Howdy BLUNT folks!

So we’ve hit that time of week again where you’re either still plodding away at work or just getting home from school. Either way, it’s a drag and chances are, you’re probably bored shitless.

That’s where we come in.

Here’s five finds from the Internet (thanks, YouTube) to brighten up your day.

Dave Grohl gettin’ slizzard in Holland

Is there anything Dave Grohl can’t do? If you answered, ‘develop a sitcom’, then you’d be all kinds of wrong, as word on the street is that the ex-Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman is teaming up with comedian and ex-Simpsons writer Dana Gould to develop a new comedy series for the cable network FX. While you’re holding out for that, here’s a clip of Dave back in his Nirvana days “gettin’ slizzard” in Holland, because drinking alcohol is totally what you do in Holland.

Epic Stage Fall Fail

So this guy exists. You know anything with the word ‘fail’ in the title is going to be good. Say what you will about Fred Durst, but he’s certainly had an impact on lonely white-guy rappers. Dare you guys to mimic this crowd at Soundwave when he and the Bizkit take to our stages this month.

Limp Bizkit Live at the 2001 Big Day Out – “Break Stuff”

Okay, now we’ve got Fred Durst on the brain. Everyone’s favourite nu-metallers are coming here and we’re just a little too keen. Let’s all watch this clip and pretend it’s 2001 again. Here’s hoping they sell red caps at the merch tent. Seriously.

Enter Shikari – Arguing With Thermometers

Here’s the most recent vid from the guys you can blame for the bunch of bands pushing and shoving to get on the electronicore bandwagon. Key difference? These Brits make it work. Check out Rou’s take on Ron Burgandy and, accept nothing short of complete reversal. Dig deep! \m/

Falling in Reverse – I’m Not a Vampire

Mothers better lock your doors and hide your daughters. Much to the delight of the female staff here at BLUNT, Ronnie Radke is apparently single. To make you feel a little better about the fact that he and his killer new band, Falling in Reverse, didn’t make the Soundwave bill, here’s the vid for “I’m Not a Vampire” featuring bimbos, rehab and of course, a shirtless Ronnie. Enjoy.

That’s all for this week! Next week, more cats.

To prepare you for the imminent arrival of one of the better bands in operation today, Polar Bear Club, to our fine shores, Blunt asked their tour manager, the mysteriously monikered “Tracker” – a man of dubious social skills and debatable human worth, to pen a little something to wet your proverbial whistles. As it happens, the man can actually write quite a nice story, bile aside, and is very adept at consuming tall cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, skills everyone should look into developing.

Here is an artist’s impression of Tracker.

Here we go, kids. My name is Trevor. I don’t know any of you and you certainly don’t want to know me. However, I work for an American band called Polar Bear Club and in light of their upcoming visit to your lawless country, I thought it best we get better acquainted. Well, I’m not actually making the visit in January, I’ll be back home too busy enduring a soulless winter and working a separate job that along with alcoholism and a pack a day cigarette habit will surely acquaint me with an early, much needed grave.

 We here at Blunt care for our readers, thank us later.

