A Head-Banging Good Time
The Roxy Theatre, West Hollywood
Before I met my late husband Kaz I was never a huge fan of heavy metal music. I had never even been to a heavy metal show. I liked some of the older groups that fall into heavy rock or early metal like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Alice in Chains, Metallica, Black Sabath because this was "music I can still sing to." The bands that sound like men screaming at the top of their lungs accompanied by high-pitched-shrieking guitars and mile-per-second drums did not fall into that category.
Being with Kaz changed all that. Not only did he love heavy metal but his best friend was the lead singer of a well-known metal band. Needless to say, I was exposed to a lot of thrashing music when we were together, recorded and live.
The first metal show he took me to was a band called The Sword. He described them as "trippy metal" with lyrics about forrest nymphs and other mythical creatures.
Here's a link to their song "How Heavy This Axe" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9KbmRTgigQ
And another one to "Winter's Wolves" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYCreOzCxP8
I listened to them a little before the show but still didn't know what to expect. Live shows are completely different. Was I in for an experience! The energy of the music was so powerful and loud, I could feel it pulsate in every part of my body. Every head in the 300+ crowd bobbed up and down at the same exact time, myself included, enhancing the music to create this synchronised throbbing pulse. Up near the front of the stage, men were running into and bouncing off of one another in a swirling testosterine-filled mosh pit. Truth be told, I had been in a few mosh pits as a teenager (I once lost a pair of eyeglasses at a Butthole Surfers show), and had forgotten how cool they can be to watch, if not participate.
Afterwards I told Kaz "that was amazing!" and he laughed. We went to several other shows after that. I didn't grow to love the music to the point of listening to it by myself, but I did love going to the shows.
This past Saturday was no different. I went to see his best friend's band perform at The Roxy. That's him in the picture above, in the far distance on the left. After I took this I actually went all the way to the front, to the edge of the stage. People were pushing into me, sort of pinning me in place. I didn't care. I loved watching the band from this close. They bounced and stomped around the stage, sweat pouring down their faces, fingers moving so furiously to the point of blurring, their long hair bobbing up and down with the beat, every now and then catching the light. It was exhilerating, cathartic, and reminded me of Kaz in a way that made me smile.
To get an idea of the energy at these types of shows, check out German band RAMMSTEIN in a much larger venue with more make-up and theatrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shq39kWglZ4