Death Angel / God ForbidMay 25, 2008
Slim's, San Francisco
During the afternoon prior to this show, Umlaut assembled his new state of the art backyard BBQ grill.. Upon completion of this, he returned inside to find that his hot water heater had burst and 30 gallons of water had baptised a room. Motherfuck.
After doing as much damage control as possible, Umlaut was thankful for the pre-show stop at The Irish Bank for food and beer. THANKS to Timo for picking up the tab (I'll get the next one, brutha!) and THANKS to the new Irish waitress at The Bank for stellar service; twas only her 5th day on the job.
We arrived at Slim's early in order to catch God Forbid since the band are good pals with one of Umlaut's friends on the East Coast (Hey K.T.). The houselights went down and the band's intro tape began to play... and I thought "What the fuck is this... I know this music..." and after a few more seconds I figuratively slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand: The music was 'Duel Of The Fates' from the worst movie George Lucas has ever made; I then bitch slapped myself for having that knowledge.
Umlaut remembers when the Death Angel guys were the little Filipino kids (all under 16 years old) who would get driven to their gigs by one of their moms. They would pull up in front of Ruthie's Inn to unload their gear and my friends and I would make fun of them. It goes without saying that the Death Angel guys got the last laugh a long time ago. Remember when their debut album came out and they were all under 20 years old? Me 2.Fast forward to the 21st Century and it's hard to believe that Death Angel are currently on their first U.S. Tour in 18 years (!). Plus their new album is really good; 'Dethroned' is a fookin' gleat song.
Death Angel are a force of nature onstage; Umlaut likes his Metal old school style.. which means bands who are heavy but who display a sense of melody and have musicianship. Death Angel are Old School.. I also liked how the band is old enough to throw out snippets of Old Metal songs as inside jokes (the intros to 'Pirahna' by Exodus and 'Princess Of The Dawn' by Accept).. Nice. It was obvious the band was happy to be playing at home in front of *their* crowd. Bay Area O.G., mofos!
The boys played a molten 2 hour set and as they left the stage I said out loud "That was fucking epic..." to no one in particular... but I was probably saying it to Umlaut Nation members Timo, DeVito, Raymond, and Sven who were all standing within earshot. Did you guys hear me?
Speaking of Angels: Does anybody know if there was a Hell's Angels convention in S.F. over the Memorial Day Weekend?? There were quite a few Angels at this show and judging from their colors most of them were from Frankfurt, Germany.. Plus, another Angel was shot dead on Saturday over in the East Bay. Discuss amongst yourselves.
I didn't do a merch audit 'cause I wasn't in the mood. On the way back to the car, some pimply-faced Hell's Angels called us fags. The next day was Memorial Day; Umlaut honored our nation's Armed Forces by replacing Casa de Umlaut's water heater with help from Umlaut brutha Johnny. I'll say it a million times: Umlaut is thankful for having amazing friends and allies; Johnny was like the Americans coming to save Europe's ass in WW2.
After hot water was reinstated at Casa de Umlaut, we retired to a local eating establishment for burgers 'n beers. During the feast our conversation included a discussion about the finer points of Omaha Beach and Tarawa... and before heading for home we made a quick stop at a nearby B&N so I could buy Johnny a copy of With The Old Breed as part of my payback for his help.An appropriate way to end Memorial Day 2008, me thought.
Cue 'Taps'.
