Tragedy

It is events like this that bring home to me how very vulnerable my favourite artists can be.

I am speaking of the murder of Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott, from Damageplan, formerly of the mega band Pantera. A person, an ex-Marine, walked into a venue carrying a concealed semi-automatic weapon ( a Berretta, not a small weapon), took at least one person hostage, shot three bystanders, and then walked onto the stage. Damageplan was playing to a crowd of less that 300, and they watched this guy put four bullets into Dimebag in cold blood.

I am in some ways sorry that a cop took out the gunman, because we may never know what the motivation was now, but I am not sorry the bastard is dead. I only met Dimebag a few times, very briefly, but he was not such a creep that he deserved to die in this manner. He has a wife and kids in the DFW area, and friends in the music industry throughout the world. My brother Dave and his fellow band members in Machine Head are among them. Everyone I know who has any knowledge of metal music is stunned and very much saddened. It was unreal when John Lennon was shot down, and I knew it within an hour or so. It was unreal when Stevie Ray Vaughn went down in flames, and I knew that almost as fast. I was never a fan of either Pantera or Damageplan, and I am still stunned.

I understand why many people who are famous would prefer to be left alone, and may even go so far as to hide away. I am afraid for those I care about, because there is obviously no limit to the danger they put themselves in when they choose to perform in public. I love going to live music events, but I would give it up in a heartbeat if I knew it would protect those I love. There are just enough people out there who think only of themselves and their own opinions to be absolutely dangerous to performers. Sadly, they cannot be contained to the confines of an arena, where they might be caught. They could walk up to someone on the street and do the exact same thing.

Light a candle for Dimebag, even if you didn't know him or his music. Say a gentle prayer for his family, and bandmates, who have to go on without him now. Remember when you do, for want of better security and luck there go the musicians I love too.

Rest In Peace, Dimebag Darrell.

Rhythm Section Of the Year!

I have had to take something of a hiatus here due to a change in jobs, but I am back!

This last week saw DC on a short tour with Los Lobos and then out to LA for some big thing with industry people. On their way home they will be playing in Tucson with surfer Dick Dale, and then Ozomatli again in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. A swift tour, but it stills takes them away from me for too long.
Silly goose that I am, I actually looked into flying out to ABQ. It's old stompin' grounds for myself and my best friend Casey, and it would've been neat to see the guys out of state for a change.

Now, the reason for the title of this entry: they put Mike up front at the Floore's Country Store gig, and I got to REALLY watch him for the first time. I have always been impressed by this rhythm section, but seeing them work together this well was such a treat!

This is one of the tightest rhythm sections I know of out there right now, though I will admit to a certain level of bias. I daresay that without the right back-up, Del Castillo wouldn't be the powerhouse it is on stage. the intensity of the lyrics, the depth of the guitar playing are emphasized and popped up by the rhythm guys doing the colouring in. Without them, it would be a bit like watching your favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons in black and white line drawings.

Alright, that may be a stretch of a metaphor, but I am of a mind that there is so much dimension to what these guys do. The "average" listener isn't going to differentiate these things. And even a first time listener isn't going to take it in all at once. I sure didn't! I was so floored by the overall intensity that it took me quite a few times seeing them to start picking up on these relationships within the band.

Ah well. I get too verbose sometimes. I forget that the majourity of folks see the whole painting, not the subtleties of the shading. Sometimes it is not wise to stand quite so close to the canvas.
To really get the feel the artist is going for, sometimes one must step back.....just not quite yet for me!

Connections

There is little in the world more intense for a music fanatic than making one-on-one connections with the musicians one admires. Usually, it proves more than difficult, because by the time one gets into a group's or individual's music, fame has put up a wall between fan and artist.
Most of us understand that barrier is for the protection of the artist. We lost John Lennon because of a lapse in that protection, a momentary belief that all was right in the world, and, well, morbidities aside, the Beatles reunion long dreamed of came to a screaming halt.

I have lucked out, as have some other fans around me, and met Del Castillo while things are still easy. The guys come out and do a "meet and greet" after nearly every gig, something which allows them to further touch the lives of newbies. Thankfully, they don't seem to mind being pestered by the "oldies" like me either. Trust is sometimes hard earned when one sees people from a band only at gigs, but that particular barrier seems to be thinning out for me. The talk now is not always about the gig that night, but other things in our lives that have similarity too. That is comforting to me somehow. It makes the guys a bit more real to me, and I hope, makes me a little more accessible to them. I love being able to call my favourite musicians friends. And though the eventual fame I expect to see them climb to may separate us for long periods, I am hopeful that they will remember that my hand is there when they need me.

