Where: Jake’s Backroom, Lubbock, TX

Who: Sindel, Violent Vendetta, All Falls Down, SuperJoint

Being the first show on a tour is a great honor: you get to see a band fresh, they keep it loose, and you’re going to have a great time. With Superjoint, you get all this and so much more! Being a very last minute addition, Lubbock kicked off their trek to join Danzig on his Blackest tour that’s starting very shortly, and they absolutely burned it down in the weirdest Anselmo way possible.

Having arrived about 30 minutes after the doors opened, and not exactly in a rush to see the openers (not because terrible or anything, I have just have seen them many times and have written reviews a few times with them in it), and I actually brought ear plugs this time so I could enjoy hearing things later. ANYWAY! I had originally feared it would be packed. Nah, Barry. About 10-20 people early in the show, lackluster, and not due to the bands not trying their damndest to pick the mood up by it’s ears and shake out some enthusiasm. Worked a bit, got people nodding and bobbing.

The turn out was disgusting, and will be railed at in another segment; for now: SUPERfuckingJOINT (RITUAL)!

Set List:
The Alcoholik
2 Songs
Everyone Hates Everyone
The Introvert
Drug Your Love
Haunted Hated
Destruction of a Person
New track, no title, the snippet was heavy as FUCK
Fuck Your Enemy
Ozena
Waiting for the Turning Point

Starting on a fucking power note, The Alcoholik slammed into gear, Bower started to feel it, and Phil did what he does best, lurch into that old southern drawl of a gravel avalanche. The band felt and sounded like it’s heyday, with the newer member fitting right in, with a loose, fun energy that was positively bleeding forth from Phil all night. As the show progressed, he talked and joked to the crowd, talking about feminism, stereotypes, slurs, and youtube, as well as making sure it was known he wanted us to see the concert and not see it through a phone screen. He laughed, screamed, yelled, improved a few extended pieces like the intro to The Introvert where he just seemed to cascade a litany right off the top of his tatted up dome, greasing us for that sludgy dead man’s curve of heaviness the band had planned. At one point, the topic of Feminism, PC, and all things YouTube popped up, and Phil gave us quite the comedy lay down, as he tore it a new one in tradition Philthy English. He hasn’t lost any kind of touch, musically, verbally, or drive-wise, and He is still the proverbial Man on the Silver Mountain. From time to time, he let the crowd’s good mood sweep to him, and he would hand the mike off at repeated shouting parts, rhythmically gyrating as he made the stage his own and stalked around it like a predator looking for a target.

As the show wore on, towards the last 3-4 songs, Phil did call out the insultingly low numbered crowd, telling us we weren’t really into it, that we were just a little flat. Not his actual words. He then told us to imagine that we cheered them on to an encore, provoking the drummer to pop some cymbals and double blast his bass drums, to the crowds chuckles and delight. He then ran through Fuck Your Enemy (? can’t quite remember, as I was by the pit and that’s a full time job watching and dodging), and then profoundly made his views clear on fake performances. THen, he smiled and said, how about a couple more, to which the crowd exploded around me, and then he did that dirty deed known as Ozena, fucking laying waste with some sporadic pit action from some diehards. And then, the sad part of the evening, as he announced only one more…. the sub 2 minute wrecking ball that is Waiting for the Turning Point! One of the best songs ever, and they just demolished with it.

The floor was left sticky from years of neglect, sweat, probably blood, and lets stop thinking about it, the walls were ringing with the sounds of what real metal sounds like, and my amigo, who just had a birthday, got to meet an dget pictures with Phillip H. Anselmo. The Man. The Myth. The absolute real fucking deal.

Below is the gallery of awesomeness that was the show, and the rest of the dates on the tour, including tonight!