• Was actually a comedy and they changed the title at the last second under studio pressure to 2012 from Squashed By Stuff.
• Spells the end of John Cusack’s career as we know it (aside from running from explosions and having romantic PG rate conversations with middle-aged chicks in parks).
• Tried to set up a Battlestar Galactica of the Sea sequel
• Danny Glover will do anything if you pay him enough money (even Lethal Weapon 4).
• You can drive a limousine through a crumbling building and land a mad jump out the other side and your whinging kid will still like your ex’s new boyfriend more than you.
• We’ve got morals and want to save everyone but if we’ve got to keep the plot moving then fuck you all – this plane only seats four.
• The aircraft carrier falling on the white house was cool
• The waves going over the Himalayas was shit. Those motherfuckers are 8 kilometres high!
• LA sliding into the Pacific ruled
• The new husband getting squished was lame
• China shifting to under the plane sucked
• The volcano was cool
• Outrunning pyroclastic flows sucked
• Amanda Peet is hot.
• Thandie Newton is hot
• Woody Harrelson – awkward.
• Danny Glover – too old for this shit
• John Cusack – nonchalant about suicide
• Little boy – fiending to be the moodiest teen ever
• Little girl – stoked on dry underwear
• Rich people – suck
• People of earth, you are going to burn…unless you’ve got 1 billion dollars then you’re sweet (I think we already knew this)
• Woody Harrelson loves playing a kooky bonghead (we don’t think they even had to pay him)
• All Russian people are fat, rude and rich
• Mistresses always have ugly little dogs (shit gets lonely otherwise…hmmn wonder who Dorothy was bangin’?)
• Sony movie characters really like Sony Computers, Sony Playstation Portables, Sony MP3 players, Sony underpants…
• You can blow up Planet Earth and still make a boring movie
• The Chinese are undisputedly the world’s leaders in manufacturing
• Keeping secrets is easy even if you need to build 7 gigantic boats that hold 100,000 people each in 3 years in hollowed out mountains
• John Cusack can outrun anything God can throw at him.
• Flying planes is easy. Even giant Russian cargo ones.
• Conspiracy theorists drink Pabst Blue Ribbon
• Don’t worry, the dog survives. Wait, wasn’t that Independence Day?
• Will Smith did not get offered a ticket to the ark, spelling the end of an era scientists have dubbed “The Big Willyithic”
• Dust will fuck your shit up
• Audiences are totally cool with burning planes and exploding skyscrapers now…

In the latest edition of BLUNT, we caught up with a recently reformed The Get Up Kids. For the uninitiated, The Get Up Kids were one of the most influential emo bands of the ’90s. Hitting Australia as part of the mammoth Soundwave Festival in February 2010, for those just discovering the band off the back of the 10th anniversary reissue of Something To Write Home About (Vagrant/Shock), here’s a rundown of five of The Get Up Kids’ most essential tracks and where to find them.

“Stay Gold, Ponyboy”
TGUK’s early stuff was rougher than the ultra-poppy songs they would go on to write. This track, from their first LP, shows off their ‘80s punk influences as well as their sensitive tendencies.

Find it: Four Minute Mile (Doghouse, 1997)

“Mass Pike”
From the super-cute keyboard ‘n’ drum machine intro to the sing-a-long lyrics and the rocking chorus, this obscure, EP-only cut is The Get Up Kids at their poptastic best.

Find it: Red Letter Day EP (Doghouse, 1999)

“Holiday”
The opening track on the band’s seminal second album has it all: power chords, a massive rhythm section, tight vocal harmonies and killer lyrics about love gone bad. Flawless.

Find it: Something To Write Home About (Vagrant/Shock 1999)

“Newfound Mass (2000)”
The original 1997 version of this song is fast and abrasive, but the re-recording – included on TGUK’s rarities album Eudora – is a slow piano track. The saddest song they ever recorded.

Find it: Eudora (Vagrant/Shock 2001)

“Wouldn’t Believe It”
After their low-key 2001 album, On A Wire, TGUK returned with this killer single, the first from their Guilt Show LP. A perfect marriage of their punky beginnings and the more streamlined rock of their later days.

Find it: Guilt Show (Vagrant/Shock 2004)

For the full story, pick up a copy of BLUNT Magazine #85, onsale in all good newsagents throughout Australia and New Zealand until December 9, 2009.
Dan Stapleton

In amongst all the office moshing, we at BLUNT mag are actually secret gangsters. Every first Tuesday of the month we come in wearing our XXXLest jeans, freshest Timbs and sit on the front gutter sipping Henny and rollin’ dice.

So with our ears still ringing from SLAYER we c-walked up to the Enmore Theatre to peep the unstoppable Wu Tang Clan and Lil Jon. 
Some bizarre bogan version of Lil Jon was spitting mouthfuls of backwash into the front row which probably explained why the crowd was so thin just before the King of Crunk hit the stage.

A booming “YAYUH” came from backstage and Lil Jon burst out, no crown, no chains, no pimp cup. The lackluster crowd punctuated the disappointing stage show. Probably subdued by the realisation about four cuts in that they only knew “Get Low” and the rest amounted to a weird dude yelling “WHAT!” over admittedly brutal basslines.

With the dirty south’s finest finished they climbed past their comically huge pile of used towels soaked with sweat from all the hard crunking and made way for the Wu.

