And here’s the moment you’ve all been eagerly anticipating. Following their triumphant return to the stage last year, the legendary Pittsburgh band is back for another show — their only scheduled appearance in this area this year — as well as a brand-new album and line of merchandise!
Without any further delay, here’s a series of questions and answers I exchanged with guitarist/vocalist Brian “Goodbread” Lawrence…
Hello folks, and a happy Friday to you! Just when it felt like it would never happen, the weekend’s finally here. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be an especially good one, because there’s a ton of amazing shows and events happening! I’ll have more on that later, so stay tuned.
One of them in particular stands out, though — tomorrow night at the 31st Street Pub is the first date on the joint headlining tour between Relapse Records artists 16 and Tombs. That by itself is reason enough to get excited, but opening the show will be two of my absolute favorite local bands, the heavy doom armada that is Molasses Barge and Steel City sludgelords Vulture!
I’ve only seen Molasses Barge once before (and it was over a year ago! — read more about that here), and (believe it or not) although I’ve been listening to Vulture for a long time, I’ve never had the chance to see them play live yet! So needless to say, I’m really looking forward to this show. I’ve already got my tickets (they can be ordered here) but if you don’t, it’s just twelve bucks when you show up at the door. More info on the show itself can be found here.
Anyway, in anticipation of this event, I decided to get a couple of interviews lined up. If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you may have picked up on the fact that I often tend to focus on drumming while listening to music. It’s just the way I hear things, I guess — and I don’t know if it’s because I play drums (occasionally) or if I chose to play that instrument because it’s something I pay a lot of attention to.
In either case, the drumming in each of these bands’ genres is one of the main things that attracts me to those particular styles. So, it only seemed natural for me to talk to the two bands’ drummers. Here, then, are the questions and answers from Molasses Barge’s Wayne Massey and Vulture’s Kelly Gabany…
I haven’t really seen a lot of press about this, but fortunately I just happened to stumble upon a post by The Gates of Slumber on Facebook which referred to new tour dates… as it turns out, the Indianan colossi of epic doom metal are heading out across the country, beginning tonight (21 May) in Cleveland and tomorrow night (22 May) in Pittsburgh!
It’s been about a year now since the band released their latest album The Wretch (their fifth, not including a whole slew of EPs, splits, and demos), and the critical praise just keeps on pouring in. I’ve been a huge fan of these COTD-ers since 2008′s Conqueror, but haven’t yet had the chance to see them in a live setting. They’ve got such an enormously crushing sound on record, though, I can only imagine it would be a pretty monumental experience. Full dates listed below.
Hello, readers! How are you? I think I’ve officially recovered from the holiday weekend and am ready to get back into the swing of posting updates. Did you have a nice Easter? I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to Ghost, since I finally got around to picking up Opus Eponymous on CD almost two weeks ago. I like it a lot, but I’ve kind of got a funny feeling about it. I haven’t tried slowing it down or playing it backwards or anything, but I get the impression that there might be some kind of hidden evil messages or something. Oh well. Hey, speaking of which, they’ll be coming to town in just a few more days! In fact, they’re just one of a whole slew of awesome bands playing in Pittsburgh over the coming weekend. Just keep on reading for all the details on this show and tons more.
Yes, that Dream Death. The Pittsburgh doom legends from the 1980s. The ones who attained cult status in local metal lore, after they had split up and reconfigured themselves as Penance. They recently posted an update on Facebook announcing that they were getting back together the last line-up of the band (which included all of the founding members except for bassist Ted Williams, meaning that this also includes all the members of Dream Death who later went on to form Penance) for a one-time-only show!
Pittsburgh metal legends Dream Death are reuniting for one show.
This will be the line up of:
Brian Lawrence (Goodbread)
Mike Smail
Terry Weston
Richie FreundWith special guests Argus and one more TBA. 21+
Saturday, April 21, 2012
9:00pm31st Street Pub
3101 Penn Ave. (Penn Ave @ 31st St. Bridge)
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
Update, 5 March 2012:
The band has announced that tickets for this event are now available!
Tickets for the April 21st show are now available.
Tickets can be purchased for $15 at Smails Custom Drum Shop.
www.smailscustomdrumshop.comThe following options are available:
Check or Money Order
Cash
PaypalMake Checks and Money Orders payable to Mike Smail
134 Market Street
Kittanning PA 16201
724-548-4725PayPal Paypal Address is: mike@smailscustomdrumshop.com
** IMPORTANT **
Please include your return address so the tickets can be mailed back to you.
You can find out more by visiting the following links:
Dream Death: Facebook
Journey into Mystery album (CD – rare, out of print!
Pittsburgh Sludge Metal live album (CD
Penance: Facebook
Parallel Corners album (CD
Alpha & Omega album (CD
Argus (featuring vocalist Brian “Butch” Balich, also currently of Penance and Molasses Barge):
Facebook / official website
Boldy Stride the Doomed album (CD
Closer to Hell: Facebook
Read the Valley of Steel profile of this band as the “Sign Me To Roadrunner Records” Band of the Week
31st Street Pub: Facebook
