For those who haven’t been paying attention (though really, if you’re reading this it’s because you already read the first two parts over on Tee Till Death and Vinyl Noize and came over from there; there is an obvious pecking order here), I am bringing to a close my three part review of Sunday night’s Suicidal Tendencies show in NYC. Of course, since this is Absurd Noize, I had to find auctions that would fit both our theme and the review. Thankfully, alamedamusic, rockarc1, and heavy_metal_maniac all have classic 80s/early 90s metal magazine pin ups for me to utilize…
So, as I mentioned in part 1, I wasn’t sure what to expect from ST, having seen them in the late 90s and having been pretty much disappointed. My hope, again as mentioned previous, was for them to open with Can’t Bring Me Down into Institutionalized (ie the 2 best songs), so that if things fell off I could leave at any time. I was told multiple times that this was a long shot. Well you know what? It was a long shot that I should have had money on, cuz it paid off. Boom, first two songs, Can’t Bring Me Down into Institutionalized. I WIN.
Watching from the 3rd floor, it was apparent that I was at a legit concert. The venue holds something like 3000, and if it didn’t hit capacity it probably came close. 6 rows deep of people that I wish I could have been stage diving on pressed up to the barricade before you got to the packed push/thrash pit, no one onstage except the 4 dudes in ST, a giant ST banner (sponsored by Monster energy drink), bouncers all across the front of the barricade pulling down crowd surfers… a lot of bands don’t pull this off, but on this night ST did. They were completely tight and on point, with stage presence galore. For a near 50 year old man who has has a messed up back, Mike Muir was moving back and forth across the whole stage like a man 20 years younger (though he did keep vanishing to the far back of stage right for periods of time and singing from there, I assume for a breather… he was also talking between songs at a rate of about 250 words per minute, so I’m sure it was needed). And were they tight musically? Hell yes.
I know there was no Rocky George, but the 2 guitar players held it down tight. The real stars of the line up for me though were the drummer and bass player. Visually alone they were spectacular: the drummer was a um… large man, almost larger than his drum kit, and was wearing sunglasses for most of the songs I watched, and the bass player not only looked like he walked right out of the Institutionalized video, but he had not one, but TWO raccoon tails on his belt. His bass also had six freakin’ strings! Thankfully he didn’t over do it on the slap bass (though he was slapping the bass here and there, oh yes), but he did have a tendency to take the bass lines for a walk that got a touch distracting as the set went on. Both guys were also awesome at their respective instruments. After about a half hour and no other s/t songs and most of the good jams off Join The Army (who doesn’t mind hearing the riff in Show You No Mercy twice in one night? Heh.), I took a drum solo as my cue to leave. All in all, a total success that resold me on ST live, and hopefully this review series has sold you on at least ONE item, even if it’s just this poster from horridious-2009:
(Thanks for the videos Buske!)
If it’s the same bass player ST had for their tour two years ago, he also plays bass for Snoop Dogg on tour.