Kreator last week at the House of Blues in Hollywood was great. Young and old alike came out to thrash, and thrash they did. I have the bruises to prove it.
But I wish I had proof of something different: Mille Petrozza’s ridiculous stage banter. If I had known he would be such a comedic goldmine, I would have rolled (digital) tape. His stage banter wasn’t brilliant, in the Frank Mullen or Mikael Åkerfeldt sense. It was brilliantly bad, in the Paul Stanley or Joey Belladonna sense.
I loved it. The man has been doing it for 25 years. He’s probably used the same stage banter for the last 20. It has a lot of “Hello, Cleveland!”-type regional blandishment. I can’t believe crowds still fall for this trick.
The best moment was when Petrozza asked for a “California-style moshpit”. I wondered what he meant exactly. Usually when you ask for something California-style, it comes with beans and guacamole. Perhaps he meant a Crips and Bloods-style shootout. My mental image of a “California-style moshpit” is a laidback group of folks wearing flip-flops and eating burritos.
I wonder if Petrozza uses that line wherever he goes. In Baltimore, does he ask for a “Maryland-style moshpit”? What would a Russian-style moshpit look like? I imagine that a Texas-style moshpit would be a terrifying melee of ex-football players carrying concealed weapons. An Italian-style moshpit would have fashionably dressed metallers carrying little Lavazza cups.
Cultural stereotypes are fun.
d00d don’t knock the California-style pits! With all the sunshine and scantly clad women we have a lot of aggression to release. If I have to sit at this beach and stare hot girls jogging for one more minute, I am going lose it. And we don’t eat burritos, we throw burritos bro.
Mille did use the Hello Cleveland style stuff in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago. “You guys are crazy!” Good show with Voivod and Nachtmystium.
Yup, in Toronto Mille demanded a Canadian-style moshpit, which I can only assume means that all participants apologize to one another upon contact. Dude needs to shut up and just play music. It’s embarrassing, really.
maryland style moshpits!! Maybe people should start bringing some live crabs and old bay
We got calls for a Montreal-style moshpit here. There was also banter about Montreal being their second home, which was probably mostly bullshit, but Mille did talk about how Voivod brought them over for their first North American tour so maybe there’s something to it. Doubt it though.
Mille milks the “Flag of Hate” run-up banter bone dry every time they play it. By the time they finally get to it I don’t even want to hear it anymore!!!
(witness a relatively tame version of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-72pK5Sc04)
Although I didn’t hear Mille call for a “Chicago style moshpit” the 3 times I’ve seen Kreator live, a “Chicago style moshpit” would involve a circle pit of beefy south side dudes throwing around Vienna beef hotdogs and deep dish pizza.
when I saw them with Exodus and Warbringer a while back Petrozza was hilarious as well. he told this one anecdote about doing an interview where the journalist asked him whether he was serious about all his violent lyrics and content, and he told the journalist “no no it’s not serious, we’re about peace and love” then he pauses dramatically and says “but I lie to the motherfucker….” and introduced pleasure to kill. it ruled.
Back in August when I saw Kreator Mille REALLY milked the flag of hate build-up. It went on for like ten minutes because he wanted everyone joining in. Fun though.
New Jersey moshpits: Blood and axe body spray
Our moshpits here in Kentucky involve being mounted on horses and intoxicated on bourbon, y’all.
Absolutely did this at the Palladium show in Worcester. I don’t think he knew how to pronounce/understood the concept of Massachusetts because everything was “HELLO WORCESTER, NEW ENGLANDDDDDDD!!!!!” Also kept asking for the biggest pit in the history of the Palladium even though they were playing the tiny upstairs bar area.
Last year Mille asked us if we were “ready for 85 minutes of terror and violence?” How great, huh? Not 90 minutes or an evening of terror and violence, but a perfectly prescribed 85. Classic. Mille also liked to name-drop the venue rather than the city (“feels fucking good to be here at the Corazon”)
What a great band. Dudes played it up like they were headlining Wacken.