By Andrew Bansal
Night Demon’s US tour with Skull Fist and Elm Street soldiered on into its second week through treacherous weather, playing to audiences on the East Coast and in the Mid-West. It’s been an eventful few days for Night Demon, and I’ll attempt to capture all of it for you in this part of the blog. But before that, check out Part 1 if you haven’t yet.
Day 10 (01/06): Snowed Island
Driving cautiously through the snow, we made our way to Providence, Rhode Island, for the gig at Firehouse 13. When temperatures drop below 20 (F), the windows start to ice, both on the inside and outside, and two of us in the front seats have to constantly scrape the ice off so that we can see through the rear view mirrors on the sides. Gift cards are most useful for this purpose. So if you’re planning on driving anywhere in or near freezing weather, you’d be well advised to not throw your gift cards away. At certain points the windows would ice completely on the inside and even rolling them down wouldn’t be the easiest task. But we were very much looking forward to this gig as it was our only stop in the Massachusetts/New England area and we were about to get a taste of the great metal scene in these parts.
Load-in/load-out was by far the hardest part of the evening as all outdoor surfaces were iced and extremely slippery. During load-out, Jarvis slipped and hurt his back but seems to have recovered fully. It was a good turnout for a Tuesday night and friends from Boston-based classic metal band Invadur as well as members of the local metal media community from outlets such as Dead Rhetoric came out to support the show. Night Demon were on fire, garnered an excellent and lively response from impressed first-timers, the venue staff included, and got asked to do an encore. The sound guy told me he loved the band and was pleasantly surprised by how much he liked the lighting changes as he usually does not care for bands bringing their own lights. He suggested me to get involved in production full-time, which was very flattering. After the gig, with no place to sleep overnight, we drove for a part of the distance to Rochester, New York, slept in the van for three hours and resumed the journey onward.
Day 11 (01/07): Out Of Left Field
We reached Rochester in the late afternoon, booked a motel room, freshened up and left for the gig at the Bug Jar which was less than three miles away. It was definitely colder here and the snow was pounding down in all its menacing glory. I feel like I got acclimatized to freezing temperatures on parts of the Raven tour and so far I was fine with the cold, to the extent that I was wearing only two layers. But this Rochester weather instantly compelled me to bury myself in all four layers of clothing I brought with me, and I couldn’t feel my face by the time we were done with load-in.
The most notable and appreciable thing about metalheads living in these cities and states is that they come out to attend shows, totally undeterred by these crazy snowstorms, as if it was a normal everyday occurrence for them. The turnouts on this tour have been solid proof of this. On the contrary, in Southern California, even at the slightest chance of a once-in-a-blue-moon rainstorm, we would rather stay indoors. Us spoiled fair-weather folks surely couldn’t handle living in such brutal conditions, leave alone attending shows. And for that reason, I have developed far greater respect for people out here.
The show in Rochester was another fruitful one for all three bands. Skull Fist frontman Zach Slaughter asked Brent if he could borrow his guitar as the headstock on Zach’s own guitar was broken. He must thank his lucky stars that he found a fellow left-handed guitar player on the tour. After the gig he came up to me and said it was hard for play a 22-fret guitar instead of his own 24-fret instrument, and admitted that Brent’s guitar sounds better than his. The Skull Fist dudes are always jovial and humble and it’s been an entertaining tour so far without doubt.
Day 12 (01/08): Second Home
Less than a week ago, Night Demon booked a last-minute headline gig in Cleveland, Ohio, on our first day off from the Skull Fist tour. But the promotion behind this event was really strong, thanks to local metal radio legend Bill Peters, who not only organized the show at Maple Grove Tavern but did everything in his power to spread the word. While Brent, Dustin and I loaded in, Jarvis was on the phone with Bill, live on air and we listened to it while setting up merch and gear, as it was being played on the venue’s PA. Cult legends Black Death Resurrected opened the show with a great set of their own, and Night Demon went on at 9 to play for a full hour, encore included. Everything clicked for us in this performance, all three members at the top of their game and feeling absolutely great to perform in front of an audience solely consisting of Night Demon fans. I thought I nailed all the lighting cues, even for songs I’d never rehearsed pre-tour. Fittingly enough, I enjoyed doing lights for ‘Lightning To The Nations’ more than any other song in this extended set. The reaper act got quite a response too, one dude in particular so excited that he tried to snatch the chalice from my hand. I feel like I’m in the best possible physical shape to play the mascot role, and my height certainly helps. I mean, who on earth would wants to see a fat or short grim reaper?
