All Aboard for Spooky Month!

Last October I waded through a few horror movies, from the 40's up to the last year's abysmal re-make of HOUSE OF WAX. I watched a lot more than I reviewed, so this year I decided to be a bit more dedicated. I have a lot of travelling to do this month - perfect time for movies and reviews.

So here's the basic plan: 31 days in October - 31 horror movies reviewed. If I start to run late, or I get too lazy and can think of a good hook, that number may dwindle to 18. I was trying to work in "666," as in 6 horror classics, 6 adaptations of horror, and 6...well..that's where I thought it'd be easier to review 31 assorted flicks. Don't know if that'll be 1 a day (I'm stockpiling now), or a few a week totalling 31 by the end of the month. At any rate, if I get to 31 I promise to make each one at least partially interesting!

So what's on the platter? Lots. Modern classic "slashers," Universal and RKO slices from the 30's and 40's, cult classics from the 60's through the 80's, foreign terrors, anthologies and slick Hollywood tripe. Some will be familiar to everyone (including me), some will be more obscure. One thing I can assure you of: after last year NONE will feature Paris Hilton in any way, shape, or form.

First couple are being watched and written up today for posting tomorrow, since I threw my back out and am confined to the couch. In the meantime, go outside - it's frickin' beautiful out!

For the Love of All That's Holy...

You tell me. I have no idea what this is. Click the pic for the magic of Little Superstar:

There's a couple more insane clips here and here.

Gigantour @ Nassau Coliseum: 09-28-06

Wearing the "Metal Guy Uniform" of baggy cargo pants and my Decibel Magazine t-shirt (free with subscription!), I made my way to the Nassau Coliseum, home of the New York Islanders, to see roughly 1000 acne-ridden kids, fat guys who hadn't bathed in weeks, men wearing women's jeans, and other assorted oddballs thrash and headbang through the 8 bands playing at this year's Gigantour Festival, headlined by Megadeth.

The premise was actually pretty cool. All the bands were hand-picked for their guitar proficiency, and all the bands were readily available for free (believe it or not) autographs and pictures either before or after their set. The festival was also specifically designed to allow all types of people to attend. Want to mosh? No problem - there were HUGE pits going on (especially during Overkill and Lamb of God). Want to just chill and bang your head? No problem. There were plenty of people there to ensure those of us who just got out of surgery were perfectly protected where we were without being relegated to a spot 10000 feet away from the stage. Want to take pictures? It was actually encouraged, and no one there threw bottles or screamed at those of us snapping pics in between head banging.

Best part? The stages were on opposite ends of the arena. With the number of bands playing (everything started promptly at 4:30 PM), basically you had one band on stage A, and as soon as they were over, you had this mad dash of kids running towards Stage B in order to get to the front for the next band, who played immediately after. You had to be there. Words just don't do justice to the hilarity.

Anyway, on to the pics/reviews:

SANCTITY

I missed the first band, The Smashups, but got there in time to see retro-thrash band Sanctity midway through their 5-song set. No records out yet, but they have one due in early 1997. Pretty decent - they have a strong early Metallica vibe, and their lead guitarist looks like Jack Black. You can click here for a link to their Myspace page, which has a demo and video of this song, "Zeppo."

INTO ETERNITY

Fat man with guitar - Hells yeah! This was the reason I got here so early! I missed Into Eternity the last time they were here touring with Opeth - this time I made it to see Tim Roth (fat guy - not the actor) kill on guitar. They only played 4 songs, but completely killed. And since it was early I got to beat the little kids running to the stage to be up front.

Their set closer, "Beginning of the End." Yeah, they're playing in front of Overkill's backdrop.

ARCH ENEMY

For such a high-profile band, Arch Enemy were pretty unexciting in my opinion. It may have been because it was still early (although I did hear a lot of kids exclaiming, "C'mon! We can't miss Arch!"), but the show was pretty standard. The only exciting piece was...

...Lead singer Angela Gassow, who is smokin' hot! Yeah, my camera phone kinda sucks, but it may have been because I was shaking with the joy of watching her scream so loud she almost burst her shirt. Hubba hubba!