The lights dimmed, the crowd packed in, and as if a vent was opened on cue the unmistakable smell of a hiphop show descended in a haze across the venue. 
Despite the tax man catching up with Method Man in the US, Ghostface rolling on his own these days, ODB DOA and U God and Masta Killah deciding it would be best if they didn’t show up, the Wu put on a huge show.

RZA, GZA, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Dj Mathematics and about ten other massive dudes in equally massive shirts hyped the hell out of the Enmore. W’s were flying everwhere, bodies were bouncing, heads were nodding and everybody was getting in on the party. Most of the verses from missing members were handled by the crowd and it started to feel as though the Enmore crowd could put on its own Wu Tang show next year as long as it could sort out a DJ and a decent PA.

All the anthems from 36 Chambers came out and the crowd blew up. An awkward hush started to descend on the 8 Diagrams material, which they thankfully picked up on and brought back da ruckus. The crowd was left baying for an encore that never happened but we can’t stay mad at the Wu.

As we shimmy shimmy yo’d our way out of the Enmore we couldn’t help but wonder what a group of black dudes from the slums of shaolin getting a few thousand Aussies to yell “nigga” represented. We’re going with “a damn good time”, but we still don’t get how it works.
Wu Tang Forever

Glen Downey
Photography by 1ovakynd

DOUBLE DRAGON’S OCTOBER 2009 SLAYER & MEGADETH AUSTRALIAN TOUR DIARY by Matthew ‘Roady’ Johnston ( Rythm Guitar, Double Dragon )

All photos property of Double Dragon, taken by Sven Sebonkira

Wednesday 7th October 2009 – Brisbane

Jase (Bass), Roady ( Rhythm Guitar ) and Lee ( Vocals )

Morning. Hmm, what to do today? Holy fuck, that’s right: me and my band Double Dragon are touring with fucking Slayer AND Megadeth! And the first show’s tonight, in Brisbane! Fuuuuccckkk! Ok, let’s do this shit. So we’re up nice and early, jump on the plane for Brissie, and before we know it we’re in the sunshine state pumped and ready to kick off the most awesomest tour of our lives! We pick up our Tarago (a black one – badass!) and I whip out the good old Double D GPS so we can navigate our way around, but lo and behold, Lee’s taken the memory chip out of the fucker for some reason and the stupid thing won’t work. Good one cunt! So we rack up a GPS through the hire company and we’re off for a cruise around the city. After too much difficulty finding our backpackers lodge and then being told we wouldn’t be able to pick up the keys for a couple of hours, we think fuck it and head down to the Riverstage to check it out and see what we’re in store for. And when we get there, whoa, fucken cool!

Riverstage crowd, pre – show

Riverstage has to be one of the raddest venues in Australia, and as we watch the road crew setting up Slayer’s backline (like 30 Marshall quads!) it hits us that this is pretty massive. There’s also Slayer’s massive steel eagle stage prop that sits above the drum kit, and we’re all like little kids full of excitement knowing we’re in for one hell of a tour. After Slayer finish their soundcheck Kerry King keeps on jamming by himself, riffing out, squealing and dive bombing like a madman. It’s pretty fucken cool. After that, it’s Megadeth’s turn, and there’s the new boys Chris Broderick, James Lomenzo and Shawn Drover, but no Mr Mustaine? What the! Eventually Dave rears his head and the band punch through a few numbers fine tuning their stage sound. In the meantime our mates from Queensland band Lynchmada have turned up with their gear for us to borrow, so we keep ourselves busy setting up and making sure we’re ready to go. Before we know it doors have opened and not too soon after it’s time for us to hit the stage.

Roads, Lee – Riverstage

We burst out with one of our newer songs, a thrashy number called ‘Blood’, and things get off to a killer start. The Brisbane city skyline looks down over us at this awesome outdoor venue as we rip through each track, and the crowd makes us feel very welcome. Definitely one of the most special shows and places we’ve had the privilege to play. After we finish our set we venture out into the crowd with some of our friends and witness Megadeth play an absolutely blistering set. Benny from local band In Death is drunk as fuck and as funny as ever, and Azzy from Stage Of Integrity rolls us 2 fatty’s that get all of us off our tits. Hell yeah! Slayer round out the night with a typically brutal Slayer show and we’re all pretty pissed and having lots of fun. But it ain’t over yet, cos we’re playing a set at the Slayer/Megadeth after party down at the Stepp Inn. We get there just in time to grab a yiros (that’s a kebab to anyone not from SA), set up and rock out for a few headbangers looking for some more metal. But to be honest we’re all tired as shit and after we sink a couple more beers we decide to call it quits and head back to our room. Once we’re there we open the window and smoke a butt-load more ciggies and shit, and talk about how sick the day had been! Nighty fucken ni-nights Brisbane. Tomorrow, Sydney!

