Metal memories

[Eoin McLove]

Dunno if this is a good idea for a thread or not, or if it's in the right or wrong place, but I just remembered seeing Griftegård live at Dublin Doom Day whenever that was and being floored by them. I liked the album, no doubt about it, but I think the songs took on a whole new depth and power live. They sounded slower to me, and more stripped back than on the album,  and came off as being darker, heavier and more compelling. I remember there was a real sparseness to the sound, and I mean that in a good way, with the great vocals soaring with absolute power. It was a mesmerising gig and one I haven't thought about in a long time.

Another one, slightly more silly, that comes to mind was down at Day of Darkness in around 07 or 08 and myself and Open Face Surgery,  drunk as mules, sitting in my old purple Ford Ka (what??) and singing along to Footprints by Warning. Possibly twice in a row... then getting out of the car and chatting with the singer from Graveyard Dirt, and between him being fucked and me being fucked and him having the strongest Donegal accent in, eh, Donegal, I couldn't understand a fucking word. But sure, we had a laugh all the same 

What sort of silly, funny, profound or otherwise memories do you have around this little subculture of ours?

[ochoill]

Ah jesus loads, even if some of them might be a bit detached.  One I think of a lot is that Enslaved / Zyklon / 1349 gig in the Village years back, maybe 07 or 08 again.  Great craic with good people but two things are etched into my mind forever - the lad from 1349 setting his face on fire during their intro by mistake, and lads getting sucked into the zyklon moshpit at the speed of the strobe light from the edge of the crowd.  And also the bass cutting during the kick in of "Fusion of Sense and Earth" in Enslaved's set but we'll forgive that.  A fun and deadly gig that I can't forget.

The first Siege I attended too - Easter 2010, when they were still in Baker's place.  Having been to a good load of the gigs in the Precinct (ahh Metal After Mass) I had assumed this would be similar but all day, few local heads and pints, but I was met with cracking weather and hundereds of lads on a monumental rip across the three bars.  It was serious festival atmosphere, too hammered to deal with living before the sun even went down but somehow stayed going.  It is also sealed to my memories.

[Eoin McLove]

Another one springs to mind. It was around 91 or 92 so I was 9 or 10 and walking through town with my parents. I was proudly wearing my new Metallica 'One' tshirt and feeling like a proper little rocker and three or four older rockers (they were probably 14 or 15 which was old and wise to me at that age) walked by and threw me the horns. I felt so cool 

[Paul keohane]

Ah jesus loads, even if some of them might be a bit detached.  One I think of a lot is that Enslaved / Zyklon / 1349 gig in the Village years back, maybe 07 or 08 again.  Great craic with good people but two things are etched into my mind forever - the lad from 1349 setting his face on fire during their intro by mistake, and lads getting sucked into the zyklon moshpit at the speed of the strobe light from the edge of the crowd.  And also the bass cutting during the kick in of "Fusion of Sense and Earth" in Enslaved's set but we'll forgive that.  A fun and deadly gig that I can't forget.

The first Siege I attended too - Easter 2010, when they were still in Baker's place.  Having been to a good load of the gigs in the Precinct (ahh Metal After Mass) I had assumed this would be similar but all day, few local heads and pints, but I was met with cracking weather and hundereds of lads on a monumental rip across the three bars.  It was serious festival atmosphere, too hammered to deal with living before the sun even went down but somehow stayed going.  It is also sealed to my memories.

id still rank that Enslaved gig in my top 5 all time gigs,incredible.

[Abandon All Hope]

Central Bank Steps And A shit Load of Boss Cider   

[Eoin McLove]

When I think of the Central Bank steps it makes me remember why I didn't get more into black metal in the 90s. The BMers always seemed so dorky to me with their leather tench coats, leather pants, New Rocks and jewellery. It was too gothy and fruity looking for me back then. I liked a few bands but it wasn't till later that I got into it properly, and I was allergic to that sympho Dimmu Borgir stuff, although I'm more open to it now.

[hellfire]

When I think of the Central Bank steps it makes me remember why I didn't get more into black metal in the 90s. The BMers always seemed so dorky to me with their leather tench coats, leather pants, New Rocks and jewellery. It was too gothy and fruity looking for me back then. I liked a few bands but it wasn't till later that I got into it properly, and I was allergic to that sympho Dimmu Borgir stuff, although I'm more open to it now.

I often thought I was better off not having a metal scene or metal friends around me when I was younger. Other peoples personalities could put you  off a lot of things. I also listened to a lot of hardcore and other odds and ends back then too without anyone taking the piss out of me.

[Eoin McLove]

Oh yeah, I listened to hardcore and punk too. It was just a big mix of anything that was current that caught my ear, some good, some awful in retrospect.

[astfgyl]

Ah jesus loads, even if some of them might be a bit detached.  One I think of a lot is that Enslaved / Zyklon / 1349 gig in the Village years back, maybe 07 or 08 again.  Great craic with good people but two things are etched into my mind forever - the lad from 1349 setting his face on fire during their intro by mistake, and lads getting sucked into the zyklon moshpit at the speed of the strobe light from the edge of the crowd.  And also the bass cutting during the kick in of "Fusion of Sense and Earth" in Enslaved's set but we'll forgive that.  A fun and deadly gig that I can't forget.

