An Evening with Suicidal Tendencies

[trashcanman]

Welp, I finally realized a lifelong dream of seeing one of the most important bands of my high school/college years live last night and it did not disappoint. I'd missed these guys when they rolled through a few years prior due to a mix of bad timing, not recognizing most of the current lineup, them vanishing for years like Axl Rose, and the album prior being lackluster (the last three being guitar solo free), which led me to believe they may not be up to the task of living up to the legacy of such a legendary act anymore. And I've always thought it was bizarre that ST has no live album and very few live tracks on their EPs. Even the side projects like Cyco Miko and Infectious Grooves have a live album. Why not one of hardcore's premiere bands? I really didn't know what to expect.

Then I listened their return album on Spotify and they sounded like a million bucks. Not their greatest album by any means, but the new lineup had a killer feel to them with shredding guitar solos. They seemed to take all of the changes the band had made over the years and combine them into one badass metal/punk/funk hybrid sound. I knew this show was going to be amazing, I was right, and I've got the video evidence to prove it. Oh, and it turns out that since leaving Slayer, Dave Lombardo has been keeping plenty busy. Fresh off of drumming for the Misfits reunion, he's now a part of the Suicidal family. New album coming out at the end of the month with him on it too. Life is goooood.

This show also marks the first time I spent a significant amount of time in the pit. I just couldn't stay out. I hopped in for Frank Turner last month, but that was more of an accident that I enjoyed a bit too much, even if I got wiped after like two minutes due to being old and out of shape. But it was pretty awesome to actually participate in the crowd-splitting wall of death this time around instead of just observing like when I saw Exodus. I just wish I was twenty again...
Anyways: videos!



Damn, Mike Muir is a beast onstage. He might have even more energy than Bruce Dickinson. He was running back and forth across the stage all night like a maniac. Just awesome.









All about dat bass. Yeah, it was a pretty crazy crowd. That girl got tossed back onstage like three times while crowdsurfing. No word on what the hell happened to her shirt.





You can totally tell the crowd was totally going off around me by the shaky cam in that one.



They made us wait quite a while for an encore, but no way was anybody goping home without hearing Institutionalized. I failed to get the rest of the crowd chanting "just one Pepsi", though. Overall, I was pretty anxious before they came on because I had literally never seen so many people packed into such a small club. In the '90s, the entire place would have been absolute fucking bedlam with nowhere to hide, but it seemed pretty well contained to the pit area. Times they are a changin'. It was definitely the LOUDEST show I've ever been to. I actually had to move further away from the stage
because the guitars were killing my ears, which has never happened to me ever. But I usually prefer to linger on the far edge of the pit anyways so I can watch the band, catch any incoming moshers, and not feel like a molester when some chick crowdsurfs her crotch or boobs into my face.
Good times.

[The Curmudgeon]

I've heard exactly one Suicidal Tendencies song, and it was the one played on Beavis and Butt-Head one time (where the guy talks really fast, "sometimes I feel like I want to just.." that sort of thing). So these clips may be lost on me, but seeing one of your all time favourite bands for the first time? Yeah, I can get behind that.

I do the same as you if I go to a show where it's going to be a wild crowd, near the front but at the side away from the carnage, but sometimes jump in for the hell of it. Plus, me and Mrs C go to all the same gigs, so I'm always wary of some big buffoon in shorts elbowing her in the face (she's pretty small). Saying that, she's crowdsurfed at Slipknot and jumped off a balcony onto a crowd and been carried up to the front at a Andrew WK show, so maybe I'm needlessly overprotective.

Anyway, you must be patient to stand and film all of that.

[trashcanman]

Well, they're mostly just 30-60 second clips so it's no big. I really like having some audio/visual souvenirs of the shows I go to. I'd love to record whole songs so I could really study the musicianship and performances that I miss in the moment afterwards, but then I wouldn't be in the moment and I'd kind of miss the true live music experience, you know? Anyways, I had a couple of friends who couldn't make it and thought Ben might get a kick out of them too so I did a few more than usual.

I've been to dozens of punk and metal shows and never actually witnessed a human being get hurt and there are always small women in the pit throwing down, so you might be a bit overprotective. That one girl in the video stage dived in her bra three times and not one person ripped it off of her. In the 90's she wouldn't have even been able to stand in the crowd minding her own business without risking some shithead trying to snatch it (now that I've witnessed). Attitudes and crowd behavior seem to have actually improved a lot over the years. Sadly, I seldom ladies flash anymore either.

[The Curmudgeon]

Ah, a girl on a guys shoulders flashing. It's a lost art, I think. I'm not sure if that was more of an American thing, because I've never actually seen it myself. I think it maybe happened at a Robbie Williams show once, but that's pretty much it. Maybe it's too cold in the UK?

[trashcanman]

Yeah, I live in Cali so at outdoor summer shows it was a given. At Ozzfest I once saw two girls have a flash off that ended up with them kissing each other while still on their respective dude's shoulders. Also saw an older lady on the top deck of a stadium make a crowd chant "Put 'em back! Put 'em back!" at a Metallica show. Good times.