Besides the fanfare, a local camera crew filmed the whole show and we simply cannot wait to see the footage because we unanimously think this was Night Demon’s best show ever. We spent the night at a house that belonged to Jamie from Midnight, and the morning after, it felt amazing to turn on the radio and hear Night Demon songs being played. Jarvis called in to be live on air again to talk about the gig. Night Demon have really cracked into the market in Ohio big time, and I for one never imagined spending so much time in this state. Jarvis rightly calls it the band’s second home.
Day 13 (01/09): The Great Escape
We went through Michigan on the way to Chicago, and the snow was relentless. The roads were enveloped by it, and so was everything else around us. The Waze app rerouted us to get on the 12 instead of the I-94 W, which worked out greatly in our favor as we took a low-traffic route and even though King Wazer Dustin had to drive slow, we made it through. Parallel to our path, there was a massive 100-car pileup on the I-94. I cannot even imagine what that looks like and I can only be thankful we were not in it. We arrived at the Red Line Tap in downtown Chicago in time. The nearest we could halt the van for load-in was a block away from the venue, and as we walked back and forth with gear and merch in hand in sub-zero temperatures, that block seemed like a mile. The promoter hooked us with free food from Heartland, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant next door, and their French dip sandwich was epic. Chicago has been a regular spot for Night Demon over the past year, so expectedly a lot of familiar faces were seen in the audience. I enjoyed running lights here more than any other venues as I had a comfortably high platform to place my controller and didn’t have to crouch down. Before us, local opener Knife Of Simpson played a really impressive set of harmony-driven heavy metal and blew us away. Elm Street and Skull Fist are both getting better with every show as well, as was evident here. Zach used Brent’s guitar once again. After the gig we ate Mexican food somewhere near the venue and it was nowhere near our high expectations which come from consuming that variety of food in California.
Day 14 (01/10): Ruling Wisconsin
We chilled out in Chicago till the late afternoon before the short 80-mile drive to Cudahy, Wisconsin for a gig at the Metal Grill. The venue emanated a great vibe right from the outset and I had a good feeling about the gig. I wasn’t wrong whatsoever, as this turned out to be the best show of the tour so far. The promoter Randy Kastner is the only one to have paid us our guarantee even before the start of the gig, handling every aspect of the event in the most professional manner. The gig itself was highly successful for us as the guys loved performing in the Milwaukee/Cudahy area’s most legit venue. Zach from Skull Fist used his own guitar but had to borrow Brent’s amp this time, and once again said it sounded better than his own. All the posters of past shows in the green room left no one in doubt about that. With a long drive to Kansas City for the next show, we decided to cover some of that distance driving overnight, slept in the van again in the early hours pf the morning and arrived in KC well ahead of our load-in time of 7 PM.
Day 15 (01/11): Ten And Counting
Another great metal venue, the Riot Room, greeted us in Kansas City and for a Sunday night in the winter, the gig did well for all involved. Local opener Vanlade playe a good set as well. By now the three touring bands are gelling with each other quite well and friendships have been formed between some members. Night Demon and Skull Fist even discussed the possibilities of two kinds of trades, Skull Fist promising to play their cover of ‘Angel Witch’ every night in exchange for Night Demon doing ‘Axe Crazy’, and trading one member for travel to one gig on the remainder of the tour, where I would cruise in the Skull Fist van and one of their dudes going in the Night Demon van. We’ll have to wait and see if and when either of those happen.
As I write this, we’re almost in Des Moines, Iowa. Night Demon’s set has been slightly different every night so far. Fans coming to the remaining shows can expect the unexpected, and I’ll be bringing more stories from the next few shows of the tour in the next part of the blog.
Read Part 3 here.
Remaining Tour Dates:
01/12 Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews
01/13 Lincoln, NE @ Vega
01/15 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
01/16 Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Bar
01/17 Farmington, NM @ Studio 18
01/18 Albuquerque, NM @ The Blu Phoenix Venue
01/20 Phoenix, AZ @ The Nile Theater (upstairs)
01/22 Colton, CA @ Hub
01/23 Los Angeles, CA @ Airliner
01/24 Fullerton, CA @ Riff Haus
01/25 Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst Club