Album Review: Helmet--Live And Rare

     Helmet recently released a live album on the German label Ear Music called Live And Rare.  Side A is a set from CBGB's on January 27^th, 1990 and side B is a portion of a set from the Big Day Out festival in Melbourne, Australia on January 24^th, 1993.

     The songs on the LP were from the Meantime era of the band and earlier.  Live And Rare is a snapshot of Helmet in their young, angry prime and when a proper response to their music was to break the closest inanimate object or punch the nearest person in the back of the head for absolutely no reason.

     One of the things this record did was made me really miss Helmet's original drummer, John Stanier. He held that music together and was the driving force behind all of those songs.

     When Page Hamilton put together a new version of Helmet in the mid-2000s, it definitely sounded like something was missing.  That something was John Stanier who went on to play drums in Battles, Tomahawk and Mark Of Cain.

     The newer Helmet records aren't bad records.  I listen to those records regularly and always pick them up on release day but they don't feel like complete Helmet records to me.  It's almost like Page Hamilton held onto the band name because of the recognition or he had several boxes of leftover merch in his garage that he needed to get rid of.  That's perfectly fine to do because trying to introduce people to something new is such a pain in the ass.  I can certainly hear people saying, “Oh, that's the new band from the Helmet guy?  Well, why didn't he just call the band Helmet?”

     In my obsessive fanboy head, all of the songs from the Born Annoying collection through Aftertaste were damn near perfection for not just heavy music but music in general.  Those records are in my DNA and form a legacy that should be protected.  The reformed Helmet records (Size Matters, Monochrome, Seeing Eye Dog and Dead To The World) don't diminish that legacy but they do make me look at it differently.

     Live And Rare also scratched my nostalgia itch.  Listening to that early lineup tearing into those songs live felt like home.  When I first put the record on, I kept flipping it over to listen to it again and again.  I couldn't not listen to it for about three days.  Every chance I had to put a record on, I reached for Live And Rare.

     This record also stirred up memories of a trip to California to visit family in July of 1997.  In support of Aftertaste, Helmet was playing two nights at The Troubadour, with the Melvins and Regurgitator.  I had somehow convinced the powers that be to drop me off on Santa Monica Blvd. for one of the shows.  That show was a much needed reprieve from a week of family fun time.

     There were no hidden unreleased gems on Live And Rare.  All of the songs were previously released and readily available except for the second track, “Impressionable.”  “Impressionable” was available as a bonus track on the Japanese CD version of Strap It On and the Dope, Guns And Fucking In The Streets comp from Amphetamine Reptile.  As far as I can remember, I had never heard that song before.

     Live And Rare does provide a live version of Helmet's cover of “Oven” from the Melvins.  The studio version that I first heard on Born Annoying was my introduction to the Melvins and I had never heard Helmet play it live in the numerous times that I had seen them.

     The album, without question, does accomplish the task of capturing Helmet at their most sonically dangerous.  Legendary status aside, as much as CBGB was a shithole, the club was smart enough to provide multitrack recording capabilities to any band that wanted it, and could afford to pay for it, which is how side A of this record exists.  I am curious to hear what was cut from the Big Day Out set.  Was it mostly duplicate songs from the CBGB recording or were the songs cut for time?  I for one wouldn't have minded two releases but that's just me being a completist.  My wishful thinking would have had the CBGB set as a 10-inch for Record Store Day and the Big Day Out set could have been it's own release.

     If you've ever so slightly bobbed your head or put your fist through a sheet of drywall while listening to Helmet in the 1990s, then Live And Rare would definitely be worth investing your time and money into. The album is available on most streaming platforms but check your local store for the vinyl.  They may or may not have gotten their copies in due to supply chain issues but we all know they could use the sale more than Amazon.

Submachine Filming An Episode Of Beyond Damaged

     Here are pictures of Submachine's performance that I took during the filming of an upcoming episode of Beyond Damaged.  The performance and interview were filmed on December 8th, 2021.  The episode will be posted to YouTube early in 2022.

The crew:

The interview:

The performance:

Review: Bad Religion At Stage AE On November 9, 2021

     Bad Religion played at Stage AE back on November 9^th, 2021.  Ever since the date was announced, there was quite the back and forth in my head in order for me to decide whether or not to leave my house for the show.

     With all of the venue's rules and security procedures that suck the fun out of music, the fact that Stage AE is a concrete shit house where the music sounds better on the sidewalk across the street than inside the building and their 15 percent merch cut, I was not really motivated to give them my money for a ticket in addition to the exorbitant Ticket Bastard fees.

     But it was Bad Religion and another chance to see War On Women so I decided to see how resourceful I could get.  Since I do drag a camera around with me for smaller shows and I do have a tendency to write about music from time to time, I figured I would try to come up with a photo pass to gain entry.

     I reached out to all three bands that were playing, the venue and the promoter and the only one that got back to me was War On Women.  They had no problem with making a photo pass fall off a truck for me. As a “Thank you” I offered up a bag full of vegan treats from local bakery Gluuteny.

     On the day of the show, I made my way down to Pittsburgh's expendable income district with camera and donuts in tow.  I was very curious to see how getting into the building was going to turn out.  I have never had a great experience with Stage AE as a spectator so my expectations were not very high going in as a photographer.  So I was less than surprised when I found their mismanagement spilled over to people coming into the building in a work capacity.  No one had any answers to the questions that I asked about where I was and wasn't allowed to go so I kind of made it up as I went along and behaved in such a way that wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

     The pictures that I took can be found here, here and here.

.     .     .

