BBQ with the Red Chord Part I: Bring your Bowling Jerseys

There was green blood everywhere!!  Let me back up for you... in 2005 I was supposed to see The Red Chord.  Unfortunately, their van broke down and they headed for home instead of to the club.  Meanwhile, I have been waiting this whole time to see them.  Oh, too far back? Fine.

It was a rainy December night in NYC as I walked down to Irving Plaza to see The Red Chord, Job For a Cowboy and the incomparable GWAR.  The evening started off normal enough.  Not only did I get to see The Red Chord play, but I met the guitarist Mike “Machinegun” McKenzie and singer Guy Kozowyk beforehand.  While this does not make up for the four years I have waited to see them, they were rather awesome.  Their thirty-five-minute set of innovative “deathcore” felt like a hearty meal: you thought, “What, there's more? Dude, of course I take seconds!”  With such intelligent lyrics and music performed only the way they can, I was reminded that The Red Chord members aren’t funny, they are witty.  Jamming out "The Bone Needle" to such a degree made me realize by two songs in that the only way to make the Red Chord sound any heavier is to play it live.  While “Prey for Eyes,” “Nihilist,” and “Send the Death Storm” cranked out I was happy as I could get.  They also played a couple of new songs from their fourth album, Fed through the Teeth Machine: “Hour of Rats” and “Demoralizer.”  Kozowyk’s off-color sense of humor only added to the show.  "I wanna see moshing,” he pauses, “and circle pits," the crowd cheers as he continues "and headbanging" more cheering as he pauses again "and barbeque sandwiches!" the crowd cheers even louder, while I'm laughing.  But, to assume that they are merely clowns is foolish.   After all, they were out making contemporary music history while helping to create and hone a new subgenre of metal in their early twenties.  What were you up to?

January  8, 2010

Report, Photos & Drawing by: Lynora

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Irving Plaza
17 Irving Place
NYC, NY 10003 USA

Sunday - December 13, 2009

BANDS:
The Red Chord
Job for a Cowboy
GWAR

BBQ w the Red Chord II:
Dessert with GWAR

[On the last Episode:  “This song is dedicated to the people who are looking at me like I have three heads,” Guy Kozowyk said with a smirk.  “I didn’t want to wear my uniform and embarrass them with my awesome score,” boasted Machinegun McKenzie.  A divided crowd charges each other, and throws fists “like [they] mean it!”]

"You probably think bands who wear their own shirts on stage are lame... well so do I.  Well, we’re not wearing our own shirts," Kozowyk turns away to reveal a 151 on his back with Guy K over it as Greg Weeks their bassist did the same. "This is our Bowling Jersey." Banter ensued between the guitarist Machinegun McKenzie (who wasn't wearing his) and Guy until he turned back to the crowd and screamed, "So who wants to be on Team Red Chord?"  Irving Plaza was willing. "We only take crazy motherfuckers on Team Red Chord. Are you a crazy motherfucker?" Needless to say, shortly thereafter he talked these crazy motherfuckers into lining up and screaming back at him as he screamed one time too many, breaking into "Ant Man" off their sophomore album Clients.   The crowd charged in a wall of death and erupted into one menacing looking pit. If it wasn't for the fact that GWAR was coming out later that night I would have left with a belly full of heavy music -and great comedic timing. But I knew... aliens were coming, and now was no time to leave!
To be Continued...

Job for a Cowboy came on as the couple in front of me entertained me briefly.  “Maybe the second band will be better,” the husky man said to his dainty flower.  I shook my head as I watched him headbang to Job for a Cowboy.  He’d check his girlfriend for approval, bobbing his head less when he could see her disinterest.  Job for a Cowboy pleased their fans with “Knee Deep,” of off their EP Doom, “Constitutional Masturbation” off of Ruination, and one I particularly enjoyed “Bearing the Serpents Lamb” off of Genesis while showing off their smoke machines, or perhaps GWARs.  Live, they entertained me enough, but not enough to rush out and pick up their anthology.   Slow for my taste, like lugging through mud.  It is possible they just couldn’t follow The Red Chord’s energy.  The singer has an interesting voice, bouncing between Cradle of Filth-like screams, and some super deep growls, but unfortunately I didn’t feel enough variation between their songs to feel attached or interested.  If I heard one song I heard every one, which is upsetting-- cause with a name like Job for a Cowboy I always wanted to like these guys, especially considering I’ve heard a lot of good things about them.  But maybe the performance wasn’t as great because of what was happening.  Unfortunately, the most interesting part of the set was hearing the singer Jonny Davy respond to someone severely hassling him up by the stage between every song.  I couldn’t make out what the taunts were, but it got so far under the singer’s skin that it actually made me uncomfortable.  Davy was so mad he literally winged a shoe into the crowd; I’m still trying to figure out if it was his own or if someone threw one up to him.  I’ll give Job For a Cowboy the benefit of a doubt, but hopefully there is more (i.e. some or any) energy the next time we meet. 

Afterwards my cohort and I started to push back for safer ground from GWAR.  (I mean, they have been murdering people on stage for twenty five years).  Irving Plaza taped the floor, monitors, speakers, lights; if they had more time I think they would have wrapped the damn chandelier.  And then it happened!  Footage of aliens from space addicted to crack started rolling on the stage and it was here that I learned some of the magnificent twenty-five-year history of GWAR and their live show.  But! Cardinal Syn interrupted transmission.  Don’t fret though, Gwar came out and mayhem ensued.  There was a villain that appeared.  He was later captured, put down on a torture rack and torn and sawed apart - and there was green blood everywhere!  GWAR, while now classified as metal, still has the strong punk undertone that first influenced them.  The good news is that it makes for crazed fist-pumping fans.  These fans customize their own GWAR/homemade creations by scribbling GWAR on their white shirts and trying to be close enough to be drenched in the blood of GWAR’s enemies!  Meanwhile, GWAR presented poignant questions like: “Where is Zog?” (from their latest album Lust in Space); whether they found him or not (I hope for his sake not) due to some course of events he had his chest rupture for there to be even more green blood everywhere!

There was even a special guest, a zombie Michael Jackson who was cheered on stage for one last dance performance, only to have Oderus Urungus play a game of “I got your nose” that had gone terribly awry!  This resulted in red blood being shot from his skull. Being it was at this time that we were in space; I suppose that American zombie laws and rights don’t apply.  That’s right, in space.  How many bands can take you out there?  Just GWAR, my friends.  While in space, more epic galactic battles were fought, and good news: our “faggotry was cured by the death of the sin baby.”  Thank goodness, I was getting worried.

My favorite part of the show was seeing the eight-year-old boy in his little leather jacket to match his punk father’s jacket.  I lost track of the pair throughout the show, but he ended up on the front of the balcony.  One of GWAR’s minions was busy shooting green blood (everywhere!) and he aimed for the far balcony, nailing a few fans.  And then he set his sights on the balcony immediately to his right, where he was so close he could reach out and touch the fans.  It was here that I saw the boy headbanging to Gwar in between the rungs of the wooden rail.  The boy stopped when he was hit at a five-foot range with the first squirt of green blood (no, it was not everywhere - yet).  I could see his hand all green while he held it up to the minion, shaking his head and hands pleading, “No!”  It was to no avail as he was then bombarded with green blood.  The minion shot down to the rest of the balcony who fled, while the boy sat there with his hands up getting drenched, shaking his fist when the green goo stopped coming his way.

GWAR

The Red Chord

Job for a Cowboy

GWAR, Job for a Cowboy & The Red Chord - US Tour 2009