since July 12th so it felt really good to play out, it is like we are a real band again. We added 2 new songs to the set that we had never played out before "Street Walker" & "Gang Bang & the Necropolis"

The Current played sixth. They where really tight and they had a lot of energy ... but what they are doing is just not my cup of tea. Sort of a Metalcore type thing. I don't think they where that into us either.

Overall it was a great night !!! The long scenic drive out to Alexander's was pretty amazing, although we spent most of the time convinced we where not going in the right direction because of how far out in the middle of no where it was. Originally Shane & I were only going to do acoustic sets since we were offered the show before Justin began playing with us. After Finding out that we now had a Bass player, Mike from Order of Merlin asked us to do a Bitchslicer set also.

King Gary's Set List
01 - Nails in My Coffin (Ernest Tubb)
02 - Lost without You Blues
03 - Danielle's Eyes
04 - Whiskey Bent & Hellbound (Hank Williams Jr.)
05 - Jerkin' Off, Drinkin' Whiskey, & Watching Porn
06 - We Had it All (Waylon Jennings)

Past War Journal Entries ...
2002-2005, 2006, 2007, Current