Thursday 8th October 2009 – Sydney

We’re up relatively nice and early, a little tired but ready to kick some more heavy metal ass. We try to air our room out as much as we can but the nice girl at the backpackers’ knows we’ve been smoking something. Luckily she’s cool about it, even though she says she usually goes mental haha! She musn’t have been able to resist such a loveable bunch of bogan fucks! When we rock up to Brissie Airport, as is often the case our flight is delayed. Fortunately it’s only a brief delay so we grab a bite and chill in the flight lounge with our iPod’s. Thank buggery for my Ricky Gervais podcasts: kept me entertained the whole tour. We get to Sydney and after we pick up our Tarago (a white one – gay!) head to our city lodgings and meet our old Sydney mate Macca. The cunt’s half pissed already and we’re happy to see him, especially when we procure a little greenery off him. While our driver / drum tech / photographer / general tour bitch and good mate Sven (from Adelaide band Sebonkira) pisses off for some special time with a local lady friend, we chill out in our room for a while smoking up and talking shit. But soon enough boredom gets the better of us and we decide to roll on down to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion for some more backstage action/rigmarole. The Hordern is one of Australia’s most legendary venues and for the first time we get to see why. The joint is fucken huge, and tonight’s show is sold out so we’re definitely up for a pumper! Our Sydney bro’s from Switchblade turn up with their gear for us to borrow (featuring Picco’s brand new $15,000 drum kit! Dan, why don’t you get one of those!), and we spend a few hours chilling making friends with the touring crew and smoking lots of cigarettes. After we do a quick line check and a song or two to make sure everything on stage is set, we head backstage to sink a few brews as well as do an interview with a local community radio station. Showtime arrives not long after. We hit the Hordern stage and the reception is great! The walls are shaking and the sound is probably better on stage that it had been in Brisbane. Despite our darkest fears of being booed, bottled, knived, viciously tortured and unceremoniously slaughtered by die-hard thrash fans on this tour, we receive a good response from Sydney’s metalheads. We replace a new slower number called ‘Cut the Cord’ we’d played the previous night with a faster, new track ‘All Hail The Executioner’, and the decision pays off. The momentum builds all the way from start to finish of our set, and we leave the stage proud to have laid it down. The rest of th
e night is spent watching the headline bands both absolutely nail it, drinking up with old friends (hey Daysend fuckers!), and new (hey random bogan fuck that wouldn’t shut the fuck up!), Lee getting a mate of his kicked out by security TWICE, smoking up through a can with Danny D in this big fuck-off safe at the back of our dressing room, and finally grabbing beers and wine from Megadeth’s room after they’d left the show and heading back to our room and partying until we passed out. And oh yeah, Jase spewed in the shower and then down the side of his bed. Good work you beast. Hate to be the miserable cleaner cunt who found that!

Dave Mustaine – Megadeth

Friday 9th October 2009 – Melbourne

Another day, another city, and another flight delayed. We eventually land at Avalon Airport not too late to greet our dear Melbourne friend Ali (who works for a car hire company and hooks us up, Thanks Ali) who’s come to meet us and pick us up in our hire van. But this time, it’s not a Tarago: it’s a friggin Hyundai Imax, and it’s goddamn huge. We sprawl out for the drive back to Ali and her hubby Dyl’s place, and once we get there we chill out, shower, have something to eat, and watch Pineapple Express. Yeah,