OVERKILL

Holy crap! Is that Overkill? They're still around? And still alive? And that f@ckin' good? This is unbelievable. I remember listening to Overkill almost 20 years ago when Under the Influence came out - it is insane that they sound this good and control the crowd this well after so long. So far the best band here.

OPETH

Is the 3rd time the charm? Not quite, but that's only because, despite being 3rd billed and getting an hour to play, the length of the songs means they only play four, but all four are great, and once again Mikael Akerfeldt is hysterical; the calm, dry, English-by-way-of-Sweden humor was as good as ever.

Closing with "Deliverance." As receptive as the crowd was, Opeth are a much different band energy-wise than Overkill or the next band, which proved to be the best of the evening.

LAMB OF GOD

"Walk With Me in Hell." I think I just crapped myself. Lamb of God was by FAR the best band here. The band completely ripped each song, people everywhere were screaming, thrashing, body-surfing and moshing. Complete chaos. I actually pulled a muscle in my neck/upper back head-banging to this.

"Let's get crazy Strong Island!" Yup, he said that. Yup, we got crazy. Did I mention they also had the best light show of the evening? Even better than Megadeth. This is "Redneck" off the the new album Sacrament, which so far is my favorite metal release of 2006.

MEGADETH

Metal vets Megadeth unfortunately got the award for "Most Boring Band of the Evening." Maybe it was a mistake to go on after the devastation that was Lamb of God, but there was simply no way Dave Mustaine and co. could possibly have upped the wattage. I stayed for about 5 songs, leaving after an admittedly sweet "Wake Up Dead."

Sweet show, and besides the disappointment of Megadeth, well worth the $40 bucks I paid. Certainly much better than the $100 for the crap at Ozzfest.

Uncertainty @ The People's Improv Theater: 09-26-06

Sometimes the way you approach a given event is just as, if not more important, than the content of the event itself. A director is invited to see his friend, a fellow director's new film. How does he watch the film? Does he view it from the perspective of a fellow director, seeing all the technical angles and visual approaches, perhaps comparing it to how he would have accomplished the same? Is he constantly conscious of the fact that he knows this person, and let that relationship, no matter what it is, color his viewing experience? This was the baggage I brought with me to see my friend Mike Sleap at his one-man show, Uncertainty, Tuesday night at the P.I.T. (People's Improv Theater) in Midtown.

Uncertainty is a show about many things. There's the argument that it's simply a narrative about how, after reading an article about a computer that was able to answer a question without even being asked, Mike learned about Quantum Physics. Ask Mike and he'll tell you that's where it all came from. But it's also more than that.

As I sat down and the show started, I went through all the different permutations by which I could view the show. And for the first two minutes, as Mike struggled to find his rhythm and lose his nerves, I was firmly in bed with the "this is the guy I've known for about 15 years...this is Mike, who did this, and was always talking about that, and who one time went and said...."

And then something happened. To the both of us. About two minutes in, Mike took a step and changed. His stammer left. The jitters in his foot disappeared. The flush left his cheeks. And from then on I forgot that I was watching my friend taking his first steps into something new and different then he had done before, and began to simply watch.

Uncertainty is a show about many things. There's the argument that it's simply a narrative about how, after reading an article about a computer that was able to answer a question without even being asked. But it's also more than that. It's about our relationship to the universe, to our selves, and to each other. It's about looking at the different events in our lives, and seeing how the outcome is already determined by the time we perceive it, but that there are limitless outcomes. It's about how even things that can seemingly be explained are never explained at all.

And it's also about how sometimes we watch with the eye of a writer, the eye of a critic, the eye of a friend. And sometimes we simply watch.

Oh, it's also about super positions, Mouse Trap, Peter MacNicol, and elephants in boxes. Large boxes.

No Snakes, No Planes

I'll be about the 1000th person to admit I did not fall for the hype machine that is SNAKES ON A PLANE. Sorry. I love Sam Jackson as much as the next white kid, but he's still not getting me to go catch this movie (I will, however, run like a muthaf-cka to catch BLACK SNAKE MOAN when that comes out). I get what it's supposedly trying to do - the whole "over the top so bad it's good" thing. But all the trailers and press left me limp and pallid. It could also be the surgery, but I'm thinking it's the movie.

Now THIS, on the other hand I'll see in a heart beat. From an article on Aint It Cool News to a link on Latino Review (Click the image for some love):