It's taken me awhile to realize that Lemmy's death affected me more than I realized. This week will mark 6 months to the day that he left this mortal coil.. and it's still very weird that he and his band no longer roam the Earth. Things seem boring now. Trivia: The "Motörhead Delivers" design is from the final tour last year and was based on a sketch that Lemmy did himself.
I attended Lemmy's 70th birthday party in December. I attended his funeral in January. The emotional swing and magnitude of both events was obviously profound. To be invited to both events celebrating someone who had been my hero since I was a teenager was mind blowing and I did not, and never will, take the honor for granted. His funeral and the private reception afterwards was a sad, surreal, and amazing experience. I honestly can't imagine ever visiting The Rainbow again.
Ironically, both Lemmy events coincided with the first "career" change I've experienced in almost a decade. However, The Rock Godz work in mysterious ways, and as one door closed another one opened for me. I'm now in a different (but also not that different) part of the "entertainment" industry. Thankfully it is one that is more rational and stress free than my recent past professional life. I'd like to think my Karma Bank deposits over the years finally paid off... and my colleagues now include such badass dudes as Yeti Wing Kong.
All of this being said, nothing has been inspiring me this year. Yes, I've still been hitting gigs fairly regularly.. but I've also passed on a good number as well. For the record I've been at these shows so far in 2016:
January:
- Rancid / OFF! / The Interrupters - The Warfield
- Metal Allegiance - The Whiskey, Los Angeles, California
- Mastodon - The Chapel
- Venom Inc. - DNA Lounge
- Metallica - AT&T Park
- Black Sabbath / Rival Sons - SAP Center, San Jose, California
- The Mummies - Elbo Room (27th Anniversary Show)
- Megadeth / Suicidal Tendencies / Children Of Bodom - The Warfield
- Neurosis / Sleep / Vhol - The Regency
- Melvins / Dusted Angel - The Ritz, San Jose, California (Pre-tour warm up show)
- Slayer / Testament / Carcass - The Warfield (2 nights)
- Satan / Night Demon / Hellfire - Elbo Room
- Abbath / High On Fire / Skeletonwitch / Tribulation - The Regency (Decibel Tour)
- Iggy Pop - The Masonic
- Metallica - Rasputin's Records, Berkeley, California (Record Store Day)
- Saviours / Ides Of Gemini / War Cloud - The Chapel
- Napalm Death / Melvins / Melt Banana - Slim's
- The Cure - Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California
- Armored Saint / Metal Church - DNA Lounge
The party was to thank those old friends and associates who helped the band with the massive reissues of Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning. At some point I intend to document my involvement in this project, which began with me sitting at a kitchen table with Jaymz and Larz over a year earlier and them revealing their reissue plans and basically hiring me to be a consultant on them. Full circle. Anyway, until I do that they say a picture is worth 1,000 words... so here's 4,000 words to hold you over about this.
Top photo by the teenage me: December 28, 1982. Bottom photo by the adult me: April 16, 2016:
Two Motörhead fans recreating that photo from Summer 1983 taken in that exact same spot:
If you really need to know what happened on that magical day and night right now, click HERE for what the band posted about it. I'll get around to documenting the profoundly full circle experience of being involved with the reissues.. even though it's already old news.
Anyway, that's basically where my head has been this year so far. I needed a reset... and I'm not sure I've gotten one yet. On the way back to the blog, some pimply-faced teenagers called me a fag. This space has been running since 2004... 12 (twelve!) fucking years of ranting about shit. There are some major things in the works.. some happening soon.. others happening further down the road. All are pretty fucking cool.
Eventually I'll remember how to put words together in an interesting way again. Hopefully sooner than later. To quote Motörhead: "Don't sweat it. Get it back to you."