James Lorenzo – Megadeth

pretty funny Rogen you cunt! We’re borrowing our gear from the boys from Melbourne band Union Buries Its Own tonight and their guitarist Brad wants us to get down to Festival Hall relatively early to meet him. So rather than fuck over our mate who’s helping us out by making him wait for us, we cruise into Melbourne and to the venue early and load the equipment in. Using a Peavey 5150 tonight! Shit yeah, love Peavey’s .Well, we’re here heaps early, and we don’t need to soundcheck for a good 2 or 3 hours or so, we find the nearest pub and knock back a few pints. Along with our fuckhead mate Jase (from Adelaide thrashers Truth Corroded) and his lovely missus Cass we all wander up the road to the closest bar we can find. It’s pretty shit, selling overpriced meals and overpriced beer, but we do our best to enjoy the drinking experience as much as we can, and we do alright actually. There’s a few business types as well as some random metal cunts floating around getting in early for the pending thrash festivities. It’s good to just hang out with our mates and have a few drinks, but as much as we’d love to, we can’t piss on all afternoon. We roll back to Festy Hall for soundcheck and plenty more sitting around doing fuck all, until the time creeps up on us again, then bam, it’s showtime once more.

Lee – Festival Hall Melbourne

Festival Hall is a huge cavernous fuck off building, and although I’m not overly stoked with my stage sound tonight, as a band we pull through a strong set which the crowd seems to be digging, with plenty of cheers as we finish each song. By the time we leave the stage just over 20 minutes later it’s good to know we rocked hard and hopefully won over a few new fans. After we pack up all our shit we all grab a beer and scavenge what we can from the backstage catering area. Curry tonight I think it was. Mmm, delicious! We hang with our friends and watch some Megadeth in between the occasional drink and ciggy. By the time Slayer hit the stage we’re all ready to see the evil thrash masters completely crush the headbangers of Melbourne Metal City, but after the band tear through their opening track ‘World Painted Blood’, Tom Araya softly announces to the crowd that he’s lost his voice and he won’t be doing much singing tonight. What the fuck! This is unprecedented. And it’s the first any of us knows of it. The band soldier through a few numbers mostly instrumentally with Tom mouthing the words to the rabid moshers up the front, occasionally singing a chorus or catch phrase. We’re all standing on the side of the stage having a beer watching on when in between songs Tom comes over with Slayer’s cool-as guitar tech Warren (Wazza!). They want to know if Lee knows the words to Slayer’s recent single ‘Hate Worldwide’. He tells him he knows the chorus and will give it a go, and next thing Slayer is playing and our crazy cunt vocalist Lee is centre stage singing for them! It’s fucken unbelievable! Lee jumps into the front row of the crowd and gets the mosh all screaming along and going nuts, and it’s pretty friggin crazy. When the songs over he comes offstage with possibly the biggest grin any cunt could ever have haha. Nice work you big old cock. A couple other guys get up to sing various Slayer songs including this cool bogan dude who pretty much got the shit beaten out of him by security, therefore earning the right to sing ‘Angel Of Death’. And he did a good job too. That was pretty cool. After the show the boys cruise back to our mates’ Dyl and Ali’s to chill, and me and Sven venture off into Friday night Melbourne with a few hometown friends who’ve come over for the show. We spend a few hours drinking up at the Cherry Bar, and heyyy, there’s James from Megadeth. What’s happenin’ dude! Our flight home is at 6:30am and we’re trashed as all fuck but luckily our mate Tanya gives us a lift to Tullamarine Airport just in time to meet up with the remaining Double Dragon fuckers. We’re back in Adelaide by about 7:30 and after a quick good morning / welcome home / see you cunts later sesh everyone fucks off  their respective ways. Good times. But it ain’t over yet. Seeya tomorrow pricks!

Sunday 11th October 2009 – Adelaide

Holy shit. Hung over. And not enough sleep. Fuck. Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day. Instead last night we had drinks at my place. A few crew came round and we got pretty smashed. So rest day? More like first opportunity to get completely fucked up without having to catch an early flight the next morning day haha. It doesn’t take long until we start hearing the rumours that Slayer aren’t gonna be playing tonight because of Tom losing his voice.

