So last night I went to the Kathedral downtown to witness one of the craziest concerts I've been to in a while: Maylene And The Sons of Disaster

I had to go to the show prepared, as it is a Southern Metal concert. I have been growing my beard for a month (which I am going to trim after this entry; it's fucking disgusting) and came fully equipped in shaggy hair, flannel shirt, dirty jeans and worn-and-torn shoes. In total there were about 150 people at the end of the night, but the place was still packed. Probably the most intimate concert I've been to yet.

The first band, I can't recall their name, were pretty good. They were a local band from the downtown area. I just decided to get the party started and grab a beer. Whilst drinking, the band played what I like to call "good background music". They came and went. Meh.

The second band came on. They were The Hardy Boys. They were very cheesy southern Christian rock. While they were, as I just said, cheesy, they were good at what they did. They knew not everyone in the building would agree with their taste of music, so they made up for it by putting on an exciting show. Running around everywhere. Swinging of instruments, almost resulting in many collisions. Many jokes were cracked by the band, including the self mocking "Okay folks don't worry, we'll be out of your hair soon". Hell, after the show, I exited the building to see the band having a classic ho down in the middle of the fucking street. Banjo and all. Now THAT put them higher in my books. Not a band I'd listen to, but one I'm glad I saw.

The next band were BlackTusk. A band I haven't heard before, but judging by the merch stand, I knew they would be a sludge metal band. With artwork by John Baizley plastered all over, and items such as beer coasters, tallboy holders, and etc. being sold, and even the many cow skull and swamp/jungle animal imagery (crocodiles, howling monkeys, warthogs, hornets, just to name a few), it was somewhat of a hunch. And what a good hunch it was. Probably the loudest band of the night, I may add. I may also add that the band weren't the most cliche looking. The bass player had a huge septum ring and a beard over a foot tall and a beer gut. The guitar player was clean and had long hair so well kept it would make Moses envious. The drummer, well, let's just say he was a frat boy look alike with tattoos covering him. It wasn't a band cliche at all. It was a roadie cliche! I didn't know why the roadies were on stage for so long, when I realized "oh shit, that's the band". But damn. The sound checks were very half assed. But when the show came on, they fucking blew me away. Life threatening drums. Impaling bass. Hell opening guitar. Even a huge range from the highest of shrieks to the lowest of growls from...ALL THE BAND MEMBERS. Even the drummer managed to growl aLOT of the time, somehow not missing any of his complex fills. Definitely a band worth checking out, and three listens to their album "Passage Through Purgatory" since last night is proof of it. For fans of Baroness, Mastodon, High On Fire, and any of the like. Oh, and they have fucking sweet T-Shirts as well.

Finally, the band I came to see. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. Dallas Taylor commanded his army of southerners rather well as almost all of the band were completely nuts (give or take one or two people, but I excused that since four of the members of the band are brand new, and this is their first time on the road with them). The rest of the band were windmilling, performing guitar acrobatics, even crowd surfing with their instruments (also not a miss of a note). Dallas Taylor on the other hand actually SOMEHOW did more. He crowd surfed at least in five different songs, stage dived even more than that (almost crashing into me, actually, and I had to help him up), got involved in the mosh pit whilst still singing, hell, he even got stuck and entwined with audience members on a number of occasions. I wonder how he wasn't injured at all, or fuck, how he wasn't even tired. The audience got way too out of control, with even some fights breaking out (Dallas ended up saying "y'all are too young to be fighting. Wait until you're 35"). One audience member was in a "stool" formation (on his knees and arms) for almost the entire time, letting anyone use him as a step to jump towards the band in hopes of making the stage. Maylene played two new songs, which on a first listen were very satisfying (Dallas even claimed that this will "be the best record Maylene's ever put out").

After the show, and the obvious encore, Dallas didn't hesitate to initiate a conversation with anyone and everyone (including my friends and I, he commented on how Arizona is the best drink ever, as one of my friends was having one, and we talked for a good 5 minutes). Their guitar player, of whom I don't know his name since I'm not familiar with the new line up, also talked around and him and I had a good talk about Clutch (the band shirt he was donning).

Overall a very satisfying blast to the south and back, slight hangover, blown vocal chords, stiff neck and all. I just don't understand how such a great show was only fifteen dollars... I would pay even fifty for Maylene in the future.

-anDy