     War On Women had the set of the night.  I had only ever seen the band at smaller venues when they came through town so I was wondering how they would translate to a larger stage.  I have seen established bands fall flat on their faces when playing in a place that was larger than they were accustomed to mostly because they were too far apart from each other.

     War On Women did have an uphill battle getting the attention of people walking in.  Due to the free cancer screenings and cavity searches that the Stage AE security gives out when the doors open it always takes forever to get people through the line and into the venue.  Now with everyone fumbling around with vaccine cards and photo IDs at the door it takes even longer for people to filter in so the opening act has to go on to an almost empty room.  Between everyone in the crowd putting their stuff back in their pockets, hitting the bar and merch table, finding a place to hang out for the night and the usual Pittsburgh indifference it was not going to be an easy task but War On Women grabbed the crowd by their collective shoulders and shook them.

     They had zero fucks to give and brought the Punk Rock harder than any band that I have ever seen play in that room.  War On Women understood the task at hand of playing in front of people that they would have to win over and by the end of their set, they did just that.

.     .     .

     Alkaline Trio was one of those bands that I heard of over the years but never crossed paths with for whatever reason.  As time went on, I had heard enough negative things about the band that any curiosity that I did have about them fizzled out so I never bothered to check them out.

     By the time I had taken pictures of the band from in front of the stage, all of those negative things I had heard about Alkaline Trio were proven true.  The band had no energy and seemed to be going through the paces.

     The weird thing was that a large portion of the people in the crowd were wearing Alkaline Trio shirts and singing along to every word.  I will be the first person to say that art is subjective and that everyone is entitled to their personal preferences and opinions but all of these people were wrong.  There are some bands I just don't get and Alkaline Trio was proving themselves to be one of them.

     While I was waiting outside for the doors to open, I did overhear someone say that they had never heard Bad Religion before so they tried to listen to them on their phone.  They came to the conclusion that most of Bad Religion's songs sounded the same.  I will concede the point that Bad Religion has a checklist that most of their songs hit but at least they're not boring.

     Alkaline Trio played for almost an hour and I was so bored that I almost packed it in and headed for home.  I had to keep reminding myself that Bad Religion was in my near future and I needed to hang in there for a little while longer.  I got enough pictures and headed to an empty corner to keep myself out of the way until they were done.

     I started having flashbacks to the year 2000 when Bad Religion was somehow the opening act for Blink-182 at the Civic Arena.  After three Blink-182 songs, I said, "Fuck it," and left.

     What made things worse was that Alkaline Trio had strobe lights all over the stage for some reason.  I couldn't figure out if blinding the audience was an attempt to make up for being boring or what.  All I know is that the strobes were annoying and made me wish that I had brought a welders mask with me.

.     .     .

     Bad Religion hit stage with their usual explosion.  They opened their set with “New Dark Ages” which is one of my favorite songs.  Sadly, the crowd looked like it thinned out a bit after Alkaline Trio played but I guess there's no accounting for taste for some people.

     Over all the years that I have seen them play, Bad Religion has become more and more automatic and machine like with their playing and this was another stellar set.  Losing a year to the pandemic did not slow them down at all.  Their rhythm section is so consistently locked in and drives the entire band.  And as long as Brian Baker has been playing guitar in the band, I still get excited every time I see him and say, “Oo, oo, that guy was in Minor Threat.”

     Since the original dates for this tour were to commemorate their fortieth anniversary, the setlist contained songs from almost every album.  Their last album, Age Of Unreason, was now two years old so they played more of a greatest hits set than focussing on the newer songs.

     I usually prefer to hear newer material when I see a band but hearing Bad Religion run through some older songs felt right to me that night.  After a year of lockdown and the continued dumb-fuckery going on around us, the Punk Rock comfort food that they served up was a satisfying meal.

     Bad Religion did do the livestream thing during quarantine but I couldn't bring myself to watch it.  I missed live music so much last year and the thought of seeing that band play to an empty club on my computer filled me with too much sadness for me to go through with it.

     They played twenty-two songs in a little more than an hour but it felt like it was over way too soon.  It did feel very fitting that “American Jesus” and “We're Only Gonna Die” were the last two songs of the night because as of late that seems to be the way the American experiment is going to end.

     After I ran around and got my pictures, I was able to use my photo pass to grab a prime spot in the balcony that was empty. Being able to watch Bad Religion do their thing from an arial view was amazing. I was able to fall into watching some of my Punk Rock heroes go at it and forget everything else for a bit which was a much needed catharsis.

Setlist:

1. New Dark Ages

2. Leave Mine To Me

3. Anesthesia

4. Los Angeles Is Burning

5. Fuck You

6. Chaos From Within

7. Faith Alone

8. A Walk

9. Man With A Mission

10. What It Is

11. Generator

12. Better Off Dead

13. Candidate

14. Do What You Want

15. No Control

16. I Want To Conquer The World

17. 21^st Century (Digital Boy)

18. You

19. Infected

20. Sorrow

21. American Jesus

22. We're Only Gonna Die

WXXP Tribute Night At Mr. Smalls On November 27, 2021

      Here are pictures that I took at the WXXP tribute night at Mr. Smalls Theater on November 27, 2021.  It was The Guns Of Brixton playing the music of The Clash, members of The Clarks playing the music of The Police, members of 11th Hour playing songs from The Jam and the Raelyn Nelson Band playing a set of songs by The Pretenders.

MC Cris Winters:

The Guns Of Brixton:

Members of The Clarks with The Guns Of Brixton:

Members of 11th Hour with The Guns Of Brixton:

Raelyn Nelson Band:

Soundcheck: