Noise Pollution #36: Loose Ends
I woke up in the guest bed of our host, Mark Laksey from Black Sorcery, sometime early Sunday morning with my bassist cuddled up with his arm around me. At this point I decided that being an early riser might have some benefits, so I got up and showered and dressed, then dozed–on the floor this time. The night prior was to be the last time Krieg would perform at Dusk, in Providence, Rhode Island. By all accounts, it was exactly like every other time we’ve gotten a chance to play there, minus me being so hungover I couldn’t stop puking. I don’t think I’ve actually ever woken up there after a show without regretting the night before.
I don’t really have any bands to talk about, outside of the two we played with in Philly, so like previous times I’ll just insert shit I’ve been listening to lately. The new Khold just came out and it scratches that black n roll itch as they always tend to do.
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Mike, the gentleman behind Knife Hits Records and the excellent Rid of Me, was our driver/merch guy for this run and when I came outside I found him in the van looking like a fucking ghost. Apparently overnight he had succumbed to illness and was just fucked. It was decided that instead of being fancy and going for brunch that we’d haul ass back to Philly so he could go home and recover.
I’d forgotten just how excruciating the drive back was, and somehow every single time I’ve ever been up that way I end up having to get gas at the same small gas station in Connecticut. This time was no different. On our previous trip to Rhode Island, at the dick tip of 2014, we had to endure some old golfer pestering us if we were in a band and then talking about his buddy’s cover band “rocking” or some other shit that had me looking for a local law officer to ask them to turn their gun on me.
Blacklisted’s No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me is an absolute fucking downer of a record, so obviously it’s been in heavy rotation here.
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I haven’t spent much time in Philly the last few years, normally I’ll just drive up in the morning for recording and head back to Richmond that night so there’s certainly things I’ve been missing like Sit and Spin Records and Primo Hoagies. I missed both of those this trip as well but I did get to Kung Fu Necktie early enough to walk around the neighborhood a bit. Krieg hasn’t played Philadelphia since the Decibel Metal and Beer Fest in 2017 or any headlining shows since 2015. Considering this is basically home base for us it, meant I was going to see a lot of people and that’s the sort of thing that takes a lot of emotional energy when you’re not used to dealing with people who you don’t work with, the assholes who are your customers, or your toddler.
Fortunately I was able to ease a finger into the night by stopping and grabbing dinner and seeing Philly fixture Brian O’Neill, who generously bought me dinner without even hinting that I needed to put out, which helped my social anxiety somewhat.
Kung Fu Necktie is probably my favorite place to play in the world. Granted, no one really wants to see us outside of the United States anymore so it’s a bit like saying the Superbowl champions are champions of the world. I’ve probably played there six or seven times, seen countless shows there, snuck in and watched Doom do their soundcheck-which was basically their whole set, watched Urfaust play in front of like nine people, etc., etc. Every time I’ve played there has been special, and with us not playing there in years this night had to be even more so.
This meant having to focus on curating the right sort of night, which makes me sound like an even bigger asshole than normal and trust me, I’m with you. The first band that came to mind when planning this out fucking nine months in advance was Bastard Cröss.
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Bastard Cröss take elements of black metal, thrash and punk, forcing that cocktail into a woodchipper and light whatever’s left on fire. I’m generally pretty uninterested in a lot of the bands that try (or have tried) to do this style ever since Osmose and Necropolis dumped out dozens of these bands in the late 90s before moving on to other genres. I don’t remember much of the music, just Sharlee D’Angelo’s teeth on every magazine cover at the time. But there were a few like Bewitched or Gehennah that emerged from that whole mess of Witcherys and what have you, that were absolutely sincere quality. That was a long winded way of saying Bastard Cröss fits that bill. I was excited to see them and they did not disappoint. Razorwire riffing with soaring leads and just a truly authentic approach to black thrash. Would love to hear a full length sometime soon.
I might have said before that this whole endeavor fucking sucked to put together. I could always go back and look but I don’t want to add clicks to previous pieces and give the false impression people actually care beyond hoping I accidentally posted a band with a sketchy past. (Fun Fact: Probably!) Trying to replace Cathedrals in the Night, who inconveniently broke up before the shows without wondering how it would make me feel, was a fucking task because it seemed like the only bands who might be available fucking sucked (unless it was your band, your band is great) but Unholy Altar were brought up as an idea and after I did a little digging, decided they would be perfect.
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A part of the new crop of USBM who are ignoring the whole flannel/urban/heirloom tomatoes aesthetic the genre has been championing for fifteen years too long, instead opting for a more traditional visual and sonic approach, which is a very pompous way of me saying they’re entrenched in the 1990s black metal style which, if you’ll permit further use of this run on sentence, those of you who’ve read anything I’ve done know I’m deeply appreciative of. They absolutely captured that spirit live, the savage and visceral old school spirit that I grew up with at least a decade before any of them were born. They’ve been in the studio recording their debut full length, which I’m sure I’ll be writing about down the road. Great band, would love to do more shows with them. Same with Bastard Cröss.
I don’t need to go into any detail about Krieg’s performance as this column is not a vehicle for that kind of self promotion (Ruiner available on all formats via Profound Lore Records) but I will say that it was one of my favorites ever. Getting to see a lot of friends and familiar faces and even some absolutely obnoxious shitfaced losers all gathered together after not seeing any of them in years was really special. I hope it’s not another eight years before it happens again.
Ghoëst has been a favorite for dismal dungeon synth for a bit now but his newest, In Eternal Sleep, is easily his best. Hopefully there’s a physical sometime this year.
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Around midnight or so I was packing up the Krieg full fall fashion and accessory line since Mike had Legionnaires Disease when I took stock and noticed something was missing: our check from The Kingsland. Now apparently we’re supposed to be reporting this income to the IRS, which is why venues are giving us checks, but also that was the check that was supposed to cover the bulk of the expenses for the trip that I had paid out, so naturally I was a wee bit fucking concerned. The next day after I made the drive back to Richmond we reached out to the venue to cancel the check and send us a new one. I don’t mean the royal “we” either, I mean multiple fucking people had to contact the promoter about this. You’d think this is something that would be a relatively easy thing to fix, plus I’d imagine they’d want to find out if someone helped themselves to the check and cashed it fraudulently, but no. It took having to put the promoter on blast in multiple places to even get a response, then be thrown into a convoluted email chain about having to wait for some pay period , then going silent until once again being called out publicly. Finally they Paypal’d me, of course leaving the fees for me to pay, and that was the end of it. I remembered thinking that I wouldn’t play anywhere else but Saint Vitus. Then dude got offended by seeing a rainbow and called in about an ordinance and you know the rest. Regardless of the promoter, the Kingsland staff were great and I did enjoy the venue.
That was going to be it for us for a minute, until we were offered to play in Chicago in January with Nächtlich, which was something I had to jump on, but the venue was shut down by the city for some violation I really don’t care about. It was rescheduled to April 13th, but the venue changed hands and there were disagreements and now it’s canceled. I guess not every story has a happy ending this week. Hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to play with Nächtlich in the future and I’ll try to figure out the logistics of a Chicago show, but for now we don’t have shit planned. Guess it’s a good time to write a new record.
Anyway thank you for having the patience to put up with my self indulgence this week. See you again in two. Here’s Bewitched.
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