Tom Araya – Slayer – Festival Hall

Lee calls me and confirms it’s true, but the show will still be going ahead: we’ll just be playing an extended set. A bit disappointing, especially for the young metalheads of Adelaide who’ve never previously had a chance to witness Slayer kill. (Lucky for me I’ve seen them 7 times before; 8 by the end of this tour! ) We all do our own thing until early in the afternoon when me and a friend of mine Rowan cruise down to the venue Thebarton Theatre to hook up a couple of Slayer’s crew guys Warren and Norm with a bit of the local produce. (Apparently Lee racked them up with a fuckload more later so they must have been rolling in the shit haha.) Wazza rolls a fucken mad joint and today I think I’m the most toasted I’ve been since this tour began. After going home again for a while we all tur
n up late in the afternoon ready to devastate another show Double Dragon styles, even though it sux pretty bad that Slayer aren’t playing. After

Jase and Roads – Thebarton Theatre Dressing Room

Jase rolls up in the nick of time after making us stress he wasn’t gonna make it, we do our quick soundcheck then occupy ourselves getting stuck into the grub backstage again (Amazing! Everything from stir-fry to Caesar salad to carrot cake, and Lee’s personal favourite, the garlic Barramundi fillets). After that we waste time hanging out in our dressing room until it’s time to go. When we do take the stage it’s totally cool. Thebby Theatre, although being the smallest venue of the tour, is probably the raddest one to play. It’s an old building with fuckloads of history and  character, and with our hometown audience cheering us on it’s wicked. We open with ‘Black Sails Of Armageddon’ and the vibe is good right from the start. And fuck is it loud! Our trusty sound guys Pete and Nick have pumped the fuckers out of the sound system and the whole building is rumbling. After

The legendary Nick

our set we all cruise off and do our own thing. I personally spend my time between hanging around backstage swigging on free beers, drinking up with mates at the venue’s front bar, watching Megadeth from the seats at the back of Thebby with my missus, and going out to my car for the occasional smoke. Megadeth play a flawless set yet again and everyone who’s come to see them seems pretty stoked. It looks like a few people have decided not to come since Slayer have pulled out, but there’s still a decent crowd and everyone here seems pretty satisfied with a good night of metal. A small entourage of us hit up the after party at the Enigma Bar and it’s good to catch up with a few crew, but between the small turnout, the drastically depreciating value of my bank balance and an old acquaintance and his mates wanting to kick the shit out of me for something I really shouldn’t have done 9 years ago, the few of us still remaining decide to head back to mine for whatever drinking, smoking and shit talking we’re still capable of. Lee’s off his face and brings one of his mates I haven’t met before around, then at the end of the night when everyone’s hammered and going home, he fucks off leaving his mate behind. And typically, he’s unreachable on his mobile. Cunt. Oh well. I’m too wasted man. I’m going to bed. Nothing personal, but I hope you’re not still here when I get up in the morning.

Jase and Davin ( Lead Guitar ) Thebarton Theatre – Adelaide

Tuesday 13th October 2009 – Perth

Ok, so I get up once during the night for a slash, have a quick look, and the dude’s still in my house passed out on the couch. Fucking excellent.  . But I go back to sleep and by the time I eventually drag my ass out of bed the next day he’s gone. What a relief. He wasn’t a bad dude though. His name’s Mike. Hi  Mike. Anyway, that was yesterday, so after another day off spent doing bugger all other than smoking up and watching a few DVDs, Dan, Davin and his girlfriend spend the night at my place, then first thing Tuesday morning we’re all back on another plane headed for Perth. We’re all still pretty tired and there’s a bittersweet vibe as this is the last show of the tour. Our flight departs Adelaide at 8am and we arrive in Perth just before 9am, even though it’s like a 3 and a half hour flight. That’s what time zone differences and daylight savings will do to you. Fuckers. We pick up our van and fang it to our Perth hombre Lea’s house, where once we’ve scored our required greens we spend the next few hours chilling and generally doing fuck all. Some of the boys head down to the local mall to grab some food and grog while Sven and I waste the day relaxing. It’s pretty boring waiting around doing nothing, so we decide to go wait around and do nothing at the venue for tonight’s show, Challenge Stadium. I mean come on, if you’re gonna be bored anywhere it might as well be backstage at a Slayer and Megadeth show, right?

Perth metalheads!