Mushy stuff aside now, I had a pretty interesting weekend in Houston. The show was one of the most vivid, on-fire performances I have yet to witness. The guys, especially Mike, were just lit up from inside. Anyone who walked out of that gig untouched had to be deaf, or really really drunk. For the second time in as many gigs, the roar that came up from the audience at the end was astounding. I was encouraged by a crew member to help rev up the crowd, but I can tell you flatly, anything I did was probably unheard, save by those closest to me. I do apologize to those individuals (you know who you are, by the ringing in your ears!;); I have got a pretty good set of lungs and sometimes forget the volume I can reach. Comes from years of yelling over bands I worked with.
It was good to see Lobo playing guitar again. It had been awhile. There were also a couple of new tunes in the show, stuff that is not yet on any cd anywhere (ha! now there's incentive to get out and see these boys!) and a couple of older tunes I haven't heard since last year sometime. Though the crowd was, in my opinion, a touch disrespectful during it, I was very moved to hear " Suenos De Ti" in concert for the first time in a long, long time. A short, beautiful tune, I am afraid the subtleties may have been lost to a lot of folks. Don't stop playing though, guys. It is such a moving piece. I am rarely untouched by it, even on the CD.

I tell you what, I may have thought of drummers as insane (or at least nuts) before, but Mikie (Ze-o-li! Ze-o-li!) proved it to the whole crowd the other night! His playing was absolutely manic, and yet he had his usual edge of subtlety too. The hair-raising yell that came out of him during the usually fairly level "Spanish Castle" took me by surprise! And the cool part was that it charged up the others, which raised the level of the tune. It was funny watching all the guys turning to look at one another when the intensity would set one or the other off on a tangent. There was just such fire in the air, and later they all confessed they weren't sure where it came from either.

I have had the

silliest grin on my face for most of the last 15 hours.
Take a guess why.
Yeah, yeah, that Del Castillo band again.
Just when you'd think I would start being a little tired of the same songs, or maybe the traveling, or losing sleep one more weekend, these guys get all rev-ved up (no pun intended, Rev.) and blow me away again.

A-mazing.
That is the only word that works. I did squeal/scream at them a little after last night's gig, because one can only use the same words so many times before it starts to sound practiced and trite. I must not ever do that to these guys. I want them to know WITHOUT FAIL that my devotion to them, my obsession with the music, my insanity of running around this huge state almost as much as they do is directly due to what they do on that stage. I only wish, as a writer, that I could comb through this vast vocabulary of mine and find the right combination of words to come close to emoting what I feel when they are playing.
They stopped me dead in my tracks last night. I was running all over the place doing my best to get some good shots through an awkward stage layout, and they started a new song, "Si, Mi Amor." The drums, the harmonies, the guitar work(of course), the passion and concentration...I stood in one place for 95% of the tune, the dropped jaw on me creeping steadily into an ear-to-ear grin that may well be where the one on my face at the moment started. It was a freshly minted tune they were not too sure about and, my gods, if that is what they're like when they are hesitant about a piece of music, what the hey are they like when they feel they have a good one?!?!
It was an invigorating evening, to say the least. Little by little, the guys are finding out that, though I AM insane (about them) and a bit bombastic, I am also full of nothing but love for them. Angie and Phil and I ended up staying in the same hotel, which was not all that big a deal. While we did see them there, much of the connection time we got was actually before and after the show. We, or at least Angie and I, feel like we must come off as stalkers sometimes. It's that bit about wanting to touch the flame again I guess. Nothing in this life in the last five years has managed to touch me, move me, compel me back toward my own creativity as have these six men, their wonderful crew, tolerant management, tremendously understanding families, ...and that music.

I've managed to have conversations with all the members at one time or another, but lately, it has been stretching out into more indepth convos. Last evening was a long talk with Bert, back in A & P's hotel room, until bloody well 2 AM. Poor man! We had a tremendous talk about music from Bob Wills to Bauhaus and found such amazing common ground. It is astounding to me how much I share with these people in musical interest, the levels of involvement and curiosity, and the interest in still finding out more. We are all from very different time periods- I am 6 years older than Bert, and about a decade older than Angie and Phil- and different cultural inputs ( I watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in '64, Bert was stuck with AM radio for many years and P & A came into the music scene from a younger perspective than either of us) ...and YET...we still connected and wanted to continue . I think we would've talked for hours had it not started so late. Those are the kinds of connections I love making with anyone, but especially musicians I appreciate. Bert once introduced Rick as having two tons of soul, but I can tell you, Bert's got a fair amount himself. Well, hell, just listen to that bass line sometime. That will tell you mountains about him easily.

I really must go get some sleep before Monday morning creeps up on me unawares.

The things I do for this band....

My feet hate me at the moment. And my lower back ain't too keen on me either. All this due to a Halloween costume worn to a Del Castillo gig on Friday. Two and half inch heels on the boots. Lace up leaher skirt that cut into me something fierce by the end of the night....
At least it was a tremendous gig, and I got a lot of really good photos.
They are on my webshots site already, due to a quiet Saturday night. Good thing too, 'cos my feet STILL don't like me......

https://community.webshots.com/user/jazzpjd

The guys are going to have a special audience member next weekend, so many of us are traveling to Dallas to witness for her about this band.Wish luck to them. This may be the beginning of their trek out into the world. The world needs them. So do I , but sometimes one must look at the bigger picture. These fellows are messengers of peace, light and love. No single person should try to stand in the way of that, but rather be behind them in support.

You have mine guys. I love you.