The first Siege I attended too - Easter 2010, when they were still in Baker's place.  Having been to a good load of the gigs in the Precinct (ahh Metal After Mass) I had assumed this would be similar but all day, few local heads and pints, but I was met with cracking weather and hundereds of lads on a monumental rip across the three bars.  It was serious festival atmosphere, too hammered to deal with living before the sun even went down but somehow stayed going.  It is also sealed to my memories.

id still rank that Enslaved gig in my top 5 all time gigs,incredible.

I had great craic at that one myself. Thought Zyklon were brilliant. One of my favourite metal memories from being a young chap is making the odd pilgrimage to the Sound Cellar where they actually had all the metal albums I ever wanted. I used to hope I'd grow up to be one of the lads leaning on the counter in there

[Eoin McLove]

I have two funny memories of Onstage Music, a little second hand guitar shop that used to exist on Abbey Street. Judas used to work there at one point and myself and my friend used to drop in from time to time as young lads.

One day we are in there and Judas corners us and asks us if we know Wasp.

Yeah.


I have Blackie Lawless's circular saw armbands in my gaff if you want to buy them?

Eh, no thanks...

Just think about it. You're at a gig and someone pulls out an iron bar to smash over your head. You say, hang on a sec, run home and grab your blades and chop the fucking thing in half!

I pissed myself and legged it 

Another time in there and I'm pricking around on a guitar. I go to put it back on the wall and it slips off the hook, flips around and slides face first down the brick wall, thumping onto the floor! The owner just looks at me and shakes his head.  I stick it back on the hook and leg it out the door. I expected him to make me buy the fucking thing but perhaps it didn't occur to him

Another time in Sound Cellar, a quiet Saturday morning and Tommy starts chatting to myself and my mate. He tells us this mad story about some lad who used to be in there all the time and has all the Slayer albums on vinyl. He takes them out to clean them one day and his dad, walking by, accidentally kicks them over.

No word of a lie, lads... He burnt the fucking house down!

I pissed myself and legged it 

[Pentagrimes]

The Chaos Descends bunk bed incident will stay with me as long as I live

[Lurker]

Death in McGonagles Feb 92.The whole show was in doubt right up to when Chuck took to the stage fairly late.They crammed two nights into one in what was surly a record crowd for the venue,any more would have been Hillbouroughesq. Pestilence were a no show with loudblast providing very solid support.I have yet to experience an atmosphere at a show that comes close to when Death began.Nine tunes of the most seminal death metal ripped through  in 40 odd minitues with Chuck at his  menacing best. Not a very active frontman but the intensity from the head of him when balefully scanning the crowd was a wonderful  thing.Even with a short set/no encore everyone left satisfied and seemed to recognise it as a special night,all the more poignant for what was to follow

[Carnage]

Why so short, were his health problems starting then?

[Bürggermeister]

Death was quite reasonable compared to the two Ozzy gigs. They were insanely packed. It was gas afterwards when people looked like they were gently smouldering coming out of McGonagles with the amount of steam billowing off them into the night.

A memory of that Death gig, though not quite so fond, was after the gig. There was a bit of violence outside, and I had no money for the bus so was walking home, and headed onto Dawson Street to start making my way south.

As I neared the end of the street, a lad pegged it by me, shortly afterwards followed by the same group of cunts who were fighting outside the venue. They headed towards the top of Grafton Street after yer man, so I cut across to the Green. I was going towards Harcourt Street anyway. Just as I got across the road, I saw the last one of the group had turned around and started walking my direction.

Bollocks.

He started the "Were you lookin' at me?" shite. It sounds stupid, but I had gotten a stick from Reinert at the end of the gig and my first thought was "How do I get out of this with this stick?" which was hidden up the sleeve of my leather jacket.

I noticed more of the pack had stopped chasing yer man and were now coming over too. I was 6'3" when I was 16 and usually avoided shit like this as a result. I was fucked now, though.

I was making it very clear to the first guy that I wasn't looking for trouble, was just walking home because I had no money even for the bus.

"Yeah, you were, you were looking at me!"

I was now circled, all the cunts had cone over. Again, I just repeated that I was walking home and wasn't looking for trouble. They were just waiting for me to make a move. They just wanted a reason to kick my fucking head in.

The first guy now changed course. "Gimme your jacket!"

The stick!!!

I continued to repeat the same line, not looking for trouble, just walking home.

First guy put his hand in his trackie top pocket. "Gimme your jacket or I'll knife ye!"

Ah fuck.

"I'm not looking for trouble, man, I'm just walking home."

At this point, one of the circle, probably seeing there was no sport in this hunt, intervened and said to them "Ahh, he's alright! I know him!"

He turned to me and said "You're alright, John, go on." and nodded at me to move on. I'd never been called John before, but I was happy to be John right then.

I mumbled thanks to yer man and walked to the memorial gate of the Green and, once out of sight, ran in a manner I was never capable of, before or since, to the far end of Harcourt Street until I could barely breathe. I still kept walking, though, and didn't stop for another 6 miles or so until I got home.

I still have that fucking stick, all the same.

[Eoin McLove]

The Chaos Descends bunk bed incident will stay with me as long as I live