When we turn up Slayer are soundchecking so we know for sure that despite fears Tom’s voice might not have recovered yet, it looks like they will be playing tonight. He’s not singing but he, Kerry, Jeff and Dave are all up there thrashing out, and it’s possibly the loudest thing I‘ve ever heard! The next couple hours we mill about smoking joints with Warren and some of the other Slayer crew, knocking back a few beers that I hadn’t seen before (Greens or some shit), and meeting up with and grabbing the equipment we need of our mates from Perth ye olde metal band Claim The Throne. Yet again performance time creeps up on us and we have our last team huddle behind the stage psyching ourselves up for this massive final show of the tour. The sound guys are nowhere to be seen but we have to play, now! As the clock hits 7:15pm we hit the stage and unleash with first song ‘Blood’ for one last time, but it instantly hits us something’s not right. The ear splitting volume rumbling the very foundations of Challenge Stadium we experienced during soundcheck isn’t there, and it’s clear that the PA isn’t pumping our music out into the massive venue. Halfway through the song our monitor guy Nick comes from out of nowhere and with one touch of a button the gigantic sound system springs to life. The crowd’s confused faces disappear as they let out a giant roar of approval. It’s a rewarding recovery, and from there we give our all to hit Perth’s metalheads with a hard dose of Double Dragon heavy metal. This place is absolutely massive and still gradually filling up as we grind through our set, and by the time we’re finished we’re happy to leave the stage knowing we gave our very best every second we performed this whole tour. For one last time we enjoy the rest of the night hanging out with our local buddies, cruising around backstage and watching both Megadeth and Slayer absolutely decimate. And let’s not forget catering haha. During Megadeth’s set we make our way upstairs to the dining area and are greeted by a young waitress who asks us ‘Chicken or Salmon?’ This is  cool! We all stack up our plates full of bread and vegies and whatever else is on offer while we wait for our meals are brought out to us. Now this is heavy metal road life with style! And all to the fine dining sounds of Megadeth live haha. Then someone discovers that we can rack up free JD’s and cola’s (2 at a time!) and waddaya know, it’s drinking time. For one last time I sit there with my booze on the side of the stage and watch one of my very favourite bands of all time (Slayer!) completely annihilate the Perth crowd with their unrelenting thrash metal attack. It’s kinda sad it’s
almost over, but it’s been so fucking amazing I couldn’t ever regret a single moment of it. The show ends, and after our singer Lee gets up to some no good backstage antics with Dave Mustaine and the Megadeth boys, we say good bye to all our old and new friends including the production staff, the U.S. and local crews as well as the Claim The Throne gang. Then we head back to our mate Lea’s place and for one last time we have a fat session and sink a couple of post Slayer / Megadeth tour beers. Pretty sure I can die happy now. It’s been the most incredible experience of our lives and we can’t thank every single one of the cool people around Australia who made it so rad for us enough. I’m guessing life is pretty much all downhill from here, haha. Cheers, and METAL!!!!

Roady
Double Dragon

Melbourne International Arts Festival and VICE films have joined forces to present an exclusive screening of Heavy Metal in Baghdad. But the action doesn’t stop there. To celebrate the widely acclaimed film about Iraq’s only heavy metal band, doom metal duo Black Cobra and local black metal crew Ruins will hit the stage after the screening for a very metal after party that will take place at Beck’s Rumpus Room on the 14th of October.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad is feature film documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day. Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible, but that hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2003-2006, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire
generation of young Iraqis.

To celebrate this film we will be throwing a party after the screening paying homage to all things METAL, featuring black metal band Ruins and doom metal duo Black Cobra (USA).

Black Cobra (USA) – Southern Lord recording artists Black Cobra who hail from the ‘City of love’ San Francisco, have been delivering the goods since 2002. Renowned for their super low-end sludge riffs and hard edge touring ethic, Black Cobra have created quite a name in the underground doom metal scene. Black Cobra are a duo featuring guitarist Jason Landrian and drummer Rafael Martinez, Raf also plays bass for Acid Kind, another Bay Area sludge metal favourite.

Ruins (AU) are a black metal band from Hobart, Tasmania. They blend an ominous dark-death metal dynamic amidst their powerful, menacing and melancholic, yet eerily seductive black metal style; with a venomous, and summoning vocal presence. The writing/recording nucleus of Ruins consists of guitarist/vocalist Alex Pope, formerly of the post-punk noise-rockers Sea Scouts; and drummer Dave Haley, currently also drumming with Psycroptic and Blood Duster. Both have also recorded and performed with The Amenta, and various other groups and projects over the last decade or so.
+ DJ Manticle.

Check out all the action at Beck’s Rumpus Room on Wednesday Oct 14th.